Fifty-seven seniors at Naperville Central, Naperville North and Neuqua Valley scored among less than 1 percent of the nation's test-takers, earning semifinalist status in the 72nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the 2027 semifinalists on Sept. 9. Neuqua Valley High School led the local list with 26 students, followed by 18 from Naperville North High School and 13 from Naperville Central High School.
The 57 students emerged from a field of more than 1.2 million juniors at roughly 20,000 high schools who took the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Nationwide, about 16,000 earned semifinalist status.
Indian Prairie School District 204 noted on X that 52 of its students across Neuqua Valley, Metea Valley and Waubonsie Valley earned the distinction. The 26 Neuqua Valley semifinalists account for half of that district total.
What comes next
About 95 percent of semifinalists are expected to advance to finalist standing. Those who do will be notified in February. To qualify, each semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed application covering academic records, school and community activities, leadership, employment and honors. Students must also write an essay and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their PSAT performance.
Roughly 6,700 Merit Scholarships will be awarded in spring 2027, split among three categories: 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, about 700 corporate-sponsored awards and about 3,500 college-sponsored awards from approximately 140 universities. The program distributes nearly $24 million total.
Winners will be announced in four rounds beginning in April.
Naperville Central High School (13 semifinalists)
Jason Cheng, Estella K. Czech, Hazim S. Hasan, Ryan V. Kong, Kendall T. Nghiem, Aditi M. Patel, George Sbarboro, Zoey Tian, Ludovic Videau, Prakruthi A. Vijay, Davin F. Wang, Rina J. Xu and Mandy Yuan.
Naperville North High School (18 semifinalists)
Adi A. Bawiskar, Sidharth Brahmandam, Parker Z. Chen, Kyler H. Gao, Zoey C. Hemmeter, Kelly L. Hu, Melody O. Hu, Sean M. Hutchinson, Maya L. Kocourek, Brayden C. Lee, Raymond H. Park, Parikshit Puranam, Ethan Qin, Rui Qin, Vibhav V. Ragam, Alyssa R. Simpson, James X. Wu and Yikai W. Zhu.
Neuqua Valley High School (26 semifinalists)
Bhavleen K. Bamra, Sristi Barnwal, Sarit R. Bose, Yuna Chae, James K. Chen, Jayden Chiou, Miles A. Diorio, Ansh Gujarathi, Addison G. Guskey, Luna Han, Harshit R. Jain, Aaron Jin, Bryan R. Jing, Amulya R. Kandimalla, Ethan D. Lee, Aria Paladugula, Abigail E. Pierson, Idhant Ranjan, Ian M. Shao, Maya Sharma, Vishant Sharma, Anagha Sheethal, Kevin Yang, April M. Zhan, Christopher T. Zhang and James Zhou.
School week ahead
Finalist notifications arrive in February. Scholarship winners will be announced starting in April 2027. No District 203 or District 204 board meetings with semifinalist recognition on the agenda were identified for the coming week. Check naperville203.org and ipsd.org for updated board calendars.
