Canyon Crest Academy placed 55 seniors on the 2027 National Merit Semifinalist list, the most of any school in San Diego County.

No other county school came close.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of more than 16,000 semifinalists nationwide on Wednesday, Sept. 9. San Diego County produced 190 semifinalists total, according to Patch, which published the full local list.

Canyon Crest, a San Dieguito Union High School District school of choice with 1,977 students, accounted for nearly a third of the county's semifinalists. Torrey Pines High School, which serves Del Mar, Solana Beach, Rancho Santa Fe, Fairbanks Ranch and Carmel Valley, added 10 more: Anika Buzi, Emily Chao, Kevin Gu, Chloe Kim, Joanne Liu, Benicio Olson, Angie Sun, Brian Yang, Scott Yudenfreund and Claire Zhou.

Two area private schools also placed students. Aspen Lee of Santa Fe Christian School in Solana Beach and Cole Seelman of Horizon Prep in Rancho Santa Fe each earned semifinalist status. Anya Rocha of San Dieguito High School Academy in Encinitas rounded out the San Dieguito Union High School District's showing.

Semifinalists represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors, based on their scores on the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. More than 1.2 million juniors entered the 72nd annual competition, according to the NMSC.

About 95% of semifinalists are expected to advance to finalist standing in February 2027, according to the NMSC. To qualify, students must submit an application covering their academic record, extracurricular activities, leadership and employment history. They must also earn endorsement from a school official, write an essay and confirm their test performance with SAT or ACT scores.

Three types of scholarships will be awarded between April and July 2027: 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships distributed by state, roughly 700 corporate-sponsored awards and about 3,500 college-sponsored awards. The total prize pool is approximately $24 million.

The 55 Canyon Crest Academy semifinalists are Romteen Azmoodeh, Varsha Balaji, Madelynn Carpiuc, Brian Chang, Evan Chen, Katherine Chen, Advait Choksi, Jon Cortes-Martinez, Alexander Destefano, Andrea Diva, Erica Dong, Claire Gao, Robert Garibaldi, Liana Garner, Marcus Hammi, Arthur Huang, Ruihan Huang, Siddh Jariwala, Samarth Kaashyap, Kavya Karthik, Dylan Kim, Amy Krummen, Rishi Kumar, Mark Kupolov, Luca Lesmes, Alethia Li, Amy Li, Remy Licari, Claire Lim, Owen Mao, Eran Maor, Nash Massura, Varun Menon, Yulee Oh, Myrrh Park, Casey Phan, Vedat Porikli, Noah Sacks, Baylen K. Shi, Ryan Smith, Andy Song, Justin Sun, Sylvie Terjesen, Justin Wu, Yoyo Wu, Yufei Wu, Angela Xue, Alaina Yan, Calvin Yang, Janet Yang, Keshu Yang, Kai Yi, Daniel Zhang, Anna Zhong and Isabella Zhou.

Finalist announcements are expected in February 2027, with scholarship winners named in four rounds from April through July 2027.