Caroline Hall ’20, of New Providence, is one of 16,000 semifinalists competing for 7,600 scholarships worth about $31 million as part of the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Approximately 1.5 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered the program by taking the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The pool of 16,000 semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

From the 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000, or 90 percent, are expected to advance to the finalist level, according to the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Finalists are expected to be announced in the spring.

In addition to Hall, Faith Bulan ’20, of New Providence, and Cara Feit ’20 and Julianna Feit ’20, both of Chatham, were named commended students in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The seniors are among the approximately 34,000 students who earn commended status throughout the nation each year. Although they will not continue in the 2018 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, the seniors nevertheless placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the competition by taking the 2016 PSAT/NMSQT.

Oak Knoll's field hockey team poses for a pictureOak Knoll athletes pictured after winning a local triathlon.