A Prestigious Title

Diya Patel and Charlotte Siervogel Are Named National Merit Semifinalists

Photo by Maclay School via Instagram

In early September, seniors Diya Patel and Charlotte Siervogel received news through the school that they were named 2025 National Merit Semifinalists. 

National Merit Scholarship is a scholarship program that awards academically talented high school seniors in the U.S. with a chance to get thousands of dollars in scholarships. The scholarships in total are worth up to 26 million dollars.  In order to qualify, students must take the PSAT in junior year and score in the top 1% of the state. More than 16,000 were announced for this cycle.

“I was mostly focusing on the SAT and I wanted to get a good score on that,” Siervogel said. “The SAT questions are obviously a little bit harder so that really helped my score on the PSAT.”

After students take the PSAT,  the Selection Index score is used to determine eligibility. The score is calculated by doubling the students’ reading and writing scores, adding the math score to it and then dividing that all by 10. The 2025 cutoff to qualify to be a semifinalist in Florida was a 217. The highest cutoff score in all of the U.S. is 223. 

“[Siervogel] got a higher reading score than me I remember,” Patel said. “I got a perfect math score. If you try to understand the phrasing better and practice it’s a lot easier.”

There are many ways people prepare to take the PSAT.  Some students take less formal versions such as the PSAT 10, which is offered to Maclay students, to see where they are and what they need to work on. Others focus on studying the SAT, which has harder questions, so doing good on the PSAT becomes a byproduct. People tend to use practice tests and questions to do the majority of their studying and focus on finding patterns and weaknesses. 

“I used practice tests to study,” Siervogel said. “Khan Academy was pretty helpful.”

Semifinalists are able to apply to become finalists to move on to receive scholarships. Almost 95% of all Semifinalists go on to be Finalists. In order to become a finalist, students have to submit an application similar to the Common App as well as an essay. The application includes academic record, extracurriculars, volunteer work, awards and more. Additionally, they need to submit an official SAT score that proves their ability and get an endorsement from a high school official. Finalists will know if they are selected by early February.

“It’s like filling out your Common App again; you can reuse your essay and shorten it,” Patel said. “I like that you automatically get admitted to FSU Honors if you have the National Merit Finalist title.”