Officials with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) announced that 10 Bolles seniors have been named Commended Students in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program.

This year’s National Merit commended students from the Bolles Class of 2027 are John Cusick ’27, Nitin Mali ’27, Kavya Patel ’27, Sohan Patel ’27, Zipf Pedrick ’27, Jingrun Qiu ’27, Nishi Shah ’27, Bennett Surface ’27, Tudor Vlad ’27 and Julia Zhao ’27.

About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2027 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2027 competition by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®).

"Those being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success," commented a spokesperson for NMSC. ''These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success."