Hamilton High School seniors Julie E. Posh and Evan G. Thompson have been named finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. High school students enter this competition by taking the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) /National Merit Scholarship qualifying test, which screens approximately 1.4 million entrants who are high school juniors.
Of the 1.4 million entrants, some 50,000 with the highest PSAT scores in critical reading, math and writing skills qualify for recognition. About one-third or 16,000 high-scorers are notified that they have qualified as semifinalists, placing them in the upper 0.5 percent of those who entered the competition. They are the highest-scoring entrants in each state. About 15,000 of these students go on to become finalists. The selection of some 8,400 Merit Scholarship winners from the group of finalists is now in progress and will be announced in March.