The annual announcement of National Merit Scholarship semifinalists - close to 200 public and private high school students in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky - serves as the kick-off for the friendly competition.

SCHOLARS Merit scholars from Seven Hills The Enquirer/STEVEN M. HERPPICH

This year's local National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, and their high schools: Anderson: Kevin Hobson, Cliff Long, John Reid, Bryan Young Batavia: Brooks Wilhelm Bethel-Tate: Lisa Howison Cincinnati Country Day: Eugene Cone, Ceridwen Hall, Nathaniel Miller, Brian Rue, David Tapke Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy: John Pate Colerain: Brayden Coombs, Robyn Hubbuch Fairfield: Craig Buckley Finneytown: Yann-Erik Adams, Jeffrey Dollard Glen Este: Jonathan Davis Home School: Sean Bussell (Cincinnati) Indian Hill: Adriana Ciccone, Casey Merritt, Hari Shankar, Anne Vanderschueren Kings: Philip Albert Lakota East: Maria Abascal, Gregory Back, Steve Levin Lakota West: Aalap Bommaraju, David Carper, Courtenay Holscher, Matthew Meyer, Charlie Wang, Muzhou Wang, Xiao Wang La Salle: Matthew Flanigan Lebanon: Daniel Aldridge Loveland: Michael Millhaem, Karl Skare Madeira: Thomas Agran, Cynthia Crowe, Hannah Dinnen, Douglas Hopping, Michael Misali, Lauren Paluta, Ana Perez, Stephen Tensmeyer Mariemont: Sean Cameron, Michael Donovan, Randall Williams Mars Hill Academy: Andrew Brinkerhoff, Bill Robinson Mason: Katherine Buitrago, Chris DeLotell, Stacy Goldston, Kathryn Jacoby, Rachel Reeves, David Wang, Thomas Xu, Lily Zhang McAuley: Alexandra Ogden McNicholas: Alex Kellerman, Andrew Lohbeck, Kevin McLaughlin Middletown: Christopher Basil Milford: Rose Slupski Oak Hills: Patrick Haller Princeton: Sarah Foley, Haessly Frantz, Vlad Golgotiu, Samantha Groh, Brian Holcomb, Andrew Mullin, Hayley O'Brien Roger Bacon: Christopher Bohnlein Seton: Amy Wurzelbacher Seven Hills: Lauren Chen, William Constable, Robert Cottrell, Rachel Habbert, Frederick Hall, Thomas Linz, Carter Miller, Sarah Ott, Asia Reid, Ann Rittgers, Will Selnick, Chris Wade St. Ursula Academy: Rita Celebrezze, Amanda Goyer, Jennifer Hsu St. Xavier: Jeremy Aronow, Joesph Baker, Jonathan Bell, James Dickhoner, John Fogg, Alexander Hunt, Suneel Kamath, Richard King, John Kleimeyer, Francis Larkin, David Lustenberger, Patrick MacKenzie, Steven McCarthy, Neil Mehta, Eric Moster, Daniel Peck, Anand Savani, Eric Sayre, Louis Schweer, Phillip Seitzer, Ricky Sharma, Michael Smith, Anthony Stertz, Patrick Tassone, Eric Webb Stephen T. Badin: Jonathan Hufford, Kathleen Janik, Megan Jeffcoat Summit Country Day: Stefan Kathman, Katie Klosterman Sycamore: Alexandra Appatova, Adam Bahir, Amber D'Souza, Brad Elkus, Matthew Evans, Aaron Friedman, Jared Goldfarb, Nasser Haddad, Matthew Hershberger, Kimberly Johnson, Kavita Joshi, Carol Kao, Allison Lacker, Dara Lind, Rakesh Mannava, Daniel McGrath, Dimitry Mezhvinsky, Laura Moster, Andrew Ng, Shriya Raghavan, Ahilan Sivaganesan, Arthur Wang Talawanda: Amy Johnson, Cameron Shriver Turpin: James Moler, Tyler Ohnmeis, Michael Petro Ursuline Academy: Lauren Brilli, Katharine Ciliberti, Kristin Coyle, Sharmistha Das, Nikita Desai, Erin Fenton, Sarah Ladrick, Amy Moffett, Lisa Morin, Caroline Sim, Kathleen Towers Walnut Hills: Katherine Agnew, Jane Cheng, Julie Faller, Carolyn French, Allison Grubbs, Katherine Hattemer, Danielle Heiman, Katherine Herman, Jasmine Linck, Alexander Magg, Emily Michael, Brian Perbix, Jason Pipkin, Emily Sharrow, Ervin Tormos, Cale Weatherly, Jacob Whitman Williamsburg: Jesse Burroughs (home-schooled) Wyoming: Amy Lowitz, Steve Mieczkowski, Maureen Stickel

