Reply to 2020 National Merit semifinalists in DC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.

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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%.[/quote]

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