5 WHS seniors named National Merit Finalists

WHS National Merit Finalists Steven Brewer, Jack Wu, Ryan Karpuska and Patrick Lee (Kyle Yu is not pictured).

Westlake High School has five students named National Merit Finalists. Seniors Steven Brewer, Jack Wu, Ryan Karpuszka, Patrick Lee and Kyle Yu are among 15,000 students to achieve Finalist standing in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. A pool of nationwide Semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, was selected. From this pool these academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about $36 million in scholarships.

To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. They also must submit an essay and information about participation and leadership in school and community activities.

Merit Scholar winners are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies. National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April.