Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What does the SAT really measure?

There are four good publics in the DFW area. One has 4000+ seniors and the others around 450-750. These consistently have 3%+ NMSFs as a percentage of the total grads. Thus the large district has around 150 NMSFs and the smaller around 30 or so. The so-called magnets in Dallas ISD and other districts are lucky to have even 1.

The privates here see from 10-30% a year of their class as NMSF.

If a school bills itself as for GT kids yet has less than 1% of its class as NMSF with average SATS less than 2000 then its a good bet that its not really what it says it is.

You can also look at the AMC8/10/12 test participation and high scoring students from the schools. A handful of kids with scores > 20 each year is a great sign. No participation is a red flag.

As others have said, I'd be less concerned about the numbers and more concerned about the "This test is meaningless" party line.

I never realized my high school was as unusual as it seems to be; I think we had about 12 NMSF in a graduating class of 400.

I had forgotten I *was* a NMSF until this thread appeared.

That should tell you how much I think of the entire NMSF experience. I have *no* idea how many NMSFs our school had because I viewed it as profoundly irrelevant to my life. It was just another random award that was being thrown at me at the time and I threw it in my award box along with the bajillion other awards I had received.

Perhaps you didn't have to worry about paying for college, but for several young people I know the reality of a "free ride" from NMSF-friendly schools is far from being "irrelevant".

I don't think I knew that you could get free rides from NMSFs.

I got a free ride, but it wasn't directly NMSF related.

I've just never thought about it since then.

I may be dating myself here, but I'm not sure that NMSF actually got you free rides to college way back in the day when I was in high school. I think the program has gotten a lot bigger; I don't know of any schools around here who don't administer the test.

I'm not sure how many free rides Merit Scholars get or got. But I think *sometimes* they are offered free rides by colleges--generally, somewhat less selective ones. I seem to recall that this was offered to me by a safety school of mine.

Because my father worked for a company that sponsored NMS, my tuition was reduced by about 25% for all 4 years. The money came from the company, not my college. It was a huge deal for me and my family.

By contrast, my husband was also a semi-finalist but didn't get anything. (His parents were in public service.) So to him, it was more of the "Throw it in the box" variety.

I didn't really have safety schools.

My choices were free schools in which I had no interest in attending or schools in which I was interested in attending but had no interest in paying for.

The real key is to have your parents *work* for a small private college, where you can get your tuition reduced by 75% for all 4 years. One of my friends did this and attended a small private liberal arts school that he quite enjoyed. No NMSF or anysuch required.

I forgot about that secret, too.

My friend's daughter got free tuition to Fordham University on her Merit Scholarship. However, Fordham is ranked #100, below the Ivies she got into. They still must pay room and board, which is probably $10,000 or more a year, transportation, books, etc. So... It's not a totally free ride.

The free ride on NMSF was why I went to a Tier 1 state school vs an Ivy or Caltech. And my smaller scholarships did not get deducted from that free ride. What a deal. A lot of schools do this today. There are some public schools that have more total NMSFs than any private school.

Here is a list.

http://excelcollegeprep.com/pdf/scholarships.pdf