The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named five Revere High School seniors as National Merit Semifinalists; they hope to earn the title of finalist in 2017.
  
The National Merit Scholarship Program awards scholarship opportunities to students who score in the top one percent of all PSAT scores. To become a semifinalist one must take PSAT  during sophomore and junior year of high school and The National Merit Scholarship program compares these scores to all scores taken and then they select the top one percent of all scores from all students. Once the semifinalists are selected, the National Merit program sends the semifinalists applications to fill out to and send in to become finalists. This year’s semifinalists from Revere are seniors Jennifer Carson, Serena Juchnowski, Anthony Pignataro, Susie Post, and Jacob Zimmerman.
           
Carson explained the requirements to enter the National Merit program.
           
“[To qualify for the National Merit program you must] take the PSAT/NMSQT, be enrolled as a high school student whether it be traditional or homeschooled, progressing normally toward graduation or completion of high school, and planning to enroll full-time in college no later than the fall following completion of high school, be a citizen of the United States; or be a U.S. lawful permanent resident or have applied for permanent residence, the application for which has not been denied and intend to become a U.S. citizen at the earliest opportunity allowed by law,” Carson said.
           
Juchnowski explained how the National Merit program will help her towards her college admissions.
           
“Many colleges specifically recruit National Merit Semifinalists, offering them special admissions packages. Other schools view this designation merely as an application strengthener. Semifinalist status certainly does not hurt seniors in the college admissions process but the value of the designation varies by school,” Juchnowski said.

Post described the process of becoming a National Merit finalist.
           
“The application requires you to give personal information, Post described the application process of becoming a information about your parents, and you also have to write an essay and take the actual SAT. Then they begin to look through all of those to see which students will be selected,” Post said.
           
The finalists for the National Merit program will be announced in early February.

Commended scholars this year include Sarah Blake, Caroline Christoff, Katie Jarvis, Joel Neimi, Natalie Revesz, Luke Riley, and Jessica Weil.