FHS tops number of National Merit Finalists
This year, “we are proud to recognize 18 National Merit Finalists for 2026, the highest total for a single year in school history,” said Laura Austin, FHS college and career facilitator.
The finalists are: Jessie An, Sophia Chen, Ethan Guo, Grace Im, Sruti Kamujula, Isabel Kao, Hisato Kurosaki, Jared Li, Nuoyan Li, Alex Lin, Albert Liu, Leyton Lu, Adithya Sastry, Dorian
Shultz, Yunpeng Tan, Nate Williamson, Emily Xu and Frank Yan.
“More than 1.3 million juniors from approximately 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as the initial screening for program entrants,” Austin said.
“The nationwide pool of semifinalists — representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors — includes the highest-scoring students in each state,” she said. “From this distinguished group, more than 15,000 students advanced to finalist standing.
“The selection of approximately 6,870 Merit Scholarship winners from among these Finalists is now under way,” Austin added.
