These numbers by school were surprising to me as I thought that places like MIT, Harvard, etc would have a very high percentage of their freshmen as NMF. Upthread someone mentioned that many kids never take the PSAT/SAT, instead doing the ACT which I guess makes some sense.
It would be interesting to see the % of freshmen/college that are NMF but once again, I guess it would not show much if large numbers are not taking the PSAT. Any idea what percentage of high school juniors actually take the PSAT?
: Any idea what percentage of high school juniors actually take the PSAT?
By my calculations, about 34 percent. Highest states:
Connecticut - 72.4%
Maine - 69.5%
New Jersey - 64.6%
District of Columbia - 61.7%
Massachusetts - 60.1%
New York - 56.5%
Delaware - 55.8%
Maryland - 55.0%
Vermont - 54.4%
New Hampshire - 49.3%
Texas - 48.2%
: These numbers by school were surprising to me as I thought
: that places like MIT, Harvard, etc would have a very high
: percentage of their freshmen as NMF.
It used to be much higher. Here’s the NMF drops from HYPMS over 15 years, 2003 to 2018:
Harvard, -230 (425 to 195)
Yale, -130 (254 to 124)
Stanford, -106 (263 to 157)
Princeton, -100 (190 to 90)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, -27 (174 to 147)
The above ^^ NMF drops at HYPMS likely are due to a more-recent wider geographical diversity of enrolled students there – more are coming from ACT/non-SAT-testing areas (?)
: The above ^^ NMF drops at HYPMS likely are due to a more-recent
: wider geographical diversity of enrolled students there – more are
: coming from ACT/non-SAT-testing areas (?)
That could be some of it. Some of it is probably more high-value NM scholarships available from other schools (or at least awareness of those scholarships), combined with the skyrocketing cost of 4-year private schools for upper-middle-class families. Some of it is probably less of a focus on SAT/ACT scores at HYPMS and more of a holistic view of students. I don’t think it’s just one factor.
It looks like at the same time high ranking colleges raised cost and stopped giving money to merit scholars, low ranking colleges increased scholarship amounts to manipulate good students with money as they can’t attract them with ranking, prestige etc.
: Lower-ranked schools have given large scholarships
: for NMS for decades now. This isn’t a new thing.
That’s true but a little misleading.
When I was a NMF back in 1995, there were only two schools I knew about that offered big money for National Merit: SE Missouri State and the University of Houston. So I picked one of them. There may have been others, but they didn’t contact me, and there was barely a World Wide Web at that point to do research on.
When my wife was a NMF in 1993, she only had big National Merit offers from those two schools and Bradley. She was at the top Catholic high school in Chicagoland, so if there were other nearby opportunities, she probably would have known about them.
Conversely, if my son becomes a NMF in a couple years, a quick search on the Internet and he’ll find a couple dozen full tuition and full rides without breaking a sweat – and some from state flagships and STEM-focused publics generally considered more prestigious than the offers we had. So while some large NMF scholarships have always been out there, it’s a completely different environment that it was a couple decades ago.
@mdpmdp, that’s true, they are easier to find now. Then as now, it’s more the schools in the south offering them, though. I also graduated from HS in IL in the early 90’s and back then, A&M in TX sent all of us who had scored high enough on the PSAT to be NMSF mail asking us to apply, promising some big scholarship (full-tuition or full-ride).
@siclocusest: UTD gives close to COA for NMS currently and they are among the top 25 schools when you rank by alumni placement in to the most desirable software companies: https://m.slashdot.org/story/208691
@yearstogo I think the list shows NMS, not NMF. Since going to a place like Harvard and MIT doesn’t convert an NMF to an NMS the way going to a place like UTDallas does, they will only have NMFs who became NMS by getting the $2500 or corporate NM scholarship, not the ones who become NMS through a college NM scholarship. So the numbers of NMS will be lower.
@BunnyBlue Exactly correct. Unless you are one of the only 2,500 students who are directly given National Merit Scholar status and scholarship from National Merit Foundation, you need a college or parent’s employer to give you a scholarship in order for you to become a scholar. Obviously, schools offering money to finalists have more scholars to show as they are buying scholar status for them while finalists going to non scholarship schools like Ivies don’t become scholar and can’t be listed unless they already have an independent National Merit Scholar status.
These colleges are literally creating their own scholars by funding finalists. It’s a deceptive count. Unless all colleges give similar scholarship money, it’s no badge of honor to flaunt falsely inflated statistics. If a college is worth it, they won’t need to offer bribes to manipulate middle class students.
That being said, all colleges should bring COA down for worthy students so students don’t have to make decisions based on money.
I recall in the 80s the schools with big NMF awards were Texas based: UT-Austin, U of Houston and Texas A&M. There were likely more but those were the ones I was aware of in Louisiana. I almost took the deal at UT-Austin.
@CupCakeMuffins - “bribes to manipulate middle class students” is a funny way to look at it. It make it seems like these kids are getting tricked and making a horrible decision by earning a degree and graduating without paying $100,000-200,000 for it.
“These colleges are literally creating their own scholars”
I don’t see why this is a bad thing.
Do we not want colleges to create scholars?
On the other hand, I think it’s great that there are people who hold the same view you do. The fewer applicants there are looking for big merit awards for NMS, the more generous merit awards for NMS will be (and vice versa).
Schools have successfully used merit scholarships to raise their profile. Duke, UNC, USC, Vandy, among others. You may not have been around, @cupcakemuffins, but Duke use to have the same reputation as USC now generations ago (and USC had a reputation as a party school for rich kids who couldn’t get in to a UC).
Both have successfully employed strategic use of merit money to raise their academic profile. I don’t think those folks who went to those schools on big merit scholarships have minded.
@CupCakeMuffins “That being said, all colleges should bring COA down for worthy students so students don’t have to make decisions based on money.”
Wow. There is so much to unpack here. First the concept of “worthy” students–how are you defining worthy? Is a gifted student with perfect scores/GPA with minimal effort more “worthy” than the student with just slightly lower stats who has worked hard to earn those? Is “worthy” the kid that fits the need that a school is looking to fill, even if your kid doesn’t match that need? Don’t most parents view their kids as “worthy”?
One could argue that schools that “meet full need” are bringing the COA down for “worthy students” already. The disconnect comes when the school determines a family can pay more than the family thinks it should pay. Schools don’t care how you are spending your money, just that it is there in the first place. If you have assets they expect you to sell them, if you are supporting extended family that doesn’t really matter–those are your money choices. The school won’t put itself in a position to judge your spending–what matters is what is coming in and what assets you have.
And finally, money plays into most life decisions–where you live, which job you take, if/where you vacation, how many kids you have, where they go to school, the food you buy, the clothes you wear, and so on–it is ridiculous to think that money wouldn’t be part of the decision in choosing a college.
Count me among the thankful for big merit scholarships. Rather than a bribe, I see it as a transaction–a student is willing to “sell” their academic or other abilities to a school in exchange for the scholarship. Nobody is forcing a student to accept the deal.