Amherst students place among nation's best

Amherst Central High School students Ariel Binder and Shuchen Song have received finalist status for achieving one of the top 16,000 scores in the country.

More than 1.4 million juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2007 National Merit Program by taking the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. Only semifinalists have an opportunity to continue in the Merit Scholarship competition by meeting a number of additional requirements and advancing to finalist standing.