John Cooper School student advances in National Merit Scholarship competition

THE WOODLANDS, TX – The John Cooper School proudly announced that one of their students has been named a semifinalist in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program. Charlie Pyle has made it from being one of the 1.5 million entrants into this year’s competition to being in alongside 15,999 other semifinalists. He now has an opportunity to continue in the National Merit Scholarship competition.

Each year, the NMSC opens the competition to U.S. high school students who take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) and meet other program requirements. Nearly all program participants (entrants) are juniors planning to enter college in 2024. NMSC uses PSAT/NMSQT Selection Index scores (calculated by doubling the sum of the Reading, Writing and Language, and Math Test scores) to determine 50,000 high-scoring participants who qualify for program recognition.

From there, the 16,000 were selected earlier this month, about one-third of the 50,000 high scorers, were notified that they qualified as Semifinalists as the highest-scoring entrants in each state. This is Charlie’s current position.

In February of next year, 15,000 Finalists will be chosen from the Semifinalists who meet academic and other requirements, and will be notified that they have advanced to Finalist standing and will receive Certificates of Merit attesting to their recognition in the program. All National Merit Scholarship winners (Merit Scholar awardees) will be chosen from this group of Finalists based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishments.

The final step is the selection of 7,250 Merit Scholarship winners. Beginning in March, NMSC will notify winners of the three types of National Merit Scholarships:

• National Merit $2500 Scholarships
• Corporate-sponsored scholarships
• College-sponsored scholarships

In April, May, June, and July, NMSC will release names of Merit Scholar designees to news media for public announcement. Woodlands Online asks everyone in The Woodlands to keep their fingers crossed for Charlie as his odyssey to the finals continues!