BY ANNELIESE TURCK

Sun Valley Community School senior Sophia Hallstein was recently named a 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program Finalist.

“Sophia has an incredible academic drive and insatiable curiosity,” said Head of School Ben Pettit. “She has excelled in the classroom, residential program, on the stage, in the backcountry, and on the ski hill as part of the Sun Valley Ski Academy. Further, she was a stellar student representative to our strategic planning task force, and she has been a strong advocate for making our school a place where every member of the community is truly known and has a sense of belonging. She is a remarkable person, and we are thrilled that Sophia has earned this national recognition.”

Sophia was among 16,000 Semifinalists named in September. She is among more than 15,000 Finalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program. Around half of the National Merit Scholarship Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the title of National Merit Scholar.

To enter the 2025 program, about 1.3 million juniors took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). The national pool of 16,000 Semifinalists included the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have had an outstanding academic record throughout high school, earned SAT scores that confirmed the earlier performance on the qualifying test and demonstrated leadership and participation in school and community activities, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.