<p>When a school is very large and doesn’t have a huge endowment (which usually means it doesn’t have a top ranking), if it wants to improve rank and perhaps get to the point of offering better need-based aid, it needs to build the foundation first. </p>
<p>I covered that part. It’s the distribution of big awards I’m trying to understand. There are low-ranked schools everywhere, but most of them don’t offer NM awards.</p>
<p>It probably depends on how much funding they can get for them. One of my state universities didn’t offer NMF/NMSF scholarships for the last 4 years because they didn’t have the money to fund them. They’ve just recently reinstated the program, though it makes me a bit uneasy to consider going on one of those scholarships because I can’t help thinking, what if they run out of money again?</p>
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That’s exactly the point. At state schools, money comes from the state legislature. If enough legislators have a philosophical problem with it, there will be no budget for it.</p>
<p>In my state we have good merit scholarships, up to full tuition, for GPA + scores. At some schools, the award is automatic. But there are NO general scholarships that include room and board. It’s a mandate driven by someone’s philosophy.</p>
<p>In New Mexico, there’s a scholarship called the Lottery that any student that graduates from a New Mexico high school or passes the GED can receive, regardless of courses taken, grades, other test scores, etc. It pays a large part of tuition. It can help a lot, though it isn’t full ride. </p>
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<p>Most low-ranked schools do not have big goals to rise in the rankings. Many are directional commuter suitcase schools. Their mission is to educate the area’s college students.</p>
<p>the schools that are offering many large NMF awards have a different goal. And those awards aren’t being funded with tax dollars. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what you don’t understand. </p>
The northern schools are the oldest ones in the country and, therefore, have had 100-200 more years than the southern schools to build up their brand. They don’t need to brag about how many NMF they have to project their firmly established prestige.
The rising southern schools are newer kids on the block and are still working on building their brands. It helps their image to boast they have lots of NMF (i.e. smart kids who are the 1%).
As far as the number of freshmen and sophomores taking the PSAT, I know our local HS (we homeschool) requires all sophomores to take the test, then they pick the juniors with high scores, train them, and have them take the test as juniors. Other juniors can take the test, but it isn’t encouraged. This way the school has a large number of finalists every year, making them look very good (it’s also a good school, but this is one way they bump up their prestige).
For us as homeschoolers, I have my high schoolers take the test as freshmen and sophomores, then a test prep course before taking it as a junior. D was just named a Finalist. S took the test for the first time this year as a freshman, did well, and is already being inundated with college mail!
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The rising southern schools are newer kids on the block and are still working on building their brands. It helps their image to boast they have lots of NMF (i.e. smart kids who are the 1%).
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True…and many of those schools aren’t just offering to NMFs…they’re also offering to those who have stats within their top quartile to “get more of them” so that the top of their “middle quartile” score rises.
I have seen Alabama’s “top of its middle quartile” rise by a few ACT points in recent years. That is a big deal. Right now, 30% of their students have an ACT 30+ (or SAT equivalent). I don’t know what the percent of ACT 28+ students it has, but these kids are the top 10% of the country and capable of taking on any major or career goal that interests them.
It should surprise no one that the ACT 28+ students are more likely going to choose the more academically challenging majors (Eng’g, math, physics, chem, English, finance, etc), so it’s easier to attract better profs when they know that they’re going to have strong students in the seats.
Another reason that a few southern schools, like Alabama, are seeking more high stats students. The state of Alabama is rather lowish populated, even though it is a good-sized state, and it is very business friendly. Over the last 20 years, hi-tech companies have been flocking here and they need high tech employees. The lowish populated state and its univs weren’t able to provide enough employees.
Finalist status is more than the NMSQT. The student must have, in addition to the minimum qualifying score (the top 1 percent in that state), a “confirming score” on the SAT, very good, consistant grades, and a recommendation from their school. In other words, they test well, have good grades, and have good citizenship. These are among the most sought-after students, pre-screened. It is also a very handy way for a college to express the quality of a particular class or recruitment effort: “In additon to X percent that were in the top 10 percent of their graduating class, we have X number of National Merit Scholars.”