Following the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) October 2016, one RHS student has qualified as a semifinalist and seven students have been commended for their outstanding academic promise.

The program contacted the school to commend senior Alex Rankine as a semi-finalist and the seven commended students, seniors Rachita Bommakanti, Michael Cha, Michael Jacobsen, Michael Pankowski, Henry Presman, Nicholas Shropshire and William Wheeler.

“It was really surprising [to hear I qualified] because I didn’t take it for that reason,” Rankine said. “I took it to see how I would do on the SAT, it was a nice surprise.”

About 34,000 out of approximately 50,000 high scorers on the PSAT received Letters of Commendation September 2017. The remaining 16,000 qualify as semifinalists, who were the highest scorers in each state. To qualify for a National Merit Scholarship, a semifinalist must advance to the finalist stage. Semifinalists will find out if they qualified as a finalist in February 2018.

“Register as soon as possible, get a good night’s sleep, eat a good breakfast, and try your best,” said assistant principal Elizabeth Sandall, who is the school test coordinator for the PSAT. “We are very proud of our students.”

The next PSAT testing day is Oct. 14.

William Wheeler is a business manager for the Rampage.