<p>I would expect schools that get frist pick of the top students to do much better percentage-wise than a place that is relatively unselective and modest in academic acclaim. It’s easy to turn silk into silk. It’s a trick to take a sow’s ear and turn it into silk.</p>
<p>Warblers, can you provide me the link that shows the national merit data?</p>
<p>@lesdiables: <a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf</a> <– page 30-something
I would guess that they decided it wasn’t worth it given the extremely strong recruitment right below the border in Oklahoma. KS is also heavily ACT-dominated… perhaps the PSAT isn’t really considered important there?</p>
<p>I’ve pointed this stat out in the past. K-State has made it a priority to track talented students interested in research into places in these competitions.</p>
<p>A sufficient number of sufficiently strong students + a truly excellent fellowship adviser.</p>
<p>“Might it be because Kansas State is the only good school in Kansas, and therefore anyone with half a brain goes there?”</p>
<p>Within Kansas, allegiances are split, I would say KU is actually somewhat more highly regarded around the Kansas city area, but it flips if your interest is agriculture, architecture or engineering. K- State is bigger towards central & western parrt of the state. KU gets an odd mix of wealthy Overland Park suburbanites together with a relatively poor KC Kansas contingent, K State gets more actual farm people. But draws healthily from the Eastern part of the state as well.</p>
<p>So anyway K State does not overwhelmingly have all the brains locally. But they do probably have more of the science brains, and that seems to be what is relevant for the Goldwater.</p>
<p>“…given the extremely strong recruitment right below the border in Oklahoma.” </p>
<p>IMO, most of these NM scholars are in-state people being retained in-state.The #s may not be huge because Kansas is not that populous a state. Between the two, KU gets most of the NM scholars IIRC. They give in-state semi-finalists free rides. Actually better than free rides. Semifinalists would actually make $$ by going there, after all items were considered. In the eastern part of the state, Missouri or Nebraska are much more typical out-of-state destinations than Oklahoma. And more people live in the eastern part of the state.</p>
<p>“…perhaps the PSAT isn’t really considered important there?”</p>
<p>The preponderance of students do head to the state U’s there, and those schools do favor ACTs. A much smaller % take the SAT than in the East. However the students with a chance do take the PSAT because semi-finalist status has actual value there.</p>
<p>A lot of the better students in the state stay there, people think their state Us are plenty good enough, especially when cost of private colleges are considered. It is actually a networking advantage to attend one of these schools if you want to stay in-state. In each of the last two years we were there, the valedictorians of arguably the area’s “best” private school went to KU.</p>
<p>Monydad, I am a national merit finalist enrolled at the University of Kansas. I absolutely agree with most of your points about K State. I don’t believe K State is as highly regarded for its architecture program as KU, as KU’s program is much more selective I have seen, but K State has an excellent veterinary program. </p>
<p>KU definitely gets more national merit scholars. The automatic national merit scholarship is no longer a full ride, but pays about half of the estimated cost of attendance. Otherwise, you are very correct about other schools around. </p>
<p>Out of the 400+ students in my high school class, only about 100 took the PSAT to try to qualify for national merit. People know about the PSAT, but many students headed to college don’t end up taking SATs. </p>
<p>Out of the top 12 students in my graduating class, over half are going to KU with only two going to KState.</p>
<p>give a wave for me next time you pass 14th & Mass Street, I spent some pleasant (though expensive) time there.</p>
<p>I have a daughter at K-State. The answer, in a nutshell, is that K-State EXCELS at (a) identifying academically talented students in the incoming freshman class before they ever set foot on campus and (b) recruiting those students into the university’s leadership studies program, the university honors program, the honors programs in the individual colleges and the undergraduate research program. Students in those programs gets lots of individual attention, are encouraged to apply for fellowships, and they receive tremendous support from the faculty and a very well organized administration. K-State is “off the radar,” particularly for many of the students who frequent CC and to whom academic prestige is everything, but K-State is a terrific school and is focused on becoming a top 50 public research university by 2025. Based upon my daughter’s undergraduate experience there, I have no doubt that this is a school we’ll be hearing a lot more about in the future.</p>