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<p>That seems my impression, too. And I do not think there is anything wrong with recognizing kids who are really smart, any more than there is anything wrong with showering praise (and money) to people who are naturally good athletes and excel in their sport, or artists. </p>
<p>I continue to be surprised by the pejorative words that are associated with intellectualism: “eggheads,” “nerds,” “geeks,” and so on and the stories about the studious kids being bullied in school.</p>
<p>I totally disagree with the OP article. Most schools and local news media trumpet the achievements of their athletes without shame. Publicizing the academic achievements of students champions the primary goal of education. And by academics, I mean not only NMS excellence but excellence in the arts, music, science, and public service by students.</p>
<p>One reason that accomplishments other than academics are trumpeted by high schools and media may have to do with federal and state privacy laws. The score of a football game and winners of a music competition are, by definition, public information. Grades and test scores are not.</p>
<p>As the parent of an NMF who is reaping huge financial rewards at his dream college, all I can say is that even if the high school didn’t make a fuss, we were perfectly happy to throw our own party. (And I do hate the tone of the article the OP cites. Not to mention, I think that it’s very wise for kids who are potential NMF’s to prep until the cows come home. For parents who have a couple of hundred thousand spare dollars burning a hole in their mattress, the whole enterprise might seem silly. For us, it was pretty damned great.)</p>
<p>Re post 163: This is a red herring.
Since some schools DO publicize the NMFs–the reason why the article was written in the first place–this consideration is not relevant. The scores and grades of individual finalists are not publicized, only their status. The author of the article would prefer that the status not be publicized, either.</p>
<p>Nester: Indeed. the author of the article teaches at a school where the COA is $31.5k. Practically the cost of college.</p>
<p>marite,
I know I am not directly addressing the NMF issue. I was responding in general terms to complaints that academic achievements are not well publicized in comparison to other high school achievements. Each year, our local paper publishes the names of valedictorians from each high school in our district. I’m not sure that they are legally permitted to publish things such as an honor roll list of “those students earning a 4.0 and above” without authorization by each individual student. I know that the school is not permitted to release information about a student’s grades without their permission. Do you know the answer to this?</p>
<p>^ No, I don’t. Still, there is nothing to prevent a school from releasing the name of students who receive academic awards without disclosing their grades. If I remember correctly, our school had a list of honors roll students (not always up to date) and easily missed as it was in some corner. But I never saw it published. I did not see the names of the vals and sals published, either. We only learned the names of the vals and sals of our Ss’ classes because we attended their graduation. </p>
<p>The problem is extrapolating from a single school. In the author’s school, it seems that the majority of the students must come from affluent families if they can afford the tuition; they are bright, competitive, and destined for top schools (is information about where they are admitted verboten as well?). They probably don’t need the merit money that comes from NMF status or the extra inspiration. But that is not the case of every high school. In fact, I would venture that it is not the case in the majority of high schools. The drop out rate rather than competitiveness is the issue. In some, even having one or two students who make Commended is a big deal.</p>
<p>Maybe context is everything when it comes to NMF. Our community is more in the vein of the high school in the OP - highly competitive, academically stressful. A good portion of the students go on to top schools, so honestly, publicizing a high PSAT score combined with good grades and recs is not particularly inspiring. I don’t mean to denigrate the value of the scholarship to those who benefit from it, I simply question the intrinsic value of glorifying a PSAT score, because where I come from, the SAT and its progeny is a time-consuming, money-sucking, stress-inducing machine that has taken away from, rather than added to, my kids’ high school education.</p>
<p>I personally don’t think much of using the PSAT as a basis for making the awards. It actually seems very strange to me. The one good thing it might do is to show that one can get rewarded for academic performance before the senior year.</p>
<p>Considering the SAT stats at our school, it would be hard to conclude that the majority of families invest much (if anything) into prepping for the PSAT or SAT. Tthe SAT scores are below the national average and the drop-out rate is a concern.</p>
<p>I can’t say that the PSAT or SAT have been a money and time consuming issue for my family. My kids did not prep. They took the PSAT only once without prepping. S1 decided to retake a couple of SAT-IIs. S2 took everything only once (having taken the SAT in 7th grade). So they spent some time taking the tests. S2 wasted more time taking the MCAS, which proved far more disruptive of everybody’s learning than the PSAT or the SAT.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove asked me:
“CD, I’m curious: does the noncompetitiveness culture truly extend throughout the student body? Meaning, do students tell each other their test scores and such? Also, do NMFs at your school end up using any NMF school-based scholarships?”</p>
<p>Well, I guess you could say that UHS is an incredibly competitive environment academically in that everyone is always studying/very concerned about grades, and there is certainly plenty of hype about the college admissions process. However, given the extreme focus on and pressure surrounding academics, there is relatively little talk about test scores. For example, though the SAT is a certainly a hot conversation topic at times, people definitely don’t talk a lot about their own SAT scores. </p>
