Wave Staff Report
CULVER CITY — Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation have announced that Culver City High School senior Vanessa Andrick has been named among approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. More than 90% of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing and more than half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the merit scholar title.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. It was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
More than 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.
