Academic distinction has arrived for 535 high school seniors across Michigan, as officials officially designated them semifinalists in the 72nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Representing 121 educational institutions throughout the state, these students earned their placement by achieving some of the highest qualifying examination scores recorded statewide.
On a national level, the Michigan honorees are part of an elite contingent of more than 16,000 semifinalists. The nationwide talent pool emerged from an initial field of more than 1.2 million high school juniors who entered the academic contest by sitting for the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Those advancing to the semifinalist tier represent less than 1% of all high school seniors across the United States.
Significant financial assistance is tied to the competition’s final stages. In the spring of 2027, approximately 6,700 National Merit Scholarships totaling roughly $24 million will be presented to qualifying participants. The awards include 2,500 individual, one-time scholarships valued at $2,500 each, alongside numerous corporate-sponsored and college-sponsored merit awards funded by businesses, universities, and colleges.
The path forward will see semifinalists compete to attain finalist standing, from which the eventual scholarship recipients will be chosen. Official announcements identifying the scholarship winners will be distributed across four separate nationwide releases scheduled between April and July of 2027.
School districts across the state saw strong representation, with Ann Arbor emerging as a major regional hub of semifinalists across both public and private institutions. Ann Arbor Christian School saw Jared Craven and Joseph Spasovski earn honors, while Community High School celebrated Maxwell E. Hollander, Yohanna S. Igarashi, Mark A. Ionides, and Sofi-Rose Meisler. Greenhills School had an extensive list of qualifiers, including Andrew Chen, Alison Choi, Hyunsuh Choi, Alyssa Hong, Ethan Hong, Naveen Kulkarni, Jessica Lou, Nina Malani, Annelise Prescott, Shreya Shastry, Andrew Wang, Hugo Wang, and Nata Yonkoski.
Ann Arbor’s comprehensive high schools also yielded substantial numbers of semifinalists. Huron High School was represented by Zayn Azad, Sounak Debnath, Anna He, Tarun Iyer, Mia Lin, Qihang Liu, Oliver McIsaac, Elijah Morrow, Harper Pinto, Paavani Tewari, Allison Worth, Lucas Yuan, and Michelle Zhang. Pioneer High School produced a large delegation including Swarnim Agnihotri, Per Bergman, Elijah Berkley, Kyle Brady, Ryan Buscetta, Madison Buza, Tejas Gupta, Bintou Kaba, Emma Korvun, Suryn Lee, Raymond Li, Ryan Lorenz, Ami Masuda, Caroline McTigue, Shelley Ouyang, Haechan Park, WooJoo Park, John Pottow, Bridget Shaefer, Mikaela Wyche, Jasper York, and Xander Zhang. In addition, Father Gabriel Richard High School saw Bridget Fidkowski, Monica Lynn, Ryan Schwartz, and Alicia Zawistowski qualify, while Skyline High School celebrated Suriya Ailawadi, Raphael Fournier, Thomas Wang, Kate Wolfe, and Jacob Zheng.
In Oakland County, Bloomfield Hills institutions posted significant numbers of qualifying scholars. Cranbrook Kingswood School’s honorees included Yushi Bai, Elisa Chen, Qiyao Chen, Yixuan Chen, Sasha Dammalapati, Roshan Desai, Genevieve DiPiero, Xuanyu Dong, Michael Hua, Kaiqi Huang, Tianqi Huang, Jessica Jeyasingh, Peter Johnson, Ruibo Kong, Ryan Lavery, Yitong Li, Taliyah Murray, Vaishnavi Nerusu, Vaarin Newatia, Pingkang Qian, Isaac Ruseckas, Jack Rutkowski, Bokeun Seo, Victoria Shao, David Shim, Shayan Siddiqui, Angelina Tang, Ian Wei, Ailin Wu, Roca Yang, Andy Yu, Tianqi Yuan, Ivy Zhang, Yutong Zhang, Michelle Zhou, and Vivienne Zhu.
