National Merit Scholarship announced the names of 74 semifinalists from Southern Nevada in the 60th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.  The following six South Asian students have made the list.

Aliya Farmanali – Meadows School

Amar Shah – Green Valley High

Chaitanya Ingle – Clark High

Deepal Patel – Clark High

Sourav Gupta – Clark High

Steven Chacko – Green Valley High 

Five out of the above six students are currently attending the local well known public high schools in Las Vegas.  They all will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $33 million that will be offered next spring. Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2013.

Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state representational basis. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 240 corporations and business organizations for Finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,100 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.