Nine Merit Finalists

The nine seniors at Jesuit High School who were chosen National Merit Semifinalists last fall all have been named Finalists for the award by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, Jesuit announced Monday (Feb. 15).

The nine seniors are: Jamison Bene, Maddux Corish, John Hentschel, Gantt Meredith, J.J. Miller, Jacob Shoop, Brendan Sutton, Brett Vance, and Adam Weekley. They will continue in the pursuit of some 7,400 National Merit Scholarships worth about $32 million that will be offered this spring.

Jesuit has more boys who are National Merit Finalists this year than any high school in the Tampa Bay area.

The prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program, which is in its 61^st year, named approximately 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide in the fall. They were selected based on PSAT scores, a standardized test administered their junior year. About 1.4 million nationwide take the PSAT annually, and less than 1% were honored as Semifinalists. From the pool of Semifinalists, about 15,000 were selected as Finalists.

Jesuit ranked sixth among the more than 50 Jesuit high schools in the nation in percentage of its seniors who had attained Semifinalist status.

More than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. Several factors are considered in this process, including grades, the difficulty of classes taken, standardized test scores, involvement and leadership in the school, and an essay.