Milpitas' National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Revealed

Each year, about 8,200 high school seniors will follow in the footsteps of Bill Gates, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan or Nobel Prize scientist Roger Tsien–by becoming a National Merit Scholar.

Four Milpitas High seniors–Laura Cosgrove, Dylan Librande, Brian Tseng, and Calvin Yan–made the first cut, announced the National Merit Scholarship Corporation on Wednesday.

About 16,000 semifinalists, or less than one percent of this year's high school seniors, are given the designation based on their PSAT scores. To become a finalist, they must score high on their SAT, which most of them did, and maintain an outstanding GPA.

"We're behind and support them 100 percent," said Milpitas High Principal Ken Schlaff. "They're among the best and the brightest in the country."

Curious about their near perfect scores, Milpitas Patch interviewed the four students and their moms. In addition to the 4.0 GPAs, here's what we found.

Laura Cosgrove said she studied the practice questions from an old edition of her sister's SAT book. She took the PSAT twice–in her freshman and junior year. She credits the honors classes at Milpitas High, such as English, for helping her prepare.

Cosgrove currently takes four AP classes, and considered taking five (she took a creative writing class instead). She played sports all last school year–cross country, soccer and track. She works as a tutor at Success! Learning Centers and is saving money for college.

Her mother, Denise Cosgrove, is a statistics and math teacher at Milpitas High. She said Laura, the youngest of three, was exposed to reading at a very early age. In kindergarten, she read a Harry Potter book–five times. She attended Sinnott Elementary where she skipped a grade.

Dylan Librande also has a brother, Jordan, who is a National Merit Scholar from 2009. Dylan said the most helpful thing he did was to take the PSAT in 7th and 8th grade to get a sense of the timing. Then he went online and looked at the tips and sample questions.

His mother, Toby Librande, said the boys were exposed to reading when they were babies. With Dylan still living at home, they read the newspaper together as a family, she said. She emphasized "creating a culture in your house of liking books and thinking reading is important."

Dylan and Jordan were enrolled in Burnett Elementary combination classes, which allow kids to progress at their own rate, she said. Both of them ended up skipping a grade.

As a large high school of some 3,000 students, Milpitas High offers more AP and Honors classes, compared to smaller ones where they wouldn't be able to fill up a classroom.

Brian Tseng scored a 2360 (out of 2400) on his SAT. He skimmed over a SAT review book. "I just find test taking to not be that big of a deal, so it really wasn't hard for me," he said.

Tseng is an Eagle Scout, President of the math club, Vice President of the debate club, and plays badminton on the team at school.

His mother, Ching Lee, said SATs are something she wasn't exposed to in growing up in Taiwan. Brian, the oldest of two boys, takes the initiative to figure these things out himself–and tells her not to worry.

And he's modest too. When she heard about him becoming a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, he shrugged it off. It was something that happened last year, he told her. (The PSATs were taken by the students last year, but the semifinalists were announced on Wednesday.)

Overall, she's moved by his discipline and diligence. During his first three years of high school, she was caring for her ailing father (Brian's grandfather) and wasn't around a lot, she said. So she's thankful he did well, she said.

Calvin Yan worked to increase his score, taking the PSAT three times– his freshman, sophomore and junior year. He remembers his PSAT scores going up from 170 to 190 to 221 (out of 240). He spent most of his summer before junior year in SAT preparation class. The studying and the 700 vocabulary words he memorized paid off. His first SAT score was 2180, and he took it one more time for a score of 2380.

The 4.0 student said for schoolwork, you have to realize you can't overstudy for something … at the same time you have to start pretty early, such as the SAT. "If I just procrastinated I wouldn't have been able to get as much time in as I could have," he said.

His mom, Michelle Dai, said she didn't pressure him, but saw that he was in front of the computer playing games a lot, so she enrolled him in SAT class. 

Calvin is also an . He was selected for the 2011 All-Northern Honor Band (NCBA). In addition to marching band and spring concert band, he plays outside of high school in the .

His mother said she enrolled him in the at Milpitas Unified School District after he began attending Spangler Elementary in fifth grade. In high school, he asked for private lessons. The music program has been a positive influence on him, she said.

Dai said she knows families who attend Cupertino schools (where there are  this year), but she prefers Milpitas where kids can grow up more naturally.

It doesn't really need to be so competitive, like in Cupertino, she said.