53 District 204 Seniors Named National Merit Semifinalists

Today the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors represent less than one percent of U.S. high school students and now have the opportunity to compete for approximately 6,930 scholarships totaling nearly $26 million, which will be awarded next spring.

Over 1.3 million juniors from around 20,000 high schools initially entered the competition by taking the PSAT/NMSQT in 2024. To advance to the finalist level, semifinalists must submit a detailed application including academic records, extracurricular involvement, leadership roles, and an essay. They must also confirm their PSAT/NMSQT performance with SAT or ACT scores. About 95 percent of semifinalists are expected to become finalists, and approximately half of those will go on to earn a scholarship.

The National Merit Scholarship Program will award three types of scholarships: 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships, about 830 corporate-sponsored awards, and approximately 3,600 college-sponsored scholarships. Winners will be announced between April and July of 2026. Since its founding in 1955, NMSC has recognized more than 389,000 Merit Scholars nationwide, encouraging academic excellence and achievement.

The number of semifinalists is based on each state’s percentage of graduating seniors, and the program is designed to honor individual students rather than compare schools or states. In Illinois, hundreds of students were named semifinalists, including many from Indian Prairie School District 204’s three high schools: Metea Valley, Neuqua Valley, and Waubonsie Valley.

District 204 Semifinalists

• Metea Valley High School: Sreeya A. Ayyagari, Amit Bagchi, Rachel M. Chen, Ryan W. Cotner, Praneeth Doddi, Lakshana Gopalakrishnan, Samia Khan, Ritika Khurana, Shreyash R. Koli, Claire A. Leung, Claire E. Nang, Srihan Pasupula, Tiana Prem, Eegan Ram, Ibrahim M. Saadeh, Viraj H. Vyas, Lucy S. Yuan.
   
• Neuqua Valley High School: Kundan S. Baliga, Sarthak Behari, Aditya Byju, Peter L. Carroll, Ananya Chatterjee, Namrata Chintamaneni, Kristin A. Glenn, Arav Goswami, Prameet Guha, Steven He, Alexander Huang, Aditi Kaushal, Siya Malhotra, Maxwell P. Mayer, Rhea P. Mhashilkar, Niva Murali, Varun Nagaraj, Yule Park, Om M. Patel, Samil Sharma, Vighnesh Subramanian, Advaitha R. Taire, Robert Yang, Katherine Y. Yuan, Jonathan W. Zhao, Grace L. Zhuang.
   
• Waubonsie Valley High School: Alice S. Ho, Azim A. Kazmi, Emily C. Park, Salil Patki, Ketavharsh R. Prem, Vyshnavi B. Reddy, Pranav Satapathy, Amogh Shivanna, Isabella Woolard, Sahith Yarlagadda.