Five Fayetteville-Manlius High School seniors were named semifinalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. The program, conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), is an annual academic competition that honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies, according to NMSC.
F-M’s semifinalists will each have the opportunity to advance in the competition to earn one of more than 6,900 National Merit Scholarships.
Semifinalists
- Eleanor Comprix
- Rheaa Goyal
- Jade McKinnis
- David Nagapetov
- Owen Zhu
These students are among more than 16,000 students nationwide who qualified for the scholarship program by scoring among the highest in their respective states on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
The program’s National Merit Scholarship winners of 2026 will be named in spring/summer 2026.
About NMSC
NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 300 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence, according to NMSC.