National Merit Scholarship semifinalists announced


Oct. 8, 2003, midnight | By Feza Kikaya | 20 years, 6 months ago

Blair has most candidates in region


Fifty-four Blair students have been named semifinalists in the 2004 National Merit Scholarship competition, an increase from last year's 31.

One hundred forty-five students in Montgomery County were named semifinalists. Blair topped all high schools in both the county and state for the eighth consecutive year by 19 more than Richard Montgomery and 36 more than Walt Whitman.

Of Blair's 54 qualifiers, only three students are non-Magnets; 35 percent of all semifinalists in the county are Blair Magnet students.

Each year approximately 1.3 million high school students take the PSAT/NMSQT, and about 16,000 students nationwide are notified as semifinalists. Students are chosen to compete for scholarships based on their Selection Index, or combined verbal, math and writing skills scores. This year Maryland has a total of 329 students competing.

About 15,000 semifinalists advance to Finalist standing based on various criteria such as abilities, achievements, and recommendations. Each finalist is then considered for one of 2500 $2500 scholarships awarded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), as well as scholarships from businesses.

The 2004 semifinalists are: Neil Agarwal, Melis N. Anahtar, Easha Anand, Ning Bao, Noel M. Berman, Julia E. Bertaut, Aditi S. Bhaskar, Christian T. Brown, Leven A. Browne, Todd Bryant, Michael S. Burnim, Michael Z. Chen, Maria E. Choi, Lauren J. Cohen, Patrick R. Conrad, Nicholas Conway, Robert H. Darneille, Sareen S. Engineer, Katherine A. Epstein, Joanna Esch, Elizabeth H. Finn, Jesse B. Galef, James J. Gao, Jason A. Gordon, Abigail A. Graber, Han Hu, Robert E. Hunter, Daozhong Jin, Terry S. Li, Kaitian Liu, Jonathan S. Magin, Gregory M. Maker, John E. McManigle, Julia C. Pass, Rebecca Z. Pass, Michael R. Price, Philip E. Ries, Kartikay Rikhye, Anna C. Schoenfelder, Jessica K. Shang, John Shen, Valerie Y. Shen, Joshua G. Stern, Nicholas C. Stone, Gordon L. Su, Andrew B. Tourtellot, Emily Y. Tsui, Anran Wang, Xinlei Wang, Xuancong Wen, Kenneth Yan, Minghui Yang, Bailey G. Zhang, Jonathon Zytnick

For additional information, check the links below:

2004 Merit Semifinalists

National Merit Corporation website

More information



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Feza Kikaya. Feza Kikaya is finally a SENIOR in the CAP program at Blair. She enjoys driving, hanging out with friends and laughing. Most importantly, Feza is counting down the days to graduation so she can begin a new chapter of her life in college. Her favorite … More »

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