Arlington Students Named 2023 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

ARLINGTON, MA — Nine Arlington students have been named semifinalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) said Wednesday.

Anna Berggren, William Bouck, Aryan Deshpande, Meredith Gast, Gregory Lubashev, Armaan Merchant, Marko Rasin, Brendan Rubel, and Cameron Connell are among 16,000 semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. They have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next year.

Semifinalists qualified by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test. They now must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition, including submitting a detailed application that includes an endorsement from a high school official.

About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately
half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2023. Every
finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, 950 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 180 corporations and business organizations, and some 160 colleges and universities are expected to finance 3,800 awards.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2023 will be announced in four nationwide news releases from April through July. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 368,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.