Seven Upper Dublin High-Schoolers Named Semifinalists In National Merit Program

UPPER DUBLIN, PA — The Upper Dublin School District has announced that seven local high-schoolers have been named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship program while another 18 students are being designated 'Commended' students.

The students named semifinalists are as follows:

Jason Chang

Jesse Chen

Daniel Duan

Alan Hong

Karan Jain

Sophia Jarrar

Peter Liu

The students who came in as semifinalists are selected based upon the scores they receive in a 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The test has around 1.5 million entrants each year from across the country, and around 16,000 end up advancing to become semifinalists, according to the program.

Another 34,000 are 'commended.' The semifinalists make up around one percent of all high school seniors across the United States while the commended students represent the top five percent, according to a news release from Upper Dublin announcing that district's semifinalists and commended students.

The Upper Dublin students who were commended are as follows:

Aiden Bailey

Zachary Berman

Liam Cassidy

Ella Clayton

Allison Courtenay

Shayna Feldgus

Andrew Haggerty

Willow Kaplan

Noam Kimbro

Noah Lee

Allison Marin

Luke Price

Zachary Seidner

Erica Stelling

Nicole Wealand

Maisie Weiss

Elizabeth Zheng

Harley Zheng

Patch also reported recently that a total of nine students at the nearby North Penn School District were also named semifinalists in the national scholarship program.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began back in 1955.