Twenty-three current Alachua County Public School students have been named finalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship program. Another Alachua County student who earned finalist status has since moved out of state. Last year, 17 Alachua County students were named finalists.

This year’s finalists were among the top scorers in the nation on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which is taken by more than 1.3 million high school students in the U.S. each year. However, to become finalists the students also had to meet several other stringent requirements.

According to guidelines of the National Merit Scholarship Program, finalists had to confirm their performance on the PSAT/NMSQT with a strong score on the SAT I Reasoning Test, maintain a record of ‘consistently very high’ academic performance in all grades, including any college course work taken, and be recommended by their high school principals. About 15,000 students nationally earned finalist status this year.

“Reaching finalist status is an amazing accomplishment,” said Superintendent Dan Boyd. “These students have been recognized as the cream of the crop nationally for their academic achievement.”

National Merit Finalists are eligible for millions of dollars worth of scholarships provided by colleges and universities, businesses and about 500 other sponsors. Finalist status is also something that gets attention from college admissions officers.

“Colleges and universities compete very hard for National Merit finalists,” said Bill Goodman, the district’s director of guidance. “These students are welcomed at the nation’s top institutions for higher learning.”

The Alachua County Public School finalists are:

Buchholz High School: Alexander Posa, Jessi Shroads, Kevin Tierney, Brittany Whipple and Natalie Doss; Eastside High School: Jing Cao (moved out of state), Laura Emerson, Laura Fishwick, Megan Foran, Jacob Houck, Marshall Knudson, Samantha Mandel, Lyra Mulhern, Yu Ouyang, Miorel Palii, Renwei Peir, Adam Sherwood, Alexander Svoronos, Oona Takano, Tracy Van Duyne, Cameron Williams, Douglas Zhang and Jack Zhang; Santa Fe High School: Jessica Snyder.