Three Sandies take the honor of becoming National Merit Scholar Semifinalists and were the only students in the district to qualify for the title. Three other seniors claimed the distinction of National Merit Commended.

National Merit Semifinalists score within the top 1.25% of PSAT testers in the nation; around 16,000 students in the entire country earn this coveted rank each year. Three seniors: Garrett Saied, Nathaniel Wright and Allison Wu have earned the title of National Merit Semifinalists. Three more seniors: Adam Bursi, Luke Lusby and Pranav Nambiar scored in the top 3%, making them National Merit Commended.
In order to reach such an esteemed title, the semifinalists each have their motivations.
“I know my goals, and I want to reach them badly,” Wu said. “Anytime I have to do something that’s not fun, I ask myself, ‘Is it worth doing for the end goal?’ and the answer is almost always yes.”
The seniors felt many emotions when they found out that they qualified for the semi-finals, but relief appeared as the most prominent.
“I felt relief from the fact that choosing to go lax on studying for the PSAT didn’t come back to haunt me, followed by some determination to clinch the finalist position,” Saied said.
Reaching this point in the National Merit competition expanded the seniors’ college and career options.
“I’d like to be a surgeon,” Wu said. “Medicine is a long road, though, so I might pick up a fun interim job in the meantime.”
Qualifying for the semi-finals has allowed the seniors to look back at their experiences and feel thankful for their mentors who have helped them thus far.
“Qualifying made me feel thankful for my past math and english teachers for preparing me for this test,” Wright said.
The students have worked hard to reach this point and their preparation process for the finals mirrors what they did for the semi-finals.
“What was really important was getting a good amount of sleep and going into the test with confidence,” Saied said. “What may have adjacently helped was a full-length practice test I took.”