4 SHS Seniors Named National Merit Semifinalists

Four Shorewood High School students have qualified as 2013 National Merit Semifinalists, according to the school district.

The students include:

• Rebecca Diesing
• Johann Gaebler
• Story Sandy
• Yee Wang

Semifinalists are determined based on 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores and are designated on a state representational basis.

The nationwide pool of 16,000 semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

Semifinalists will compete for some 8,300 Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be awarded next spring. And, roughly 90 percent of the semifinalists will attain finalist standing, and more than half will win the merit scholar title.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier qualifying test performance.

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.