Lower Merion School District seniors earned 33 spots as 2027 National Merit Semifinalists, up from 27 in the 2026 competition.
Harriton High School led with 17 semifinalists. Lower Merion High School produced 16, according to the district's announcement published Sept. 9. The 33 students are among 16,000 semifinalists nationwide, less than 1 percent of the roughly 1.2 million juniors who took the 2025 PSAT/NMSQT. They now compete for about 6,700 scholarships worth approximately $24 million through the 72nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
Who made the list
Harriton High School (17): Zain Ahmad, Prabhas Banerjee, Nikhil W. Bonney, Corinne Brown, Conner Chou, Harrison Cobitz, Ronika Dhanwada, Natalia Duranton, Andrew Feng, Ezra Fenkel, Rachel Gavrin, Navin Jayanthi, Charlotte Laetsch, Dahlia Levy, Vivienne Song, Leander Speer-Zisook and Paavo Toikka.
Lower Merion High School (16): Julia Carreon-Sanchez, Ace Chotiner, Eloise Gerson, Thomas Gorman, Sam Grandwetter, August Hachadoorian, Sydney Lancaster, Gavin Liu, Sarah McGrew, Ari Ribeiro Vecino, Brennan Van, Elias Waanders, Alexa Weatherwax, Terrance Xia, Ben Yovel and Claire Zhang.
Year-over-year growth
The 2026 competition produced 27 LMSD semifinalists, with 17 from Lower Merion High School and 10 from Harriton, according to a prior district announcement. Harriton nearly doubled its count.
Both schools rank among the state's best. Niche's 2027 rankings listed Harriton and Lower Merion among the top 10 public high schools in Pennsylvania. U.S. News & World Report ranked Lower Merion eighth in the state for 2026–2027. The district's 11 schools enrolled approximately 8,600 students for the current school year.
What comes next
About 95 percent of semifinalists nationally are expected to advance to Finalist status in February 2027. Scholarship winners will be announced in four rounds from April through July 2027.
The Lower Merion Board of School Directors will recognize the semifinalists and Commended Students at its Monday, Oct. 19 meeting.
