EVANSTON — Mount Vernon High School’s Hannah Vanderhoof is one of more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 72nd annual National Merit Scholarship program.
Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) announced the names today.
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $24 million.
NMSC will announce the finalists next spring.
Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.
About 95 percent of semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
Steps in the 2027 competition
More than 1.2 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.
The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application. The application includes information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.
A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school offi cial, write an essay, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confi rm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
More than 15,000 semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship
winners will be selected from this group of finalists.
Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
NMSC offers several scholarships
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2027. Every
finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2,500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
About 700 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 120 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria. Criteria might be children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.
In addition, about 140 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,500 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
National Merit Scholarship winners of 2027 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join over 395,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
About NMSC
NMSC is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. It was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by about 260 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
Using numbers of semifinalists to compare high schools, educational systems, or states will result in erroneous conclusions. The National Merit® Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
The program does not measure the quality or eff ectiveness of education within a school, system, or state. For more information about the competition, visit www.nationalmerit.org.