Nine Lawrence high school seniors have qualified as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.
Bishop Seabury Academy seniors Jane Ma, Charlie Maples and Alice Pulsinelli achieved the honor out of the school’s senior class of 22 students, as did Lawrence High seniors Davian Copeland and Rhett Sullivan, and Free State seniors Ben Jackson, Connor Coons, Sadie Reynolds and Sejun Yun.
More than 1.2 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants, according to a news release from Lawrence Public Schools.
Semifinalists represent less than 1% of high school seniors across the country and include the highest-scoring entrants in each state, according to the release.
This year, there were more than 16,000 semifinalists, and more than 15,000 are expected to advance as finalists this spring. According to the National Merit Scholarship website, finalists are expected to compete for about 6,700 National Merit scholarships worth nearly $24 million.
Scholarship winners will be announced in the spring and summer.
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