Congratulations Ballard High students

We have three of the Seattle-area’s smartest students right here at Ballard High School. This morning the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the 2009 semi-finalists. Joel K. Dunkelberg, Claire E. Lust, Elliot H. Ransom were the only ones on the list from BHS. These students competed against 1.5 million before being selected for the small group of 16,000. Finalists will be selected in February and according to the National Merit website, “To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.” After finalists are selected, they will compete for 8,200 National Merit Scholarships worth more that $35 million. The Seattle Times has the entire list of Seattle-area winners. Congratulations!