UChicago #1 in National Merit Scholars

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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<p>You are correct that there are 3 sources of National Merit scholarship money. National Merit expects to award about 2500 National Merit scholarships (funded by NMSC), about 1000 corporate-sponsored awards, & about 4800 college-sponsored awards this year. The numbers in the annual report are for National Merit Scholars only - they do not include the other 6700+ National Merit Finalists who did not receive a National Merit scholarship.</p>

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<p>Rhg3rd, I understand where you are come from. I agree the total number of NMS in a sponsor school is inflated by school sponsored awards compared to the number in a non sponsor school. But I also think your numbers are skewed in favor of non sponsor schools. First of all, I suspect the likelihood of winning $2,500 NMSC’s scholarship is small for NMFs who will receive scholarship award from a corp or the school they intend to attend since NMSC naturally wants as many students as possible to get money regardless the source of fund. Second, the school or corp sponsored awards usually are of larger amount, so NMFs who are going to a sponsor school would want to elect the school’s award unless they are in a somewhat rare situation that award from NMSC benefits them more AND also fully aware of the situation (like Gooddaddy). I image not many of NMFs in this situation (you have to receive both need based and merit based scholarship in UChicago to be in this situation). Take uchicago as example, roughly 10% students get merit scholarship, 60% get some sort of need based aid, 10%x60%=6%. So 6% NMFs going to UChicago interested in running for NMSC’s award vs. 100% in a non sponsor school, and among those running, likely they are not considered equally to the ones going to a non sponsor school. So you see the problem with your numbers.</p>

<p>By the way, not trying to undermine the achievement, but I doubt top schools care much about NMF status. IMHO, it is much harder to get into these top schools than being a NMS. It is a test score based award anyway, why not just look at SAT/ACT mid range instead of arguing about who has more “true” NMS?</p>

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<p>Chicago really is improving, it has more real National Merit Scholars than any university besides HYPSM, Penn, Duke, and Columbia this year!!</p>

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<p>@goldenboy8784
First of, don’t forget to adjust for the larger student bodies at Duke, Upenn, Columbia (close to double UChicago’s) and even Harvard to an extent.
Next, look at it this way: If a student has UChicago as his or her top choice, then they would certainly drop out of the running for the NMS in lieu of a larger award and a direct acceptance to UChicago (if offered). Therefore a good portion of “real” NMS candidates, who would probably eventually choose UChicago, dropped out of the running. Yes, it’s easy to make the arguement that if UChicago had not sponsored these awards, they would have fewer than 300 NMS’s, but it is as easy to argue that they would have more than 86 “real” NMS winners had they not done the same. At this point, it is difficult to speculate what UChicago’s “real” number would have been, but let us look at a few other metrics to see if your (implied) statement passes the sniff test:</p>

<p>SAT Score Ranges
School (CR/M/W)

  1. Harvard College (700-800/710-790/710-800)
  2. Yale University (700-790/700-800/710-790)
  3. Princeton University (700-790/710-800/700-790)
  4. University of Chicago (710-780/710-790/700-780)
  5. Columbia University (690-780/700-790/690-780)
  6. Stanford University (680-780/700-790/700-780)
  7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (670-770/740-800/680-770)
  8. University of Pennsylvania (660-750/690-780/670-770)
  9. Duke University (660-750/690-780/670-770)</p>

<p>Percent of freshmen in each SAT score range
School (700-800/600-699/500-599/400-499)

  1. University of Chicago (83/16/1/0)
  2. Yale University (78/20/2/0)
  3. Harvard College (77/19/3/1)
  4. Princeton University (77/21/2/0)
  5. Columbia University (73/24/3/0)
  6. Stanford University (69/27/4/0)
  7. University of Pennsylvania (62/33/6/0)
  8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (61/32/6/1)
  9. Duke University (57/34/8/1)</p>

<p>High School GPA
School (3.75+/3.5-3.74/3.25-3.49/3.0-3.24)
1.Stanford University (92/5/2/1)
2. Harvard College (87/9/3/1)
2. University of Pennsylvania (88/7/4/1)
3. University of Chicago (84/12/3/1)
3. Princeton University (85/10/4/1)
Yale University (Not Reported)
Duke University (Not Reported)
Columbia University (Not Reported)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Not Reported)</p>

<p>High School Class Rank
School (Top Tenth/Top Quarter/Top Half/Bottom Half)

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (97/99/100/0)
  2. University of Chicago (97/99/100/0)
  3. Yale University (96/100/100/0)
  4. University of Pennsylvania (96/99/100/0)
  5. Harvard College (95/99/99/1)
  6. Stanford University (94/99/100/0)
  7. Princeton University (93/99/100/0)
  8. Duke University (90/97/99/1)
    Columbia University (Not Reported)</p>

