<p>Last year at my school, the graduating class of only about 54 had about 18 semi-finalists. they were a really smart class. i dont know about our semi-finalists this year, but my class of 50 had about 25 commendation which is pretty cool too.</p>
<p>My school had 8 out of a class of 80.</p>
<p>in a class of 650…about 90 nmsf.</p>
<p>47 in a class of about 550</p>
<p>class size: 674
30 semifinalists. We’re a public school too…so our school is probably more of an abnormality</p>
<p>Last year we had around 50 kids…but this year only 30. I guess my class’s caliber isn’t as high as last year’s class’s.</p>
<p>35/205 for 2007</p>
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<p>Interesting. I looked it up, and this is accurate, though the college board website says the number of NMSFs is actually 16,000, and 1.4 million kids take it, but that’s a small difference. Once upon a time (the mid-70s), we were told that it represented the top .5%, or one out of every 200 kids. I assume that was true then, though I can’t find historical evidence.</p>
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<p>6-8 would be a bit above 1%, so that’s about average or just a little above. But there are many public school systems that do better, depending on the demographics. It doesn’t have to be a private school or a magnet school. One regular, neighborhood high school in my area turned out 20 this year out of a class of about 400, so that’s about five times the average. But this is a university town, so it’s not too surprising.</p>
<p>I will ask again… where are these schools located which are churning out 40 and 50 NMSF? Are they private/public? Are they magnet schools? Are they located in certain states?</p>
<p>A school with 500 students would reasonably have 4-5 NMSF. Obviously, the one’s with astronomical numbers are not just “normal” schools. It reinforces in my mind that we have - at least in some parts of this country - an educational system which doesn’t necessarily reward individual meritocracy. It rewards those who have the resources to fund their children’s education by sending them to private schools. I saw a “Cathy” cartoon over the weekend which spoofed this… Cathy’s friend is expecting a baby and she was saying it didn’t matter to her if the child was a boy or a girl but only that the child had already been accepted into the “right” preschool. I have a suspicion that the cartoon was pretty on target for some areas of this country.</p>
<p>In my S’s school, 14 out of 40 seniors (Class of 2007) were NM Semi-Finalists . He attends a private, all-boys Catholic school.</p>
<p>11 NMSF out of class of 375</p>
<p>9 out of 158!</p>
<p>public magnet in ky: 39/450ish</p>
<p>our score was really low this year (208). it’s weird, though, because last year the score was 213 and they had 43. I guess my class isn’t as good?</p>
<p>Does anyone have any insight into how important the essay is in becoming a finalist, versus GPA and SAT scores, etc?</p>
<p>Oldest Son’s class has 11 semifinalists out of 171 students in his senior class, and 16 national merit commended. Crazy class for a public school. My next son’s class had only 6 NMSF and 7 commended for a class about the same size.</p>
<p>My school, to my knowledge, has 4 NMSF. I know at least one commended scholar but I don’t know about the rest. </p>
<p>I’m not positive exactly how big my class is but I’d venture to guess somewhere between 175-200.</p>
<p>At my school we have about…um…25 finalists out of a class of 150-200 students. I know it is a school record. It was up on the school marquee, so I guess I should have remembered. I didn’t get it. My PSAT was bad and didn’t even qualify to be considered, even though my SAT was very good.</p>
<p>An important thing to remember is that for every private/magnet school that has 40 NMSF, there are many more public schools that have none (or very few). My small (70-80 per class), rural upstate public school went 13 years without a Semi. The last one was Class 0f 1995, I’m class of 08. That’s about 1000 kids that went through w/out being NMSF. I wasn’t even in school yet when she won.</p>
<p>12 out of 370 or so… so pretty normal I’d guess</p>
<p>Out of about 600, there were 4 semifinalists last year…so our school sort of sucks, but then again, it’s a public and we’re in Maryland…</p>
<p>But there were only 5 total from our entire COUNTY (of like, 10,000 seniors), and 4 of them were from our school…so we’re also sort of strange in that sense.</p>