Only 16 National Merit Semifinalists?

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B0MBER

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While I admit that I was not a National Merit Semifinalist myself...16 seems quite low. What happened to the days that St. X topped the state in National Merit Semifinalists? We didn't even finish 1st in the city...we finished fourth, with the following schools in Cincinnati beating us: Sycamore, 20; Seven Hills, 19; Walnut Hills, 19 (Two of those three are public schools - I hope X students aren't just paying all that tuition money for great facilities.)

I really hope that St. X is not trying to become some football or athletic powerhouse...or that its admission board doesn't know what it is doing. It seems a little suspect that in the past few years the admissions board has had difficulty in admissions decisions (recent entering freshman classes have been much larger than in the past) and now the National Merit numbers have seemed to drop steadily over the past few years.

Hopefully the admissions board cam get it right from here on out...

This thread is not meant to belittle the current senior class or any of the current classes at St. X...it just seems as though there has been a sharp decline in National Merit Semifinalists in the past few years. If anyone can shed some light on why this is happening, please do. I am very curious as to what is going on at my alma mater.....aside from its recent athletic accomplishments. Thanks everyone and congrats to those who are Semifinalists this year.
 
 
Yeah i was surprised by this too. I dont really have an explanation for the "low" numbers, but i guess we just didnt have that many good test takers this year. All National Merit is if how you do on PSAT in October of your junior year. Im sure it will jump back up next year.
 
'07= Normal and fun to be in. we don't need others to remember ourselves cuz the people in our grade get along better than any class through st x in the last couple years.
 
And if you didn't notice, if you ever see our lunch, there is an incredible amount of mixing of people, '06 was the exact opposite and everyone saw it.
 
Last year's class got cheated by the numbers. I think 06 had maybe 23 or 24, but they moved the usual score to be a NMSF up by 4 points which I hear cost like 17 more kids from getting the award. In other words, X is not sliding, this was just a "low" year by X standards.
 
Simply X said:
Last year's class got cheated by the numbers. I think 06 had maybe 23 or 24, but they moved the usual score to be a NMSF up by 4 points which I hear cost like 17 more kids from getting the award. In other words, X is not sliding, this was just a "low" year by X standards.
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Would you quit posting about how sweet '06 was. Really annoying.
 
16?

There is a problem then.

The school is getting larger and having fewer NMSFs?

A typical year is low to mid-20s, correct?
 
actually concha, the 07 class was an attempt to not let the school grow so rapidly so after a massive 06 class fewer kids were accepted in the 07 class... since then so many kids have left for various reasons (family moving, disiplinary issues, hacking into the school computer system and shutting it down for a solid week...) so that now the 07 class is the smallest class in a decade
 
In the defense of the class of '07, we only have 335 total students, which is the smallest in the school and smaller than the class of '06. For some reason, a large number of guys transfered, dropped out, etc over the last three years. And there were a large number of commended students in our class as well.
 
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Let's Go X said:
In the defense of the class of '07, we only have 335 total students, which is the smallest in the school and smaller than the class of '06. For some reason, a large number of guys transfered, dropped out, etc over the last three years. And there were a large number of commended students in our class as well.
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I graduated in 2002. Our class was 333 at graduation (I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that your class will be slightly smaller by graduation, but not by much). We had something like 25-28 National Merit Semifinalists. The class of '07 may be smaller than the class of '06, but it is by no means a small class by St. Xavier standards. It is just surprising to me that the lower National Merit numbers have coincided with the recent admissions changes and problems (the board can't seem to narrow the class down to the ideal size).

I remember when I was a senior, they were talking about changing the admissions standards. Admissions used to be dependent on the entrance exam and, to a lesser extent, grades. Now it is my understanding that applicants have to submit letters of recommendation, resumes, etc... Maybe the problem is that more students who would not have been accepted because of low test scores are being accepted because they were on their grade school academic team or student council, or possibly had some great teacher recommendations. Is this good or bad? I dunno. I like that X is giving kids chances that would not have had them based on the entrance exam, but maybe too many chances will result in mediocrity.

