Four Earn National Merit Commended Status

Congratulations to National Merit Commended Scholars seniors Christopher Brutschea, A.J. Gordon, Ronan Purcell and Toby Wasson. The program celebrates the hard work of thousands of high school students nationwide to help them showcase their strong academic performance. The four were treated to Dunkin’ this morning in the principal’s conference room at CHS.

Brutschea is looking at Duke, UPenn and Temple to study biomedical engineering. Gordon has Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Northwestern and UChicago on his list, as he plans to study biochemistry or physics. Haverford, UPenn, Drexel and Swarthmore are on Purcell’s list, and he is undecided on a major. Wasson is undecided on where they’ll attend, but is interested in pursuing a degree in computer science, art or linguistics.

Commended scholars fall into the top 2-3 percent of PSAT scores, which is about 34,000 students annually. Commended students receive letters of commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to recognize the significant academic achievement of scoring so well on the PSAT. While Commended Students are not eligible to compete for the official National Merit Scholarship, by being recognized in this way, they often do become candidates for special merit scholarship awards offered by statewide agencies and corporate sponsors.