News for Collegiate School Families and Friends
Holiday 2016
Six Seniors Receive National Merit Scholar Honors
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n September, six Collegiate seniors — Georgia Beazley, Sumner Brinkley, Jane Fergusson, Claire Murphy, Kyle Riopelle and Price Withers — were named 2017 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists, the most of any independent school in Virginia. These academically talented students will continue on to compete for about 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $33 million. “As National Merit Semifinalists represent less than 1% of all students who took the test, we are exceedingly proud of these six students’ accomplishment,” said Upper School Head Patrick Loach. In addition, the following 13 seniors were named Commended Students: Morgan Baxter, Aidan Berger, John Bullock, Felipe Campos, Parker Conquest, Elizabeth Harrison, Christopher Johnson, Parker Johnson, Gillian Laming, Matty Pahren, Michael Romer, Quinn Schebell and Margaret Wadsworth. The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships. About 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2017 program by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors includes the highest-
scoring entrants in each state. Although Commended Students will not continue in the 2017 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, these students have been recognized for their exceptional academic promise and placed among the top 5 percent of entrants.
National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April through July 2017.