Has any noticed less than stellar performance by National Merit Scholars?

[Narcissa]

dude, NMF is really just PSAT scores...okay, so they do take into account your grades and stuff, but high school != college

[doubleplay]

There are so many variables that enter into it- after all, it's a test that is taken in the fall of high school junior year. I've known kids who have prepped all summer, or for years, prior to the PSAT and ended up 215-220, but then never break out of that range on the SATs. Their learning curves have already leveled out. I've known kids who didn't do a thing for the PSAT, go from BELOW 200 to 220's on the SATs because they study AFTER getting the PSAT scores. The only difference between these kids is when they studied. Then you have the naturals that score great without any prep at all.

A lot of times, it's maths and sciences that lower a freshman GPA. Verbal aptitude is weighted twice as heavily as math on the SAT. If a NMS has stellar verbal aptitude yet average math/science aptitude, he can easily find himself with a sub 3.5 GPA after freshman year, if he struggles with calc and chem/bio/physics.

[collegealum314]

"I have met a number of National Merit Scholars and semifinalists."

When you refer to "national merit scholars" do you mean "national merit finalists"? They aren't the same thing. About 15,000 or so make National Merit Finalist. 2,500 of those are selected by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to be National Merit Scholars.

A year or so ago, the designation of National Merit Scholarship Winner was expanded to include not only the 2,500 selected by the corporation, but also those NMF who won the scholarship sponsored by assorted companies (forgot the name,) and also if you win a NMF scholarship sponsored by the university you attend.

The 2,500 selected by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation are selected based on a grades, SAT I and II scores, an essay, and a counselor recommendation.

[bluebayou]

wis:

small nit:

there are very few students do not move from semi to finalist, according to the NM folks. One does not need an A/A- average to move on. Heck, grades could be earned in basket-weaving to move to Finalist, as long as the GC recommends it. IMO, but since there are state cutoffs, it is not a national test at all, it is a state test (which is ok, by me...it is what it is).

back to regularly scheduled programming.