Plainfield students advance as National Merit Scholarship finalists

Nine seniors from three Plainfield high schools have been named finalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program. These students are among over 15,000 finalists nationwide competing for approximately 6,875 scholarships worth about $2 million.

The finalists from Plainfield High School-Central Campus include Caleb McMillin. From Plainfield North High School, the finalists are Gabriel Fazekas, Anushka Menon, Omer Mescioglu, Serena Sabzaali, and Matthew Witek. Stella Abarca, Mahi Kansagara, and Connor Orr represent Plainfield East High School.

These students were initially recognized as semifinalists in September 2024. The National Merit Scholarship Program is celebrating its 70th year of honoring academically talented high school seniors. To achieve finalist status, students must maintain an outstanding academic record throughout high school, receive endorsement and recommendation from their school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying performance.

The application process requires a detailed scholarship application submitted by both the finalist and a school official. This includes a self-descriptive essay by the student and information on their participation and leadership in school and community activities.

Approximately 1.3 million juniors from around 21,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in 2023 to enter this year's program. The pool of semifinalists represents less than one percent of all U.S. high school seniors and includes top scorers from each state.

Finalists will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships. Additionally, about 130 corporations will provide roughly 770 corporate-sponsored scholarships to those who meet specific criteria set by these organizations. Around 150 colleges are expected to fund approximately 3,600 college-sponsored awards for finalists attending their institutions.

Winners of the Merit Scholarships will be announced between April and July 2025. They will join more than 382,000 distinguished individuals who have previously earned the title of National Merit Scholar.