Hajun Lee, a senior at Oak Hall School in Gainesville, was recently named a finalist for the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program.  

According to an Oak Hall press release, more than 1.3 million students entered the NMS program in 2024 by completing the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Of that number, over 16,000 of the top scores – representing fewer than 1% of the U.S.’s high school graduating seniors – qualify as semifinalists, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation website.  

To achieve finalist status, the release said semifinalists need to “maintain consistently high academic performance in all grades nine through 12, receive a recommendation from their school official and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance.” 

Lee will now be considered for one of the 6,870 National Merit Scholarships to be offered later this spring. The release states that scholarship winners are chosen “based on their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in very challenging college programs.”