2 Plainfield East Seniors Named Finalists For National Merit Scholarships

PLAINFIELD, IL — Two seniors at Plainfield East High School have a fifty percent chance of winning National Merit Scholarships, Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 announced.

Plainfield East High School Seniors Kyleah Edison and Rishi Shah, who were named semifinalists in October, are competing to become winners of one of 2,500 $2,500 National Merit scholarships.

About 95 percent of the 16,000 semifinalists were named finalists, and about half of the finalists will earn a National Merit Scholarship, the district said. The final scholarships will be announced in April.

To become a National Merit Finalist, students must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's qualifying performance.

The semifinalist and a school official must also submit a detailed scholarship application, including the student's essay and information about their participation and leadership in school and community activities.

About 1.3 million high school juniors in about 20,000 high schools nationwide took the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test to enter the 2026 National Merit Program.

The pool of semifinalists is comprised of less than one percent of all high school seniors in the United States and includes the highest-scoring students in each state.

About 150 corporations and businesses will give out approximately 830 scholarships to students who meet their criteria, while an expected 150 colleges and universities will finance another 3,600 awards for finalists attending their institutions.