Dawson Conway, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Free State High School.

Emily Melton, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Free State High School.

Alan Shi, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Free State High School.

Sisira Srisutiva, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Free State High School.

Meixi Wang, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Free State High School.

Alyssa Crider, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Lawrence High School.

Bailey Frei, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Lawrence High School. (She has since moved to Florida).

Riley Gentry, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Lawrence High School.

Rosie O'Brien, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Lawrence High School.

Anne Reed-Weston, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Lawrence High School.

Leah Towle, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Lawrence High School.

Sarah Haynes, 2012 National Merit Semifinalist from Perry-Lecompton High School.

Eleven seniors in Lawrence high schools, and one from Perry-Lecompton High School, are semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

The students — including five at Free State High School, and six at Lawrence High School — are among 157 students in Kansas and about 16,000 nationwide to advance in the competition for 8,300 National Merit scholarships, which together will be worth more than $34 million.

Semifinalists from Free State High, their parents, and the tentative college majors the students reported to the program:

• Dawson M. Conway, Laurie and David Conway, aerospace, aeronautical and space engineering.

• Emily L. Melton, Virginia and David Melton, undecided.

• Alan Shi, Judy Wu and Jack Shi, biological and biomedical sciences.

• Sisira Srisutiva, Monrudee and Dustin Srisutiva premedicine/premedical studies.

• Meixi Wang, Linghua Li and Zhongjun Wang, chemistry.

Semifinalists from Lawrence High, their parents, and the tentative college majors the students reported to the program:

• Alyssa M. Crider, Mayumi and John Crider, neuroscience.

• Bailey W. Frei, Brenda and Mark Frei, bioengineering and biomedical engineering.

• Riley C. Gentry, Connie and Roger Gentry, chemical engineering.

• Rosemarie Z. O’Brien, Jennifer and Timothy O’Brien, unreported.

• Anne E. Reed-Weston, Marianne Reed and Tim Weston, unreported.

• Leah A. Towle, Joy and Tim Towle, undecided.

The semifinalist from Perry-Lecompton is Sarah E. Haynes, who parents are Lisa and Marc Haynes. She plans to pursue premedicine/premedical studies in college.

The semifinalists emerged from a field of about 1.5 million students nationwide who took the PSAT as juniors in 2010.

Finalists — about 15,000 — will be chosen based on academic records, administrator recommendations, SAT scores that confirm earlier performance on the PSAT, and application materials. Scholarship winners will be chosen from among finalists, to be announced beginning in April.

About 200 colleges and universities reward finalists with financial assistance.