Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) have announced that one of our Indian Land High School seniors, Aidan Patrowic, has been named as one of the more than 16,000 Semifinalists in the 72nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. As an academically talented high school senior, Aidan will have an opportunity to continue in the program to compete for about 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $24 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 approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
Over 1.2 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, 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.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance and was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by about 260 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors that share NMSC's goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.
Congratulations Aidan! Way to go!