University ranks 21st in National Merit study

Though U.S. News and World Report still has the University at the top of its list, another national publication has Princeton far from first.

In its Feb. 16 issue, the Chronicle of Higher Education featured a table listing the 86 universities and colleges with the highest number of 2000 National Merit Scholars enrolled in their freshman classes.

Princeton was ranked twenty-first in the number of Merit Scholars enrolled in the Class of 2004. Leading the list were Harvard University, which ranked first and the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Texas at Austin, which tied for second.

The Chronicle compiled the table based on the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's 1999-2000 annual report. The chart gave both the total number of Merit Scholars at each school and the number of those sponsored directly by the institution rather than by the NMSC or independent business organizations.

Also filling some of the 20 slots above Princeton were Stanford University, Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&M, the University of Oklahoma, Arizona State University, Brigham Young University and Iowa State University.

Though Princeton's relatively low ranking may have raised some eyebrows, University Dean of Admission Fred Hargadon explained in an e-mail that many other factors must be considered to put the number in perspective.

"The numbers you saw in the Chronicle of Higher Education represent those enrolled in the various institutions, not those accepted by those institutions," he explained. "None of us knows how many of those we accepted for admission to the Class of '04 were also designated as National Merit award winners."

Hargadon said that while the chart distinguishes between the National Merit awards and the institutionally sponsored merit awards, it ranks the institutions by combining the numbers from both lists.

For example, although Princeton does not fund any Merit awards — a fact that hurt its overall ranking in the Chronicle table — last year it enrolled the fifth largest number of recipients of scholarships actually funded by the NMSC, after Harvard, Stanford, Yale and MIT. The table did not reflect this factor.

Hargadon, from his own experience on the NMSC selection committee, further explained that inherent characteristics of the NMSC contrast sharply with the nature of the college admission process.

"The National Merit semi-finalists are chosen solely on the basis of their PSAT scores [and] the 'cutoff' scores for making semifinalist status vary from state to state," he wrote.

Colleges and universities, however, "necessarily take into account many more factors, both academic and non-academic, in assembling a freshman class," whereas the NMSC selection committee "works conscientiously to make its way through a very large number of applications in a very short period of time," Hargardon said.

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"Many excellent colleges enroll relatively small numbers of National Merit award winners," he added.

He explained, "In part, that is because they admit relatively small freshman classes. In part, it is because the geographical spread of their applicant pools may be more limited. And in part, like Princeton, they simply may not place any special weight on an applicant's being a semi-finalist."

"We base our decisions on the rather complete set of application credentials we ourselves collect, and because we spend a good deal of time parsing that information we see applicants each year whose overall academic credentials are obviously stronger than those of some of our applicants who are semi-finalists," he added.

Of the first 21 schools on the list, only Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT and Princeton did not sponsor their Merit Scholars.

However, when asked whether the recent changes in the University's financial aid system will affect the number of Merit Scholars at Princeton, Dean Hargadon expressed some doubt.

"Given the very strong correlation between family income and test scores such as the PSAT and SATs, etc., I don't think we should expect any extraordinary changes. But, we'll see in time," he replied.

"In any event, I don't think that this particular scorecard is one over which we should lose any sleep."