If you ask these semi-finalists why Fayetteville produces so many National Merit qualifying students year after year, they'll tell you living in a college town helps. "I think it's just such a rich, academically challenging environment here, and we have great teachers and a wonderful student body that gets into academic competition," says semi-finalist Zane Placke. Semi-Finalist Louise Li says, "I think it's just that we're all really competitive and we have really good teachers here." Fayetteville High School came in second in the state with a total of 16 National Merit semi-finalists, just behind Little Rock Central with 17. Bentonville, Springdale and Rogers had far fewer qualifying students. "It seems every year we do better than they do, maybe not on the football field but definitely in the classroom," says semi-finalist Paul St. Clair. Many of these seniors say as they look to the future, they're looking at places outside of Arkansas. "I'm looking at Hendrix, North Carolina, Georgia, Duke, Stanford. I went down to Trinity University in San Antonio recently," says semi-finalist David Zweig. "Hopefully somewhere out of state. I'm not really sure yet I'm still looking at my options but I'm hoping to go to medical school," says Li.
