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Thirty-four students attending high schools in Westwood, Needham, Medfield, Dover, and Dedham have been announced on September 9 as among the around 370 Semifinalists named from Massachusetts for the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program. The students will compete for around 6,700 scholarships worth approximately $24 million that will be offered next spring, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
The more than 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide represent less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors. Semifinalists represent the highest scorers taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in each state. More than 1.2 million juniors entered the competition.
The local Semifinalists are as follows:
WESTWOOD
- Westwood High School - Benjamin Jiang and Isabel Wu.
- Xaverian Brothers High School - Peter Blood.
DEDHAM
- Noble and Greenough School - Virginia Case, Emmett Chen, Yiling Ding, James Fair, William Grace, Lucas Keefe, Raphael Klauber, Jayden Leung, Alexander Meng, Andrew Palfrey, Evan Wei, Derek Yin, Christopher Yoo, and Alexa Zhou.
DOVER
- Dover-Sherborn High School - Jackson Bender, Pranav Kollipara, Stanley Liu, Jayda Ng, and Nicholas Wallen.
MEDFIELD
- Medfield High School - Sara Sahr.
- Montrose School - Aneesa Maity and Genevieve Nohrden.
NEEDHAM
- Needham High School - Lex Brett-Fleegler, Jack Krupat, Anderson Lee, Liza Scott, Emmy Yang, and Ian Zeylikman.
- St. Sebastian’s School - Rowan Koppenheffer, John Lynch, and Anthony Marcucci.
To become Finalists, each candidate must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, honors and awards received, a high school official endorsement, a personal essay, and SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s performance on the qualifying test.
Semifinalists who advance to Finalist standing will be notified in February 2027. Finalists who are offered scholarships will be named in four rounds of announcements, beginning in April 2027. Three types of scholarships are available: National Merit $2500 Scholarships, corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships, and college-sponsored Merit Scholarships.
Thanks to National Merit Scholarship Corporation for sharing this news with Westwood Minute.
