From left: School Counselor Kristie Houghton, senior Jayden Brown, senior Noa Burchesky, and Director of Career and Academic Counseling Annie Edwards.
Lincoln Academy senior Jayden Brown has qualified as a National Merit Semifinalist, and senior Noa Burchesky has been recognized as a National Merit Commended Student based on their scores on the PSAT. National Merit Scholars are selected by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and the College Board.
Jayden scored in the top 0.5% of the 3.5 million high school juniors who took the PSAT (also called the PSAT/NMSQT, or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) in the fall of 2023. There are a total of 16,000 National Merit semi-finalists nationwide 2024. Noa scored in the top 1.5% of students who took the PSAT last year. There are a total of 50,000 Commended Students nationwide.
“We are extremely proud of these students for this accomplishment,” said Director of College and Career Counseling Annie Edwards. It reflects well on their hard work, testing skills, and LA education that they have done so well.”
Both Noa and Jayden are high-honor students at LA as well as all-state violinists. Noa is a member of LA’s student council, and Jayden was the top-scoring math team member in Maine last year.
The two honored students are just at the beginning of their college application process. While both plan to attend four-year colleges, they have not yet decided where they will go.
As a semi-finalist, Jayden has the opportunity to continue in a national competition to become a National Merit Finalist, and ultimately a National Merit Scholar. The rigorous application process considers recommendations from teachers, student essays, and high school grades in the selection of 7,600 total National Merit Scholars, who will be awarded an aggregate $33 million in college scholarships this year.
