Congratulations to the Semi-Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program!
The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy proudly celebrates the 28 students named Semi-Finalists in the prestigious National Merit® Scholarship Program.
The National Merit Scholarship Program honors the nation’s most accomplished high school students, recognizing exceptional academic achievement, leadership, and potential for future success. Semi-Finalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. They are selected based on their outstanding performance on the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test).
Recognition as a Semi-Finalist reflects both academic excellence and consistent dedication. As they continue in the competition, these IMSA students stand among the nation’s most accomplished scholars. Congratulations to the following semi-finalists:
Ria Bakshi
Evangeline Beck
Locklin Bell
Ethan Charoenpitaks
Louis Chen
Saroj Chilakuri
Jack Davis
Michelle Fanjoy
Tony Han
Jonathan Handjojo
Jeev Hora
Riyan Jain
Muskaan Kapur
Samira Koduri
David Monsess
Teah Oviedo Navarro
Laksh Patel
Karthik Prasad
Paul Ratasuk
Aarav Shah
Atmaj Shelar
Fatema Shikora
Mofetoluwa Suleiman
Julia Sun
Shomak Tan
Dominic Tous
Vishnu Vijay
Andrew Zhu
Commended Students in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program
IMSA is also proud to recognize the 57 students named as Commended Students in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. For the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program, Commended Students are recognized for placing among the top 50,000 scorers nationwide out of about 1.3 million test-takers.
- Aqeel Bajowala
- Damaris Benzar
- Arya Biss
- Isla Calderon
- Haydn Chan
- Harish Chandar
- Akshat Chouhan
- Lucas Davis
- William Ellingson
- Molly Federici
- Sai Ganbote
- Shreshta Ghanta
- Sumaer Gupta
- Blake Hennings
- Ethan Hunt
- Jessica Jiang
- Gyuri Kim
- Noah Kim
- Amelia Kinney
- Shriya Koduri
- Eric Lee
- Evan Lee
- Tianqing Lei
- Kelsie Li
- Aryan Mansingh
- Aadi Mehta
- Sebastian Mendoza
- Ruby Miller
- Samantha Narchetty
- Matthew Nowak
- Peter Panchev
- Svar Pandya
- Charlotte Paquette
- Monal Pattanaik
- Maneth Perepa
- Vishruth Pesala
- Lucy Philip
- Jacob Plotnick
- Shiv Narayan Rai
- Nithya Rajkumar
- Michayla Rhymes
- Zachary Roach
- Pooja Sampelli
- Anusha Saraf
- Helen Shao
- Saesha Sumeeth
- Caden Tam
- Aditya Tiwari
- Elsa Torres
- Nathan Vortia
- Roy Wang
- Paul Watson
- Izen Wong
- Ivan Xie
- Lucas Zhang
- Eric Zhou
