Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has 138 semifinalists in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship competition. The semifinalists will compete nationally for scholarships that will be announced in the spring. The competition is sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The MCPS semifinalists come from 14 high schools: Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Montgomery Blair, James Hubert Blake, Winston Churchill, Clarksburg, Walter Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Richard Montgomery, Northwest, Poolesville, Quince Orchard, Wheaton, Walt Whitman and Thomas S. Wootton.

The schools with the most finalists are Montgomery Blair (41), Richard Montgomery (41) and Poolesville (13).

Semifinalists from MCPS were selected from among high school juniors who were top scorers on the 2014 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Approximately 16,000 semifinalists across the nation will be considered for advancement to the finalist stage of the competition.

Finalists will be considered for $2,500 National Merit scholarships, plus additional corporate-sponsored and college/university-sponsored scholarships that will be announced later in the school year.

MCPS students account for about 45 percent of the semifinalists in the state of Maryland.

List of MCPS National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

National Merit Scholarship Program