2019 national merit semifinalists

[Anonymous]

Congrats to all of these students!

[Anonymous]

+1000. Hint: in 2018, parents can easily find out how kids can register for the PSAT. There's plenty of cheap or free test available now for families who want it. A kid can easily prepare via Khan Academy for zip, or buy a test prep book via Amazon.

Not buying the "suburban schools prep the kids, so we're automatically disadvantaged in this City" line.

My spouse was a NM Scholar, not just a semi-finalist, as a FARMs student in an ordinary NYC high school (not a test-in magnet program). He's an engineer who went to MIT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Hint: in 2018, parents can easily find out how kids can register for the PSAT. There's plenty of cheap or free test available now for families who want it. A kid can easily prepare via Khan Academy for zip, or buy a test prep book via Amazon.

Not buying the "suburban schools prep the kids, so we're automatically disadvantaged in this City" line.

My spouse was a NM Scholar, not just a semi-finalist, as a FARMs student in an ordinary NYC high school (not a test-in magnet program). He's an engineer who went to MIT.

As a NM Scholar myself from many years back, I would have to disagree with you. I grew up in a working class family and attended a very mediocre high school. I was the only NM scholar in my school's history. It was only when I attended a prestigious state university -- full of kids from private and wealthy suburban high schools -- that I realized how disadvantaged I was educationally and socially as well. I struggled through my first semester until I figured out what I was supposed to be able to do and did it. Make no mistake about it, most of DC's public high school kids are disadvantaged in many more ways than I was, however bright they might be. There's a reason, you know, why parents who can afford, and even some who really can't, do their best to get their offspring into one of the DC privates. Don't kid yourself -- this is not a level play field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In conclusion, the class of 2018 finalists were 90% private school students (33/36).

For 2019 private students were were 81% (45/55).

Among the publics, Wilson didn't have any semi-finalists this year; BASIS had 2; SWW had 7 and 1 student is homeschooled.

…. and Banneker is a no-show.

Banneker is also a Title 1 school - as opposed to SWW, which is only 18% economically disadvantaged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Hint: in 2018, parents can easily find out how kids can register for the PSAT. There's plenty of cheap or free test available now for families who want it. A kid can easily prepare via Khan Academy for zip, or buy a test prep book via Amazon.

Not buying the "suburban schools prep the kids, so we're automatically disadvantaged in this City" line.

My spouse was a NM Scholar, not just a semi-finalist, as a FARMs student in an ordinary NYC high school (not a test-in magnet program). He's an engineer who went to MIT.

As a NM Scholar myself from many years back, I would have to disagree with you. I grew up in a working class family and attended a very mediocre high school. I was the only NM scholar in my school's history. It was only when I attended a prestigious state university -- full of kids from private and wealthy suburban high schools -- that I realized how disadvantaged I was educationally and socially as well. I struggled through my first semester until I figured out what I was supposed to be able to do and did it. Make no mistake about it, most of DC's public high school kids are disadvantaged in many more ways than I was, however bright they might be. There's a reason, you know, why parents who can afford, and even some who really can't, do their best to get their offspring into one of the DC privates. Don't kid yourself -- this is not a level play field.

Agree. My DS at public school had no prep for the PSAT and I know his scores would have been higher if he had. He actually went to school with several of last year's DC semi-finalist, some at public which started at public. He also should have had additional time due to dyslexia, but no one put in the request to the college board. Whacked it out of the park on the ACT test (different I know) but had a few hours of test prep and did a practice with the extra time needed. Made a big difference. But maybe with so many colleges playing down scores this doesn't matter as much as it used to for most students.

When you son't see that Banneker here, I think it comes down to a mindset at the school and some time devoted to PSAT prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Hint: in 2018, parents can easily find out how kids can register for the PSAT. There's plenty of cheap or free test available now for families who want it. A kid can easily prepare via Khan Academy for zip, or buy a test prep book via Amazon.

Not buying the "suburban schools prep the kids, so we're automatically disadvantaged in this City" line.

My spouse was a NM Scholar, not just a semi-finalist, as a FARMs student in an ordinary NYC high school (not a test-in magnet program). He's an engineer who went to MIT.

