FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE         N.R.#39, 9/19/ 00

Date:  September 19, 2000
Contact: Irene Cromer

 Six Prince William County students, three who attend Prince William County High Schools and three who are enrolled at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a regional school for the gifted in Fairfax County, have been named as semifinalists in the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.  Erin A. Paciorkowski, Hylton High School; Brock M. South, Osbourn Park High School; Julie D. Podlesni, Stonewall Jackson High School; and Geoffrey R. Bowser, Jillian M. Buckley, and Kathy E. Hufford, Thomas Jefferson High School, now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,900 Merit Scholarship awards, worth more than $31 million.

These students are among approximately 16,000 semifinalists announced by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).  Nearly 1.2 million students in some 20,000 U.S. high schools entered the 2000 Merit Program as juniors by taking the 1999 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).  Using this qualifying test as an initial screen of program entrants, the highest scorers in each state were designated semifinalists, in numbers representing less than one percent of the state high school graduating class.  The number of semifinalists named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.  Students take the PSAT in the fall of their junior year and results are announced in September of the following year.  

Semifinalists must advance to the finalist level of the competition in order to be considered for Merit Scholarships.  To qualify as a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding high school academic record, be endorsed and recommended by their school principal, and submit SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance.  The semifinalist and a school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which also includes the student’s self-descriptive essay, and information about the semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities.  About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to become finalists, and all Merit Scholars will be chosen from this group.  Merit finalists will compete for approximately 7,600 scholarships worth more than $31 million to be awarded next spring.

Winners of Merit Scholarships will be selected on the basis of professional evaluations of finalists' abilities, accomplishments, and personal attributes considered important for success in rigorous college studies -- without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.   Three types of Merit Scholarships will be awarded in 2001.  Every finalist will be considered for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships to be offered on a state representational basis.  Some 400 corporations and business organizations will provide about 1,200 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who meet the sponsors’ preferential criteria.  In addition, about 200 colleges and universities are expected to underwrite at least 4,200 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships awards for finalists who will attend the institutions financing their awards.

The approximately 14,500 Semifinalists named in each year's National Merit Scholarship Program show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. In this competition it is the individual student who is honored.  The number of semifinalists in a state or school cannot be used as a measure of the quality or effectiveness of any educational unit.

NMSC will release the names of next year’s Merit Scholarship winners to news media 
nationwide in four announcements, beginning in April 2001 and concluding in July.  These scholarship winners will be among 193,000 young people who have earned the title Merit Scholar since the completion of the first National Merit competition in 1956.