Three Shorecrest seniors are National Merit semifinalists

National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Olivia Baetz, Maia Kaje and Max Fisher
Photo courtesy Shoreline Schools

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced that three Shorecrest High Schools seniors have been selected as 2020 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists.

Olivia Baetz, Max Fisher and Maia Kaje were selected for the prestigious recognition.

Of the over 1.5 million students who entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors, only 16,000 become semifinalists. The semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.

Baetz, Fisher and Kaje now have the opportunity to compete for Merit Scholarship awards by qualifying as a National Merit Finalist in February 2020. About 7,500 Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million will be awarded in this spring. 

To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier qualifying test performance. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

After high school, Baetz is leaning toward studying biology at UCLA or University of California. Fisher is planning to attend Central Washington University to study music education or music performance. Kaje is narrowing down which college she will attend and plans to study math and biology.