Officials with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation have announced the names of this year's National Merit Commended Scholars and semifinalists, and several Bolles students were among them.
National Merit Commended Scholars, a group which this year includes 13 members of the Bolles Class of 2018, are selected from the top 50,000 highest scorers on the PSAT, which students took during their junior year.
The National Merit Commended Scholars from Bolles are: John W. Bowers (32082), Brandon Boyle (32003), Caitlin Collier (32224), Frankie Collier (32224), Amann Doolabh (32250), Nick Garas (32210), Brittany George (32256), Zixing “Peter” Liu (32217), Nick Maniatis (32224), Elizabeth McGrane (32223), Rachel Shapiro (32233), Amita Tilak (32256) and William Wild (32259).
“This is an exceptional achievement and we are all very proud of these students and their high marks on the PSAT,” Upper School Head Moya Marks said.
The 16,000 students selected as National Merit semifinalists were the highest scorers in their respective states. Six current and former members of the Bolles Class of 2018 were among those selected this year: Vijaya Chalamalasetty (32256), Arianna Khan (32224), Samuel Maroon (32259), Olivia Morello (32223), Darren Wang (32224) and Josh Weiss (NA).
Semifinalists will now have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $33 million, which will be offered this spring. About 90 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.
“Even one National Merit Semifinalist coming from Bolles is a tremendous distinction and emphasizes the quality of education happening in our classrooms,” Associate Head of School Tyler Hodges said. “But being notified of six students who qualified is simply outstanding – we are thrilled. This year’s results are another example of the pursuit of excellence at The Bolles School.”
