Three students from Ballard are semifinalists for the 57th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Jin-Li Chang and Justus Goldstein-Shirley from Ingraham High School and Ruby A. Fore from Ballard High School are among 32 students from Seattle Public Schools who have earned semifinalist ranking.

From Seattle Public Schools:

The Seattle students are among 16,000 students nationwide who earned top scores on the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for about 8,300 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $34 million, that will be offered next spring. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.