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    Four Prince William County students, three who attend Prince William County high schools, and one who is 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.  Wesley J. Graveen, Forest Park High School, Philip A. Olson, Gar-Field High School, Aleta R. Sprague, Stonewall Jackson High School, and Joseph R. Kapurch, who attends Thomas Jefferson, will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,000 Merit Scholarship awards, worth more than $32 million.

These students are among approximately 16,000 semifinalists announced by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).  More than 1.3 million students in some 21,000 U.S. high schools entered the 2004 Merit Program as juniors by taking the 2002 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 8,000 scholarships worth more than $32 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 2004.  Every finalist will be considered for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships to be offered on a state representational basis.  Some 300 corporations and business organizations will provide about 1,100 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 4,400 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the institutions financing their awards.

The approximately 16,000 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 2004, and concluding in July.  These scholarship winners will be among 218,000 young people who have earned the title Merit Scholar since the completion of the first National Merit competition in 1956.

 

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