Media Alert
For immediate release

Contact: Theresa Komitas
Phone: (630) 608-5031
E-mail: tkomitas@SD308.org

Semifinalists Named in the 2022-2023
National Merit Scholarship Competition

     Arjun Ramesh                     Nicholas Rondon                     Aanya Roy 

Oswego, Ill. (September 22, 2022) — Oswego Community Unit School District is proud to announce that the following students from Oswego East High School:  Arjun Ramesh, Nicholas Rondon, and Aanya Roy have been named as Semifinalists in the 2022-2023 National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) Program. 

Approximately 1.5 million high schools across the country enter the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program each year.  To qualify for the program, students must take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which serves as an initial screening of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent 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.

These academically talented National Semifinalists have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 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. Approximately 95 percent of those named as 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.

To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community  activities, demonstrated  leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and write an essay.

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 rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 400 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC's goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2023. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded  on a state-representational basis. About 950 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be awarded by approximately 180 corporations and business organizations for Finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor's employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2023 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April of 2023 and concluding in July of 2023. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 368,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

Congratulations to Arjun Ramesh, Nicholas Rondon, and Aanya Roy on this outstanding accomplishment.