Armstrong senior named National Merit Scholarship semifinalist

Armstrong High School senior Maren Faust has been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalist.

Faust joins more than 250 students from Minnesota, and 16,000 nationally, in being named a semifinalist. To qualify, she had to score in the top one percent in the state on the Preliminary SAT test, which was administered last year when students were juniors.

She’s now in the running to earn one of the 6,870 scholarships of up to $2,500 for college. Nationally, 2,500 students will earn the most prestigious prize — a one-time $2,500 National Merit Scholarship — when they are named National Merit Scholars. Another 4,500 will receive college- and corporate-sponsored National Merit scholarships ranging from $500 to $2,000 per year.

National Merit finalists will be announced this spring. Those who advance will learn as early as April whether they’ve earned a scholarship.