Rome High's Phillip Spratling a National Merit Scholarship finalist

Media release: Rome High School's Phillip Spratling has been named a Finalist by the National Merit Scholarship Corp. for 2013.

Spratling, the son of Christine and Kevin Spratling of Rome, has the opportunity to be one of 8,300 Merit Scholarship winners from across the nation.  Winners will be notified in March.

"We're so proud of Phillip's achievement," said Rome principal Dr. Tygar Evans.  "His commitment to excellence in his studies has created an opportunity for greater success for himself and will inspire others as well."

According to the NMSC's media release, about 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2011 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. The number of semi-finalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

Spratling plans to attend Georgia Tech this fall.