MODERATOR’S NOTE:
OP did not ask if URM/36/NMF will get into a top 10 university, so let’s move on, please.
FWIW everyone, my son is not considering any ivies or even top 10. Maybe one top 20 and the rest below that. So no reason to discuss ivy league. Thanks.
The question seems to be whether it is common for media to interview kids with perfect scores, and also how do they find out about the score (through ACT?). The original post does not ask anything else, but comments on the fact that one kid was asked for an interview and offered to share the limelight.
In our town, local media interview kids for all kinds of things. Often it is the school that initiates this, because accomplishments by students make the schools look good 
In the short term, it is fun to be known as the kid who got perfect scores, but the reputation lingers and in the long term can be problematic. Let’s just say I speak from experience.
In our town, perfect scores on even sections of the SAT, ACT or subject tests are rewarded with a little article in the local paper and internet hyper local news site with a picture and their achievement. This happens a few times a year.
The honor roll lists by marking period are also published as are articles (if submitted) about National Honor Society and other club accomplishments (robotics wins, Model UN performance). Theater performances gets articles. But yes sports get more ink - every week a few pages and photos are allotted to which ever sports are in season. Not sure there is that much to write about in terms of academics on the day to day basis.
This is also probably more common in smaller population areas than in larger cities. I rarely see these things in the city as I’m sure there are numerous kids every year that get perfect scores. I rarely see NMSF/NMF announcements from the special admission high schools, etc.
At our school we typically have 3-4 perfect ACTs and 10-15 NMSF’s every year. My impression is that we have fewer perfect ACT’s because it is not as common to take it here. (Both my kids took/will take PSAT unlikely they will take ACT)
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Well since the Presidential Scholars Candidates are publicly available every year and they match up pretty well with perfect ACT/SAT you can always peruse that list to get a general idea for your school.
Some schools make an effort to publicize then their students do well academically. My D20’s school had the in recently to honor the Juniors who will end up as NMSM and Commended students, along with the one who had a perfect score on the Chemistry AP exam last year (one of 3 worldwide). For a relatively new, small specialized magnet school, with no athletics, this is their way to shine. Otherwise, I think it’s nice to see some emphasis on academic achievements, rather than so much focus on the athletes.
On the endless senior awards night at my daughter’s HS, the math department gave awards to those students with perfect SAT or ACT math scores. The Language Arts department did not do the same for reading (of course because my daughter had perfect reading SAT and ACT scores and not math).
The school does publicize National Merit semi, final, and commended - photo and small press release. The local paper publishes it every year.
we live in a very small population state. Each year our state’s biggest newspaper has an academic section for the state; anyone with a 32 or higher is recognized. (yes, lots of pages of pictures.)
they have an All state team too. 8 kids were chosen and interviewed. (just fyi: Out of these 8 kids, 7 took the test multiple times; 4 are going to Ivies, 1 going to state flagship.) The questions asked were not too hard; like how many times did you take the test, how did you study, when did you first take it, tips for other kids, favorite social media & what will you be doing in 20 yrs. Our governor also hosts a dinner for all kids with a 36. I truly like this section each year. It’s inspiring and gives some kudos in something other than sports.
Sometimes you have to advocate for yourself in terms of publicity. Being in a large metropolitan area (Chicago) there is only so many minutes on the news or pages in the paper to recognize everything so the most popular subjects (sports) make the news.
In our large suburb there is a local paper that has academic recognitions but it is probably ranked #4 in terms of subscribers locally and how many people still subscribe to the paper today? What we do have is a popular cable access channel (who knew those still existed?) that covers most local events (parades, city council meetings, local high school sports, etc.) and is pretty widely viewed.
My wife was approached at a sporting event she was coaching by this channel to provide an interview about her team. After the interview she was talking with the reporter and learned that they are always looking for local stories of any type and would love community suggestions. My wife mentioned one of her athletes was about to receive his Eagle Scout and within a week they had set up to do a feature on him. It turned into a wonderful 10 minute piece that he will now have forever and it all came from an off handed conversation. This opened our eyes to a way to recognize those that are over looked by the typical media and we plan to make suggestions whenever we see someone that could use the recognition, be it athletics, test scores, volunteer work, etc.
There is a private school near me that won’t even list their honor roll students in their newsletter because they “don’t want the kids who didn’t make it to feel bad”. Yet the entire school is expected to turn out and wave goodbye to the sports stars going to state. Its a complete double standard. I say if your kid wants their NMF or 36 ACT published, then it should be. Likewise, if your student wants their privacy, you should have that option too.
It’s typically a parent that initiates the contact. I’ve had each of my daughter’s interviewed/profiled in the local papers once, and then stuck to the school’s website/FB/Twitter/newsletter thereafter. I know CTY, Duke TIP and others we’ve been involved with provide “fill in the blank” releases, and contacts at local papers are easy enough to find. TV seems a bit much when literally thousands of students score 36 (not to minimize the great accomplishment)
Wish I had seen this thread earlier, interesting discussion.
Note: an ACT Composite 36 is not necessarily a “perfect score”.
Can confirm!
53 @DavidPuddy , well that's a nice way to burst a teen's bubble. Hope you got pleasure from that!
@VickiSoCal No perfect scores guarantee admission. Same for 4.0s. But there are alot more NMSF and NMF than there are perfect ACTs! A perfect ACT is not as common. “On average, less than one-tenth of 1% of all test takers earn the top score. Among ACT-tested US high school graduates in 2015, only 1598 out of 1.92Million earned an ACT composite score of 36” taken right from my childs letter! I thought NMSF were approximately 16,000 and then 15,000 NMF. I think I read that 1.6M (approx) take the PSAT. So there you have it! It is much much harder to obtain a perfect ACT and definitely newsworthy! And @compmom not sure why you had an issue with the “reputation lingering” and problematic in the future. Both my kids had perfect 36 and they are both humble. But it got out. And so many were surprised and kind and happy for my kids. My kids blew it off, but it was nice to be recognized. No bad repercussions from it being known or publicized.
@WineDrinker I would hope any kid smart enough to get a 36 compsite would be smart enough to realize on their own if it’s truly a perfect score or not, so #53 shouldn’t be bursting any bubbles. I got a 36 compisite with two subscores of 36 (R, E) and two of 35 (M, S) and I couldn’t care less that it’s not perfect. (Funnily enough I got an 800 on SAT math but not reading and am generally better at STEM so its a interesting breakdown.)
Hi @WineLover
Not sure that I understand your point. I don’t think I have burst any bubbles, just an interesting distinction that perfection is not required to get a composite 36 score. So … in fact, I sort of think it’s the opposite of bursting bubbles?
I had no idea there where states that did things like this. Thats a nice form of recognition.