On September 9, National Merit Scholar Semifinalists were announced. 54 of the 71 students across Round Rock ISD (RRISD) that received the prestigious title are Westwood students. RRISD not only had the most National Merit Semifinalists in Texas, but also placed in the top 10 school districts in the nation.

To achieve this, students had to score in the top 1% of the PSAT, which is typically a score between 201 and 222 out of 240. Although reaching this far is a feat all on its own, the students still have a long way to go to become finalists.

“I think that it’s really cool how there are so many Westwood students that made semifinalist and amazing how hardworking the students here are,” semifinalist Noelle Rivera ‘16 said.

Semifinalists will need to fill out various forms and applications in order to be considered for the scholarship and all semifinalists’ applications will be submitted to the NMSC (National Merit Scholarship Corporation) on October 7 for consideration.

“I’m nervous to start the application process, but excited and interested to see what’s in store for the future,” Rivera said.

National Merit Semifinalists 2015-2016:

Manjula Andukuri

Dhruva Athreya

Christopher Baca

Eric Chen

Jerry Chen

Richard Chen

Catherine Cheng

Brian Coombs

Phoebe Dang

Michael Darmawan

Spoorthi Dasari

Jen-Li Dong

Govind Girish

MIchelle Hamilton

Jonathan Holle

Kyungseok Jung

Rohith Kaliyur

Haerin Kim

Juliana Kim

Sue Kim

Zachary King

Melanie Klock

Emily Korba

Maya Kothare-Arora

Brandon Lao

Yuli Lim

Michelle Liu

Madalyn Marabella

Lydia McDonald

Maanasa Nathan

Arpan Patel

Kevan Patel

Jai Prasadh

Kavya Rajesh

Lee Rao

Noelle Rivera

Allen Ruan

Neha Shah

Neil Shah

Alan Shaw

Garima Singh

Caitlin Smith

Ishaana Talesara

Riley Taylor

Sunny Tian

Alexander Wang

Allen Wang

David Wang

Yuang Wang

Chase Westover

Jenny Yin

Claire Young

Anya Zeng

Eric Zhang