Jersey City Teens Earn Spot as National Merit Semifinalists

Each September, the National Merit Scholarship Program releases a list of about 16,000 high‑achieving juniors who have earned a place as semifinalists. It’s a big deal—those students become eligible for a $2,000‑per‑year grant that can help pay for college.

This year, among the dozens of New Jersey names, Hudson County contributed five, and two of them hail from Jersey City. The first, Avni Kakra, is a junior at McNair Academic High School, the city’s magnet school known for its rigorous curriculum and competitive admissions process. The second, Pratyush Majumdar, attends St. Peter’s Prep, the all‑boys private college‑prep academy that has a long history of academic excellence.

Both students earned their semifinalist status solely on the basis of their PSAT scores taken during their junior year. That initial cutoff is brutally objective—no extracurriculars, no recommendations, just raw test performance. In the spring, the National Merit board will look deeper, weighing factors like GPA, leadership, and community involvement to whittle the list down to finalists and, ultimately, scholarship recipients.

Hudson County’s other semifinalists include Carolina Fernandez from Hoboken High School, Parth Khot from Jose Martí STEM Academy in Union City, and Lehansa C. Marambage from High Tech High in Secaucus. Together they showcase the diverse educational pathways—public, private, magnet, and technical—that can lead to the same national recognition.

For the two Jersey City scholars, the news is a proud moment for their families, teachers, and classmates. It also shines a spotlight on the city’s commitment to academic rigor and the support structures that help students aim high. As the spring‑2027 deadline approaches, all eyes will be on these semifinalists to see who makes the final cut and secures the coveted National Merit scholarship.