93 Charlotte students are National Merit Scholarship semifinalists this year. Here’s the list
Around 16,000 students from around the country were selected as semifinalists in the 71st National Merit Scholarship program last week, from 1.3 million competitors. From Charlotte high schools, 93 students made the cut.
Approximately 95% of semifinalists will advance to become finalists, and 50% of those will be awarded the title of Merit Scholar and be eligible for one of approximately 6,930 merit scholarships that will be offered next spring, at $2,500 a piece. In total, around $26 million in scholarships will be awarded, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
To qualify to be a semifinalist, students must score in the top 1% of test-takers in the state on the PSAT, which this year’s cohort took in fall 2024 as high school juniors.
Charlotte and the surrounding areas all together had 145 semifinalists on this year’s list. The local schools with the most semi-finalists were Ardrey Kell High School, Myers Park High School and Charlotte Latin School.
Here’s the list of Charlotte-area semifinalists:
Charlotte
Ardrey Kell High School
- Shubh Agarwal
- Sofia Aguila Lopez
- Shardul S. Arya
- Ishanee P. Bhangay
- Arya Dave
- Cooper Duffy
- Nethra Gopalakrishnan
- Rohan J. Hansalia
- Peter M. Karamanov
- Jahnavi Kari
- Varune N. Kulasingam
- Aarnav Kumar
- Nikhil A. Kumar
- Avah Lin
- Joseph W. Liu
- Maryn E. Medina
- Jonas PakLin
- Sung Yeon Park
- Krish Ramaraj
- Sanat V. Rao
- Lydia Shen
- Ray Sun
- Ray Tan
- Sameeya Vasan
- Lucas Yuan
- Sophie B. Zhang
Ballantyne Ridge High School
- Saankhya Kotha
Bradford Preparatory School
- Eden Justice
- Ian Watson
Charlotte Catholic High School
- Chloe G. Crabtree
- Nathan N. D’Costa
- Soleil A. Demetry
- Isabella C. Lugg
- Maggie E. Myers
- Emma P. Redican
- Julianna J. Taylor
Charlotte Christian School
- Keller Ulman
Charlotte Country Day School
- Benjamin C. Eligator
- Tierney E. King
- Caroline G. Mallard
- Brady H. Mills
- Ella G. Parsons
- Soraya R. Shah
Charlotte Latin School
- Avery D. Bly
- Luca Bravo
- Kevin L. Budzichowski
- Emily Y. Cao
- Connor F. Cruz
- Kabir A. Nawaz
- Jacqueline Rao
- Kelsey L. Sciacca
- Isabel Y. Yang
- Claire J. Zhang
- Lynn J. Zhao
- Ryan R. Zhou
East Mecklenburg High School
- Reid R. Banerjee
- Carl B. LeGrone
- Simon D. Wilson
Home School/Online School
- Elliott Kurta
Myers Park High School
- Everett R. Benchich
- Elizabeth M. Hammers
- Sienna M. Heinrich
- Caroline S. Hood
- Lillian R. Mangan
- Charlotte A. Manning
- Thomas B. Morrow
- Lucas P. Nazemzadeh
- Eve S. Norton
- Alexa A. Reynolds
- Eleanor D. Rust
- Rachel L. Stitt
- Elizabeth G. Watson
- Cameron C. Williams
Palisades High School
- Dallin S. Goodrich
Providence Day School
- Samson Chamberlain
- Wesley Kropf
- April Liu
- Owen Moore
- John Oberer
- Coley Roberson
- Logan Schaffer
- Alexander Shi
- Eleanor Zhang
Providence High School
- Tokugen Drake
- Nitya Garg
- Lawrence He
- Erika J. Holden
- Chase W. Khanolkar
- Brayden A. Magids
- Hansini Narayanan
- Matthew D. Perrone
- Jackson H. Powell
- Jason Yan
Concord
Cabarrus Health Sciences Institute
- Oviya Murugan
- Shiven Nagabandi
Cannon School
- Kendall G. Laguerre
- Arjun A. Ram
- Ryan L. Schreck
Cox Mill High School
- Ritvik Dandi
- Neil Goyal
- Mohammed F. Shamim
Northwest Cabarrus High School
- Carson Verburg
Cornelius
William Amos Hough High School
- John M. Roeder
Davidson
Community School of Davidson
- Anya Jhingran
- Robert Lake
Davidson Day School
- Alexis L. Blanchette
Gastonia
Gaston Day School
- Bennett Ackerman
Huntersville
North Mecklenburg High School
- Prathyek Poojary
Matthews
Arborbrook Christian Academy
- Nathan Elms
David W. Butler High School
- Bodhi T. Lam
Carmel Christian School
- Elijah Chen
- Sloan Pettus
Covenant Day School
- Rebecca P. Cobb
- Jackson D. Lapp
Weddington High School
- Owen Carter
- Prisha Kansal
- Veeksha Patlolla
- Harini Rajakumar
- Chrysostomos Rigas
- Arkapravo Sen
- Thomas Suttles
- Anvi Verma
- Bethany Xiques
Monroe
Central Academy of Technology and the Arts
- Anika Garg
- Elvin Joseph
- Preston Logan
- Penelope Rauscher
- Samiksha Senapati
- Arielle Trent
Mooresville
Lake Norman High School
- Cedrickanto Donbosco
- Liberty Prince
Pine Lake Preparatory
- Eben D. Pruitt
Waxhaw
Cuthbertson High School
- Elizabeth G. Sobolev
Homeschool/Online School
- Timothy Wenger
Marvin Ridge High School
- Harshini Bala
- Mason Csantaveri
- Alicia Fang
- Terrance Fang
- Rushika Mahavadi
- Pranav Mallineni
- Livia Moore
- Preston Scott
- Kripa Sudhir
- Sahana Venkatesh
- Catherine Zhou
