Our student has bumped into limitations due to attending school out of home state. For example, the US Senate Youth Program explicitly does not welcome students who attend school outside of their parents’ state of legal residence. The US Senate Page program informally has the same policy. It can be very frustrating.
Does anyone know any out of state boarding students who received National Merit Scholarship awards?
I feel like there was a discussion about NMS recently. That boarding schools have their own category. They aren’t considered as part of the state they are located or the test takers Home state. They are compensated against other boarding school students. But I could be totally wrong.
Well, you’re close.
BS students are lumped together by region. And the state within that region that has the highest NMSF cutoff score is the score which will apply to the BS students within that region. So as an example, for New England, MA usually has the highest cutoff, but if the student goes to St. George’s in RI, s/he will not get NMSF unless s/he meets/exceed that MA number. Students attending mid-Atlantic BSs are in a different region. But yes, a BS student can still be a NMF.
Anyone know why boarding schools don’t seem to “advertise” national merit students like public schools do?
And @skieuope - so for a kid from RI that goes to BS in CA, are you saying NMSF would be based on CA number, the highest in that region?
“Anyone know why boarding schools don’t seem to “advertise” national merit students like public schools do?”
Because, except for PEA and PAA, boarding schools do not have many NMSF. Generally a lot fewer - both in numbers and as a percentage of the class - than a “good” public school.
Interesting @SatchelSF
Do you think kids at BS are preparing for PSAT? My son’s school actually discouraged it; but not sure that is common.
PSAT prep seems to be a focus at a few publics in FL and CA where they have like 20-40 NMSF in one school. Esp in FL where it’s a real anomaly (other top publics in FL have 3-8 each) - I have to think the couple schools with 20-40 are spending time on test prep.
@SatchelSF It may be indicative of the concern originally raised. Is it that BS kids don’t score well enough? is it because BS kids are held to the highest standard? is it because certain NM awards are granted by state and BS kids are somewhat without a state?
I do know that many BS don’t have their students take PSAT until junior year, to minimize the stress factor on these often highly wound populations.I think most public schools have 10th and 11th graders take it, so they have a year of practice under their belts for the 11th grade sitting which is the one that is used to determine if a student will be awarded a National Merit scholarship.
@sunnyschool Yes, a kid from RI who goes to BS in CA would have their scores have to compete with students from the CA BS region. I don’t know if that region only includes CA. I do know if a kid from CA goes to BS in CT, his score will be measured by the highest state score in the NE boarding school compact, which as someone else noted, includes several schools and MA typically has the highest score. So kid from CA, goes to school in CT, score has to qualify based on MA cut off. Talk about a man without an island.
Well, @sunnyschool, I’m not an expert on all BS of course, but I think it is a combination of factors that leads to relatively low percentage of NMSF at almost all BS. The course load is generally tough, the kids are busy with a lot more than academics, and I think there is a conscious culture of “not teaching to the test” in general (you can see this in how some schools - such as SPS or St. Andrew’s in Delaware and there are others - take pride in not offering “AP” classes).
However, I think the primary reason is that boarding schools are looking to admit students on a wide range of criteria, only some of which have to do with intelligence or academics. So, I think on average the student bodies at even the “best” boarding schools are not as smart - again, on average - as the students at the “best” (and perhaps even the merely “very good”) public schools. It’s just impossible to square the data otherwise.
For instance, top magnet high schools regularly have NMSF exceeding 10% of the class - even some open enrollment good high schools in places like Silicon Valley or suburban Boston have numbers that high. The most selective magnet schools, and private schools that screen for very high intelligence (e.g., the NYC elite high schools, parochial Regis High School in NYC, Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia, etc., the private Harker School in CA) can have numbers that regularly exceed 20% of the class. And I can assure you there is no hand holding or PSAT test prep at those places.
It’s basically who you accept that determines the numbers. At the extreme, Davidson Academy in Nevada, where they can only take kids who are at least 3 standard deviations above the mean in intelligence (top 0.1 - 0.3%), the NMSF percentage is approaching 70-75% most years (although they are helped a little of course by the easier selection in index in Nevada, as opposed to California, Massachusetts or NY).
It is hard to find numbers for most boarding schools, but from what I have been able to gather, PEA regularly has 10-15% of the class NMSF, PAA about 8-10%, Choate maybe 4-6%, and the rest lower, with many even “elite” places like Hotchkiss and sometimes Cate and Thacher generally having no more NMSF than one would expect from a random draw of PSAT takers across the country. I for one would appreciate if people could post actual data, because as I said the data are not easy to come by. Hope that helps!
Thanks - that is a great explanation. @SatchelSF @grandscheme