A record number of local students are among 1,600 semifinalists in the 54th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, including a Cedar Lake student who has been home-schooled.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $35 million, that will be offered to students next year.

Of the 32 students in Northwest Indiana and the south Chicago suburbs who made the second cut, six are from Munster High School, six are from Valparaiso High School and five are from Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School.

Jim Doane, Valparaiso High School principal, said his is extremely proud of the six students who were named National Merit Scholar semifinalists.

"Every year, we've had students who have gone on past the semifinals to become National Merit scholar recipients," he said Tuesday.

"The six we have this year are among our largest group of semifinalists. We're very proud of them. We're going to watch this process closely as the students are whittled down through the remainder of this school year," Doane said.

More than 1.5 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered the 2009 National Merit Program taking the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test.

About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship.