Ten McNeil seniors have been named National Merit Scholar Semifinalists. A celebration will be held at the school on Sept. 23 for the semifinalists.

“I was kind of excited because I know I worked really hard with all the SAT stuff,” semifinalist Aashi Rastogi said. “It’s nice to see that all my hard work paid off since that doesn’t always happen.”

National Merit Scholar semifinalists are determined based on Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholar Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores.

“When PSAT scores were first released during Junior year, I knew that, based on my Selection Index and the cut-off scores for previous years, I had a decent chance of qualifying,” semifinalist Myra Stickney said. “Receiving the email about qualifying and seeing my name on the National Merit Semi-Finalist list published on the McNeil Newsletter was exciting; right away, a lot of my friends texted to congratulate me and it was nice to have good news in a time like this!”

Round Rock ISD has a total of 105 semifinalists across all schools. Finalists will be announced in February.

“Being a Semi-Finalist isn’t something I ever particularly worked towards, but I know that it will open many doors for college and my future,” Stickney said.  “As a senior working on college applications right now, I know how important it is to demonstrate academic strength, and I feel that this is the ultimate representation!”

McNeil’s 10 semifinalists are: Aaryan Amin, Archita Amudhan, Lyssa Frank, Benjamin Li, Dana McCoy, Aashi Rastogi, Maanas Shah, Myra Stickney, Evelyn Tjoa, Samuel Zhou