The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named 11 students from The Frazer School in Gainesville as semifinalists in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program.
The 11 Frazer School semifinalists are Xi Chen, Eric Gao, Sylvia Guo, Connor Guthrie, Watson Inglett, Westin Martin, Abhiram Pothuri, Keaton Smith, Yifan Song, Jessica Wu and Jerry Yao, according to The Frazer School press release.
In 2025, The Frazer School had seven students named semifinalists after nine were named in 2024.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a nonprofit organization established in 1955, conducts the National Merit Scholarship Program to recognize high-achieving students and encourage academic excellence.
More than 1.2 million high school juniors entered the 2027 program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, or PSAT/NMSQT, last October. Just over 16,000 students nationwide were named semifinalists based on their test scores. The semifinalists represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors. In Florida, students needed an index score of at least 216 out of 228 to qualify as semifinalists.
The semifinalists will have the opportunity to advance to Finalist status by submitting a detailed scholarship application. To become a Finalist, students must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school and earn SAT or ACT scores consistent with their earlier performance on the qualifying test.
Students will be notified in February whether they have been named Finalists. Finalists will receive approximately 6,700 National Merit Scholarships, with a combined value of about $24 million, in the spring.
“I am extremely proud of our teachers who taught these students, and the students themselves for this great recognition,” said Frazer School Principal Dr. Olanrewaju Fayiga in the release. “Eleven students is our record, and to have 79% of our seniors qualify as semifinalists is amazing. This might be a record we never break.”