About 16,000 students nationwide compete for the prestigious scholarships. Roughly 90 percent of semifinalists nationwide are expected to advance to the finalist stage, and 8,200 of those will be selected next spring as winners, sharing $33.9 million in scholarships.

For the fourth consecutive year, the all-boys St. Xavier High School in Finneytown had the most semifinalist qualifiers in the area - 25 - and the largest number of winning seniors of any Ohio school. Other Greater Cincinnati schools with large numbers of semifinalists are Sycamore High School, 22; Walnut Hills High School, 17, and Ursuline Academy, 11.

Schools in the Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Campbell and Kenton produced 19 semifinalists.

But while officials from the private Seven Hills School in Madisonville gladly give St. Xavier kudos, they contend their 12 semifinalists are actually more impressive when the co-ed school's smaller senior class is factored in.

"We're small but we're mighty," Susan Marrs, the school's director of college counseling, said Wednesday.

Marrs said 14 percent of Seven Hills' senior class of 83 students earned semifinalist status. St. Xavier's 25 semifinalists represent 7 percent of its senior class of 340.

But Marrs, and officials with the National Merit Scholarship Corp. in Evanston, Ill., stress that comparisons between schools based solely on scholarship qualifiers are problematic.

"St. Xavier is a wonderful school but they are larger, and an all-boys school, and we're co-ed. They have a religious affiliation and we don't. It's really apples to oranges," said Marrs.

St. Xavier spokesman Paul Zook agreed, saying the school's production of more semifinalists - an average of 27 per year during the last decade - is "a source of pride but it is just one measurement of what we should be doing as a college preparatory school."

Marvin Koenig, principal of Cincinnati Public Schools' Walnut Hills High School, said his school's 17 semifinalists "are always a source of pride."

"It reaffirms our college preparatory curricula. And we're pleased for our students, their families and for the good job done by our faculty," said Koenig.

Still, the large, prestigious schools don't have a lock on the scholarships. The list of semifinalists also includes a sprinkling of home-schooled students - two in Southwest Ohio this year, and one in Northern Kentucky.

Dan and Elizabeth Glier, of Hebron, wanted a Christian environment for their kids and a pace quick enough to ward off boredom. Their home-schooling has paid off for son Michael, who completed four years of high school Latin in 21/2 years and finished calculus II in the first half of his junior year. He's already taking courses at NKU.

"I have seen him work four hours on a problem set in calculus," Dan Glier said. He and his siblings "know that smart is not easy; it's hard work."

Even so, a sense of uncertainty remains among some who made the prestigious list.

Seven Hills senior Frederick Hall said no one can measure yet what winning a Merit Scholarship might mean to his life.

"It's a huge honor and I'm not really sure where it'll take me. It opens doors and it also validates a lot of the hard work we've been doing here at Seven Hills," he said.

More than a test

More than 1.3 million high school juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools across America entered the National Merit Scholarship Program last fall by taking the 2003 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. But qualifiers are judged on more than their test scores.

Gloria Davis, spokeswoman for the National Merit Scholarship Corp., said semifinalists also must score at least a 1,300 on the SAT, and must "have very high academic records" from their classes. Moreover, Merit finalists must be recommended by a school principal. And the participants must submit a detailed scholarship application that includes the student's self-descriptive essay and information about involvement with school and community activities.

---

E-mail mclark@enquirer.com