Each year, approximately 3.5 million students take the PSAT/NMSQT, but only the top 1% of participants become National Merit Scholars. From Springdale School District, seven students qualified – five were Har-Ber’s very own.

Maddie McWhorter, Alex O’Brien, Timothy Stout, Chynna Todd, and Jackson Strouse were the five finalists from Har-Ber High.

“I was aiming towards a high score on the PSAT to eventually become a National Merit scholar, but I was surprised when it actually happened. Only so many people become National Merit Scholars and now I and four others from Har-Ber share that title,” said McWhorter.

To qualify for National Merit status, the finalists needed to acquire a score of 205 or higher on the PSAT/NMSQT, the preliminary round of the tenacious process for the prestigious title.

Not only did O’Brien become a National Merit Scholar with a score of 227 on his PSAT, O’Brien also scored a perfect score of 36 on the ACT.

“I’m hoping that all my hard work will pay off and help with college some, I want to get into Vanderbilt or the UofA,” O’Brien said.

Stout believes the benefits of this achievement are more than college scholarships or admissions.

“Being a National Merit scholar obviously means getting money for college, but it’s also a nice reward for finishing twelve years of school,” Stout said.

The finalists had to write an essay as a part of their application process. O’Brien was prompted to write about what was significant in his life.

“I had written about a family member who had died, he was only 19 so he inspired me to make the most out of my life,” said O’Brien.

Besides the essay, the finalist were asked questions about their volunteer hours and extracurricular activities.

Todd, another finalist from Har-Ber, is a teacher’s aide for the language academy.

“I took a teaching class last year and we had the option to go Hellstern or the language academy. Since that, I knew I wanted to become an ESL teacher,” said Todd.

Generally, the first time students take the PSAT/NMSQT is in the 10th grade. When Har-Ber’s finalist retook the PSAT as juniors, their scores increased significantly.

“Last year was the first year they offer a PSAT/ACT Prep class and I would definitely recommend taking the boot camp, I did most of my studying there,” said Strouse.