Eleven Brunswick seniors were announced on September 10 as Semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

These academically talented Upper School boys — a group comprised of Dylan Arouh, Jack Chung, Pierce Crosby, Bryan Dean, Henry Graham, Justin Guo, George Kapp, Max Lanson, Charles Sulkowski, Jack Whitney-Epstein, and Travis Wilson — have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring. 

“This distinction speaks to the academic excellence, discipline, and intellectual curiosity that we seek to foster in all Brunswick students,” Head of School Thomas W. Philip said. 

“To have 11 members of the senior class recognized as National Merit Semifinalists is both an honor for them and a point of pride for the entire school community.”

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. 

From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and they will be notified of this designation in February. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists in the spring.