Taylor Peterman continues to hit academic milestones in Ridgewood High School history. In October 2018, she was named a semi-finalist for the National Merit Scholarship Competition. Now, in February 2019, she was one of 7,500 students named a finalist for the competition. Peterman is the first in Ridgewood history to make it this far in the National Merit Scholarship Competition.
A total of 16,000 U.S. semifinalists were initially chosen to compete for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million. They were filtered from an initial pool of 1.6 million U.S. students who took last year’s PSAT/NMSQT, a qualifying test.
This year’s semi finalists scored in the top 1 percent nationally on the exam. Peterman scored a perfect SAT score and a missed one point on the ACT.
Ridgewood’s senior school counselor, Cari Franz spoke highly of Peterman.
“Taylor is truly the epitome of a balanced student; she attained a perfect SAT score and accomplished straight A’s within our most demanding courses, even as she held leadership roles in numerous clubs,” said Franz. “Taylor is a student who communicates effectively and is poised under pressure, whilst staying committed to achieving her goals. She is all around an exemplary student, and more important person.”
Peterman was ecstatic to hear she moved onto the next round in the competition.
“I was very excited to hear I advanced to the next stage of the National Merit Scholarship competition. It is a great honor, and I am thankful to all who helped me achieve this” said Peterman.
In March, Peterman will find out if she has been selected as one of the 7,500 award winners.