Westlake has 6 National Merit Finalists

Westlake High School National Merit Finalists: Isabella DiGiulio, Claire Brewer, Mihir Shetty, Akhilesh Reddy, Talia Zheng and Meghana Tandon.

Six students from Westlake High School have been named National Merit Finalists. Seniors Isabella DiGiulio, Claire Brewer, Mihir Shetty, Akhilesh Reddy, Talia Zheng and Meghana Tandon are among 15,000 students to achieve Finalist standing in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.

More than 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 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.

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.

These academically talented high school senior Finalists have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million. About half of all Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning them the Merit Scholar title.