<p>Which Schools have the most national merit scholars and why?</p>
<p>A lot of them converge at top private unis but Harvard must have the most of them. </p>
<p>Why? This is how I see it but I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Top private unis are attracted to most elite students. but top private unis are very expensive...unlike top public unis that give scholarship grants and discounts to their in-state students so to be able to go to a top private uni, he must have a scholarship grant to waive for the high tuition costs. </p>
<p>Why most of them are in Harvard? I'm not really sure why. It could be the "fit" factor. Loyalty could be the reason for the others. To some, convenience it is. I don't really know unless we ask all of them why they chose Harvard over schools like Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Virginia, Michigan, Columbia, UPenn, Rice and the like.</p>
<p>i think Stanford and UT Austin have the most. A lot of national merit scholars choose to stay at their state schools b/c natl merit will cover for a lot of their tuition. if you go to a school where natl merit isn't uncommon (duke for example) then they do not take or get natl merit scholarships.</p>
<p>What does it take to be a National Merit Scholar?</p>
<p>like 218 ....</p>
<p>It really depends on what state you live in. Rural states such as Alabama and Arkansas tend to have lower cutoffs than states like Massachusetts or Connecticut.</p>
<p>I think University of Oklahoma has a lot, because they actively recruit nationwide and offer very nice scholarship packages.</p>
<p>I was reading in another thread that AL had a 212 cutoff last year (surprised me, b/c that's pretty well stationed in the middle of all states) but yeah, it really depends on state.. because AR was 206 and I believe MA was 222</p>
<p>Yeah, it's very difficult if you live in New England or California...217-222 on average. Most states are in the 210-215 area</p>