Three local students are National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Saagar Mehta

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced that three seniors from Shorecrest and Shorewood High Schools have been selected as 2019 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists.

The Shoreline students selected for the prestigious honor are: Saagar Mehta (Shorewood), Mattea Holt (Shorecrest) and Gabe Vogel (Shorecrest).

Mattea Holt

Of the over 1.6 million students who entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors, only 16,000 become semifinalists.

The semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.

Mehta, Holt and Vogel now have the opportunity to compete for Merit Scholarship awards by qualifying as a National Merit Finalist in February 2019.

Gabe Vogel

About 7,500 Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million will be awarded in this spring. 

To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier qualifying test performance.

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies.