<p>im just posting my opinion of what the top competitive states are (standardized test averages, national olympiad qualifiers, siemens and intel qualifiers, etc):</p>
<p>1) New York/California (goes back and forth a lot)
3) Florida
4) Illinois
5) Massachusetts/Texas
7) Connecticut
8) Ohio</p>
<p>rerank what you think is wrong and add more states as you like. this is just for fun (we’re allowed to have fun sometimes) :)</p>
<p>I can’t speak for Southern VA, but Northern VA and DC are very, very competitive. Lots of private schools (St. Albans, Nat’l Cathedral, Sidwell Friends, Chevy Chase, St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes)…implementation of the IB program and lots of emphasis on taking as many APs as your schedule will allow. Many students have parents who work for law firms or the government, so expectations can get pretty high around here. It’s also getting tougher for NOVA kids to get into the two big state schools since both are looking for more geographic diversity (within the state, that is).</p>
<p>New Jersey–if you look at the NMS semifinalist cutoff scores you will see NJ is among the highest. Not so much fun if you’re a high school student from New Jersey though, since it makes for very tough competition to get into out-of-state colleges.</p>
<p>i’d say that california is probably the toughest, which makes sense bc its a huge state w a lot of ppl, but new york is certainly up there bc of the cutthroat private school competition and the magnet public schools.</p>
<p>needhelp06, I wouldn’t place Florida at #2…#30 perhaps :]
Maryland is also very competitive.</p>
<p>It depends on what you call “competitive”. California or Texas are huge, so it’s not surprising that there will be more finalists in the competitions from these states than from smaller states with students at comparable level.</p>
<p>Here’s National Merit cut-off table (top 3%) <a href=“http://hseagle.sas.edu.sg:8068/hscounseling/Tests/NMSCindex.htm[/url]”>http://hseagle.sas.edu.sg:8068/hscounseling/Tests/NMSCindex.htm</a></p>
<p>It doesn’t look like FL or OH are even close to the top…</p>
<p>I disgree with Ohio. Also, you can look at the selective universities and how many from each state they accept. You’ll quickly find a trend among Texas, California and New York, and a few others as well. Ohio is simply in the middle of the pack, nowhere close to these other competetive states.</p>
<p>It’s not the amount, it’s quality. </p>
<p>The cut off number for these states make them the most competitive: 220 - Delaware and Conneticut, 221 - New Jersey, 222 - Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington DC. </p>
<p>New York is just a little farther down with 218 (same as Texas) and California is 216. </p>
<p>This year</p>
<p>Do many ACT types even take the PSAT?</p>
<p>barrons, exactly what is an “ACT type”?
My S took both ACT and SAT.</p>
<p>Most schools require the juniors (and, in many cases, sophs) to take PSAT. This is way before the kids have to decide about SAT v. ACT.</p>
<p>yes, 388/447 Juniors in my class took the psat, and BOTH the SAT and the ACT are required.</p>
<p>A requirement to take the psat? While I’ve heard of it on this board, our school does not require it and I don’t know of any in our area that does. I assume the school then pays for it?</p>
<p>we aren’t required to take the PSAT just highly highly highly recommended to do so, and we must pay the $15 ourselves.</p>
<p>All the private schools in our area administer the PSAT to the whole grade at a time during school. The parents are billed on their account. That was both soph and junior years. Boarding schools do the same. I guess public schools give the kids a choice.</p>
<p>By ACT type I meant kids in the midwest that generally take only the ACT–Illinois, Michy, Wisconsin, Iowa etc.</p>
<p>and OHIO! sorry, I’ll calm down now</p>
<p>well private schools feel they’re all special…they can just “bill” their account, pfff</p>
<p>NJ has to be the worst! It’s so small and so overcrowded with weathy overachievers that breed, millions of weathy, overachieving, supersmart kids. All of which live in my county!</p>
<p>I know that the National Merit cutoffs are by state, but I just realized the other day that the actual scholarships are determined by state as well. No fair! I told my son this and he said, “Well there goes that scholarship.”</p>
<p>MomofWildchild - Our public school students are given a choice: find out about the test in time to register for it, and get a ride to it, since it is not offered at our high school. I think I drove 30 miles to take my PSAT. I didn’t know that you could take it before junior year so Like the SAT, I only took it once and kept the score.</p>