Schools

Ten Minnetonka Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

Heather Blundell, Alexandra Braiedy, Charles Du, Justin Horst, Shelby Koskela, Julia Marshall, Jacob Neis, Russell Nelson, Madison Rusch and Ellen Wiese are among 16,000 semifinalists in the 58th annual competition.

Ten students have been named as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition.

Heather Blundell, Alexandra Braiedy, Charles Du, Justin Horst, Shelby Koskela, Julia Marshall, Jacob Neis, Russell Nelson, Madison Rusch and Ellen Wiese are among 16,000 semifinalists in the 58th annual competition.

The 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test served as the initial screening for program entrants. About 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2013 competition by taking the test.

Less than 1 percent of high school seniors are named as semifinalists.

About 15,000 of the semifinalists will go on to become finalists. Announcement of who received that designation will come in February.

To advance, semifinalists must perform well in high school, receive an endorsement from their principals and earn high SAT scores. The semifinalists must also submit a detailed scholarship application with an essay and details about their participation and leadership in school activities.

All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from among the finalists. In 2013, there will be three types of scholarships available:

Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 $2,500 National Merit Scholarships awarded based on state representational.

About 240 corporations and business organizations are offering 1,000 scholarships for finalists who meet certain criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.

About 200 colleges and universities are expected to fund approximately 4,800 scholarships for finalists who will attend the sponsoring institution.
In all, about 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million will be awarded.

Winners will be named in four announcements between April and July.

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