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Kevin Chang, Fionn Connolly, Jolie A. Feldman, Nicole H. Kim and Chad J. Schwam are among approximately 16,000 high school seniors nationwide to earn the prestigious designation.
The students will continue in the competition for one of the 7,400 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be awarded next spring.
About 15,000 students, or 90 percent of the semifinalists, are expected to advance to the finals.
Students are named finalists based on their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.
Finalists will be announced in February.
The competition began with about 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools taking the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Those who scored the highest on the test advanced to the semifinals. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
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