National Merit Scholars 2007 - Which schools have the most?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Sorted by the number of National Merit Scholarship winners NOT sponsored by the school itself. I had to do some gymnastics with excel to get the list to look like this. I hope I didn't make any mistakes. Schools with fewer than 4 NMS recipients are excluded.</p>

<p>number of NMS recipients not sponsored by school itself, total NMS recipients, number of NMS recipients sponsored by the school, name of school </p>

<p>285 285 0 Harvard College<br>
183 183 0 Yale University<br>
179 179 0 Princeton University<br>
164 164 0 Stanford University<br>
138 138 0 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
115 115 0 University of Pennsylvania<br>
90 90 0 Duke University<br>
80 80 0 Brown University<br>
64 159 95 Rice University<br>
63 249 186 Northwestern University<br>
62 62 0 Columbia University<br>
62 62 0 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
60 60 0 UC Berkeley<br>
56 172 116 Vanderbilt University<br>
51 283 232 U Texas Austin<br>
51 51 0 Dartmouth College<br>
50 204 154 Washington University in St. Louis
47 47 0 Cornell University (New York)<br>
46 46 0 University of Notre Dame<br>
40 196 156 University of Chicago<br>
40 40 0 Georgetown University<br>
39 173 134 Texas A&M University College Station
39 166 127 UNC Chapel Hill<br>
38 175 137 University of Oklahoma<br>
38 38 0 University of Virginia<br>
36 231 195 University of Southern California<br>
36 168 132 University of Florida<br>
36 36 0 California Institute of Technology<br>
31 31 0 Carnegie Mellon University<br>
28 84 56 U Illinois Urbana-Champaign<br>
28 28 0 UC Los Angeles<br>
27 100 73 Georgia Institute of Technology<br>
25 118 93 Ohio State University-Columbus
25 95 70 Brigham Young University<br>
25 29 4 U Wisconsin Madison
24 24 0 Johns Hopkins University<br>
23 150 127 Arizona State University<br>
23 96 73 U Minnesota Twin Cities
22 159 137 New York University<br>
22 22 0 Williams College<br>
21 87 66 Purdue University<br>
21 39 18 Case Western ReserveUniversity<br>
20 60 40 Emory University<br>
20 20 0 Swarthmore College<br>
19 83 64 Carleton College<br>
18 24 6 Pomona College<br>
17 44 27 Boston University<br>
17 20 3 University of Pittsburgh<br>
17 17 0 Amherst College<br>
16 68 52 Harvey Mudd College<br>
16 59 43 Tufts University<br>
16 41 25 University of Washington<br>
16 16 0 Middlebury College<br>
15 57 42 Indiana University Bloomington @42
15 45 30 University of Georgia<br>
15 40 25 Iowa State University<br>
14 84 70 Baylor University<br>
14 14 0 UC San Diego<br>
13 73 60 Tuscaloosa<br>
13 68 55 University of Tulsa<br>
13 51 38 U Maryland College Park<br>
13 50 37 Clemson University<br>
13 38 25 Michigan State University<br>
13 13 0 College of William and Mary
12 70 58 University of Arizona<br>
12 66 54 U Nebraska Lincoln<br>
11 26 15 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
11 25 14 Washington and Lee University<br>
11 11 0 Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
10 17 7 Boston College<br>
10 15 5 Pennsylvania State University-University Park<br>
9 42 33 University of Central Florida<br>
9 30 21 Brandeis University<br>
9 21 12 University of Mississippi<br>
9 9 0 Wellesley College<br>
8 43 35 St. Olaf College<br>
8 34 26 Grinnell College<br>
7 53 46 Oberlin College<br>
7 29 22 University of Kentucky<br>
7 21 14 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute<br>
7 21 14 University of Iowa<br>
7 16 9 University of Delaware<br>
7 7 0 University of Colorado at Boulder
6 37 31 Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge
6 32 26 University of Rochester<br>
6 29 23 Bowdoin College<br>
6 29 23 West Virginia University<br>
6 29 23 Wheaton College (Illinois)<br>
6 28 22 Auburn University<br>
6 27 21 Furman University<br>
6 26 20 Oklahoma State University<br>
6 26 20 Southern Methodist University<br>
6 26 20 University of Miami<br>
6 25 19 Mississippi State University<br>
6 22 16 University of Louisville<br>
6 18 12 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
6 16 10 Hillsdale College<br>
6 10 4 Wake Forest University<br>
6 9 3 Davidson College<br>
6 6 0 Reed College<br>
6 6 0 UC Davis<br>
6 6 0 Wesleyan University (Connecticut)<br>
5 36 31 U South Carolina Columbia
5 35 30 University of Kansas<br>
5 30 25 U Texas Dallas<br>
5 27 22 University of Cincinnati<br>
5 25 20 Fordham Bronx<br>
5 23 18 Tulane University<br>
5 21 16 Kenyon College<br>
5 21 16 University of Utah<br>
5 17 12 Colorado State University<br>
5 15 10 Lewis & Clark College
5 14 9 Miami University-Oxford<br>
5 13 8 Loyola University Chicago
5 11 6 Texas Tech University<br>
5 5 0 Cooper Union<br>
5 5 0 Haverford College<br>
5 5 0 Millsaps College<br>
5 5 0 UC Irvine<br>
4 39 35 Macalester College<br>
4 37 33 U Arkansas Fayetteville<br>
4 23 19 Denison University<br>
4 19 15 Whitman College<br>
4 18 14 University of Tennessee, Knoxville
4 17 13 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
4 13 9 Saint Louis University<br>
4 12 8 Rhodes College<br>
4 6 2 Xavier University (Ohio)<br>
4 4 0 Barnard College<br>
4 4 0 California Polytechnic StateUniversity, San Luis Obispo<br>
4 4 0 Grove City College<br>
4 4 0 New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
4 4 0 Smith College</p>

