FOURTEEN UNI SENIORS have been named National Merit Finalists, according to college counselor Lisa Micele.

Only 15,000 seniors nationwide earned the distinction out of some 1.4 million students who took the PSAT in the fall of 2006.

Uni's finalists make up almost 22 percent of their 64-member class. They are:

• Ethan Berl
• Emily Chu
• Shara Esbenshade
• Michelle Gao
• Julian Hartman
• Angela Jin
• Joseph Leigh
• Sarah Pfander
• Jennifer Roloff
• Austin Rundus
• Jacob Seeley
• Ruthie Welch
• Alex Zhai
• Lucy Zhang

As finalists, the students are eligible for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, worth about $36 million. These include $2,500 National Merit Scholarships as well as corporate- and college-sponsored awards.

Students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The program is administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Last year, according to the NMSC's 2006-07 annual report, a total of 8,262 Merit Scholar designees received Merit Scholarship awards worth $36.1 million.

Each September, the NMSC selects about 16,000 National Merit Semifinalists on a state representational basis. Semifinalists are students who were the top scorers on the PSAT in their state.

Illinois had 777 semifinalists this year, representing 181 high schools; Uni had 15 semifinalists.

Becoming a finalist primarily requires filling out NMSC paperwork by the relevant deadline and taking the SAT Reasoning Test.

In 2006-07, 15 Uni seniors were named semifinalists, and 14 were finalists. The year before that, 25 seniors received both honors.