Less than 1% of nation’s high school graduating seniors qualify as semifinalists

Nine students representing four Deer Valley Unified School District high schools have earned their way to being semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Students enter the National Merit program, which began in 1955, by taking the preliminary SAT National Merit scholarship qualifying test, also known as the PSAT or NMSQT.

Semifinalists representing Mountain Ridge High School are Ting-Yun Lee, Shahin Madantschi, Conner Segraves, and Isabella Shin; from Barry Goldwater High School, Felicity Burton; for Boulder Creek High School, Kaden Tang; and representing Sandra Day O’Connor High School are Naitik Mohanty, Aiden Young, and Elizabeth Young.

Currently more than 1.3 million students from about

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