National Merit Semifinalist 2018
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Anonymous
Then why the hell do they tell us the identities of the sports goons at these schools. De-identify just like for academics...just the numbers!! Rampant hypocrisy as usual. |
Anonymous
| ...hierachichal Miss America pageant winners too... |
Anonymous
| Better not to know individual names, that way when students earn the best acceptances, we know that they were the most qualified and deserving in the class. |
Anonymous
PP above, agree, I made the same point. |
Anonymous
All Maryland names are listed in the Baltimore Sun... |
Anonymous
| Names of what? |
Anonymous
When I last was in the university quality was not solely measured by bubbling? NMSF will not guarantee anyone a seat in HYPSM. For a true academic it is not a measure of the most qualified and deserving!! |
Anonymous
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National Merit Semifinalists and Presidential Scholar Candidates tell us simply this, that these students performed very well on a certain standardized exam. That is an achievement to be recognized and appreciated, but it is not the complete story of that student, their classmates, or their schools.
In the case of the National Merit Semifinalists, the recognized students performed exceedingly well on the PSAT exam administered to them in October of their Junior year. In the case of the Presidential Scholar Candidates, the students earned a perfect 1600 SAT or 36 ACT (if they live in MD or VA), or close to that mark (if they live in DC I believe you can earn a 1580 or 1590 SAT). In the past few years I have noticed that most of the States' Presidential Scholar Candidates achieve that honor by taking the ACT to earn a perfect 36. In some States, only one or two achieve it through a perfect SAT score. That is not saying the SAT is more difficult, but I do believe the ACT's shorter sections allow a student to focus and then regroup more often. A few years ago one of my children earned NMSF and took the SAT exam missing only two questions. We knew that 1590 SAT was not good enough to be a Presidential Scholar Candidate in our State, but in no rationale world did my child want to sit for the ACT -- and they did not. Sometimes how many Presidential Scholar Candidates a school has comes down to how many of their strongest test takers chose to take the ACT versus the SAT, or how many settled for an almost-perfect ACT or SAT score instead of going back for a second attempt. The National Merit Semifinalist and Presidential Scholar Candidate awards tell us nothing about a students' transcripts, their extracurricular achievements, personalities, or contributions to their schools and communities. Thus such awards are not to be all and end all of either a school's strength or of their student's college admissions success. Another one of my children attended a (non-local) high school with only 99 students in the class, 9 of whom were National Merit Semifinalists and 1 of whom also went on to be a Presidential Scholar Candidate. That class sent a remarkable 6 students to Harvard and 6 students to Stanford that year. The only student to earn both National Merit Semifinalist and Presidential Scholar Candidate was waitlisted or rejected at both of those universities and very happily and successfully went on to attend Yale. The 9 National Merit Semifinalists from that class distributed themselves according to their needs and goals, 2 to Harvard, 1 to Haverford, 1 to Harvey Mudd, 1 to Middlebury, 1 to MIT, 1 to Stanford, 1 to the University of North Carolina, and the aforementioned 1 to Yale. All of them accomplished students. Signed, An Older Parent. Been There, Done That. |
Anonymous
| Oops! I meant rational. |
Anonymous
| Actually it was 5 admitted to Harvard and 6 admitted to Stanford that year. So only 2/5 who attended Harvard and 1/5 who attended Stanford were either National Merit Semifinalists or Presidential Scholar Candidates. Although the NMSF student who chose MIT was also admitted to Stanford. Many of the other NMSF/PSCs simply did not apply to those colleges. |
Anonymous
| My DH was a National Merit finalist. He's a great test taker & smart but not always that bright & earns less than I do. |
Anonymous
Sports "goons"? Seriously? |
Anonymous
I am not at all interested in having student athletes identified either. Hate to disappoint you, but not a hypocrite. It's the right of the students and the schools to put this information out there, imho - not an outside organization. |
Anonymous
In the case of all of the listed students either their schools, their school districts, and/or their community or local news outlets publicized the list of names given to them through a press release and/or notifications from the College Board. As such, it is all publicly accessible information. |
Anonymous
My daughter is at NCS. The NCS names were posted here shortly after being released to the NCS community. That means a member of that community decided to post it here. That isn't okay with me. The Patch printed what the College Board released. That's a publicity decision meant to boost the College Board's profile, and not left up to the schools or students. That might be their right, but I am still allowed to think it is unnecessary. |