2020 National Merit semifinalists in DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

No, as has been pointed out on this board many times, only ~0.5% nationally make it (16,000 / 3+ million). DC has ~5000 students per grade in high school. DC is always close to 1%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

This is it exactly. At least 1/2 of this year's DC semi-finalists DON'T LIVE IN DC. The DC privates they attend are highly competitive and enroll many of the brightest kids from MD and VA. There's no other jurisdiction in the US which has this dynamic. Kids don't cross states lines en mass to go to private school in CA, MA, NY, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

This is it exactly. At least 1/2 of this year's DC semi-finalists DON'T LIVE IN DC. The DC privates they attend are highly competitive and enroll many of the brightest kids from MD and VA. There's no other jurisdiction in the US which has this dynamic. Kids don't cross states lines en mass to go to private school in CA, MA, NY, etc.

Except that we average twice the per capita rate of other states, so it all works out in the end.

[Anonymous]

For those looking forward to next year's NMSFs, the just released 2019 PSAT curve is brutal. 2 wrong answers could disqualify you (assuming 223 index) vs. 5 or more last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

Hawaii has a much lower score cut to reach it's 1.1% of test takers. So if you want to compare apples to apples (which NMSF does not do) you'd have to know how many kids who go to school in DC met Hawaii's cut off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

Granted, it stands to reason that most of the semifinalists in DC will be at privates. But just four public school semifinalists in a city where white 4th and 8th graders in DCPS score highest for whites in the entire country on both reading and math (and by a long shot) on NAEP tests still stinks.

As was been pointed out some pages back, not only is the number of semifinalists embarrassingly low, it's dropping. Just five or six years ago, DCPS routinely produced as many as 8 or 9 finalists per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those looking forward to next year's NMSFs, the just released 2019 PSAT curve is brutal. 2 wrong answers could disqualify you (assuming 223 index) vs. 5 or more last year.

Curve is brutal bc of howexstudents are scoring - and prepping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

This is it exactly. At least 1/2 of this year's DC semi-finalists DON'T LIVE IN DC. The DC privates they attend are highly competitive and enroll many of the brightest kids from MD and VA. There's no other jurisdiction in the US which has this dynamic. Kids don't cross states lines en mass to go to private school in CA, MA, NY, etc.

I know nothing about the Boston area, but there are definitely kids from CT and NJ in NYC privates. CA is a ridiculous comparison, it is a very large state. Nobody is able to commute to privates from outside the state.

[Anonymous]

Boarding school students also are a special case and must meet the highest state cutoff in their region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

This is it exactly. At least 1/2 of this year's DC semi-finalists DON'T LIVE IN DC. The DC privates they attend are highly competitive and enroll many of the brightest kids from MD and VA. There's no other jurisdiction in the US which has this dynamic. Kids don't cross states lines en mass to go to private school in CA, MA, NY, etc.

Not really. MA has a good number of prep boarding schools --e.g. Milton, Groton and Deerfield Academies--loaded with students from out of state. These high-powered historic schools clean up in the NMSF race but a number of public schools fare well, too. Boston's famous "exam schools," e.g. Boston Latin almost always post semifinalist numbers in the double digits. DC doesn't bother to support serious application schools with strong college counseling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

No, as has been pointed out on this board many times, only ~0.5% nationally make it (16,000 / 3+ million). DC has ~5000 student
s per grade in high school. DC is always close to 1%.

According to the NMS website nationally there are 1.6 million test takers and 16,000 semifinalists. One percent.

Don't forget to count both public and private in the DC population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

This is it exactly. At least 1/2 of this year's DC semi-finalists DON'T LIVE IN DC. The DC privates they attend are highly competitive and enroll many of the brightest kids from MD and VA. There's no other jurisdiction in the US which has this dynamic. Kids don't cross states lines en mass to go to private school in CA, MA, NY, etc.

Not really. MA has a good number of prep boarding schools --e.g. Milton, Groton and Deerfield Academies--loaded with students from out of state. These high-powered historic schools clean up in the NMSF race but a number of public schools fare well, too. Boston's famous "exam schools," e.g. Boston Latin almost always post semifinalist numbers in the double digits. DC doesn't bother to support serious application schools with strong college counseling.

Boarding schools are treated separately by NMS. Exam schools don't take kids from out of state. Neither make it harder for kids in the rest of the state to qualify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that a typical number for DC? I went to high school in Hawaii and there were 28 National Merit Semifinalists in my graduating class.

The students whose scores are in the top 1% of all test takers in DC are named NMSF. If more students take the test, more total students will qualify.

That's true elsewhere but not in DC. If you live in one of the 50 states and you score in the top 1% of your state you qualify. If you don't live in one of the 50 states you have to meet or beat the cutoff score in the state with the highest cutoff, which currently is a tie between MA and NJ. DC has about 7700 kids in each class so if we were a state we'd have about 77 semifinalists.

Even if DC were a state we would get dinged because for the purpose of NMS your state isn't determined by where you live but rather by where you go to school. DC has a large number of private schools that serve the entire region, and many of those schools are highly selective and have test scores that are much higher than average. So even if we got our full 1% many of those spots would likely go to kids in the suburbs.

No, as has been pointed out on this board many times, only ~0.5% nationally make it (16,000 / 3+ million). DC has ~5000 student
s per grade in high school. DC is always close to 1%.

According to the NMS website nationally there are 1.6 million test takers and 16,000 semifinalists. One percent.

Don't forget to count both public and private in the DC population.

Again, no. There were 1.75m 11th grade PSAT takers last year according to the "2019-total-group-sat-suite-of-assessments-annual-report". However, the NMSF are not apportioned by the number of test-takers in a state, but by the number of students in the state (3.7m this year). Some states, like DC, give the PSAT to everyone; others have less participation.

So, nationally, it is 16,000 / 3.7m = ~0.4%

According to the "2019-district-of-columbia-sat-suite-of-assessments-annual-report" DC had 5305 juniors last year (95% took PSAT). This number includes privates. So in DC 39 NMSF / 5305 = ~.75%

As has been previously posted, DC was in the minority of states whose selection index did not go down. So, this was a "tougher" year for DC students relatively (compared to the 55 NMSF last year).