AHS Announces National Merit Semifinalists

Allen High School recently recognized their largest group of National Merit Semifinalists ever, with 38 students. These students are among 16,000 semifinalists nationally out of over 1.5 million entrants. 

 

Students qualify for National Merit consideration by being within the top 50,000 students, achieving the Commended rank. From there,16,000 are selected as semifinalists. 1,000 students will be cut from the semifinalists to determine the finalists. Roughly the top half of finalists will receive scholarships from the National Merit group. 

 

“The most important part [is] having good test taking skills,” said semifinalist Ian Poynter. Poynter and other qualifiers stressed the importance of understanding the qualifying test, the PSAT. 

 

Semifinalist Angela Liu expressed a similar sentiment, saying that “half the test is just knowing how the SAT/PSAT works.”

 

Allen’s semifinalists will submit complex applications detailing their academic and extracurricular accomplishments. These applications will determine which students become finalists. The students will be informed of their status as finalists in February. 

 

Allen’s semifinalists are: 

  • Andrea Afonso
  • Jenny Ahn 
  • Riya Anand
  • Hunter Chemelli 
  • Sarah Chen 
  • Allen Dong 
  • Wenting Du
  • David Edgemon 
  • Sean Gao
  • Amila Haque 
  • Rachel Hong
  • Daniel Honrales 
  • Harry Kang
  • Caroline Kemp 
  • Angela Liu
  • Siddhi Malavankar 
  • Priya Mandava 
  • Abhi Patel
  • Nidhi Pawate 
  • Ian Poynter
  • Anita Prabhu 
  • Avani Putcha 
  • Ian Raham
  • Vatsa Ramanathan 
  • Wasif Reaz 
  • Alice Shao 
  • Leia Sing
  • Kaylee Smith
  • Pranay Srivastava 
  • Sophia Stanzo 
  • Lauren Tompkins 
  • Karis Tsao
  • Teya Weckerly 
  • Peyton Wright 
  • Shiyu Xu
  • Arsen Yang 
  • Yi Jun Yang
  • Angela Yeung
  • Ruth Zachariah

 

Additionally, Allen has 73 Commended-level students. Commended students include:

  • Aadya Ahuja 
  • Ridaa Alam
  • Zoe Anderson
  • Gideon Atkinson
  • Katherine Atkinson 
  • Ritika Bhalla
  • Vardaan Bhat
  • Angelina Biswas 
  • Kevin Blanchard 
  • Dorothy Bui 
  • Tiffanie Cao 
  • Ray Chen
  • Vincent Chen 
  • Yue Chen
  • Sing-Rong Chio
  • Sanhita Chundury
  • Courtney Compton 
  • Chris Deng
  • Srikar Devulapalli 
  • Jas Dinh
  • Maya Doshi 
  • Ally Duong 
  • Anni Fan
  • Vineel Gajjala 
  • Geryk Garcia
  • Pranathi Golkonda
  • Nikhil Goyle
  • James Griffith
  • Addison Hamby 
  • Shabab Haque 
  • Noah Jacobs 
  • Julia Joseph
  • Alexander Kaseta 
  • Rithvik Kata 
  • Isha Kere 
  • Ruby Kiel
  • Sharada Krishnagiri 
  • Anya Krishnaswamy 
  • Amelia Landry 
  • Justin Li
  • Johnson Lin 
  • Garrett Lo
  • Zachary Lozuk 
  • Michelle Lu
  • Kevin Luong 
  • Kira Mertely
  • Alexandra Miller 
  • Manav Modi
  • Nahiyan Muzaffar 
  • Kacey Na 
  • Gowri Nair
  • Huy Nguyen 
  • Eunjin Park
  • Timothy Pham 
  • Faiza Rahman 
  • Arjun Rao 
  • Nina Rao
  • Karthik Reddy 
  • Michael Rice
  • Roderick Seto
  • Kaitlyn Springate 
  • Pranav Sudrik
  • Gordon Summitt 
  • Zayam Tariq
  • Ashley Taroni 
  • Farhan Towhid 
  • Justin Tran
  • Gaytri Vasal
  • Grace Walzel 
  • Braden West 
  • Cade West 
  • Ethan Zhao 
  • Jordan Zon