The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD) is proud to announce that 24 seniors have been identified as Semifinalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Competition! This includes three students from El Dorado High, fifteen students from Valencia High, and six students from Yorba Linda High.
On Friday, September 10, officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,000 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 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.
Nearly 1.3 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 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 2026. These scholarship recipients will join nearly 382,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title. Great job, PYLUSD seniors!
EL DORADO HIGH (3)
- Evan Nam
- Catherine Nguyen
- Ethan Woo
VALENCIA HIGH (15)
- Edwin Anthoniraj
- Noah Choi
- Adam Kim
- Carson Lim
- Lynzie Lim
- Irene Pan
- Aashna Shah
- Sahej Anand Singh
- Leana Sung
- Ethan Swarat
- Christopher Tran
- Caleb Yang
- Angela Yao
- Evelyn Yao
- Delilah Yick
YORBA LINDA HIGH (6)
- Xenia Lee
- Jia Tong Lin
- Aaron Luo
- Austin Truong
- Mikayla Wang
- Zishuo Xu
To see a full list of local 2026 semifinalists courtesy of the Orange County Register, visit https://www.ocregister.com/2025/09/10/there-orange-county-students-are-2026-national-merit-scholarship-semifinalists/
Be the first to comment on "Twenty-Four PYLUSD Seniors named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists"