On Wednesday, September 11, 2024, officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the Semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program – including 26 BASIS Independent Silicon Valley students. Alongside our 26 Semifinalists, we proudly celebrated 32 Commended Scholars, totaling around 64% of the senior class receiving recognition. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring.

High school juniors entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 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. 

“These students truly exemplify the spirit of excellence that we see throughout the hallways of this school. Their accomplishment reflects the level of achievement that we strive for at BISV, and I am sure that I speak for the entire community when I say that we couldn’t be more proud of these individuals and commend them on their hard work and dedication,” said Sara Kolb, Head of School at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley.

From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. The scholarship winners of 2025 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. All Merit Scholar recipients are selected based on their abilities, achievements, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

On behalf of all BASIS Independent Schools, we are so proud of you – and of all of our students – for your continual academic achievements both big and small. Please join us in congratulating our incredible Bobcats!

Shreyas Avula
Joshua Balmin
Rohan Das
Hamed Fazel-Rezai
Henry Jin
Yashas Khattar
Xiaoyue (Nicole) Lai
Andrew Li
Sophia Li
Cindy Liu
Samuel Liu
Stephanie Liu
Alex Luo
Ruinan (Sherry) Mao
Srilalitha Nair
Diya Pillai
Oliver Qi
Sonya Sar
Yourui Shao
Kenneth Sun
Aindra Tan
Antony Wang
Luofei (Angela) Wang
Allison Zhang
Brianna Zheng

Congratulations, Bobcats!

BASIS Independent Silicon Valley is a TK – Grade 12 private school, providing students with an internationally benchmarked liberal arts and sciences curriculum, with advanced STEM offerings. Considering joining the Bobcat community? To join our interest list for the next school year and receive admissions updates and more, please click here.