One hundred thirty-one Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students have been named semifinalists in the 2005 National Merit Scholarship competition.

The local students will compete with about 16,000 students nationally for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, worth $33 million, that will be announced next spring.

The high schools and the number of semifinalists from each are:

• Montgomery Blair: 40
• Richard Montgomery: 25
• Walt Whitman: 16
• Bethesda-Chevy Chase: 12
• Winston Churchill: 9
• Walter Johnson: 8
• Thomas S. Wootton: 6
• James Hubert Blake: 3
• Damascus, Paint Branch, Quince Orchard: 2 each
• Albert Einstein, Gaithersburg, Rockville, Seneca Valley, Springbrook, Watkins Mill: 1 each

The semifinalists were selected from more than 1.3 million juniors in nearly 21,000 U.S. high schools who were top scorers on the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. About 15,000 semifinalists will advance to finalist status based on criteria such as academic record, recommendations by school principals, SAT performance, and participation and leadership in school and community activities.

Every finalist will be considered for one of the 2,500 $2,500 scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which conducts the annual awards program.

In addition, some 300 corporations and business organizations will provide about 1,100 corporate-sponsored scholarships for finalists who meet their specific criteria.

About 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance about 4,600 Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsoring institutions.

Last year, MCPS had 144 Merit semifinalists and 48 Merit winners.

The names of the local semifinalists can be found at the link below.