National Merit Semifinalist 2018

[Anonymous]

Once information enters the public domain, and that includes a school's or school district's twitter or website, it is public information.

Is the concern here in Washington, DC, that publishing the names of NMSF honorees will foster an unhealthy competition among students? Or is the worry that students who are not recognized will feel bad? Or the opposite, that students who are recognized will be embarrassed? Or is it that because Washington is full of well-known people, they do not want their names out there?

Every single school and school district in every other State appears to have some public acknowledgement, often in the media, of its NMSF students. Is this one of those things that pertains specifically to living inside the Beltway bubble?

I would understand the objection, perhaps, if people also objected to the schools numbers comparison, as that appears to be only about competition and bragging rights. Yet every year we have these threads about which schools are Up/Down or Best/Worst based on the number of NMSF or PSC the schools have. At least in listing the students we recognize their individual accomplishments of merit, and not strictly the schools competing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Montgomery County does not list the NMSF students, only the School numbers.


Which I think is better. We don't need to know their identities.

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.

At our MCPS school the online sports rosters are either unlisted or listed by first names. Normally the principal sends a congratulatory note listing the NMSFs and commended students (2 separate notes) on the school list serv so they are identified to the appropriate community, which is the people who actually know the kids.

And at DCs school there is a very high overlap of "sports goons" and NMSFs. I think in DCs year there were 21 NMSFs and my guess is that 75% of them also did at least 1 sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington, DC: PSAT Index Score Cutoff (223)

https://patch.com/district-columbia/georgetown/s/g8enk/36-dc-students-named-national-merit-semifinalists

Georgetown Day School (8)

Abraham Atwood
Thomas N. Brooks
Evan J. Brown
Levi H. Freedman
Isabel L. Kirsch
Samson B. Mostashari
Benjamin G. Stern
Karen U. Thomas

Georgetown Visitation Prep School (1):

Mary T. Kolesar

Maret School (2):

Julius M. Ball-Heldman
Kendall Matsumoto

National Cathedral School (4):

Alex J. Giannattasio
Anna May Mott
Brett E. Pearson
Paulina Q. Song

School Without Walls (2):

Ella S. Buring
Sophia E. Diggs-Galligan

Sidwell Friends School (11):

Tala M. Anderson
Sarah K. Brodnax
William D. Chen
Rahul V. Gupta
William R. Keto
Nicole J. Kislovskiy
Ana Mundaca
Sofia Neaher
Ella C. Stark
Elen Stepanyan
Alexandra Zhang

St. Albans School (7):

William Busching
Trevor R. Child
John A. Klingler
Jonathan E. Rufino
Jayram M. Sastry
Gabriel Schneider
Griffin T. Shapiro

St. John's College (1):

Camille M. Jefferson

Woodrow Wilson (1):

Samuel A. Himmelfarb

This is a generation of DC, MD, and VA students that my own child grew up with and is a part of. In looking through the Washington and Virginia-area names I recognize students who still are, or once were, classmates, teammates, neighbors, fellow parishioners, who attended the same preschools, music classes, or summer camps, whose parents are close friends, or old acquaintances from college, graduate school, or work. And seeing that reminds me that I am indeed part of a lasting and meaningful "community" here in Washington -- no different from the doctor in flyover country noting that Bob the baker's kid has been recognized -- and I am happy for all of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Names of what?

Names of kids who were semi-finalists. They are organized by school for the whole state (MD).

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bal-list-national-merit-scholarship-honorees-20170918-htmlstory.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Montgomery County does not list the NMSF students, only the School numbers.


Which I think is better. We don't need to know their identities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why not? What is your issue or concern with the (publicly available) names being posted here?

