<p>UChicago 255
USC 254
Harvard 248
Northwestern 235
Vanderbilt 226
Washington U. in St. Louis 218
University of Oklahoma 204
Yale 194
Auburn 181
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa 181
Rice 166
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 166
Texas A&M 159
Princeton 154
Stanford 139
MIT 128</p>
<p>See pages 38-40:
<a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf</a></p>
<p>Schools with higher scholar numbers do not mean they are better than those with lower numbers. Auburn, Oklahoma and Alabama beat most ivies plus Stanford and MIT, but no one in this forum will think they are even peers with these top private institutions.</p>
<p>The threshold to become a NMS is not particularly high, especially when you consider that there are essentially 16,000 NMF’s who have the automatic option of becoming NMS if they accept the full rides to Auburn, UA, A&M et al.</p>
<p>Obviously, NMS per capita is the figure we’re looking for. The public schools would drop out, and larger schools like Vanderbilt and Northwestern would be pushed a bit downwards as well. UChicago would still be #1, with Harvard at #2 and Yale at #3.</p>
<p>NMS per capita is the more relevant figure, but, by that measure, Rice is #1, with UChicago at #2 and Harvard at #3. Still quite impressive.</p>
<p>@YogaMom1
Rice has 925 (3708/4=927) enrolled students a year, so it’s NMS Per Capita would be:
166/925 = 0.179
Chicago has 1400 (5134/4=1283.5; however it’s class size has increased) enrolled students a year, so it’s NMS Per Capita would be:
255/1400 = 0.182 or, takings it’s average class size, 255/1283 = 0.198</p>
<p>Either way, Chicago does beat Rice (and every other university for that matter) but by a very minor margin.</p>
<p>@ProspectUNI
This thread may shed some light:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1281257-what-american-universities-enroll-most-national-merit-scholars-10.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1281257-what-american-universities-enroll-most-national-merit-scholars-10.html</a>
Be sure to check out the previous pages as well.</p>
<p>The long and short of it is that any NMF can receive a sponsored award from a company or university (if said university chooses to provide it assuming the candidate chooses to enroll at that university). </p>
<p>This does skew the result in favor of certain universities (UChicago and Northwestern included).</p>
<p>I also had this similar questions. So, for example, UChicago’s Merit Scholar is 255. Out of those 174 were awarded by UChicago and the rest 81 got the scholarship either from NM Corp. or from parent’s company, right? On the other hand, Harvard has 248 who got from only NMC or company, correct? However, this doesn’t necessarily mean Harvard has less NMFs than UChicago has since there might be many NMFs who didn’t get any scholarships. This is also true for UChicago, but we don’t know indeed which school has more NMFs, right?</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton do not offer national “merit” scholarships. Period. They have complete “financial need” scholarships only. Chicago, on the other hand, offers actual national merit scholarships along with financial scholarships. The total number of national merit “finalists” for each school is exactly that. Whether they get actual “award” or not is not considered. The total numbers are accurate.</p>
<p>My daughter was a NMF last year. One of the only 11 in Puerto Rico.My mailbox was full of letters from many Top/Ivy Universities including Harvard. Now a happy Class of 2016 UChicago, No NMF money , but a small Merit Scholarship.Well received since we do not qualified for Financial Aid.</p>
<p>gravitas2, sorry but where do you see the total number of national merit finalists for each school?</p>
<p>Wait…so if you are a NMF but not a NMS and end up at Harvard, you wouldn’t be considered a NMS since you don’t receive anything and wouldn’t be listed here, right? Whereas the opposite is true at UoC.</p>
<p>RealEducation, how did your D end up as NMF at U of Chicago, yet not have the U of Chicago NMF award? It is not big… but there is something for all four years, I thought. Just asking, as it is something we are considering across the schools where my D is accepted.</p>
<p>Here is what the U of Chicago web site says for this year for NMF:</p>
<p>“If your award is sponsored by the University of Chicago, it will be in the amount of $1,000 (for students with no financial need) or $2,000 (for students with financial need) and is renewable for four years.”</p>
<p>Maybe it was different last year?</p>
<p>My D also has a small-ish merit scholarship from U of C, but I was assuming she could also get one of these as well on top of that (not sure yet what they think about our “financial need”, still working with them).</p>
<p>“Wait…so if you are a NMF but not a NMS and end up at Harvard, you wouldn’t be considered a NMS since you don’t receive anything and wouldn’t be listed here, right? Whereas the opposite is true at UoC.”</p>
<p>I would think nearly any NMF admitted to Harvard would have the qualifications to make NM Scholar, but it is possible that a few NMFs at Harvard are not included in the total. I think it is also possible that a few NMFs at UChicago are not included in the total because I believe they only get the NM scholarship from UChicago if they notify NMSC by a certain date that Chicago is their first choice. I think that may be what happened with realeducation’s daughter. It seems that she was saying in her post that her NMF daughter got a university merit scholarship, not a NMF scholarship from UChicago. Bottom line, a few NMFs may not be included in either school’s total, so it is sort of a wash, and it’s reasonable to go with the numbers truth123 posted.</p>
<p>She did not enroll in Uchicago as a NMF. If a remember correctly , once you are a National Merit Semifinalist, you can only choose one university as your top choice in the program. Hers was Columbia, at the beginning of her senior year, when the semifinalist are announced. By the time she became a finalist , her choices were different. Regardless , you are a NMF no matter where you end up attending. We did not apply for financial aid because our income bracket, and were nicely surprised with the small merit scholarship.</p>
<p>They have 255 NMSs, and, of those, 81 got the one-time $2500 scholarship from NMSC. The rest opted out of the running for that money to get a larger NM scholarship from either a corporate sponsor or from UChicago if it was their first choice.</p>
<p>You only choose one school as your first choice, but that choice can change. My daughter had Chicago as number one hoping it might give her a boost for merit money ( that did not work, BTW). She ended up choosing another school in the end.</p>
<p>@yogamom, exactly.</p>
<p>yogamom, I think the rest (174) has got the scholarship from UChicago, and 81 got from either NMSC or corporate sponsors. It’s not a really big deal though ^^</p>
<p>Another question is whether this $1,000 or $2,000 UChicago NMF scholarship is going to be replaced by the school grant? Meaning you don’t actually have any benefit of being NMF for UChicago where you’re supposed to have need-based grant?</p>