Thirty-nine New Trier High School seniors are in the running for scholarship money after earning National Merit Semifinalist status in the 2027 program, the district announced Wednesday, Sept. 9.

The students scored among the highest in Illinois on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which they took in 2025. Only about 16,000 students nationwide earned the Semifinalist designation out of more than 1.2 million who took the test across roughly 20,000 high schools, according to the Evanston Roundtable. That pool represents less than 1% of all U.S. high school seniors.

The count is up from the 2025 National Merit program, when New Trier had 34 semifinalists. That's five more this cycle.

Semifinalists now compete for approximately 6,700 scholarships worth nearly $24 million. Those awards break down into three categories: 2,500 National Merit Scholarships of $2,500 each, about 700 corporate-sponsored scholarships and roughly 3,500 college-sponsored scholarships, according to the Houston Chronicle.

To advance to Finalist, each student must maintain a strong academic record and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their PSAT performance. Students also must write an essay and submit a record of school activities, leadership and honors. About 95% of semifinalists are expected to reach Finalist status, and about half of those finalists are expected to win a scholarship. Finalist notifications are expected in February 2027.

The 39 semifinalists:

Eli Ho, Alexander Finlayson, Arjun Thakrar, Samuel Langdon, Eli Strusiner, Jacob Rosenbloom, Daniel Sheperd, Bryce Oh, Liam Madden, James Hong, Evelina VanderBurg, Lyla Cotter, Scarlett Harper, Sean Bartsch, Alexander Pankotai, Ketan Offenbacher, Henry Liu, Aren Emrikian, Jamie Shu, Isabella Castro, Maya Zacks, Sydney Wong, Miles Remon, Jason Paris, Charlotte Che, Elizabeth Malm, Ian Sturgis, Zhiyang Yu, Doria Han, Ana Manojlovski, Norah Luzadder, Romy Parekh, Kate Kang, Renee Ma, Katelyn Fang, Annabel Kim, Mariko Fox, Alice Pan and Veronica Kovalova.

New Trier, which ranked No. 13 in Illinois in U.S. News & World Report's latest Best High Schools rankings, has a 98% graduation rate.