[Anonymous]

State of Maryland: PSAT Index Score Cutoff (222)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bal-list-national-merit-scholarship-honorees-20170918-htmlstory.html

Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS: Aaron G. Bergman, Benjamin G. Friedman, Neil Himwich, Paul T. Kolbeck, David I. Lieberman, Natalie Nantais, Adam S. Park, Grace M. Wagner

Centennial HS: Emmaline S. Alme, Emmaline Jisoo Choi, Katie J. Gao, Kayleigh A. Hasson, Xiuying Lin, Vaishnavi Mahalingam, Pujit Mehrotra, Mary D. Moser, Chythanya Murali, Anagha Rama Varma, Samyukta Rao, Chance Xie, Kevin J. Xu, Franklin J. Yang

Holton-Arms School: Bonnie C. Akhavan, Amber Batra, Zenia Choksy

Landon School: Douglas P. Landers, Leonardo Maldonado, John Popera

Georgetown Prep: Cory R. Angel, Rollin M. Bell

Liberty HS: Matthew E. Johnson, Kevin P. Manogue

Our Lady of Good Counsel: Luke D. Amato, Matthew Cain, Sarah N. Kelchner, Eric M. Trimble

Bullis School: Christopher T. Yau

Winston Churchill HS: Jiawei Bai, Frank Ge, Liza M. Gunther, Noah Y Kim, Eric C. Li, Hollis Ma, Michelle R. Tai, George J. Tong, Olivia Wang, Carissa Wu, Bennett E. Yang, David Y. Yang

Heights School: Andrew J. Ryland

St. Andrew's Episcopal School: Megan B. Reilly

Reisterstown Franklin HS: McKenzie K. Patrick

Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy: Avery E. Einhorn, Jacob T. Melkin

Richard Montgomery HS: Peter Baird, Selma Benhassine
Elizaveta A. Brover, Mary C. Cobb, Catherine L. Dang, Alisa Gao, Charlotte R. Hirsch, Alex W. Hu, Lucia Y. Jiang, Samantha I. Koretsky, Tadhg G. Larabee, Rachel R. Li, Jonathan C. Lin, William L. Liu, Steven Lu, Andrew Mao,
Kathleen A. McHale, Irene G. Park, Sooah Sohn, Eli J.
Strauss-Reis, Alythia Vo, Grace D. Wang, Julia T. Wang, Ami Wong, Grace Wu, Lisa Yang, Longfei Yang, Vivian Y.
Yeh, Christina Q. You, Emily Zhou, Isabelle Y. Zhou, Kira A.
Zhovnirovskii, Kyle K. Zhu, Kyle K.

Rockville HS: Alex G. Rankine

CHARLES E. Smith Jewish Day School: Matan A. Lieber-Kotz, Joseph Z. Shoyer

Thomas Sprigg Wootton HS: Yue Cao, Nicholas D. Christovich, Vijay I. Dey, Eve N. Fleisig, Trent A. Folk, Julia M. Kim, Florina C. Lam, Hoyean Le, Sean Lin, Martin Rakowszczyk, Harvey D. Sun, Jamie S. Wang, Aolin Yang, William Yu

Salisbury James M. Bennett HS: Jaspar A. Flint, Christina M. Sun

Sandy Spring Sherwood HS: Peter Feeney, Jared Schwartz

John F. Kennedy HS: Clark A. Abbott

Wheaton HS: Brian S. Cruz

Sykesville South Carroll HS: Robyn E. Anzulis, Jackson W. Foran

Montgomery Blair HS: Perry Z. Beamer, Everest Bloomer,
Ankitha, Durvasula, William A. Ederer, Laura C. Espinoza, Christopher T. Fiala, Tyler D. Fong, Sushanth Gupta, Ryan K.Handel, Marissa He, David E. Hinds, Ryan P. Holland, Rahul Jain, Divya A. John, Mikhail Khrenov, Elliott S. Kienzle, Noah B. Kim, George T. Klees, Avery Liou, Uro Lyi, Jyotsna M. Rao, Jacob M. Santangelo, Anish Senapati, Yuang Shen, Wendy Shi, Arman Siddique, Noah G. Singer, Nikita Singh, Claire H. Sparks, Siddharth Taneja, Shriyash K. Upadhyay, Alex A. Wang, Christopher Wang, Enya C. Wang, Lydia C. Wang, Margaret X. Wang, Ray Weng, Brennan M. Winer, David A. Witten, David X. Wu, Katherine J. Wu, Zan Xu, Michael Yin, Alice A. Zhang, Ariel Zhang, Annie S. Zhao

[Anonymous]

Baltimore results were interesting - Gilman with a big 7, 5 for Bryn Mawr, and 4 for Park. I think those schools are generally considered the top academic private schools, with Park being on the progressive end of things.

