Olentangy Local Schools Board of Education recently recognized 24 high school seniors who achieved high-level academic accomplishments through the National Merit and College Board programs. In 2008, these students were among the nearly 1.5 million high school students from across the country that took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Of those entrants, approximately 50,000 high scorers qualify as either 2010 National Merit Commended Students or Semifinalists. Semifinalists represent the highest scores on the test and will continue in the program.
In February, approximately 90 percent of the 16,000 Semifinalists will be informed that they have reached Finalist status having demonstrated a high academic achievement in grades 9 through 12 and earning a high score on the SAT. These students will compete for approximately 8,200 scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Program, corporate-sponsored scholarships and college-sponsored scholarships worth more than $36 million. Congratulations to Olentangy’s National Merit Semifinalists.
Fourteen Olentangy students were named National Merit Commended Students. The National Merit Scholarship Program has identified approximately 34,000 Commended Students from the top 50,000 high scores on the PSAT/NMSQT. These students will receive letters of commendation in recognition of outstanding academic promise. Congratulations to the Olentangy National Merit Commended Students.
Three Olentangy students were named Outstanding Participants in the 2010 National Achievement Program. This National Merit Corporation honor indicates a score within the top 3 percent of the more than 160,000 African-Americans who requested consideration in the 2010 National Achievement Program when they took the 2008 PSAT/NMSQT. A list of the Outstanding Participant students is being sent to approximately 1,500 colleges and universities across the country informing schools that these particular students have shown outstanding academic promise.
One student earned Honorable Mention status from the National Hispanic Recognition Program. The College Board initiated this program in 1983 to identify outstanding Hispanic or Latino high school students. Honorable Mention and Scholar awards are bestowed upon just 5,000 of the more than 200,000 students who took the 2008 PSAT/NMSQT and identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino. Students earning honors must also maintain a certain high-level grade point average. The College Board distributes a list of these outstanding scholars to subscribing colleges and universities.