Also in Bloomfield Hills, the International Academy featured a broad roster of honorees, including Dominic M. Babosha, Soha Dey, Arjun Gupta, Abdullah Hamza, Yejun Han, Jad R. Jazmati, Ritvik Jillellamudi, Sawyer J. Karmol, Hilary E. Lakinam, Vishal Lokesh, Akash R. Makunur, Eli S. Masih, Ayaan Mohammed, Karthy Muthukumar, Ganesh S. Nambu, Saisahasra Namuduri, Vatsal N. Oza, Bhavik Panati, Devraj Pandey, Ishaan B. Patel, Meghana Raikar, Rhea Rebba, Stevie L. Ryke, Anandavel Sakthi, Priya P. Shah, Roshan Shaik, Arnav Sharma, Aishani Singh, Ahyoung Song, Kennedy L. Vaughn, Keshav Vijayaraghavan, Dheeyanksha Vishnusundherram, Akshaj D. Yellagoud, Anthony Y. Zhang, and Sarah Y. Zhang. Brother Rice High School student Marco Rodriguez also advanced.
Neighboring communities in Oakland County further contributed to the regional total. In Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield Hills High School saw Meghan K. Harper, Ayan K. Sehgal, Jared She, Jack F. Sloan, and Evan M. Welch earn recognition. In Beverly Hills, Detroit Country Day School semifinalists included Adam Khan, Tejas Khare, Sreekesh Panicker, Noah Shaban, and Isha Ummadi, while Wylie E. Groves High School was represented by Jyoti Patel.
The Canton community celebrated a wide array of semifinalists across several campuses. Canton High School qualifiers included Ayush Acharya, Minajan S. Kennedy, Gwyneth Lin, Tarek Malik, Drish N. Nanavati, Nitin V. Neeluru, Aryahi Patel, Ahmad Shaheen, and Navraj Singh. At Plymouth High School, honorees were Cameron Adamski, Sanjay Aravind, Hamza Asif, Aairah Baig, Aekam K. Guron, Tatsuru Imai, Evelyn Lee, Jian Hao Lim, Roshni G. Misra, Dev B. Patel, Arnav Ranjan, Aliyah Simmonds, Anagha B. Vatul, and Amoha Verma. Salem High School’s honorees included Ali Alnaib, Alayna Azmi, Dron Das, Vilok Gunti, Soha Modi, and Anuja Raghavendra.
Additional metro-area honorees represented Birmingham, Berkley, and Walled Lake. Birmingham’s Roeper School saw Brogi Amaral, Henry Billings, and Livia Mardiros advance, alongside Seaholm High School’s Hiren Patel. In Berkley, Berkley High School saw Roshan Shaik and Julian S. Klose named semifinalists, while Henry K. Wekerle earned honors representing Walled Lake Central High School.
Scholars from Western and Northern Michigan also achieved semifinalist standing. Forest Hills Eastern High School in Ada celebrated Tejas Karumudi, Allendale High School recognized Zachary Torno, and Alpena High School saw Milo D. Dahleen qualify. Byron Center High School was represented by Oliver Kramer and Emily Sinquefield, Cedar Springs High School had Miriam J. Hess, and Charlevoix High School celebrated Adelaide Wiers.
In Southwest and Central Michigan, academic honors were earned across multiple districts. In Battle Creek, Harper Creek High School celebrated Magdeline Murray, while Lakeview High School recognized Emily Demlow. Berrien Springs saw Ava L. Patel of Andrews Academy and Anna Seo of Berrien Springs High School advance. Other recognized scholars included Anna Giles from Brighton High School, Alexis L. Tamlyn from Cass City High School, Wyeth Angus from Chelsea High School, and Clarkston students Jackson McNaughton of Clarkston High School and Preston M. Niezgoda of Everest Collegiate High School. In Clinton Township, International Academy of Macomb students Aubrey Maggetti and Alyse Trubey also secured semifinalist spots.
With the announcement marking the beginning of the program's final phases, these 535 Michigan semifinalists will look forward to the upcoming finalist decisions and the multi-stage scholarship distributions scheduled throughout the spring and summer of 2027.
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