PP, things have changed now. How many tutoring companies were there in NYC when he was a in HS? A large percentage of the current scholars are bright students who have been privately tutored by specific companies. I know this for a fact.
By the way, the same is true for SAT and ACT classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Hint: in 2018, parents can easily find out how kids can register for the PSAT. There's plenty of cheap or free test available now for families who want it. A kid can easily prepare via Khan Academy for zip, or buy a test prep book via Amazon.

Not buying the "suburban schools prep the kids, so we're automatically disadvantaged in this City" line.

My spouse was a NM Scholar, not just a semi-finalist, as a FARMs student in an ordinary NYC high school (not a test-in magnet program). He's an engineer who went to MIT.

PP, things have changed now. How many tutoring companies were there in NYC when he was a in HS? A large percentage of the current scholars are bright students who have been privately tutored by specific companies. I know this for a fact.
By the way, the same is true for SAT and ACT classes.

Oh please. I’m in my 50s and we had plenty of test prep courses available in my mid-sized city when I was in high school, not to mention inexpensive test prep books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Hint: in 2018, parents can easily find out how kids can register for the PSAT. There's plenty of cheap or free test available now for families who want it. A kid can easily prepare via Khan Academy for zip, or buy a test prep book via Amazon.

Not buying the "suburban schools prep the kids, so we're automatically disadvantaged in this City" line.

My spouse was a NM Scholar, not just a semi-finalist, as a FARMs student in an ordinary NYC high school (not a test-in magnet program). He's an engineer who went to MIT.

As a NM Scholar myself from many years back, I would have to disagree with you. I grew up in a working class family and attended a very mediocre high school. I was the only NM scholar in my school's history. It was only when I attended a prestigious state university -- full of kids from private and wealthy suburban high schools -- that I realized how disadvantaged I was educationally and socially as well. I struggled through my first semester until I figured out what I was supposed to be able to do and did it. Make no mistake about it, most of DC's public high school kids are disadvantaged in many more ways than I was, however bright they might be. There's a reason, you know, why parents who can afford, and even some who really can't, do their best to get their offspring into one of the DC privates. Don't kid yourself -- this is not a level play field.

You arguing it's not a level playing field for socioeconomic reasons, but that's not the whole truth. There are cultural reasons for poor DC kids being disadvantaged. Unfortunately, calling me and other PPs who make these arguments racist (which somebody's about to do) won't change that.

I grew up in a hard-scrabble bilingual Asian urban immigrant community, where parents and community leaders teamed up to ensure that most kids excelled in school, and even had a crack at elite colleges. We were barely scraping by, with parents working a couple blue-collar jobs each, yet attended intensive tutoring sessions with other teens in the community on a regular basis. We weren't allowed to watch much TV at all, or even to participate in many extra-curriculars (academics always came first). Families teamed up to share information about standardized test taking, entering academic competitions, college admissions and so forth. I saw the same phenomenon among Caribbean, African, Eastern European, Central Asian, Middle Eastern etc. immigrant communities in my neighborhood.

I wasn't thrown for a loop by the social or academic scene at my college (an Ivy) mainly because my parents had ensured that I attended HS with mostly upper middle-class classmates (our family of 5 crammed into a one-bedroom apartment for years to make this happen).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In conclusion, the class of 2018 finalists were 90% private school students (33/36).

For 2019 private students were were 81% (45/55).

Among the publics, Wilson didn't have any semi-finalists this year; BASIS had 2; SWW had 7 and 1 student is homeschooled.

…. and Banneker is a no-show.

Banneker is also a Title 1 school - as opposed to SWW, which is only 18% economically disadvantaged.

Surprised Latin isn’t on the list, since umd families fight to get into there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on data I've been able to collect for a number of DC area schools over the last 6 years, here is the average percentage of each school's graduating class that has qualifed as National Merit Semifinalists. Note that for some non-DC schools, I couldn't find a complete 6 years of data.

Sidwell 10.4%
St. Albans 7.7%
GDS 5.7%
NCS 4.4%
Holton 3.6%
Heights 3.2%
St. Anselm's 3.2%
Potomac 2.5%
Maret 2.5%
Walls 2.4%
McLean 2.4%
Visitation 1.9%
WIS 1.5%
GtownPrep 1.2%
Gonzaga 1.1%
Wash-Lee 1.1%
Yorktown 0.8%
Stone Ridge 0.7%
St. John's 0.6%
Wilson 0.3%
Latin 0.2%

LOL. Love how you conveniently omit TJ, which kicks everyone else's a$$

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In conclusion, the class of 2018 finalists were 90% private school students (33/36).