2

<p>The Top Ten for total # of National Merit Scholars, in order, is Harvard 285, Texas 283, Northwestern 249, USC 231, Wash.U.St.L. 204, Chicago 196, Yale 183, Princeton 179, Oklahoma 175 & Texas A&M 173. After the Top Ten, not in order, are Florida 168, Stanford 164, Vanderbilt 172, NYU 159, Rice 159, UNC 166, MIT 138, ASU 150, Ohio State 118 & Penn 115.</p>

3

<p>I think a better way to sort the data is by the percentage of the entering class. All large schools will obviously have an advantage in terms of absolute numbers of NMS students simply because they have lots of students period.</p>

4

<p>Right, presenting raw numbers is totally useless to anyone; it means that big schools are big schools!</p>

5

<p>Percentage is not a better way to present these NMS stats, it is just another way to do so. Whether it is better depends upon your interest in using these stats. For example, I want to know where the most NMS attend college/university. If you want percentages, than just do the work. The OP was interested in knowing where the most NMS attended school without a NMS based scholarship. If you want percentages, Carleton College is a good place to start. If the only conclusion that you can derive from stats showing where the most NMS attend is the size of the school, then I think that you’re not trying very hard. For example, if I were a NMS, I would want to know where the most NMS attend school so that I could investigate the offerings academically, financially and opportunity wise. If I was interested in attending an LAC, then I would want to know both overall #s as well as percentages.</p>

6

<p>I thought about the size issue. As icy9ff8 said, almost everyone is able to make the adjustment mentally for the difference in size between Rice and Texas if they really want to.</p>

<p>But what’s more, student body size doesn’t matter. What matters is the size of the curriculum. NMS winners can go wherever they want. Has any school ever turned down an NMS winner because there wasn’t an empty chair in a classroom? If 300 NMS winners decided to go to Williams, I think Williams would let them in. (As it is, Williams attracted a large number, 22, one more than Purdue.)</p>

<p>From the point of view of an NMS winner, the only things that matter are (1) Does the school have the program I want? (Hence, the curriculum breadth constraint.) and (2) How much do I want to go to that school for that major?</p>

7

<p>“From the point of view of an NMS winner, …”</p>

<p>This is a point of view for anyone, having nothing to do with being an NMS winner.</p>

<p>Consider these pairings from the list:</p>

<p>51 283 232 U Texas Austin
51 51 0 Dartmouth College </p>

<p>22 159 137 New York University<br>
22 22 0 Williams College </p>

<p>20 60 40 Emory University<br>
20 20 0 Swarthmore College </p>

<p>9 21 12 University of Mississippi
9 9 0 Wellesley College </p>

<p>6 10 4 Wake Forest University<br>
6 9 3 Davidson College </p>

<p>If a naive HS student were instructed to use these raw numbers, she would draw false conclusions. Or is U Texas Austin (a fine school) five times better than Wellesley? Raw numbers imply such to the uninitiated.</p>

8

<p>vossron: you are the one misusing the statistics–which is okay, just don’t get angry at others for using them as they see fit. I think that the point some of us are trying to make is that these statistics can help a student investigate choices among welcoming schools for a variety of reasons, such as program availabity, ability to double major in two very different fields, etc. It seems as if you would like every NMS to attend Carlton College or some other LAC with a high percentage of NMS, but Carlton College or Wellesley College are only suitable for a very small percentage of students, and, conversely, unsuitable for a very large percentage of NMS students.</p>

9

<p>it’s important to point out that several schools on this list provide merit money to NMS winners while the Ivies do not. therefore, Ivies are at a comparitive disadvantage when it comes to recruiting them (they can’t offer money). nonetheless, they do pretty well for themselves</p>

10

<p>And that is fine as it gives the NMS students more choices. Most of the scholarships are small, often in the area of $2,000 per year. The Ivies do fine with their self imposed rule prohibiting merit scholarships, but even this can be circumvented with research grants and assistantships.</p>

