Three Hartselle students named National Merit finalists

By Staff Reports 

Three Hartselle seniors have achieved National Merit finalist status.  

Jackson Boyd, Dylan Dean and Noah Der took the PSAT as juniors and their score ranked them in the top one percent of all students across the nation, according to Principal Brad Cooper.   

More than 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Fall 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.   

Approximately half of the Finalists will be Merit Scholarship® winners (Merit Scholar® awardees.) Winners are chosen based on their abilities, skills and accomplishments, according to the scholarship website.  

Those selected represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.