Eight McCallie School seniors were honored as National Merit Finalists for their outstanding achievements on the Preliminary SAT. McCallie’s 2013 National Merit Finalists include: Bowen Brown from Ringgold; Alex Elsea of Chattanooga; Aaron Long, Signal Mountain; Alex Ramey, Lookout Mountain; Scott Shelton, Hixson; Joseph Tate, Flintstone; Eric Wolf, Cleveland; and boarding student Mike Ray of Cincinnati.
National Merit Finalists are eligible for – and slightly more than half will receive – National Merit scholarships, which will be announced in April, May and July.
More than 1.5 million students entered the 2012 National Merit Program by taking the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The finalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and are the highest scoring entrants in the country on the qualifying test.
“This is an outstanding personal achievement for these boys,” Headmaster Kirk Walker ’69 said. “We are certainly proud of their accomplishments.”
Additionally, Julian Nunally of Chattanooga was named a National Achievement Scholar and is one of about 800 who will compete for over $2.5 million in scholarship money to be awarded this spring. The National Achievement Scholarship program helps provide academic recognition to promising African-American high school students.
McCallie boasts 23 National Merit Finalists in the last four years, or nearly six per school year over that span. During the 2012-13 school year, 19 seniors were recognized as either National Merit Semifinalists or Commended Scholars.