One hundred sixty-eight Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students from 18 schools have been named semifinalists in the 2007 National Merit Scholarship competition. The local students will compete with about 16,000 semifinalists nationally for 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, worth $33 million, that will be announced next spring.

Montgomery Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Walt Whitman high schools surpassed all other schools in the state in number of semifinalists.

The high schools and the number of semifinalists from each are:

• Montgomery Blair: 48
• Richard Montgomery: 36
• Walt Whitman: 24
• Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Winston Churchill: 11 each
• Thomas S. Wootton: 10
• Walter Johnson, Quince Orchard: 4 each
• Damascus, Paint Branch, Seneca Valley, Sherwood: 3 each
• Northwest, Springbrook: 2 each
• James Hubert Blake, Col. Zadok Magruder, Poolesville, Rockville: 1 each

The semifinalists were selected from more than 1.3 million juniors in nearly 21,000 U.S. high schools who were top scorers on the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). About 90 percent of the semifinalists will advance to finalist status based on criteria such as academic record, recommendation by school principal, SAT performance, and participation and leadership in school and community activities.

Every finalist will be considered for one of the 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships. In addition, some 300 corporations and business organizations will provide about 1,100 corporate-sponsored scholarships for finalists who meet their specific criteria. About 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance about 4,600 Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsoring institutions.

Last year, MCPS had 131 Merit finalists and 58 Merit Scholarship winners.