7 Atherton Students Named National Merit Finalists

Menlo School announced this week that seven of its students are finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. 

The students were chosen from a group of about 16,000 semifinalists to continue competing for money to pay for college tuition.

Menlo School’s finalists are: Helena Abbott of Portola Valley, Caroline Glazer of Woodside, Perry Ha of Los Altos, Priya Medberry of San Carlos, Max Parker of Menlo Park, Tinyen Shih of Mountain View, and Cameron Walker of Los Altos. The school is an independent education community located in Atherton, California that educates about 800 students from throughout the Bay Area every year.

Last year, 12 Menlo School students made it to the finalist round. 

High school students are entered into the competition by taking a test that screens about 1.5 million students annually, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s website.  The tests evaluate critical reading, writing skills, and mathematics abilities. 

Program administrators consider the students’ academic record, extracurricular activities, and letters of recommendation when deciding who will be awarded the scholarships.  Family financial circumstances are not considered. Ultimately, the scholarship winners will be chosen from this pool of finalists.

The organization awards 8,300 students scholarships of $2,500. 

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