For 2019 private students were were 81% (45/55).

Among the publics, Wilson didn't have any semi-finalists this year; BASIS had 2; SWW had 7 and 1 student is homeschooled.

…. and Banneker is a no-show.

Banneker is also a Title 1 school - as opposed to SWW, which is only 18% economically disadvantaged.

Surprised Latin isn’t on the list, since umd families fight to get into there.

They have had 1-2 before.

People fight to get in Latin for MS. The ones who tend care about things like NMSF send their kids to SWW or elsewhere for high school. Might be changing now, but was often the case for kids who are now seniors.

[Anonymous]

The bottom line with the PSAT is that it's nothing other than a predictor of the SAT and being a semi-finalist means nothing unless you want to to go a particular college that gives you a couple grand. And OF COURSE the expensive private schools are going to have the most NMSFs because (1) you have to test well to get into the schools in the first place and (2) there's a strong correlation between family income and education levels and test scores. Comparing these schools is meaningless.

I'd much rather my kid have a lousy PSAT score and ace the SAT than the other way around. You people are like sheep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line with the PSAT is that it's nothing other than a predictor of the SAT and being a semi-finalist means nothing unless you want to to go a particular college that gives you a couple grand. And OF COURSE the expensive private schools are going to have the most NMSFs because (1) you have to test well to get into the schools in the first place and (2) there's a strong correlation between family income and education levels and test scores. Comparing these schools is meaningless.

I'd much rather my kid have a lousy PSAT score and ace the SAT than the other way around. You people are like sheep.

Contradiction.
If PSAT is predictor of SAT being semifinalist will guarantee to get top scores in the SAT.

Being poor and uneducated is a bitch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Hint: in 2018, parents can easily find out how kids can register for the PSAT. There's plenty of cheap or free test available now for families who want it. A kid can easily prepare via Khan Academy for zip, or buy a test prep book via Amazon.

Not buying the "suburban schools prep the kids, so we're automatically disadvantaged in this City" line.

My spouse was a NM Scholar, not just a semi-finalist, as a FARMs student in an ordinary NYC high school (not a test-in magnet program). He's an engineer who went to MIT.

As a NM Scholar myself from many years back, I would have to disagree with you. I grew up in a working class family and attended a very mediocre high school. I was the only NM scholar in my school's history. It was only when I attended a prestigious state university -- full of kids from private and wealthy suburban high schools -- that I realized how disadvantaged I was educationally and socially as well. I struggled through my first semester until I figured out what I was supposed to be able to do and did it. Make no mistake about it, most of DC's public high school kids are disadvantaged in many more ways than I was, however bright they might be. There's a reason, you know, why parents who can afford, and even some who really can't, do their best to get their offspring into one of the DC privates. Don't kid yourself -- this is not a level play field.

You arguing it's not a level playing field for socioeconomic reasons, but that's not the whole truth. There are cultural reasons for poor DC kids being disadvantaged. Unfortunately, calling me and other PPs who make these arguments racist (which somebody's about to do) won't change that.

I grew up in a hard-scrabble bilingual Asian urban immigrant community, where parents and community leaders teamed up to ensure that most kids excelled in school, and even had a crack at elite colleges. We were barely scraping by, with parents working a couple blue-collar jobs each, yet attended intensive tutoring sessions with other teens in the community on a regular basis. We weren't allowed to watch much TV at all, or even to participate in many extra-curriculars (academics always came first). Families teamed up to share information about standardized test taking, entering academic competitions, college admissions and so forth. I saw the same phenomenon among Caribbean, African, Eastern European, Central Asian, Middle Eastern etc. immigrant communities in my neighborhood.

I wasn't thrown for a loop by the social or academic scene at my college (an Ivy) mainly because my parents had ensured that I attended HS with mostly upper middle-class classmates (our family of 5 crammed into a one-bedroom apartment for years to make this happen).
[/quote

To assume beforehand that someone’s going to call you a racist is pretty weird. Has thiis happened to you before?

[Anonymous]

Wow. Did not expect to see Holton so high on list. Good for them.