11

<p>“vossron: you are the one misusing the statistics”</p>

<p>Hmmm. Maybe you can explain how. The raw list is a ranking. I illustrated how relying on the presented ranking can be misleading for someone trying attribute value to it.</p>

12

<p>Only 285 nms students at harvard? I was expecting like 80+% of thier class as nms.</p>

13

<p>A-card:</p>

<p>Don’t forget that Harvard also accepts plenty of ACT kids, who are ineligible for NM. And, more imporantly, there are plenty of Commended kids who end up scoring 2200+ on the SAT.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>Uh, well not because there wasn’t an “empty chair in the classroom”. But sure, there are plenty of schools that reject NMS winners. For example, I know some NMS winners who didn’t get into Harvard and/or MIT. And trust me, there are plenty of empty seats in most classes at Harvard and MIT.</p>

15

<p>not to mention that there are plenty of NMF’s that have a 3.3+, so their four-year transcript immediately disqualifies them for HYPSM. For example, our HS had several NMF’s who couldn’t get into Cal nor UCLA (due to grades), and ended up at a mid-tier UC.</p>

16

<p>Yeah. It’s important to distinguish between actual National Merit Scholars and National Merit Finalists, as there are far more Finalists. Since “National Merit Scholar” is used rather ambiguously in many cases, some statistics can be misleading.</p>

17

<p>The numbers in my list refer to Merit Scholar “awardees”. This is what the NMS organization calls them. i.e. winners, recipients, not finalists</p>

18

<p>About 93% of National Merit Semi-Finalists become National Merit Finalists. Basically they wait for confirmation of the high PSAT score by a reasonably high SAT I score. Along with decent recs. and an essay.</p>

19

<p>@collegehelp: I figured, since there are, what, about 2000 or so actual awardees?</p>

<p>However, I know that several colleges (Carleton, for instance) will grant National Merit-based scholarships to Finalists, as well.</p>

20

<p>Here is the data for the Top 50 National Universities and the Top 20 LACs based on a per capita measurement, ie, % of National Merit Scholars in a class at X college.</p>

<p>Rank , % of class , School
1 , 20.9% , Rice
2 , 17.0% , Harvard
3 , 16.7% , Caltech
4 , 16.3% , U Chicago
5 , 15.0% , Princeton
6 , 13.7% , Yale
7 , 13.4% , MIT
8 , 12.2% , Northwestern
9 , 11.0% , Wash U
10 , 10.8% , Vanderbilt
11 , 10.2% , Stanford
12 , 9.1% , U Tulsa
13 , 9.0% , U Missouri (Rolla)
14 , 5.7% , Duke
15 , 5.5% , USC
16 , 5.3% , Brown
17 , 5.0% , Dartmouth
18 , 4.7% , U Penn
19 , 4.7% , Columbia
20 , 4.7% , Tufts
21 , 3.9% , U North Carolina
22 , 3.8% , Case Western
23 , 3.6% , Emory
24 , 3.6% , Brandeis
25 , 3.5% , U Oklahoma
26 , 3.2% , Georgia Tech
27 , 3.1% , U Texas
28 , 3.0% , NYU
29 , 2.8% , Baylor
30 , 2.6% , U Rochester
31 , 2.3% , Georgetown
32 , 2.2% , Notre Dame
33 , 2.2% , Carnegie Mellon
34 , 2.1% , Johns Hopkins
35 , 1.9% , Texas A&M
36 , 1.9% , U Florida
37 , 1.8% , Samford
38 , 1.7% , SMU
39 , 1.6% , Rensselaer
40 , 1.5% , U Alabama
41 , 1.5% , U Nebraska
42 , 1.5% , Worcester
43 , 1.4% , Arizona State
44 , 1.4% , Clemson
45 , 1.4% , Cornell
46 , 1.4% , Tulane
47 , 1.3% , Fordham
48 , 1.2% , Ohio State
49 , 1.2% , U Minnesota
50 , 1.2% , BYU</p>

<p>Rank , % of class , School
1 , 38.9% , Harvey Mudd
2 , 16.8% , Carleton
3 , 8.6% , Grinnell
4 , 7.5% , Oberlin
5 , 6.7% , Bowdoin
6 , 6.2% , Pomona
7 , 5.7% , W&L
8 , 5.4% , Swarthmore
9 , 4.4% , Williams
10 , 4.2% , Claremont McK
11 , 4.1% , Amherst
12 , 2.7% , Middlebury
13 , 2.2% , Davidson
14 , 1.7% , Haverford
15 , 1.6% , Wellesley
16 , 1.5% , Hamilton
17 , 0.9% , Wesleyan
18 , 0.7% , Vassar
19 , 0.6% , Smith
20 , 0.3% , Colgate
21 , 0.2% , Colby</p>