<p>Sources:
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/duke-university[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/duke-university&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/harvard-college[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/harvard-college&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/yale-university[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/yale-university&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/princeton-university[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/princeton-university&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/university-of-pennsylvania[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/university-of-pennsylvania&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/columbia-university[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/columbia-university&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/university-of-chicago[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/university-of-chicago&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/stanford-university[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/stanford-university&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/massachusetts-institute-of-technology[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/massachusetts-institute-of-technology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Note: I am just comparing universities that Goldenboy had cited. Also, the above list is subject to human error.</p>

<p>Now, there are two things that the NMS metric tells us. The quality of students, and the satisfaction of students (a student who receives a scholarship is happier than one who does not). To argue that UChicago does worse in the former does sound quite ridiculous in lieu of the metrics I have just cited, and UChicago clearly does the best in the latter.</p>

<p>While I think UChicago is better than HYP etc. I don’t think so because of the above metrics, or any for that matter (I was in fact the first one to point out UChicago’s unfair advantage regarding NMS stats on the first page). Nor do I think Duke is any worse for it’s poor show in the above stats. There are enough intangibles that may affect the above to render them useless. I just thought I’d correct any misapprehensions that goldenboy et al may have regarding the quality of UChicago students. These numbers are for last year, but I think that, given UChicago’s increase in number of applications this year, these metrics would only improve in it’s favor.</p>

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<p>happyfit, Read the stats of the NMF/MNS regarding SAT scores, class ranks, honors,etc. They do outperformed in every one. Once my daughter became a semifinalist she was heavily pursuit by all top schools including Harvard and Yale. In my opinion and experience top schools do care for the top students of the NMC. It is very important to be in that list and recognized as such. Thanks to this thread , I just find out that she was indeed a NMS with NMSC award , she just do not claimed. UChicago gave her a small School Merit Scholarship.</p>

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<p>Realeducation, I think I did overlooked the regional factor. Being 1 of 11 NMFs out of the whole PR is quite a difference picture from being 1 out 11 NMFs from your school (it is not unusual to have 11 or more NMFs from a competitive high school in many states). I was not saying NMF/NMS do not outperform their peers, they do. I was try to make the point that there are too many academic overachievers applying for these top schools, that the performance from a single test in a single day become not such a big deal for these schools. I said they don’t care NMF/NMS status that much in this context.
Yes, your daughter lost $4,000 and a certificate (not the University Scholarship one, they have another one for NMS if that matters) only because she (and you! :slight_smile: ) forgot to fax in the form to claim it. Uchicago also lost 1 headcount from the total of 303. I can totally see something like that happens when you have enough stresses trying to decide which college to attend. So prospies and parents, for both you and UChicago’s benefit, once you know you are coming, fax in the form to name UChicago your first choice school if you have not already done so.</p>

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<p>Happyfit, did you know Puerto Rico’s total population? To be eligible for scholarship high school juniors must score among the top 1% of the test takers in their home state, or territory in our case. Hers high school is a private, very competitive one that send students to the top universities every single year. Besides being an NMS,she was also a National AP Scholar and a Presidential Scholar finalist. I do not forgot to fax anything, she was totally in charge of everything related to her college application. She did not claimed it because she though someone in more need for the money may used it. But as I’m typing this , I’m also communicating with the NMC to ensure that she also received her well earned NMS certificate.</p>

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<p>

Its my understanding that the direct NMSC award takes precedence over corporate and school sponsorship so the organization allows winners of their grand award to take the best merit money option but still be recognized as an official National Merit winner.Obviously if they aren’t selected as one of the overall winners, then these students drop out of the main pool and are considered for school (like UChicago) and corporation (like Dow Chemicals) sponsorship only and would receive recognition that way.</p>

<p>I think the 220 or so “UChicago National Merit winnes” were eliminated from the main competition but won the school award because they became National Merit Finalists per the university’s policy.</p>

<p>Can someone chime in here and confirm?</p>

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<p>Goldenboy, I really do not know. UChicago gave her $5,000 a year School Merit Scholarship , we did not applied for Financial Aid. I’m sure the university knew about her NMF status.As a matter of fact it was the only one that did among the schools that accepted her, including Ivies. My advice is to call the NMSC directly and find out from them. Good Luck !!</p>

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<p>RealEducation, my apologies. I thought I read somewhere that your daughter forgot to fax in the 1st choice school form and assumed you forgot too. I did recognize that being 1 of 11 NMFs out of entire PR is in a different context (more impressive) from being 1 of 11+ NMFs among one’s high school though. Congratulation on your daughter’s so many accomplishments. I am glad UChicago won her over from her other fine choices.
Goddenboy, my understanding is when a NMF refuses to name his/her first choice school before NMSC sponsored award come out (sometime between late Feb – Mid March?), he/her opts him(her)/self out of the running for the one time $2,500 award to ensure he later get larger award from his sponsor school.</p>

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<p>happyfit, do not worried. I do not know about the NMF deadlines and such. She is a very independent young lady, and want it to do it all by herself. We just paid…We have no idea she declined the award until last night. Typical, she wants to save the world, president of her high school community service club, etc. Congratulations on your kid too. They are great students in a great university. We are two great, and proud Moms.</p>