Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has 163 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists in the 2014 competition. The semifinalists will go on to compete nationally for scholarships that will be offered in the spring. The competition is sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
The MCPS semifinalists come from 14 high schools. The high schools and number of semifinalists are:
Bethesda-Chevy Chase: 7
Montgomery Blair: 36
Winston Churchill: 18
Clarksburg: 1
Walter Johnson: 8
Richard Montgomery: 42
Northwest: 2
Poolesville: 9
Quince Orchard: 3
Rockville: 1
Sherwood: 3
Springbrook: 1
Walt Whitman: 21
Thomas S. Wootton: 11
Semifinalists from MCPS were selected from among high school juniors who were top scorers on the 2012 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Approximately 16,000 semifinalists across the nation will be considered for advancement to the finalist stage of the competition. The state of Maryland has a total of 318 semifinalists, meaning MCPS accounts for more than half of the state’s total semifinalists.
Finalists will be considered for $2,500 National Merit scholarships, plus additional corporate-sponsored and college/university-sponsored scholarships.
In 2012, MCPS had 137 National Merit semifinalists and a total of 65 scholarship recipients.
(source: MCPS Public Announcements)