The Chronicle of Higher Education reported (subscription only), August 29, 2003, Volume 49, Issue 30, Page A37, on how many National Merit Scholars went to various colleges, and whether the colleges paid for them. I've abridged the table: <

2002 Freshman Merit Scholars
This table shows the 102 colleges and universities enrolling the largest numbers of freshman Merit Scholars named in 2002, and the number of freshman Merit Scholars those institutions enrolled in 2001. For the fall of 2002, the table shows the total number of Merit Scholarship winners and the number whose scholarships were paid for by the institution, not by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation or other corporate sponsors. The rankings were determined by The Chronicle from an alphabetical listing appearing in the 2001-2 annual report of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Over all, 8,073 freshman Merit Scholars were enrolled in the fall of 2002, 4,785 at 229 private colleges and universities and 3,288 at 141 public institutions.
	2002 scholars
	Total	Sponsored by college	2001 total
1. Harvard U	396	0	360
2. U of Texas, Austin	266	207	233
3. Stanford U	223	0	265
4. U of Chicago	189	136	173
5. U of Florida	186	160	158
6. Yale U	180	0	167
7. Rice U	169	108	159
8. U of Southern California	163	131	139
9. U of Oklahoma	162	131	109
10. Texas A&M U	156	122	171
11. Princeton U	149	0	156
12. U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	143	110	145
13. Massachusetts Inst of Technology	139	0	165
14. Washington U in St Louis	135	97	138
15. Vanderbilt U	129	87	107
16. Brigham Young U	111	90	112
17. Ohio State U	110	90	109
18. Arizona State U	103	86	115
19. Georgia Inst of Technology	100	73	103
19. U of Kansas	100	76	105
	2002 scholars
	Total	Sponsored by college	2001 total
21. Northwestern U	99	49	129
22. Duke U	98	0	90
22. New York U	98	79	151
24. U of California, Los Angeles	92	73	84
25. Purdue U	88	70	75
26. U of Pennsylvania	87	0	80
27. Carleton College	83	69	87
28. Iowa State U	80	67	110
29. Oberlin College	68	57	67
30. U of California, Berkeley	66	0	231
31. Brown U	65	0	72
32. Tufts U	58	44	38
32. U of Arizona	58	43	65
34. California Inst of Technology	56	0	53
35. U of Kentucky	53	43	49
36. Johns Hopkins U	52	26	80
36. Tulane U	52	34	52
36. U of Maryland, College Park	52	35	42
39. U of California, San Diego	51	42	50
39. U of Tulsa	51	39	26
	2002 scholars
	Total	Sponsored by college	2001 total
41. Case Western Reserve U	50	31	49
41. Columbia U	50	0	58
41. Dartmouth College	50	0	40
41. Harvey Mudd College	50	35	38
41. U of Notre Dame	50	0	42
46. U of Michigan, Ann Arbor	49	0	64
47. Boston U	48	38	49
47. Michigan State U	48	34	63
47. U of Georgia	48	37	51
50. Emory U	47	33	39
50. U of Iowa	47	39	35
52. Macalaster College	46	41	54
53. Williams College	45	0	29
54. Cornell U	42	0	63
54. St Olaf College	42	37	30
54. U of Alabama, Tuscaloosa	42	34	31
54. U of Nebraska, Lincoln	42	35	39
58. Baylor U	40	33	55
59. U of Minnesota, Twin Cities	38	25	53
60. Louisiana State U	37	33	35
	2002 scholars
	Total	Sponsored by college	2001 total
60. U of Arkansas, Fayetteville	37	26	22
62. U of Virginia	36	0	42
64. U of Wisconsin, Madison	35	5	24
68. Kenyon College	33	29	23
68. Miami U (Ohio)	33	28	27
71. Wheaton College (Ill)	32	30	49
74. Pennsylvania State U	31	5	24
75. Grinnell College	30	25	26
77. Georgetown U	29	0	18
	2002 scholars
	Total	Sponsored by college	2001 total
82. Furman U	26	26	30
83. Pomona College	25	6	25
83. U of Central Florida	25	21	25
83. U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign	25	0	24
90. Carnegie Mellon U	21	0	21
93. Florida State U	20	18	68
93. Gustavus Adolphus College	20	15	18
93. Rose-Hulman Inst of Technology	20	13	24
93. Whitman College	20	18	17
SOURCE: National Merit Scholarship Corporation

Indiana University does not appear at all, a bad sign for us. Harvard did twice as well as Yale--so this is a blow to my pride. My respect for Texas, Florida, USC, Oklahoma, Texas A +M, North Carolina, Washington U., Vanderbilt, Brigham Young, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Ohio State, Carleton, Tufts, Kentucky, Tulane, Tulsa, and Maryland has gone up. There are even places I've never heard of on the list --Furman, Whitman, and Gustavus Adolphus.

I remember back in 1976 in my high school class we had something like 11 National Merit Semi-Finalists-- people who got the high test scores, but didn't qualify, perhaps, for the scholarships. Andrew Appel was indignant, because that was more than a quarter of the class-- so some of them were "not in the top quarter of their class", a bad thing for some college admissions (he got into Princeton despite a few bad grades at Uni High) .

[ permalink, http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.10.17c.htm ]

To return to Eric Rasmusen's weblog, click http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm.