Radnor-Area Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PA — Numerous students in the Radnor area have been named semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program.

These students are among 16,000 semifinalists who are in the running for some 6,870 National Merit scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.

About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

Below are local semifinalists:

Grayson School

• Rena Civan

Radnor High School

• Sonia Dougherty
• William Duff
• William Lo
• Eadlin Morrissey
• Erik Mortensen
• Caitlin Roeltgen
• Arnav Sadashiv
• Charles Yang

Academy of Notre Dame De Namur

• Mary Rossano

Baldwin School

• Amelia Dennis
• Elanor Forbes
• Summer He
• Ananya Kaushal
• Katie McCullough
• Allison Meng
• Leela Rajagopal
• Avani Shah-Lipman
• Greyson Walko
• Georgia Whamond
• Brooke Woo
• Mindy Zhang

The Shipley School

• Anne X. Gu
• Ruiqi Liu
• Orli Rabinowitz

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 over 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this 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.