Six Saline Seniors are Semifinalists for National Merit Scholarship Program

Six Saline High School seniors are among 16,000 semifinalists in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program.

John Klein, Kaylee Mitzel, Julia Rohde, Lorien Siehm, Carter Smith and Jackson Zsenyuk advanced through the process.

Over 1.2 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen 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. 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, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2027. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. About 700 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be
provided by approximately 120 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 140 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,500 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the
sponsor institution.

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