On Wednesday, September 13, 2023, officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the Semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program—including 10 BASIS Independent Fremont students. Alongside our 10 Semifinalists, we proudly celebrated 14 Commended Scholars, totaling 60% of the class receiving recognition.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.

High school juniors entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 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.

Although, National Merit Semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, and at our school they represent one out of four of our seniors this year which is an incredible achievement!

“As the first graduating senior class, it is exciting to have our students nationally recognized for all of their efforts in being exemplary scholars and future leaders. This nomination is one of many indicators of their strength and potential to succeed in all that they do. I am incredibly proud of our students. Congratulations Yellow Jackets!” said Francine Davis, Head of School at BASIS Independent Fremont. 

The honored students at BASIS Independent Fremont are:

Christopher C.

Heeya D.

Shirley F.

Revant K.

Yifei L.

Alicia P.

Aidan P.

Anjali P.

Ruoqing W.

Alan X.

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 2024 will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 375,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.

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 Yellow Jackets!

BASIS Independent Fremont is a grades TK-12 private school based in Fremont, California, providing students with an internationally benchmarked liberal arts and sciences curriculum.