Three De Pere seniors are National Merit semifinalists

DE PERE – De Pere High School Seniors Austin Hackel, Ansh Patel and Noah Zhang have achieved semifinalist status in the National Merit Scholarship program.

The honor is based on their Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores and other program requirements.

Semifinalists represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors.

These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition.
About 95% of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

Including Hackel, Patel and Zhang, the number of NMS semifinalists from De Pere High School since 2019 is 21.