Lakeside student named National Merit semifinalist

Noah McClanahan, a senior at Lakeside High School, has been named a National Merit semifinalist. The announcement was made by officials of the National Merit Scholarship Program on Sept. 12.

McClanahan is the son of Mac and Paulette McClanahan. He is an honor student at Lakeside, and will graduate with highest honors in May 2019.

Last October, around 1.5 million high school juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT, and were entered into the National Merit Scholarship Program. In September, 16,000 were selected as National Merit semifinalists. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Semifinalists will now complete several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. Ninety percent will be selected as finalists, based upon very high academic performance in college preparatory coursework, submitting SAT scores that confirm the PSAT/ NMSQT performance, and a full endorsement and recommendation by high school officials.

Of the 15,000 finalists, about

7,400 will be awarded National Merit Scholarships. Three types of awards, worth a total of more than

$32 million, will be underwritten by approximately 440 independent sponsor organizations, as well as by NMSC. An announcement of the scholarship recipients will be made in April, May, June and July.