Five Burbank Unified School District seniors have advanced as Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program, school officials recently announced.
Four Burbank High School students – John S. Yee, Melissa Yang, Adam James Czeranko and Aaron Nhan – and one student from John Burroughs High School – Prajwal Tumkur Mahesh – are now eligible to compete for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered in 2018.
As juniors, approximately 1.6 million students take the PSAT/NMSQT, or Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Of those, many receive Letters of Commendation or are recognized as Semi-Finalists. About 15,000 are announced as Finalists each year, and half are awarded scholarships of $2500 that can be renewed each year they attend college, for up to four years.
According to the National Merit Scholarship Program website, “All winners of Merit Scholarship® awards (Merit Scholar® designees) are chosen from the Finalist group based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishments—without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.”
“A variety of information is available for NMSC selectors to evaluate: the Finalist’s academic record, information about the school’s curricula and grading system, two sets of test scores, the high school official’s written recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership, and the Finalist’s own essay.”
Burbank High School officials also added that Yee is one of only 511 students worldwide who earned every point possible on an AP Exam last spring.
He answered every multiple-choice question correctly and earned full points on each of the essays in the free-response section of his AP Computer Science A Exam, and has been recognized for Superior Performance on an AP Exam by The College Board.
