Date: October 4, 2004
Contact: Irene Cromer
703-791-8720

TOTAL NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALISTS CLIMBS

Matthew Arango, a Prince William County student who attends Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a Governor’s magnet school in Fairfax County, has been named a semifinalist in the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. This brings the total number of Prince William County semifinalists to ten.

Arango’s name was not among those listed in an earlier announcement by the school division. A total of six students who are enrolled at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and four who attend Prince William County high schools are National Merit semifinalists this year. Arango will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, worth more than $33.9 million.

Matthew Arango is 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 2005 Merit Program as juniors by taking the 2003 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. Merit finalists will compete for approximately 8,200 scholarships worth more than $33.9 million to be awarded next spring.

The School Board will host a reception to honor National Merit Scholarship semifinalists and Virginia Governor’s Scholars on Monday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m. at Freedom High School in Woodbridge.

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