Six Waukee High School Students Named 2018 National Merit Semifinalists

Six Waukee High School seniors, Andrew Fung, Frank Li, Timothy Matheson, Daniel Slaughter, Nupur Udipi and Sebastian Llaca, were named semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program.

“We are really proud of the students. To see these six kids excel, it is a representation of the education our students receive K-12,” said Waukee High School principal, Cary Justmann.

Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program on September 13. These academically talented high school seniors have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.

All students who enter the program must take either the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Students are scored on writing, language and math. The semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors with highest scores in each state.

About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing. In order to become a finalist, the semifinalist and his/her school must submit a detailed scholarship application, must have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed by a high school official, write an essay and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Since 2010 Waukee High School has had 17 National Merit Finalists