Schools
16 Pasadena Students Named National Merit Semifinalists
They join about 16,000 to vie for roughly 8,300 scholarships.
Written by Nicole Mooradian
Sixteen Pasadena high-schoolers have been named 2013 National Merit Semifinalists, according to a release this week from the nonprofit National Merit Scholarship Corporation. They join about 16,000 semifinalists nationally in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The students will compete for about 8,300 scholarships worth more than a total $32 million. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to make it to the finals; just more than half of the finalists will win a scholarship.
Find out what's happening in Pasadenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The 16 students from Pasadena hail from La Salle, Pasadena High, Pasadena Poly, St. Monica Academy and the Westridge School for Girls.
The students will be judged by their scores on standardized tests, their grades, an essay and extracurricular activities.
Find out what's happening in Pasadenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Semifinalists were determined by their scores on the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which they took as 11th graders. Only those who scored in the top 1 percent of their state were named semifinalists.
About 1.5 million high school juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT last year.
Here's the breakdown of the Pasadena student finalists:
La Salle High School
- Benjamin C. Dalgam
Pasadena High School
- Samuel A. Muthiah
Pasadena Poly
- Julia G. Alison
- Erik J. Chan
- Anisha G. Cook
- John-Michael D'Andrea
- Jessica L. Jin
- Noah Y. Kim
- Erin S. Lee
- Harrison D. Templeton
- Emily L. Woolway
- Shannon Y. Wu
- Hsin-Ho E. Yang
- Jimmy Zhou
St. Monica Academy
- Gabriel Johnson
Westridge School for Girls
- Jacqueline Pai
Tell us: Do you know any of these students? Feel free to give them a shout in the comments!
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