73 Plano ISD Students Named 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program® Semifinalists

Plano ISD is proud to announce that 73 students have been named Semifinalists in the prestigious 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. This distinguished honor places these students among the top academic performers in the nation, recognizing their exceptional achievements on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®).

These academically talented high school seniors have the opportunity to continue competing for some 6,930 National Merit Scholarships, worth nearly $26 million, that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

Semifinalists were selected from more than 1.3 million juniors across 20,000 high schools nationwide. Representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, these students achieved the highest scores in the state. To qualify as Finalists, Semifinalists must submit a comprehensive scholarship application highlighting their academic record, leadership experience, participation in school and community activities, employment, and honors and awards received. Additionally, students must be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirm their qualifying test performance.

More than 15,000 of the 16,000 Semifinalists are expected to advance to the Finalist level, which will be announced in February 2026.

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• Saura Agarwal, Plano East Senior High School
• Lakshit Ahuja, Plano West Senior High School
• Aayush Appan, Plano West Senior High School
• Divya Arunkumar, Plano West Senior High School
• Yang Bai, Plano West Senior High School
• Dhroov Bharatia, Plano Senior High School
• Kris Biswal, Plano East Senior High School
• Rehan Buvvaji, Plano West Senior High School
• Vaani Chellamuthu, Plano East Senior High School
• Nicholas Chen, Plano Senior High School
• Oliver Chen, Plano East Senior High School
• Athreya Chokhani, Plano East Senior High School
• Aanya Chokshi, Plano Senior High School
• Rongbai Dai, Plano West Senior High School
• Ishan Das, Plano West Senior High School
• Hayden Dillon, Plano East Senior High School
• Noelle Doerr, Plano Senior High School
• Ethan Fan, Plano West Senior High School
• Kaitlyn Fan, Plano West Senior High School
• Amber Gesell, Plano East Senior High School
• Nirvan Ghimire, Plano East Senior High School
• Ashwin Goel, Plano East Senior High School
• Bantee Greene, Plano East Senior High School
• Arya Gurumukhi, Plano East Senior High School
• Cole Hongkeo, Plano West Senior High School
• Abby Jennings, Plano West Senior High School
• Kaustubhi Joshi, Plano West Senior High School
• Lily Kincaid, Plano Senior High School
• Sydney Kramen, Plano East Senior High School
• David Liu, Plano West Senior High School
• Ritika Manikandan, Plano East Senior High School
• Adrian Marchant, Plano East Senior High School
• Faizan Masroor, Plano West Senior High School
• Rahul Mehta, Plano West Senior High School
• Anushka Mohanty, Plano East Senior High School
• Mahir Mondle, Plano West Senior High School
• Edward Mou, Plano Senior High School
• Dai Nakagawa, Plano West Senior High School
• Bennett Noll, Plano East Senior High School
• Vivian Pang, Plano Senior High School
• Swathi Parameshwar, Plano East Senior High School
• Kyle Park, Plano West Senior High School
• Shardul Patel, Plano East Senior High School
• Crystal Phung, Plano East Senior High School
• Rithivk Punati, Plano West Senior High School
• Eric Qian, Plano West Senior High School
• Avleen Randhawa, Plano East Senior High School
• Aditya Saran, Plano West Senior High School
• Diya Senthilkumar, Plano West Senior High School
• Riya Shah, Plano Senior High School
• Aliza Sheikh, Plano West Senior High School
• Samuel So, Plano West Senior High School
• Harry Sun, Plano West Senior High School
• Vedant Sundar, Plano East Senior High School
• Dyan Tecuatl, Plano East Senior High School
• Vihaan Thakore, Plano West Senior High School
• Ryan Thieu, Plano East Senior High School
• Siri Tirumuru, Plano West Senior High School
• Siya Tripathi, Plano East Senior High School
• Nishant Venkatachalam, Plano West Senior High School
• Nang Vu, Plano Senior High School
• Eric Wang, Plano West Senior High School
• Aiden Wei, Plano West Senior High School
• Ryan Xu, Plano West Senior High School
• Jaden Yen, Plano West Senior High School
• Amanda Yi, Plano West Senior High School
• Lindsey Zhao, Plano Senior High School
• Kaylee Zheng, Plano Senior High School
• Qiting Zhou, Plano West Senior High School
• Sam Zhu, Plano East Senior High School
• Ida Zou, Plano West Senior High School

*This list includes students who have a publications consent and release form on file with the district.