Five PHS seniors named National Merit Semifinalists
Special to The Pass Post
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) recently announced that Pass Christian High School seniors Alex Bosarge, Steven Kelly, Jr., Carter Ladner, Jocelyn Nguyen and Kyle Wittmann have been named as National Merit Semifinalists in the 72nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The five are in the one percent of high school students across the country to be recognized as National Merit Semifinalists. They are among less than 150 students in Mississippi to earn the designation.
The Semifinalists have the opportunity to continue in the competition for about 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $24 million that will be offered next spring.
About ninety-five percent 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.
To advance to the Finalist level and to be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill additional requirements, including proving they have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, being endorsed and recommended by a high school official, writing an essay and earning SAT ® or ACT® scores that confirm their earlier performance on the qualifying test. School officials must provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.
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.
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. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists.
