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PARKERSBURG - Six students from the region are among more than 16,000 nationwide National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit organization established in 1955 to conduct the annual program, announced the semifinalists earlier this month.
Over 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, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1% 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.
Semifinalists in this area are:
Parkersburg High School
* Henry W. Corcoran
* Christian K. Henrichsen
Parkersburg South High School
* Chloe T. Lesher
* Jesse D. Morris
Ripley High School
* Kaden B. Jeffers
Athens High School
* Tait McCarthy
These seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $24 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.
About 95% of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
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, according to a release from the corporation.
The release cautions against using the numbers of semifinalists to compare high schools, educational systems or states. The program is intended to honor individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The program does not measure the quality or effectiveness of education within a school, system or state, it says. Additional information is available online at www.nationalmerit.org.
Steps in the 2027 competition
To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide 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 official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test, the release said.
From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level. They will be notified of that designation in February. 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, the release said.
National Merit 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, such as 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.