Congratulations to the 17 members of the Class of 2027 who were recently named National Merit Semifinalists or Commended Students.
Of the more than 1.2 million students nationwide who took the 2025 PSAT, approximately 16,000 high school seniors earned qualifying scores to be named Semifinalists this year. They represent the top 1% of test-takers nationwide and include some of North Carolina's highest-scoring students. Semifinalists have the opportunity to continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships to be awarded this spring.
About 34,000 high school seniors earned the designation of Commended Student. Although they do not continue in the scholarship competition, they placed among the top 50,000 test-takers nationwide.
We are so proud of these students and this well-deserved recognition of their academic achievement!
Semifinalists
Elizabeth Gates
Wyatt Ponder
Graham Scott
Alexander Varanese
Commended Students
Nicholas Arado
Wilkes Gee
Chuning Guo
William Henderson
Laura Kares
Anya Kopetzky
Frances Liles
Maya Parikh
Baylor Skinner
Avantika Subudhi
Kyle Williams
John Wright
Cole Zouzoulas