Students achieve National Merit Semifinalist status
National Merit is a prestigious award that is only given to an elite group of students. This year, ten Oxford High School seniors have achieved the status of National Merit Semifinalists and have become one step closer to becoming a National Merit Scholar.
The National Merit competition has been going on for many years, and it is only given to the students that show their knowledge and skill on the PSAT and SAT. OHS seniors Anna Renfroe, Lily Mitchell, Anish Ravishankar, Josh Pearson, Ann Sullivan, Shahbaz Gul, Joanna Bu, Grace Anne Jones, Sadie Pasco-Pranger and Julia Sword have all been named National Merit Semifinalists.
“The National Merit Scholarship Contest is a nation wide competition that awards scholarships to students named National Merit Semifinalists and Finalists,” National Merit Semifinalist and senior Lily Mitchell said. “You become a semifinalist by scoring high enough on the PSAT. Each state has a cutoff score which results in the top 1% of students receiving the honor.”
According to the official National Merit Scholarship Corporation, about 1.6 million students enter the contest, and out of that 1.6 million, only about 50,000 students across the nation get the status of Commended student or National Merit Semifinalists. OHS has had a number of National Merit Semifinalists and Finalists throughout the years and had 10 semifinalists this year alone. Principal Bradley Roberson is hoping that the number of students that achieve this honor grows in the future.
“I do think the introduction of more advanced placement courses, such as AP computer science and the other AP courses we have added, will help increase the number of national merits and also the PSAT [Prep] course and the ACT Prep course could help increase that number as well,” Roberson said. “I do know that of the students that took the PSAT course last year an overwhelming number of them made national merit semifinalist, which is great.”
Walter Freeman teaches PSAT Prep among other things at OHS. While last year was the first year of the PSAT Prep course, Freeman knew what students needed in order to prepare them for the PSAT.
“Rather than focusing on particular skills that maybe everyone would come to the class needing to know, as they work through the released tests we find skills that they need to brush up on, and in small groups and individually, they go back and work on those skills,” Freeman said.
Freeman’s PSAT Prep class last year helped four students, including Mitchell and senior Grace Anne Jones, achieve the status of National Merit Semifinalists.
“We did a lot of practice tests and practice SAT tests,” Jones said. “That helped a lot. Just taking practice tests and getting used to the format of the test.”
While Freeman’s PSAT Prep class was small last year, he got overwhelming great results. However, he doesn’t take credit for the accomplishments of his students and hopes that his much larger PSAT class this year achieves the same as his original seven students despite the minor differences between the two groups.
“Those seven kids had a great chemistry. You can’t really plan for that or prep for it. The way that they feed off of each other,” Freeman said. “They were just so excited to teach each other the skills that the other ones didn’t know. If there is a math problem six out of the seven missed, the one who got it right gonna be up at the board showing what they did.”
The status of National Merit semifinalist or finalist could potentially help these ten OHS students get accepted into many of the colleges they apply for, even if some of those schools don’t specifically offer scholarships for National Merit.
“Becoming a national merit finalist, and even already being a semifinalist, could potentially help pay for my college tuition, depending on where I go,” Mitchell said. “Some colleges offer full-rides for National Merit Finalists, but others don’t have any available scholarships. Either way, I feel like it is something that sets me apart and will help me get into college.”
While being named a National Merit Semifinalists is a big honor, it is just one of the steps in becoming a National Merit Finalists. In order to be considered for the title of National Merit Finalist, a semifinalist must take the SAT and complete some required steps.
“I am in the process of completing the application to become a finalist which includes writing an essay, along with recommendations and personal information,” Mitchell said.
In becoming National Merit Semifinalists, these 10 students will have the opportunity to make many people involved in their life proud, and some believe that they have been shaped by everyone that has impacted their education throughout the years.
“I appreciate the way that they represent themselves, their parents, our school, and our community. I know they have bright futures ahead of them,” Roberson said. “I know we are going to look back in a few years to come and see those ten doing great things, not just here in Oxford or in Mississippi, not even just in our country, but in the world.”