Congratulations to senior Cesar Querimit for advancing to Semifinalist status for the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Over 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
“For the SAT, my methodology was basically to take a baseline practice exam, and then after that, look at your score breakdown,” Querimit said. “See what sections you did well on, and what sections you’re going to improve on. Then use YouTube and Blue Book resources to study from there.”
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. This includes a detailed application with their extra-curricular leadership activities and evidence of success in rigorous classes.
“I’ve been very involved throughout high school,” Querimit said. “Our BPA [Business Professionals of America] team won first in state in Economic Research, and I’m the Vice President of Administration. I’m a Captain for Debate, and we took third in state last year. I’m also a director of NHS [National Honor Society]. Those are my main three.”
If named a Finalist, Querimit will compete for one of the 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million.
“I want to go into Premed, but I want to do a double major with biology and political science because I want to work with public policy one day. I’m interested in the way we have the insurance landscape, especially for healthcare, because in the United States, it’s very profit-oriented with the way insurance companies work. I want to hopefully fix that because I’m passionate about making it more patient-focused,” Querimit said.
