National Merit Finalists Named

Congratulations to forty-two members of Overlake’s Class of 2027 who have earned recognition in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program, including 15 National Merit Semifinalists and 27 Commended Scholars.

The recognition is a significant academic achievement. More than 1.2 million students from approximately 20,000 high schools entered the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). National Merit Semifinalists represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors nationwide.

Semifinalists now have the opportunity to continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships. To advance to Finalist standing, students must complete a lengthy application including a school recommendation and submit an SAT or ACT Score. Finalists will be announced in February.

We are proud to celebrate all 42 students for this outstanding recognition and the dedication, curiosity, and academic achievement it represents.

Overlake’s 15 National Merit Semifinalists

Clementine Dunagan
Eliot “Ellie” Hutton
Claire Li
Derek Li
Kean Li
Jeffrey Lu
Smaran Malakapalli
Isha Mehrotra
Kabeer Mishra
Atreya Naik
Akshay Needamangala
Samantha Stiles
Sule Tian
Isabel Xu
Xinran “Sheila” Zhang

Overlake’s 27 National Merit Commended Scholars

Aadi Agrawal
Rijul Bhandari
Oliver Chen
Matthew Dai
Rishi Dinesh
Zihan “Jerry” Fang
Grace Feng
Ansh Gupta
Ethan Ho
Varnika Jammalamadaka
Ismaeel Jawahar
Aisha Jay
Dyuti Kasi
Aarav Laddad
Satvi Mathrubootham
Nidhir Narayanan
Fareed Pirzada
Victoria Slavova
Jayden Tu
Naveen VedBrat
Tejas Velu
Eileen Wang
Justin Wang
Lucy Wulfestieg
Jennifer Xue
Aditi Yajaman
Bryan Zhang

Photo: Overlake’s National Merit Semifinalists. From left, top row: Kabeer Mishra, Derek Li, Akshay Needamangala, and Jeffrey Lu; second row: Eliot Hutton, Samantha Stiles, Smaran Malakapalli, and Atreya Naik; third row: Kean Li, Claire Li, Clementine Dunagan, and Isabel Xu; bottom row: Isha Mehrotra and Xinran Zhang. Not pictured: Sule Tian.