By Allegra Tepper
Forty-two seniors qualified as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists based on their PSAT/NMSQT scores, placing Harvard-Westlake second among independent schools in California, according to information from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Harvard-Westlake has significantly more semifinalists this year than any other independent school in the Los Angeles area, and ranks eighth among all high schools in California.
Schools with as many or more semifinalists than Harvard-Westlake include Troy High School in Fullerton, Palo Alto High School and Mission San Jose High School.
Harker School, located in San Jose, is the only independent school in California with more semifinalists, at 50 students.
Of the 42 recipients at Harvard-Westlake, 23 are male and 19 are female. This leaves Harvard-Westlake with more female recipients than all independent girls’ schools in the Los Angeles area combined, a fact that Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts pointed out in her address to their parents on Sept. 22.
The number of students receiving semifinalist status increased by seven from last year’s 35, which upper school dean Vanna Cairns called "a significant drop [for Harvard-Westlake]."
This year’s figure sits just below Harvard-Westlake’s average of 44.4 semifinalists over the last 10 years.
Semifinalists are determined based on PSAT scores from October of students’ junior year. The top test-takers in a given state are named semifinalists, while Letters of Commendation are given out based on a national index.
The California qualifying score for the 2009 test administration was 218 out of 240 for semifinalists.
Of the 16,000 semifinalists nationwide, 15,000 students will qualify as finalists after an application process.
Students are required to fill out applications which include personal and demographic information, a personal essay and a letter of recommendation from the student’s dean.
Only 8,200 finalists will receive scholarships, which can amount to up to $2,500 per student.
Seventy-two seniors received Letters of Commendation based on their scores on the PSAT/NMSQT.
These are the 42 seniors who qualified as semifinalists:
Sam Adams
Rohun Bansal
Matthew Calvert
Katherine Casey
Jennifer Chan
Justin Chen
Monica Chen
Gavin Cook
Joseph Girton
Spencer Gisser
Spencer Gordon
Jonathan Hsu
Claresta Joe-Wong
Claire Kao
Ester Khachatryan
Jamie Kim
Ava Kofman
Spencer Koo
Brendan Kutler
Neha Nimmagadda
Michelle Nosratian
Susan Nussbaum
Cindy Ok
Yujin Park
Elijah Petzold
Alexander Popof
Joseph Rafidi
Michael Raynis
Samuel Roth
Timothy Schorr
Peter Schwartz
Lauren Seo
Matthew Share
Max Simchowitz
AJ Sugarman
Allegra Tepper
Andrew Wang
Jeffrey Wibawa
Jacob Witten
Susanna Wolk
Claudine Yee
Max Zipperman