High PSAT score puts Hebert in elite company
Senior Evan Hebert works on class work during AP Calculus BC. He was the only senior named as a National Merit semifinalist on campus.
November 5, 2021
When Evan Hebert walked out of his PSAT testing room last fall he didn’t realize that a year later he would be the lone semifinalist for National Merit at Kingwood Park.
“I was optimistic because I knew a large portion of the test and I felt confident about it,” Hebert said. “But it was definitely a toss up, like if I get I get it, if I don’t I don’t.”
He found out he had become a semifinalist during the first week of September from his counselor Tim Hurlbert, principal Wes Solomon, and associate principal Tiffany Major. However, it wasn’t until Sept. 15 that he could tell anyone.
“I had to keep it a secret from my extended family,” Hebert said. “I only told my parents and my older sister. I couldn’t tell my brothers or my friends, which was kind of hard because I had been harassing my friends for like nine months that this was a possibility.”
Hebert, who is a varsity soccer player and in student council, said he studied with friends and took SAT prep classes to prepare for the PSAT.
After high school Hebert hopes to study biochemistry or molecular biology at the University of Florida at Gainesville but he’s also applied to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tulane and Texas A&M.
“The nature intertwining with the campus was really cool [at Florida],” he said. “I liked all the social areas, it being in Florida, their medical school placement rates, and they’re generally well-known for their exceptional STEM programs.”
Hebert’s family in Louisiana and his love for the Carolinas, were just a couple of the things besides their education that drew him to the other two out-of-state schools. He also decided on Texas A&M as his “Texas fallback school” rather than The University of Texas because he prefers College Station to Austin.
After becoming a National Merit Semifinalist there are steps students must take before qualifying as a finalist. Hebert must complete an application, write an essay, earn a score on the SAT or ACT that confirms his PSAT score, receive consistently high grades and get endorsed and recommended by a school official. He will find out in February whether or not he is a finalist.
“To be able to claim something as uniquely mine, even though it is 13,000 people nationwide – to be able to say I’m the only at KPARK is super cool for me,” Hebert said.
