Forty seniors at Langley and McLean high schools earned spots among Fairfax County Public Schools' 167 National Merit Semifinalists for 2027.

Langley High School produced 23 semifinalists and McLean High School produced 17, according to FCPS, which announced the honors Monday, Sept. 14. Together, the two schools account for roughly 24% of the district's total.

The 40 students join more than 16,000 seniors nationwide who represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors. More than 1.2 million juniors took the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which serves as the initial screen. All 167 FCPS semifinalists can compete for nearly $24 million in scholarships to be awarded in spring 2027.

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology led FCPS with 69 semifinalists. Oakton High School followed with 13, Chantilly with 10 and Madison with nine.

Langley's 23 honorees are Arianne Almeida, Lam Dinh, Abhinav Eadhara, Jaina Fitzpatrick, Bennett Huang, Madeline Jacobs, Daniel Jeon, Sabrina Kim, Luke Kwon, Jonathan Langdo, Inger Logan, Ann Mecherikunnel, Mia Nash, Elakshi Nedungottil, Tyler Nguyen, Sungyeon Park, Alexander Rozsa, Lillian Su, Shveta Sunkar, Yilin Wang, Felix Xu, Eric Zeng and Zifan Zhao.

McLean's 17 are Daniel Anglin, Rebecca Chen, Samuel Cosentino, Margaret Farrell, Chloe Giglio, Vasundhara Jagadeesan, Sarah Li, Aaron Lin, Angela Luo, Lucas Mao, Sean Noh, Allegra O'Grady, Caroline Su, Yunhan Tong, Natalie Wang, Muyang Zhang and Lexin Zhu.

"Their success reflects tremendous hard work and commitment to learning, as well as the support of the outstanding educators and families who have encouraged them along the way," Superintendent Michelle C. Reid said in the announcement.

Semifinalists must meet additional academic standards and secure a recommendation from a high school official to advance to finalist standing. Three types of scholarships will be offered: National Merit $2,500 awards, corporate-sponsored scholarships and college-sponsored scholarships.

Both schools have recent National Merit pedigree. In the 2026 cycle, Langley's Eesha Kaushik won a college-sponsored scholarship to Emory University, and McLean's Atul Kotamraju won one to Vanderbilt University, according to a June 2 FCPS announcement. Two more Langley students and one from McLean received corporate-sponsored awards that year, the McLean Connection reported.

The stakes are real. Merit Scholarship winners for 2027 will be announced in spring 2027.