2012 Merit, Achievement semifinalists recognized

Advocate staff report

The Advocate recognizes on these pages the 2012 area semifinalists for National Merit and National Achievement awards.

Photos along with college and major choices and family information are included where provided during the last several weeks by the schools and students.

Students were chosen based on their scores on the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test, a self-descriptive essay, academic performance, recommendation by the high school principal, leadership and extracurricular activities.

Nationwide, there were 16,000 semifinalists in the 57th annual National Merit Scholarship program with more than 90 percent of semifinalists expected to attain finalist standing.

There were about 1,600 black American high school seniors designated semifinalists in the 48th annual Achievement scholarship competition.

About 80 percent of semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing.

The National Merit and National Achievement programs are conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., an independent not-for-profit scholarship organization based in Evanston, Ill.

Students compete for millions of dollars in scholarships through its programs.

The College Board, a nonprofit membership association composed of more than 4,200 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations and programs, is best known for the SAT, the PSAT/NMSQT and the Advanced Placement program.