Six seniors from Indian Springs School have been named finalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program.

Rebecca Barr of Birmingham, Johann Choo of Hoover, Veronica Ciniglio of Odenville, Matthew Dix of Helena, Matthew Greve of Birmingham and Robert Vance of Birmingham all have an opportunity to receive one of 8,200 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $35 million.

The seniors were among 1.5 million students who entered the 2009 competition by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test during their junior year. Of those 1.5 million entrants, 15,000 of the highest scoring students were selected as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists last fall.

Finalists were selected from the pool of semifinalists after a review of an application that included academic records, a recommendation, SAT scores, a self-descriptive essay and information about participation and leadership in school and community activities.

The scholarship recipients will be announced later this spring.