Council Rock South, VJM Seniors Named National Merit Semifinalists

NORTHAMPTON TOWNSHIP, PA — A student from Council Rock High School South and a student from Villa Joseph Marie High School have been named semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

The academically talented high school seniors now have an opportunity to compete for some 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring. About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

Council Rock South Semifinalist

• Hayden Kang

Villa Joseph Marie Semifinalist

• Isabelle Glunz

More than 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From more than 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of the designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.