NU '13 ranks #2 in National Merit Scholars

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
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<p>Harvard, you're next!</p>

<p>(Not really)</p>

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<p>There is a problem with this calculation. It should be rather than measuring the number of national merits, they should measure the percent of national merit. That is what states do in ranking schools with national merit students. Some schools have much less kids (aka liberal arts school), making it difficult to actually measure up.</p>

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<p>I would take your critique more seriously if you didn’t make a very simple grammar mistake.</p>

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<p>We often referred to Northwestern as the Harvard of the Midwest…maybe soon Harvard will become the Northwestern of the East…!</p>

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<p>lol… doubtful, but good try. again, alluding to an underlying Ivy-League reject syndrome. I think absolute numbers are appropriate. It’s not like there are tons of them.</p>

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<p>^ No, not Ivy League. Just Harvard. Harvard would do well for itself whether or not it’s a member of the Ivy League. I think Harvard of the Midwest is a fine term.</p>

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<p>I mean of course it’s fine to say but you can’t dream of using it the other way around (unfortunately).</p>

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<p>It’s not like there are tons of them? You’re right. There are thousands! </p>

<p>Did you notice how high UT-Austin is always ranked? If UT-Austin’s enrollment was the size of Harvard’s, a few of the nat’l merit people might be out. Likewise, Havard only has x seats per year, so they knowingly reject nat’l merit students (even those who apply early and have harvard as a top choice).</p>

<p>Ignoring the simple math of admissions, you also ignore the math of averages. UT-Austin may have as many Nat’l Merit students as Stanford, but the bottom 90% of UT is woeful compared to the bottom 90% of Stanford. Statistically, students who attend NU/Harvard/Stanford/MIT etc. are more likely to engage with a National Merit student on a regular basis than at UT-Austin, or even USC.</p>

<p>This is basic statistics. The only way your post is anything but misguided is if you genuinely don’t care how smart the bottom 90% of the student body is.</p>

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<em>emphasis mine</em></p>

<p>You haven’t proven the bolded statement. Until you do, there isn’t any reason to conclude that we should care about the credentials of the bottom 90% at all.</p>

<p>Unless you can impact the probability of interacting with a National Merit Scholar, I just don’t care in any case.</p>