By Staff

Jun. 21, 2017:  Each year, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation ("NMSC") honors approximately 50,000 students from the million-plus juniors who take the PSAT exam. This year, Bronxville High School reports an impressive record of achievement for the Class of 2017.

One student, Sam Arcano, was selected a National Merit Scholarship winner, seven were selected as Finalists, and ten were selected as Commended Students. Their names appear at the end of this article.

A June 7, 2017, press release from the NMSC says that "by the conclusion of this year's competition [in July], about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million."

Approximately 34,000 of the 50,000 high scorers on the PSAT exam are named Commended Students "on the basis of a nationally applied Selection Index score that may vary from year to year and is typically below the level required for participants to be named Semifinalists in their respective states," says the National Merit Scholarship Corporation website.

Approximately 16,000 students qualified as Semifinalists and were chosen because of their high scores on the PSAT. About 15,000 Semifinalists advanced to the Finalist stage by completing the scholarship application and by meeting the various other requirements prescribed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The June 7 press release explains the procedure in more detail:

Over 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Last fall, approximately 16,000 Semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state's percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation's seniors. 

To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, Semifinalists first had to advance to the Finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each Semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT® scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, some 15,000 met requirements for Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2017.

2017 National Merit Scholarship Winner
Sam Arcano