Hutchinson High School senior Alex Baker was named a semifinalist today (Sept. 14, 2011) in the National Merit® Scholarship competition.

Baker, son of Ken and Mary Lynn Baker, brings the number of district students to receive the honor to 57 since 1981.

The National Merit® Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability. To qualify, students had to take the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. More than 1.5 million juniors took the test last fall from about 21,000 high schools nationwide.

Out of the 1.5 million students who took the test, approximately 16,000 semifinalists were named.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier qualifying test performance.

Of the 16,000 semifinalists, 15,000 are expected to become finalists. The finalists, in turn, are eligible for Merit Scholarship Awards next spring.

In addition to semifinalists, the National Merit® Scholarship Program will announce commended students later this fall. While those students will not continue in the scholarship competition, they have placed in the top 5 percent nationally of students who took the PSAT/NMSQT.

In addition to being named a National Merit® semifinalist, Baker also scored a perfect 36 on his ACT test.