John Barton ’25 and Jacob Beatty ’25 will be right beside each other on graduation day due to the alphabetical order of their last names.
The two seniors are both from Asheville and share a third thing in common as was announced Thursday – they are semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship.
John and Jacob scored in the top 1 percent of 1.3 million high school seniors who took the 2023 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is the initial screening. The Greenies are now among 16,000 semifinalists who have a shot at approximately 6,870 scholarships worth a grand total of $26 million.
About 95 percent of semifinalists go onto become finalists so long as they and an official from their school submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes information about the student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.
This is the 70th year of the National Merit Scholarship program.
Congratulations from everyone at Christ School, John and Jacob!