Del Mar student at Pacific Ridge named a National Merit Semifinalist

Tyler Chen (Carlsbad), Nathan Cheng (Encinitas), Sebastian Green (Carlsbad), Ethan Kuo (Carlsbad), Dashiell Tan (Del Mar), and Bianca Yang (Carlsbad) of Pacific Ridge School have been named Semifinalists in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship Program. Of the 1.5 million high school students who take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, just 16,000 score high enough to receive the distinction of Semifinalist.

All of the semifinalists excel both in and outside of the classroom.

Del Mar’s Dashiell Tan is a member of the Pacific Ridge robotics team and an International Baccalaureate candidate. Tan has completed internships with Phoenix Foods USA and KeepItGrowing Marketing Solutions. He earned a rare perfect score on his ACT exam, putting Tan amongst the top one-tenth of one percent of test takers nationwide.

According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, approximately 15,000 students are expected to advance to the Finalist level of the National Merit Scholarship Program. Finalists will compete for some 8,000 National Merit Scholarships worth about $35 million, to be offered next spring.