<p>I don’t think Jon (or UHS as a whole) is trying to say that NMF isn’t a great achievement, and that one shouldn’t be proud of it. I agree that his argument shouldn’t be extended to all schools, and I’m not even saying I agree with everything he says. </p>
<p>I guess I came to this thread and I was sad to see so many people saying things along the lines of “wow, I’m glad my kid doesn’t go there” based on this one article. I love my high school, and I think our policy is absolutely the right choice for our school - maybe not for your school, but for our school.</p>
<p>Again, it’s very strange and rather disheartening for me to see people look at this one article, take random information from our website, and come up with all these conclusions that we are somehow doing things “wrong.”</p>
<p>Edit - Whoops, I forgot to answer one part of SlitheyTove’s question! And the answer is no, those who are NMFs definitely do not take advantage of any of the larger scholarships for NMFs at schools that offer them. This is not because Jon/UHS discourages them from doing so; in fact, it’s most likely the opposite. However, these are just not schools that people at UHS (regardless of socioeconomic background) tend to be interested in. A lot of it has to do with location, IMO - for example, UAlabama? The college counselors could suggest it over and over, but people from San Francisco generally aren’t big fans of the South.</p>
<p>The shame here are the high schools or school districts that don’t educate the students on what a good PSAT could yield them. In my son school there is no fanfare about taking the PSAT. As a matter of fact there are kids that just learn the day before that they need to take the PSAT. This school behavior is priving kids of the opportunity to get in the radar screen of colleges and universities, and the opportunity to win significant scholarships that can make college more affordable. The students are missing a valuable opportunity. </p>
<p>There is a portion of extremely gifted students that will do fine at any test, but there is a greater portion of kids that by just practicing a few times they can elevate their performance achieve great scores. These are the ones end up missing the opportunity.</p>
<p>As a parent I spreading the voice to every parent that I meet with kids are freshman and sophmore about the importance of preparing for the PSAT. Hopefully the voice will continue to spread among parents to have kids preparing better. Also, I think that PTA’s can take a active approach on this too.</p>
<p>CD - There are some NMF hidden gems even among “known” schools, though. For instance, URochester guarantees a 22k merit scholarship to NMFs.</p>
<p>^Thanks, Keil - I don’t know a ton about NMF scholarships, so that’s good to know!
Just for fun, I checked Naviance, and we have 5 data points for U of Rochester - that’s for somewhere between the last 5 and 10 years. I think, once again, location may play a small part in it - again, upstate NY is not people’s favorite; applications to Cornell are relatively low, for example. However, better than U of Alabama - 1 application in the history of all our Naviance data!</p>
<p>^Sorry, just wanted to add on to what I said above and clarify - there are some schools, USC being the main one that comes to mind, that do give out pretty nice scholarships for NMF and that people from UHS are certainly awarded.
However, the number of people who accept those scholarships is minimal. For example, while we generally send a decent number of students to USC, the scholarship recipients often (though not always) go elsewhere.</p>
<p>There was an age, not completely past, when teachers and school administrators favored their darlings and merit, as revealed by standardized tests, was a big surprise to the local powers that be. The test still is a corrective to this, and a thumb in the eye to school authorities and their stinking bias.
On the other hand, the National Merit system is needlessly opaque and a biased system in itself. Who decides who gets the money and on what basis? They don’t say.
To reveal my own bias, my daughter got a 236 in a middling state (Illinois) and got nothing. The rest of her resume got her into Princeton (which school had no knowledge of her PSAT).
A home schooled kid, whose score had to be one of the top dozen or so in the state. At our income level, a couple thousand would have come in handy. But the school guidance counselors and teachers picking up some money on the side didn’t think she was worthy.</p>
<p>“Who decides who gets the money and on what basis?”
danas, MOST NM merit $$ is awarded by the either colleges who choose to participate in the program, or by corporate sponsors for the benefit of employees children. The 1400 or so scholars who receive the one time $2500 award are sponsored by neither colleges or business, but receive the award directly from the NMSF.She didn’t get anything because she matriculated at in Ivy, which doesn’t need to sponsor NM scholarships, because top scoring students will choose to go there anyway.</p>
<p>I understood that she wouldn’t get any college or corporate sponsorship. My beef is with the National Merit folks. I thought that was pretty darned clear. No complaints about the colleges or the corporations whatsoever.
I don’t understand the last post.</p>
<p>CalDancer – For film students, USC’s NMF merit scholarships are extremely attractive, particularly given NYU’s notoriously poor FA and gapping.</p>
<p>“The shame here are the high schools or school districts that don’t educate the students on what a good PSAT could yield them. In my son school there is no fanfare about taking the PSAT. As a matter of fact there are kids that just learn the day before that they need to take the PSAT.”</p>
<p>I didn’t take the PSAT at all. We were told it was just for SAT practice and not to worry about it unless we wanted a little extra practice. Only one person I knew even took it.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s high school, nobody paid any noticeable attention to the NMSFs. Their names weren’t on the notice board in front of the school. I don’t think they were even named in the morning announcements.</p>
<p>But then, there were 35 NMSFs in her class, so it wasn’t considered a particularly notable achievement.</p>