At the end of September, twelve St. Edward seniors were honored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for achievement on the PSAT test from October 2008. Of the approximately 1.5 million students who take this test as juniors, 50,000 are named either commended students or semifinalists. Only 16,000 students are recognized as semifinalists, who are selected based on state-specific cut-off scores to ensure balanced national representation.

Most of these semifinalists will become finalists provided that they complete an application, write essays, and post similar scores on the SAT. Finalists have the opportunity to win a National Merit $2,500 scholarship or college-specific scholarships.

Listed below are the seniors honored:

National Merit Semifinalists: 

• Kevin Heisser
• Jude Macfarlane
• Mike Manno

National Merit Commended:

• Paul Butcher
• Timothy Cantwell
• Stephen Gacka
• Oliver Geiger
• Garrett Marsilio
• Alexander Nixon
• Thomas Richmond
• Jacob Schwertner
• Matthew Unger