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Oak Park and River Forest High School is proud to announce that nine of its seniors have qualified as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists in the 2027 program. The high school’s semifinalists this year are Levi Beutler, Calestous Byer, Ryan Campbell, Benjamin Chalmers, Rei Freireich, Peter Kohout, Sam Morgan, Keaton Roberts, and Graham Templeton. The students were honored at the high school’s annual National Merit breakfast for families this morning.
National Merit Semifinalists
About 1.2 million high school juniors nationwide entered the 2027 program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) in 2025. Of these, roughly 16,000 students, representing less than one percent of high school seniors in the U.S., qualified as semifinalists by being among the highest-scoring entrants from each state. The number of semifinalists in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
About 15,000 semifinalists are expected to be notified in February that they have advanced to the finalist round, from which the 2,500 winners of $2,500 National Merit Scholarships will be chosen.
In addition, approximately 700 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be given to students who meet the corporations’ specific criteria, and about 140 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,500 Merit Scholarship awards to finalists who will attend their institutions.