<p>UChicago still has the most, despite the talk of what Harvard would have in an alternate universe.</p>
<p>1) UChicago: 255 (5,400 students)
2) USC: 254 (17,380 students)
3) Harvard: 248 (6,655 students)
4) Northwestern: 235 (8,425 students)</p>
<p>And since UChicago has a smaller student body, it has more per capita than the other top few.</p>
<p>And here is how things have changed since 2008, when the totals were:</p>
<p>Harvard: 285
Northwestern: 249
USC: 231
UChicago: 196</p>
<p>Harvard’s count has dropped from 285 to 248 and UChicago’s has increased from 196 to 255.</p>
<p>Oh come on, the point of this thread was to identify which schools enroll the most National Merit Scholars who won the $2,500 National Merit award, not what schools choose to pander to every National Merit Finalist by sponsoring them.</p>
<p>Harvard enrolls the most National Merit Scholars and it’s not even close. There’s no reason to embarrass a great school like Chicago by comparing it to Harvard.</p>
<p>If that was your intent golden boy, this thread is worthless. What you have really asked is which non-merit aid school has the highest test scores. Well Doh! There is only one choice, which the whole world knows.</p>
<p>
Well again, winning the $2,500 NMS award requires high test scores initially but then at the Finalist stage, all students still in the running have to submit a formal recommendations that include a variety of components like essays, recommendations, academic transcripts, lists of awards and accomplishments, etc. which are all evaluated when NMSC selects the ultimate winners. So, it’s interesting than an outside source like NMSC is confirming that the same usual suspects enroll the "best’ students after conducting its own independent and thorough review process.</p>
<p>Good for USC and the like for going aggressively after the National Merit Finalists though…they are all undoubtedly great students.</p>