Shadow Ridge Student Advances to National Merit Finalist

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 3/13/26

DYSART SCHOOLS - Shadow Ridge High School student, Nicholas Snyder, has moved on to be a Finalist in the next stage of the National Merit Scholarship Program. After high school, Snyder plans to major in mechanical engineering, and hopes to develop new technologies, possibly in transportation or manufacturing.

When asked what being a National Merit Scholar means, Snyder shares, “I think it's just representative of the effort that people are willing to put forth to better themselves and to apply their skills to better the world in the future… I think that's what people's goals should be, is to apply their own knowledge, their own skills, and their own strengths, towards the betterment of humanity, towards serving the common good.”

In the Fall of 2025, the highest scoring students in the state were named Semifinalists out of over 1.3 million high school juniors that take the PSAT/NMSQT test each year. Only 16,000 students, or less than one percent of all high school seniors in the U.S., advance to be Semifinalists, and these students can submit an application to be considered for Finalist and compete for one of 2,500 National Merit Scholarships that will be awarded in the spring.

About National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC)

NMSC, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 300 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.