Romeoville High School senior named national merit semifinalist

A Romeoville High School senior joined an elite group of students nationwide.

Ryan Boots earned a spot as a semifinalist in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Competition, according to a Valley View School District news release.

National Merit semifinalists advance to the next stage of the competition in which about 7,500 students are named as finalists for $31 million in scholarships.

Over 1.5 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program, according to a news release. They did so by taking the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Scholarship winners in the 2020 competition will be announced in April.

Each student who wins a National Merit Scholarship is awarded $2,500.