Class of 2025 National Merit and College Board Recognitions

Twenty-two members of the Bryn Mawr Class of 2025 have been recognized as either Semifinalists, Commended Scholars or Recognition Scholars by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation as a part of the annual scholarship competition.

Michelle Dong, Reese Mickel, Lilly Rogers and Aashna Thadani have been named National Merit Semifinalists, and will compete in the National Merit Scholarship Program for the opportunity to win one of the 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth over $25 million that will be awarded this coming spring. Roughly 16,000 students nationwide—less than 1% of high school seniors—were selected for the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship program. 

 

Nine students were named Commended Scholars, representing 34,000 of the high scores, regardless of state, nationwide. Seniors Ryan Duncan, Celeste Flores, Piper Higgins, Lillian Kerr, Megan Long, Pete Sheridan, Penelope Sifakis, Alkinoey Tsapatsis and Charlotte Webster achieved Commended Scholar recognition this year.   

 

Twelve students have been named College Board Recognition Scholars. Mackenzie Davis, Zoë Dolland, Ryan Duncan, Rhyan Keating, Rakeb Lemma, Gabriella Means, Reese Mickel, Akaose Ugbo and Makayla Walker were named African American Recognition Scholars.  Celeste Flores and Marisol Grose were named Hispanic Recognition Scholars and Ruohan Zhang was named a First Generation Recognition Scholar. 

 

The National Merit Scholarship program is open to all high school students who complete the PSAT/NMSQT by the end of their junior year.  The program celebrates students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. More than 1,300,000 students in over 21,000 schools participated this year.

To achieve Commended Scholar or Semifinalist status, students must meet or exceed a selection index. While the Commended Scholar selection index is the same nationwide, Semifinalist indices vary state to state, which allows NMSC to provide a comprehensive sampling of students. Maryland’s selection index is one of the highest in the country, making the achievement of Bryn Mawr Semifinalists and Commended Scholars all the more impressive.