A National Merit Scholarship is awarded to those rare students who score better than 99 percent of the students who took the PSAT (pre-SAT) in their state.
This is an incredible accomplishment that not many people are able to achieve—and to be a National Merit Scholar is an honor and something to be very proud of.
Senior Krystof Purtell recently was named a National Merit Scholarship for his outstanding PSAT performance.
Around 1.5 million students apply for the program every year, but only 50,000 of the high scorers qualify for recognition in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Of those 50,000, 16,000 qualify as semifinalists—Purtell is one of 16,000 students.
In February, 15,000 students will advance and qualify as National Merit finalists. Then, 7,500 students will be notified that they will receive one of three types of Merit Scholarships: National Merit $2,500 scholarship, Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship, or College-sponsored Merit Scholarship.
“I’m proud to be a National Merit Scholar for sure,” said Purtell.
To keep Purtell busy as he waits for the next sections of the National Merit program to begin, he has applied to 15 colleges with Yale being his number-one choice.
In college, Purtell plans for major in math or economics to eventually become a data scientist.
Congratulations and we wish you the best of luck with the National Merit Scholarship program!