September 14, 2023
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 22 BASIS Independent Silicon Valley students. Alongside our 22 Semifinalists, we proudly celebrated 40 Commended Scholars, totaling over 70% 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.
“I continue to be amazed by our student body every year. This external validation of our students, and their hard work and determination, is always an exciting way to start off the school year with our upcoming Senior Class. Congratulations to our Bobcats!” said Sara Kolb, Head of School at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley.
The honored students at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley are:
Akshaya A. Ajan
Paras Goel
Alina Huang
Robert Ji
Shreyas Kapavarapu
Saanchi Kapoor
Nivedita P. Kripalani
Ethan Y. Liu
Shreyas M. Nanjanagud
Alyssa E. Naoumov
Maggie J. Peng
Max Polosky
Maya Sriram
Anoushka A. Tamhane (not pictured)
Caitlyn N. Tom
Brandon M. Tsai
Shivaani Venkatachalam
Achyuth K. Vivek
Ellie Xi
Paulina Xu
Ivan Y. Zhang
Meryl Zhang
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 Bobcats!
