SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Sarasota County Schools has announced that 33 students have been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and college scholarships that began in 1955.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation says more than 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 competition by taking the 2024 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of National Merit semifinalists, representing less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

The number of National Merit semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national

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