Media release from the Rome, GA City Schools:
Rome High School senior Kamran Bawa has been named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist.
Bawa is one of more than 16,000 semifinalists from across the country in the 71st National Merit Scholarship Program. Bawa continues in the competition for some 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring.
“Kamran has worked extremely hard and represented Rome High School well in many areas,” Rome High School Principal Parke Wilkinson says. “We all know that Kamran will continue doing great things not only this year but in the years to come.”
Bawa is no stranger to academic success. He was nominated for Governor’s Honors last school year in Chemistry and placed first in Sports and Entertainment Marketing at DECA’s State Career Development Conference in January.
Bawa was also recently named an AP Scholar with Distinction by the College Board. Rome High School also honored Bawa last year with a High Five medal for scoring a five on at least one Advanced Placement Test.
The National Merit Scholarship Program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. More than 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.
The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
Roughly 15,000 semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalist level. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
The 2025 National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July.
