Smart. Yes, that smart

WARWICK —Four Warwick Valley High School seniors have been named Commended Students and one senior is a Semifinalist in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Contest.

Commended students are among the 50,000 highest scorers across the country who are recognized for the exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the qualifying test used for program entry.

Semifinalists are among 16,000 of the highest performers nationwide who now have an opportunity to continue in the Merit Scholarship competition and advance to Finalist standing.

• The Commended Students are Petra Chiabi, Bria Metzger, Nicholas S. Pacelli and Matthew L. Tomko.

• The Semifinalist is Lauranne Wolfe.

More than 1.5 million students took the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) last October and entered the National Merit Scholarship Program, a nationwide competition for recognition and awards by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

The academically talented high school seniors named Semifinalists in the competition now have an opportunity to compete for some 7,400 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.

About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and will be notified of this designation in February.