Madison City Schools once again has the state's highest number of National Merit Finalists.
The 2025 NMS qualifiers for Madison City Schools number 37, the most ever for MCS.All of the semifinalists announced several months ago were notified in late February 2025 that they qualified as finalists.
James Clemens has 19 and Bob Jones 18. That combined total is the most of the 141 Alabama school districts statewide, regardless of size.
Madison City Schools Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols said he’s proud of the students for their hard work and for the teachers that prepared them from the earliest grades on up.
Dr. Nichols credited the strong foundation of MCS set by past and present leadership that continues through the unwavering support of parents, community leaders, Board of Education members, principals, administrators and dedicated teachers and staff in MCS elementary, middle and high schools.
James Clemens National Merit Semifinalists
(Back row L-R) Luke Alverson, Nirban Bajaj, Andrew Bendickson, Ethan Brewer, Isaac Caldwell, Renee Drayton, Principal Dr. Kerry Donaldson, Arjunsingh Gaikwad, Andrew Gohlich, Oviya Gowder, Yooyeon Hwang, Alexander Kulkarni, Bailey Lintz.
(Front Row L-R) Christopher Lobo, Jason Mahdi (merit semifinalist), Urvi Mysore, Hannah Park, Sahishnu Saha, Sivaneyan Sezhian, Manasa Vadapalli, Erik Wu.
Bob Jones National Merit Semifinalists
(Front Row L-R) Aurora Lang, Caroline Kokan, Judith Miller, Mary Miller, Shlok Chatterjee, Molly Halter, Evan Coker, Sally Wang, Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols, David Gunasekaran.
(Back Row L-R) Principal Sylvia Lambert, Sophia Johnson, Hubert Pan, Zachary Calinsky, Benjamin Landingham, Cohen Yates, Ian McIntosh, Tevin Sheehy, Justin Roh, Steven Pan.
A vast majority of the National Merit Finalists for Madison City Schools attended MCS schools from elementary school on. Dr. Nichols said that's a credit to the outstanding teachers and staffs in our elementary and middle schools as well as both high schools. "These results once again prove that it does not matter where you live or go to school in Madison, every school is one of the nation's best," Dr. Nichols said.
The nationwide pool of National Merit Semifinalists representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors includes the highest scoring students in each state on PSAT/NMSQT tests which they took as juniors. They will be competing for 7,500 National Merit scholarships worth approximately $30 million.