• Photo Information:

    Back (fifth) row from left to right: Ethan He, John Bostrom, Eshan Nayak, Emmett Lin, Joshua Collins, Nicholas Furton, Charles Cohen, Cooper Cohen, and Nathan Kim; Fourth row from left to right: Benjamin Newman, Ariyel Rosen, Nick Steen, Ritvik Goyal, Aidan Jones, Aidan O'Brien, Ava Hudson, Sophia Zhao, Carter Dill, and Aiden Khanna; Third row from left to right: Blake O'Donnell, Nathaniel Gale, Julia Dale, Catherine Ji, Lola McBride, Chloe Schueller, Carolina Mangum, Nayana Kundu, Ethan Epstein, and Eila Kittikamron-Mora; Second row from left to right: James Bloom, William Gordon, Jacob Wong, Jasmine Horton, Vivian Chen, Elan Hao, Tara Maclachlan, and Yejin Yang; Front (first) row from left to right: Brayden Wu, Julian Chae, Matt Peng, Anna Sandler, Anyi Kesler, and Emily Hu.
National Merit Semifinalists

Forty-Three New Trier students named as National Merit Semifinalists

  • Forty-three New Trier High School students have been named as Semifinalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program.

    High school juniors across the country entered the 2026 program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), and only approximately 16,000 earned the Semifinalist designation. This nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of all U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants of the state, who will have the opportunity to continue in the competition for 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million.

    To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. The Semifinalist's participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received must also be submitted.

    About 94 percent of Semifinalists are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and about half of those will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

    New Trier's 2026 National Merit Semifinalists are:

    James Bloom, John Bostrom, Julian Chae, Vivian Chen, Charles Cohen, Cooper Cohen, Joshua Collins, Julia Dale, Carter Dill, Ethan Epstein, Nicholas Furton, Nathaniel Gale, William Gordon, Ritvik Goyal, Elan Hao, Ethan He, Jasmine Horton, Emily Hu, Ava Hudson, Catherine Ji, Aidan Jones, Anyi Kesler, Aiden Khanna, Nathan Kim, Eila Kittikamron-Mora, Nayana Kundu, Emmett Lin, Tara Maclachlan, Carolina Mangum, Lola McBride, Eshan Nayak, Benjamin Newman, Aidan O'Brien, Blake O'Donnell, Matt Peng, Ariyel Rosen, Anna Sandler, Chloe Schueller, Nick Steen, Jacob Wong, Brayden Wu, Yejin Yang, and Sophia Zhao.

    More information on the National Merit Scholarship Program is available through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, www.nationalmerit.org.