But 0 for RPCS, Garrison Forest, Friends, St. Paul's (boys and girls), Loyola, Calvert Hall, and 1 for McDonogh. Usually the gap between those 3 and the others is not nearly as large.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Montgomery County does not list the NMSF students, only the School numbers.


Which I think is better. We don't need to know their identities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why not? What is your issue or concern with the (publicly available) names being posted here?

Jeez. This isn't some new thing. I was a nmsf in the late seventies, and the main newspaper in the county listed all of the finalists by name and took and printed a photo off the semifinalists from my school because we set a county record. The reporter asked all of us what we wanted to do when we grew up as well. For better or worse, it's a public moment and I'm guessing the kids are fine with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Montgomery County does not list the NMSF students, only the School numbers.


Which I think is better. We don't need to know their identities.

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.

There has to be something between 'sports ghouls' and 'high standardized test scorers'. Remember - it's nice to do well, but in the grand scheme of things it's a standardized test given by an organization that gets schools to give out small scholarships but who takes it tons and tons of money.
It's not actually a great use of a kids time to do all of this prep and spend time tons of time studying for a multiple choice standard test where your education is supposed to suffice as preparation.
I can say this from a non bitter perspective here - my DD did no test prep she just works hard in school at a good thorough school and while she didn't get a nms she did get her ACT test score back today with a 99% and a 34 score. That's enough! Studying with a tutor or intense class for 6 months and spending 10k for her to get a 99.5%? Nah...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Montgomery County does not list the NMSF students, only the School numbers.


Which I think is better. We don't need to know their identities.

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.

There has to be something between 'sports ghouls' and 'high standardized test scorers'. Remember - it's nice to do well, but in the grand scheme of things it's a standardized test given by an organization that gets schools to give out small scholarships but who takes it tons and tons of money.
It's not actually a great use of a kids time to do all of this prep and spend time tons of time studying for a multiple choice standard test where your education is supposed to suffice as preparation.
I can say this from a non bitter perspective here - my DD did no test prep she just works hard in school at a good thorough school and while she didn't get a nms she did get her ACT test score back today with a 99% and a 34 score. That's enough! Studying with a tutor or intense class for 6 months and spending 10k for her to get a 99.5%? Nah...

You may not be bitter but you are definitely insecure. Your post reeks from that chip on your shoulder.

[Anonymous]

PP, my student did not prepare for the PSAT in any way the year they were NMSF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, my student did not prepare for the PSAT in any way the year they were NMSF.

Nor did my child. None of her friends who were NMSFs did either. Lots of kids are just good test takers. Also, I get really irritated with the people who say that it's worth very little to make finalist. True if you are a prestige hunter, but there are a lot of schools that offer full or half rides for NMFs who join their honors programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Montgomery County does not list the NMSF students, only the School numbers.


Which I think is better. We don't need to know their identities.

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.

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.

K

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.

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.

Why not? What is your issue or concern with the (publicly available) names being posted here?


They were posted on this thread before the public list went out. That means some NCS parent thinks nothing of sharing internal school
communications on DCUM. It might be innocuous this time, but it says something about their need to gossip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Montgomery County does not list the NMSF students, only the School numbers.


Which I think is better. We don't need to know their identities.

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.

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.

K

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.

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.

Why not? What is your issue or concern with the (publicly available) names being posted here?


They were posted on this thread before the public list went out. That means some NCS parent thinks nothing of sharing internal school
communications on DCUM. It might be innocuous this time, but it says something about their need to gossip.

I am the poster who has made the effort to copy and paste the names of the NMSFs from the information publicized by the schools, the school districts, or the local newspapers. Because I do not wish you to hold any resentment towards anyone in your school's community, please let me assure you that I am in no way associated with NCS. You may be confused as to when "public list went out", however, as I pulled the NCS names off of the school's Twitter post, which in turn connected to a news item on the school's website. If indiscretion within your school's community was your only objection to the individual names being posted here, then you needn't worry.

[Anonymous]

My DC also did not prep for the PSAT and was a NMSF this year. You should not assume that all kids spend hours or thousands of dollars for test-prep. Some people are just better at taking the test than others.