The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced on Wednesday, Sept. 11, its 2025 list of semifinalist high school students who will now compete for a share of about 6,870 scholarships worth almost $26 million. Winners will be announced nationally between April and July next year. This is the 70th annual competition.
High school juniors, 11th graders, in the United States entered the academic competition by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. More than 1.3 million juniors, in about 21,000 high schools, entered the competition by taking the qualifying test.
The highest-scoring students in each state represent the pool of semifinalists who, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, represent less than 1% of United States high school seniors.