Thirteen MSMS seniors are semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition: Aden Byrd, Rebecca Candland, Andy Chen, Yaerim Choi, Joseph Deano, Andrew Dowdy, Isabella Givens, Henry Harrison, Theodore Lai, Anderson Lin, Langston Smith, Ryan Wu and Eden Zmitrovich.

These students are among a select group of 16,000 nationwide, chosen from a pool of 1.3 million participants. In Mississippi, 155 high school seniors received the National Merit Semifinalist distinction.

The scholarship program recognizes high school students based on their scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test taken during their junior year. From the top 50,000 scorers, a number are selected as semifinalists from each state. 

Wu said being named a National Merit Semifinalist reflects the hard work he put into achieving this honor. 

“All the work I did finally paid off to try and hit that goal, get that scholarship,” he said.

Wu said his previous school offered a summer workshop, which helped him familiarize himself with question types and strategies. He also recommended taking as many practice tests as possible.

Semifinalists are eligible for significant scholarships, including full rides to Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Smith said if he advances to finalist status, he could receive substantial scholarships from universities like Mississippi State and the University of Alabama.

“That is going to be really helpful for college applications because it takes a lot of the stress about getting scholarships off me,” Smith said.

This experience, Candland said, taught her not to undervalue herself.

“I thought there’d be a lot of people who would get [semifinalist] over me, and that’s the reason I didn’t study for [the PSAT] — I was like, ‘I’m not going to get it anyway,’” Candland said.

Approximately 95% of semifinalists are expected to advance to finalist status, who will be notified of their results in April.