It may just be me, but I don't think you can judge an 8th grader by their "resume" or achievements apart from academics at that age. When I was in grade school, I got into more trouble than most and would never have been admitted on the basis of teacher recommendations. I was getting C's in grade school and was getting into trouble all of the time, probably because I was bored by the lack of challenging course material. I also know of many people that I went to grade school with who got straight A's and were loved by all of the teachers, but who did not do well on standardized tests. Based on X's new standards, I think that I would not have been accepted while those other students would have...although I probably had much more potential as a student.

I am just trying to get an idea of what everyone knows/thinks about X's changes to the admissions process and whether it may be having an effect on the lower National Merit numbers the past 2 or so years. Please don't come on here and accuse the class of '07 of being stupid.
 
B0MBER said:
I remember when I was a senior, they were talking about changing the admissions standards. Admissions used to be dependent on the entrance exam and, to a lesser extent, grades. Now it is my understanding that applicants have to submit letters of recommendation, resumes, etc... Maybe the problem is that more students who would not have been accepted because of low test scores are being accepted because they were on their grade school academic team or student council, or possibly had some great teacher recommendations. Is this good or bad? I dunno. I like that X is giving kids chances that would not have had them based on the entrance exam, but maybe too many chances will result in mediocrity.
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Standardized test scores are not the end all be all of a person's intelligence. If X in the past was admitting people who scored the best on a standardized test in the 8th grade, wouldn't it make sense that those same kids would score better than many other kids on a standardized test in their junior year? Standardized test scores are not always an accurate picture of someone's intelligence, or likelyhood to succeed in what ever they choose. St X's valedictorian from last year was not a national merit semifinalist (he filled in the wrong bubble for an easy math question, and ended up being 1 correct answer away from getting it) but he is one of the most intelligent, smartest people I know (graduated with an average of 98.6 or something like that). While it is fun to brag if we have more national merit semifinalists that anyone else when we do, I think we should put it in perspective.
 
CCrunner87 said:
Standardized test scores are not the end all be all of a person's intelligence. If X in the past was admitting people who scored the best on a standardized test in the 8th grade, wouldn't it make sense that those same kids would score better than many other kids on a standardized test in their junior year? Standardized test scores are not always an accurate picture of someone's intelligence, or likelyhood to succeed in what ever they choose. St X's valedictorian from last year was not a national merit semifinalist (he filled in the wrong bubble for an easy math question, and ended up being 1 correct answer away from getting it) but he is one of the most intelligent, smartest people I know (graduated with an average of 98.6 or something like that). While it is fun to brag if we have more national merit semifinalists that anyone else when we do, I think we should put it in perspective.
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I totally agree.....I admitted that I am not a National Merit Semifinalist...but in no way do I think that means I am not intelligent. At the same time, however, standardized tests continue to be the standard by which all individuals and academic institutions are judged. Last time I checked, Harvard and Yale weren't exactly knocking down doors to get to kids with test scores in the 85th percentile.

I also recognize that there is a lot more to a St. Xavier education than how many National Merit Semifinalts we have. Listen, I'm pretty positive that legacy helped me get into X, but I managed to survive and have also just started my first year of law school...so I know that test scores aren't everything. It is just alarming when the numbers drop as drastically and quickly as they have...in lieu of the changes that I know have been made to the admissions process and the recent success of the sports programs...(although I'm still speculative that sports has much to do with anything, because we have always been strong at athletics). I am mainly worried about the admissions changes, because a few of my friends and I were approached by a member of the admissions board one day during our free period when we were seniors and asked us some questions regarding the admissions process (and athletics). I am not going to give details of the discussion because I don't want outsiders to speculate anything...but it was a weird discussion to say the least. It just has me worrying...that's all..........and I'm just really bored.....that's why I keep adding to my own thread...haha.

Also, just for clarification, since when has X had valedictorian's?
 
B0MBER said:
Also, just for clarification, since when has X had valedictorian's?
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Since never, sorry that was a typo. He won the best average award or something at graduation and had the highest average in the class.

It would seem that it just boils down to this: If St. X was using a standardized test score for determain admissions more so in the past, then those classes would be better standardized test takers. If it is true that admissions has just been using the test scores less over the past few years, then it would make sense that that would explain the drop in number of national merit semifinalists.
 
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LHS07 said:
The lowest commended score at La Salle was a 197 I believe, so somewhere around there.
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Excellent, so they've announced the commended students at La Salle? Anyone know when they're going to do so at X?
 
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