(Batesville, IN) – Batesville High School (BHS) senior Viktor Aylor has been named a semifinalist in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program, according to BHS Principal Brad Stoneking.
Aylor, the son of Mitch and Gerlinde Aylor, is among approximately 16,000 semifinalists from across the nation recently named as semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
National Merit Semifinalists were narrowed down from 1.2 million students across more than 20,000 high schools who took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) test in the fall of their junior year.
Each state is granted a preset number of qualifiers proportional to its percentage of the nation’s high school graduating seniors.
The cutoff scores vary by state, generally representing the top 0.5 to 1% of students in that state.
As a semifinalist, Aylor will continue in the competition to receive a National Merit Scholarship.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, the semifinalists must have a consistently high academic record, write an essay, be endorsed and recommended by a school official, and take the
SAT or ACT , earning a score that confirms the PSAT performance.
About 95 percent of the semifinalists are expected to do so, with about half of those students earning the Merit Scholar title and a National Merit Scholarship.
Many of those who are not selected for the Merit Scholar title will receive other academic scholarships from their college of choice.
National Merit Finalists and scholarship winners for 2027 will be announced next spring.
“Achieving National Merit Semifinalist status is a true accomplishment,” said Stoneking. “In the spring, we hope to be able to add his photo on the wall at BHS, joining the 27 previous National Merit Finalists from the Batesville Community School Corporation.”
