Schools that Enroll the Most National Merit Scholars

[Anonymous]

Is it just me or is Rice super underrated in the DMV?

1. MIT (12% of class, 139 scholars)
2. Caltech (9.3% of class, 23 scholars)
3. Harvard (8.8% of class, 147 scholars)
4. Stanford (7.1% of class, 132 scholars)
5. Duke (6.9% of class, 118 scholars)
6. Princeton (6.5% of class, 92 scholars)
7. Yale (6.1% of class, 100 scholars)
8. UPenn (5.9% of class, 144 scholars)
9. Rice (5.7% of class, 65 scholars)
10. Brown (4.4% of class, 78 scholars)
11. Columbia (3.7% of class, 56 scholars)
12. Dartmouth (3.7% of class, 44 scholars)
13. Northwestern (3.2% of class, 68 scholars)
14. Johns Hopkins (3.2% of class, 41 scholars)
15. Georgetown (2.7% of class, 43 scholars)
16. Carnegie Mellon (2.2% of class, 38 scholars)
17. Notre Dame (2.1% of class, 43 scholars)
18. UChicago (2% of class, 35 scholars)
19. Cornell (1.9% of class, 74 scholars)
20. Washington University in St. Louis (1.8% of class, 35 scholars)
21. UCLA (1.2% of class, 77 scholars)
22. UMich (1.1% of class, 89 scholars)
23. Berkeley (1.1% of class, 73 scholars)

[Anonymous]

Agreed Rice is very underrated, people like to discount it because it takes such a heavy portion of its class from Texas, but Stanford does the same from California - both just happen to be massive states

[Anonymous]

This really says NMSF doesn't matter.
Even at MIT, 88% of the class are not NMSF.
And we know 25% of the class have 1580+ SAT.
SAT score is a whole lot more important.

[Anonymous]

At Rice, 94.3% of the class are not NMSF.
25% of the Rice incoming class have 1570+ SAT score.

Make sure have your priority right. Don't focus on things that are marginally relevant.

[Anonymous]

Rice and Duke give merit aid so this is not that impressive

[Anonymous]

https://ideas.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/CDS_2024-25_WEBSITE.pdf

Rice gave 55 merit scholarships to those without financial aid. And this is not including merit to those with financial aid.

The numbers above cannot be compared to stanford etc

[Anonymous]

list isn't accurate

[Anonymous]

Remember that National Merit Scholars are National Merit Finalists who got money from somewhere. So you need to adjust for schools like Princeton, where only a few of their NMFs have become NMS by getting money from a corporate sponsor, vs. say the University of Alabama, where every NMF admitted becomes NMS because the college hands them out a scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed Rice is very underrated, people like to discount it because it takes such a heavy portion of its class from Texas, but Stanford does the same from California - both just happen to be massive states

Rice sounds great but I just couldn't do the red state thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember that National Merit Scholars are National Merit Finalists who got money from somewhere. So you need to adjust for schools like Princeton, where only a few of their NMFs have become NMS by getting money from a corporate sponsor, vs. say the University of Alabama, where every NMF admitted becomes NMS because the college hands them out a scholarship.

Not-OP, this came from a Reddit thread where the individual acknowledged later several caveats like it doesn’t include schools like Alabama and Tulsa which have a higher percentage of NMF than some of the schools in this list but also give out significant merit funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed Rice is very underrated, people like to discount it because it takes such a heavy portion of its class from Texas, but Stanford does the same from California - both just happen to be massive states

Rice sounds great but I just couldn't do the red state thing.

It's interesting that so many Northern kids are flocking to the South for college now though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember that National Merit Scholars are National Merit Finalists who got money from somewhere. So you need to adjust for schools like Princeton, where only a few of their NMFs have become NMS by getting money from a corporate sponsor, vs. say the University of Alabama, where every NMF admitted becomes NMS because the college hands them out a scholarship.

Not-OP, this came from a Reddit thread where the individual acknowledged later several caveats like it doesn’t include schools like Alabama and Tulsa which have a higher percentage of NMF than some of the schools in this list but also give out significant merit funding.

Can you link the reddit post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember that National Merit Scholars are National Merit Finalists who got money from somewhere. So you need to adjust for schools like Princeton, where only a few of their NMFs have become NMS by getting money from a corporate sponsor, vs. say the University of Alabama, where every NMF admitted becomes NMS because the college hands them out a scholarship.

Not-OP, this came from a Reddit thread where the individual acknowledged later several caveats like it doesn’t include schools like Alabama and Tulsa which have a higher percentage of NMF than some of the schools in this list but also give out significant merit funding.

Can you link the reddit post?

Yep, https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1pay77o/schools_that_enroll_the_most_national_merit/

[Anonymous]

Why is UChicago so low? I thought they love high SAT scores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed Rice is very underrated, people like to discount it because it takes such a heavy portion of its class from Texas, but Stanford does the same from California - both just happen to be massive states

Rice sounds great but I just couldn't do the red state thing.

It's interesting that so many Northern kids are flocking to the South for college now though

Precisely not the National Merit Scholars. The ones who prioritize the sun and partying.