AHS senior, Seth Daniell, named as National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist

AHS senior Seth Daniell

AHS senior, Seth Daniell, named as National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist

Congratulations to Arkadelphia High senior Seth Daniell on being named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist. Daniell is one of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Daniell was chosen as a Semifinalist out of 1.5 million high school students who entered the competition as juniors in 2012, according to a news release from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. He was selected based on his 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores. Daniell and his fellow Semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of the U.S. high school seniors. The Semifinalists include the highest-scoring entrants from each state with the number of Semifinalists being proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

“To proceed in the competition, the Semifinalist and their high school must submit a detailed scholarship application with information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received,” the scholarship program’s release states. In addition, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

The National Merit Scholarship program expects approximately 90 percent of Semifinalists to advance to Finalist level. The students will be notified in February of this designation. Awards totaling $35 million will be divided among the most deserving 8,000 students between April and July 2014. Those awarded the scholarship will join more than 300,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.