Stamford Public Schools announced that Stamford High School Senior Andrew Patashnik was named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist in the 65th annual National Merit Program, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). The board recognized him for his accomplishments at their Tuesday night, September 24th meeting. Patashnik is among the highest scorers in the state and the top 16,000 students nationwide who earned the honor of semifinalist.

According the the NMSC, around 1.5 million juniors from about 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 scholarship program by taking the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.  The pool of semifinalists represents less than one percent of high school seniors in the U.S., and it includes the highest scoring participants in each state. The number of semifinalists for each state is proportional to its respective state’s total number of graduating seniors.

These academically elite students earned the opportunity to compete for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth over $31 million to be offered next spring.  In order to be considered for a scholarship, semifinalists must fulfill a number of requirements in order to advance to the finalist level of the competition.

According to the NMSC, “The National Merit Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.  The program does not measure the quality or effectiveness of education within a school, system, or state.”

Along with his outstanding efforts in academics, Patashnik is also the Director of Multimedia for the Stamford Round Table. Patashnik said, “It took a lot of hard work and long hours of studying, but the payoff was totally worth it. The process isn’t done yet, so hopefully my good fortune preservers.”