28 in the Class of 2023 announced as National Merit Semifinalists September 11, 2022 — by Nikhil Mathihalli Photo by National Merit Scholarship Program The California cutoff score was around 1480 this year.Twenty-eight seniors were recently announced as National Merit semifinalists. To qualify as a National Merit semifinalist, students must score in the top 1.25% of the nation and in the 99th percentile in their state on their junior year PSAT examination. This year’s California cutoff score was 220, which roughly translates to a score of 1,480 on the test. The Class of 2023 National Merit semifinalists are Stuti Agarwal, Pradyum Balaji, Sohum Bhan, Arshi Chawla, Chris Chen, Atrey Desai, Lisa Fung, Arnav Garg, Isha Goswami, Andrew Hong, Siddharth Kamannavar, Alexander Lee, Dyne Lee, Nidhi Mathihalli, Suraj Mehrotra, Nilay Mishra, Uma Phalke, Ainsley Sheen, Howard Shu, Anthony Wang, Carolyn Wang, Vivian Wang, Anthony Wong, Mindy Wu, Adam Xu, Mayson Yu, Lily Zhang and Nathan Zhu. This high number of semifinalists is one measure of the school’s high-achieving nature. Previous classes have had similar totals: the Class of 2022 had 38 semifinalists, the Class of 2021 had 30 and the Class of 2020 had 51. 7 views this weekAbout the contributorsNikhil MathihalliNikhil Mathihalli, Class of ‘24, serves as an Editor-in-Chief of the 2023-24 staff. He was previously the Sports Editor for the 2022-23 staff and a Reporter and Layout Artist for the 2021-22 staff. He's covered various stories ranging from profiles on school clubs to features on alumni and outstanding athletes.