Nearly 30% of the Cary Academy Class of 2018 have been recognized by the National Merit Scholarship program this year.

National Merit Semifinalists
CA has 14 National Merit semifinalists. They are: 

• Shaan Dhawan
• Evan Ehrhardt
• Brandt Evans
• Chelsea Fang
• Thomas Hoffmann
• Tyler Horwitz
• Arman Kassam
• Benjamin Lipson
• William Matton
• Joshua Pullen
• Oonagh Stevans
• Kiera Tai
• Anjali Velu
• Vincent Wang

Semifinalists were chosen based on their performance on the 2016 Preliminary SAT (PSAT). The nationwide pool represents less than one percent of all US high school seniors and includes the highest scores in each state. North Carolina had 495 semifinalists. 

National Merit Commended
In addition, 18 seniors were recognized as National Merit commended students, which comprises students who placed in the top five percent of test takers. They are: 

• Victoria Borlase
• Samuel Chow
• Aesha Desai
• Leo deSouza
• Thuc Dzu
• Sarah Faircloth
• Hope Ferris
• Shane Hoffman
• Ben Humphries
• Lily Lee
• Sullivan Morgus
• Madisen Placzkowski
• Mason Reece
• Eesha Sachdeva
• Robert Schellenberger
• Jonathan Segal
• Cole Spector
• Emma Zayas

And 3 of those recognized as semifinalist or commended have also been named National Hispanic Scholars: Victoria Borlase, Thomas Hoffmann and Emma Zayas.