The National Merit Scholarship Corporation declared 17 Whitman seniors as 2009 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists Sept. 16. The students are among 16,000 semifinalists nationwide who attained the highest scores on last year’s PSAT.

Semifinalists are eligible to submit an application to be a National Merit Scholarship finalist consisting of basic information, a letter of recommendation from a guidance counselor and an essay modeled after the Common Application.

Finalists receive a $2500 scholarship to whatever university they choose to attend. NMSC will announce finalists beginning next March through mid-June.

“I was excited to see that 17 students received the honor this year,” Principal Alan Goodwin said. “The number of students varies year-to-year, but Whitman usually has a high number of semifinalists.”

Senior Rachel Umans, who is applying to be a finalist, said her parents are proud of the accomplishment and excited at the prospect of financial help for college.

“Obviously I was happy, because I know that I can probably get scholarship money which will help with expensive college tuition,” Umans said. “The honor can also help me on college applications.”

2009 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists:

Surbhi Agrawal

Sarah Craig

Jean-Claude de Sugny

Itai Farhi

Perry Green

Carolyn Heiman

Eileen Hu-Wang

Benjamin Lewis

Chelsea Lo

Emily Massey

Michael O’Sullivan

Emily Savage

Susannah Savage

Melissa Schnure

Dylan Symington

Sawyer Symington

Rachel Umans