Collinsville High School is proud to announce senior Jimmy Moore has been named a National Merit Semifinalist in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Collinsville High School students were among those from 22,000 high schools who entered the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) in fall 2017. Moore is one of 16,000 Semifinalists in the competition sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).
The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one-percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.
Jimmy Moore excels both in and out of the classroom at Collinsville High School. He is a top member of the CHS Math Team — earning second place last year in the statewide Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) Algebra 2 competition. He is president of the National Honor Society, president of Mu Alpha Theta and vice president of STEM Club.
After graduation, he plans to study math in college. Moore is also interested in computer coding — a skill he has been refining since he was 9-years-old — so a computer science major is a possibility. He’s currently in the process of applying to schools which include several top-ranked universities.
As a National Merit Semifinalist, Moore has the opportunity to compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships and about 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards. In addition, about 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level. They will be notified in February 2019. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.