National Merit Semi-Finalists: 2008-2012 Cumulative Totals - plus 2013 NMSFs (Houston: top schools, colleges)

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by EDS_

I tend to give BL a partial pass. BL has a long-standing habit of accepting lots of neighborhood kids who simply could not get into other privates. Jesuit and UA do as well but to a lesser degree. I admire BL and what the school is about. JPII not so much. It's too bad JPII wasn't built at it's original planned location on Hedgecoxe between Coit and Ohio it would have worked out better for most everyone.

Oh I totally agree. Anyone I've ever talked to from BL loves it there. I actually appreciate Dallas privates that aren't going for the big elite status, just a solid education. I don't know very much about JPII at all.

[txgolfer130]

Originally Posted by Big G

Eh, too much hassle to create a separate 2013 thread. Here are the double-digit schools for 2013:

48 Plano West
46 Flower Mound (LISD)
44 Plano Senior
42 TAMS
36 Plano East
24 Hockaday
21 Coppell
18 St. Mark's
18 FM Marcus (LISD)
14 Southlake Carroll
12 Highland Park
12 Hebron (LISD)
10 Greenhill
10 Dallas ISD TAG

You left off McKinney which has 10 for 2013.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by txgolfer130

You left off McKinney which has 10 for 2013.

McKinney ISD has 10 across three high schools. His list was individual campuses with 10+ NMSF's.

[txgolfer130]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

McKinney ISD has 10 across three high schools. His list was individual campuses with 10+ NMSF's.

Granted, but as YOU noted you're lumping the ISD as a whole.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by TXNGL

Oh I totally agree. Anyone I've ever talked to from BL loves it there. I actually appreciate Dallas privates that aren't going for the big elite status, just a solid education. I don't know very much about JPII at all.

An acquaintance sent three kids to BL specifically to take advantage of BL's dual-credit program. All three left BL with about 60 hrs towards their respective BS degrees. IIRC one of his kids entered LSU's chemical engineering program as a jr. with almost 70 hrs. The admin, teachers and coaches at BL do special work IMO. And you are right, everyone I've met at BL loves the place.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by txgolfer130

Granted, but as YOU noted you're lumping the ISD as a whole.

I was more doing that to prove Allen / Frisco/ McKinney are average, not outstanding, and way over-hyped on this forum. The outstanding schools were noted in Big G's post.

[Big G]

OK, I'll bite. By district:

Plano ISD: 128
Lewisville ISD: 82
Coppell ISD: 21
Richardson ISD: 18
Dallas ISD: 14
Carroll ISD: 14
Frisco ISD: 12
Highland Park ISD: 12
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD: 10
McKinney ISD: 10

---

Here are the percentages: (Fine print: I recycled 2010 enrollments for most of these, assumed DMN's numbers were correct, didn't process schools with only 2-3 NMSFs, etc. They might be off by 0.1% or 0.2% here and there. So sue me.)

22.1% TAMS
21.7% St. Mark's
20.0% Hockaday
18.8% Cistercian
17.9% Dallas ISD TAG
8.9% Greenhill
5.6% Flower Mound (LISD)
5.5% TCA
4.8% Plano West
4.1% ESD
3.7% Ursuline
3.6% Jesuit
3.2% Plano Senior
3.1% Coppell
2.5% Plano East
2.5% Highland Park
2.1% FM Marcus (LISD)
2.0% Southlake Carroll
2.0% Frisco Liberty
1.6% Hebron (LISD)
1.5% Pearce (RISD)
1.4% Lovejoy

Everything else was sub-1%, didn't have reliable enrollment data, or didn't have enough NMSFs to get a reasonably significant number.

---

Busted out by public vs. private/magnet:

Private/Magnet:
22.1% TAMS
21.7% St. Mark's
20.0% Hockaday
18.8% Cistercian
17.9% Dallas ISD TAG
8.9% Greenhill
5.5% TCA
4.1% ESD
3.7% Ursuline
3.6% Jesuit


Public:
5.6% Flower Mound (LISD)
4.8% Plano West (PISD)
3.2% Plano Senior (PISD)
3.1% Coppell
2.5% Plano East (PISD)
2.5% Highland Park
2.1% FM Marcus (LISD)
2.0% Southlake Carroll
2.0% Liberty (FISD)
1.6% Hebron (LISD)
1.5% Pearce (RISD)
1.4% Lovejoy


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On the private/magnet side, Hockaday, TAG, and TCA showed notable improvements with the 2013 results.

On the public side, Flower Mound's performance is crazy incredible. The rest is pretty much par for the course, with honorable mentions for PWSH, Southlake and Hebron stepping it up a bit. Lovejoy's performance might just be small number fluctuations, or it might be an indication of another decent option in CoCo.

[mSooner]

On the public side, Flower Mound's performance is crazy incredible

I've mentioned it before, probably in this thread, but they have an excellent, specific program the have been executing for years...probably close to 10 now. Out of the 5 of us (my siblings and myself):

I got finalist
My sister missed it by 1 point (poor girl!)
My brother scored well, but has major test anxiety. Just not his thing!
My next brother got finalist.
My youngest sister is a freshman and is shooting to be a finalist.

And we're all Sooners (well, #5 hasn't decided yet, but that is where she is leaning)

Best investment ever!

[Walter Benjamin]

Speaking of test scores vs. realtor hype, another question: is it true that Flower Mound and the Lewisville ISD in general are less "buzzed-about" than Allen, Frisco, and McKinney?

And if so, why? Is it because it's not located directly on 75 or the toll road, hence less accessible to those who commute to downtown Dallas?

Also, 12 homeschoolers! Homeschooling - it's not just for fundamentalists and hippies anymore

[Falafelosophy]

My neighbor always says that Allen, Frisco, McKinney trio buzz is mainly builder/realtor promoted because there are more homes to sell in those areas. I don't know if it's true or not but there are a lot of myths about homes and neighborhoods that originate from Realtor Gospels. Almost everybody I talk to thinks that all Plano homes located west of Midway are LISD though all Plano homes within Collin County limits feed to west side of PISD.