Two dozen students from Great Neck’s high schools were named semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Competition this month, making them among the top 1 percent of seniors statewide.
The semifinalists were among the top scorers in New York on the preliminary SAT test and National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. This, in turn, puts them among just over 1,100 New York students and about 16,000 nationwide in line to compete for scholarships.
“That is the largest number in recent memory,” Great Neck Public Schools Superintendent Teresa Prendergast said at a school board meeting last week. “These students scored in the highest percentiles on their PSAT exams and we’re very excited and wish them the best of luck as they move forward into the next phase of this prestigious competition.”
The number of students selected this year is roughly comparable to last year, when 23 students from the Great Neck schools were named semifinalists.
The bulk of Great Neck’s semifinalists this year – or 19 – come from South High School.
These students are Yinuo Chen, Annie Dai, Emily Gao, Julia Gorenstein, Hannah Kareff, Nicholas Langel, Samuel Levine, Jay Lin, Joshua Liu, Daniel Lu, Kathleen Lu, Richard Miller, Anthony Pei, Ethan Wang, George Wang, Jennifer Wang, Trinity Wang, William Yan and Eric Yang.
North High School, meanwhile, has five semifinalists: Yoel Hawa, Isobelle Lim, Isabella Mirro, Joshua Rothbaum and Lucien Wostenholme.
In total 83 students from area public and private schools are National Merit semifinalists.
These semifinalists include 13 students from Manhasset High School, five from Chaminade High School, one from Mineola High School, six from the Wheatley School, two from New Hyde Park Memorial High School, 11 from Roslyn High School, 9 from Port Washington, 11 from Herricks, and one from Floral Park Memorial High School.
Taken together, they represent more than half of Nassau County’s 157 National Merit semifinalists.
Of the 16,000 semifinalists, around 15,000 are expected to advance to finalist status. Selection committees then begin choosing National Merit scholarship winners, with the first scholarships to be formally awarded in March.
There are three types of scholarships: corporate-sponsored Merit scholarships, National Merit $2,500 scholarships and college-sponsored Merit scholarships.
