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Manhattan Beach National Merit Scholar Finalists Named

Mar 08, 2022 08:41AM ● By Jeanne Fratello
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named its National Merit Scholar Finalists from Manhattan Beach for 2022. 

These finalists have made it to the second round of the prestigious National Merit Scholarship program. Approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship in the spring, earning the Merit Scholar title.

The finalists from Manhattan Beach are as follows:

Chadwick School

Hope Galusha
Kiley Keating
Jordan Lee
Archer Suh

Loyola High School

Thomas Rogers

Mira Costa High School

Mia Cho
Xavier Dargan
Caroline Kiely
Joah Lee
Vivian Liu
Isamar Zhu

Stanford Online High School/Homeschool

Adra Ivancich


The National Merit Scholarship Program

Students entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program in their junior year by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The National Merit Semifinalists were announced last fall. These students represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and include 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 school officials submitted a detailed scholarship application with information about the student's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. The semifinalists had to be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 advanced to the finalist level.

The finalists now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered this spring. 

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered. First, every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis. Second, about 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 220 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. Third, about 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance approximately 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2022 will be announced in four waves beginning in April and concluding in July.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, 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.


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