The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD) is proud to announce that 17 seniors have been identified as semifinalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Competition! This includes students from El Dorado, Esperanza, Parkview, Valencia, and Yorba Linda high schools. Across Orange County, the scope of students who earned the same distinction is roughly 200.
In September, officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships worth more than $28 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 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and more than half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. About 1.5 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of high school seniors across the nation, 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.
National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in spring 2023. These scholarship recipients will join more than 355,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title. Great job, PYLUSD seniors!
El Dorado High School (1)
Livia Ordonez
Esperanza High School (1)
Chessa Park
Parkview School (1)
Tyler Kim
Valencia High School (12)
Rohan Bhalodia
Jonathan Chao
Dylan Chen
Calvin Hong
Camille Ives
Junhyuk Jeon
Joseph Kim
Jason Mo
Nathan Nguyen
Brooklyn Pagaza
Mancheon Park
Ruth Simon
Yorba Linda High School (2)
Tyler Yang
Tanner Yoon
To see a full list of semifinalists courtesy of the Orange County, click the link below.
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