Seniors Carson Lystad and Ben Talisman won college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships.

Students qualify for the prestigious scholarship by doing well on the PSAT. In Maryland, students were named National Merit Semifinalists if they scored 223 or above out of 240 on the test. To reach finalist status, students must then complete a resume and submit an essay, said Talisman, who is attending Washington University in St. Louis next year.

It wasn’t too arduous of a process because students can submit a modified version of their common app essays, Talisman and Lystad said.

The college or university sponsoring the scholarship selected the winners from the list of finalists released earlier this year. Both Lystad and Talisman will receive $2,500 scholarships.

“The award came several months after I had submitted my application, so I had sort of forgotten about it,” said Lystad, who is attending Vanderbilt University in the fall. “I was surprised I’d won, but it was great getting extra money for college.”

Talisman was also pleased to receive the award.

“I felt excited and honored,” Talisman said. “It was nice to qualify for a scholarship when all I did was take the PSAT.”

Students take the PSAT at the beginning of their junior year and don’t find out if they’re semifinalists until the beginning of their senior year. The scholarships aren’t announced until the end of senior year.

“I still feel a little weird about getting actual scholarship money for a 2-hour test I took at the beginning of junior year, but I guess when things are on such a broad, national scale everything just takes longer,” Lystad said.