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Plainfield East High School seniors Kyleah Edison and Rishi Shahare have been named semifinalists for the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. They are among more than 16,000 students across the country recognized as semifinalists.
Edison and Shahare will compete for approximately 6,930 National Merit Scholarship awards totaling about $26 million. The winners of these scholarships will be announced in spring 2026. This marks the 71st year of the program, which honors high-achieving high school seniors.
To advance to finalist status, students must maintain an excellent academic record throughout high school, receive a recommendation from their principal, and achieve SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying performance. Additionally, both the student and a school official must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes a self-descriptive essay and information on participation and leadership in school and community activities.
About 1.3 million juniors from roughly 20,000 high schools nationwide took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in 2024 to enter the competition for the class of 2026. The pool of semifinalists represents less than one percent of all U.S. high school seniors and includes those with the highest scores in each state.
According to data from the Illinois Report Card, Plainfield East High School serves grades nine through twelve with an enrollment of over 2,100 students during the 2019-2020 school year. Of these students, nearly a quarter were seniors at that time (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
Finalists will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships. In addition to these awards, about 150 corporations are expected to sponsor around 830 scholarships for finalists who meet specific criteria set by those organizations. Around 150 colleges and universities also plan to offer approximately 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships to finalists attending their institutions.
The winners of the Merit Scholarships will be announced between April and July of next year. Those selected will join more than 389,000 other students who have previously earned recognition as National Merit Scholars.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is a not-for-profit organization established in 1955 to conduct this annual program without government assistance. Its scholarships are funded by NMSC itself along with contributions from about 300 businesses, higher education institutions, and individual donors committed to supporting academic excellence.
