The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High School students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) .
From the top 50,000 scorers across the United States, about 16,000 students qualify as Semifinalists. Winners are selected based on two sets of testscores, a high school official's written recommendation, information about the student's activities and leadership and the Finalist's own essay.
Also among the eight Semi-Finalists from Eureka is former Eureka lacrosse player Ben Zerler.