Argyle ISD is proud to announce that three outstanding Argyle High School seniors have been named Semifinalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Liyah Cha, Rylee Pizana, and Sri Abhinav Thatavarthi are this year’s students being recognized for this national achievement!

“We are incredibly proud of our three National Merit Semifinalists,” Argyle High School Principal Shannon Knowles said. “Their achievement is the result of years of hard work, focus, and a commitment to excellence. They represent the very best of what it means to be an Argyle Eagle, and we are excited to see all the doors this accomplishment will open for them.”

These academically talented students are among approximately 16,000 Semifinalists nationwide recognized for their exceptional performance on the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®).

They now have the opportunity to continue in the competition for 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be awarded next spring. To advance, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to become Finalists, including submitting a detailed scholarship application, maintaining an excellent academic record, and achieving confirming SAT® or ACT® scores. About 95 percent of Semifinalists are expected to advance to Finalist standing, and approximately half of those will win a National Merit Scholarship.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®), a not-for-profit organization established in 1955, conducts the National Merit Scholarship Program without government assistance. Scholarships are funded by NMSC, along with nearly 300 business organizations, higher education institutions, and individual donors who share the mission of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging academic excellence.

Over 1.3 million juniors in more than 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the PSAT/NMSQT in 2024. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

NMSC emphasizes that Semifinalist recognition is an individual honor and not a measurement of a school’s or state’s educational quality. The number of Semifinalists at a school can vary widely due to multiple factors, including school size, student participation in the PSAT/NMSQT, and community emphasis on academic achievement.

The 2026 National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July. By that time, about 7,500 outstanding Finalists will have earned the prestigious title of Merit Scholar, joining a distinguished group of more than 389,000 young people recognized since the program’s founding.