Being a National Merit semifinalist is a high honor that thousands of high school students a year hope to be a part of.

The National Merit program is an academic program that allows students who score well on their PSAT to compete for recognition and academic scholarships to colleges as well as opening a door to opportunities the students may not have known about before the program. Although there is a series of applications students have to fill out to be considered, the four semifinalists at South said that they all believed that the tedious applications were worth it.

Senior Henry Bahr had a lot to say, but what he was most excited about was the opportunities the potential scholarships could bring him.

“I’ve looked at a lot of schools. At first I was mostly looking in state, but now that I have this chance to receive a scholarship I’ve started to widen my horizons and have started to look out of state,” Bahr said.

Bahr looks to become a double major in college.

“I plan on going to college to be a chemical engineer and have a double major in industrial engineering and hopefully combine them both to make a new career,” Bahr said.

Senior Marissa Bell was also most excited about the opportunities the program could bring her.

“I want to be a veterinarian. Right now, I’m honestly stuck between Baylor and Texas A&M. At Texas A&M, they give you a full ride if you have a merit scholarship and they have a really great veterinarian program, and they’re just all-around a good school. Baylor, on the other hand, has a really good honors program that I would love to join and they also offer this thing where you can create your own major which I find really cool. They’re both great schools, though,” Bell said.

When asked what she’d major in, she said she would probably either major in biology or biomedical science.

Senior Kelsey Trapp talked about how she was a bit of a legacy due to her brother having been a merit. She said she had no real plan yet but she knew for sure that she wanted to go into medicine.

“I’ve been looking at mostly elite schools. You know, like Ivy League schools? I’ve already applied to Stanford University. I really liked the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Tulsa, and Creighton,” Trapp said.

Senior Alec Glascock said that he was really worried about taking the PSAT and studied harder than he’s ever studied before.

“The annoying thing about it is that you have to wait a whole year for your score to come back. At first I was mad I’d have to wait, but after a while I forgot about it until Dr. Belt came into my class and told me about it. I was super embarrassed,” Glascock said.

He continued on that he wanted to be a finalist because he knew it would give him money that would help him with college fees.

“I’m really wanting to go to Missouri S&T and major in Computer Science,” Glascock said.