Portsmouth Student Named National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist

PORTSMOUTH, RI — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation selected 16,000 students from across the country as semifinalists in the 2021 program, including 51 from Rhode Island.

At the beginning of each school year, the NMSC reveals the students who will go on to compete for scholarships in the spring. About 7,500 of the original 16,000 semifinalists win scholarships.
The semifinalist round is determined by the results of the pre-SAT tests taken by about 1.5 million high school juniors nationwide during the previous school year. The list of semifinalists will be winnowed down to about 15,000 by early 2022, and those students will submit applications to get scholarships.

The scholarships awarded in the spring range in value, with the highest at $2,500.

Portsmouth had one student on the list: Portsmouth High School's Maria Chytka.

See the full list of Rhode Island semifinalists here.