National Merit numbers show Baylor drawing more top students

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently crunched the numbers on how many freshman National Merit Scholars enrolled at various colleges this fall. Baylor ranks 26th nationally with 84 such students, up two spots from a year ago.

To put this in perspective, when it comes to attracting many of the country’s top high school students, Baylor ranks ahead of half the Ivy League (Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Dartmouth) as well as other prestigious private schools such as Notre Dame, Emory, Boston University, Tulane, Miami and Georgetown.

Baylor ranks fourth among Big 12 Conference schools behind only the much larger state universities of Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma, and outranked other public schools such as Michigan, UC-Berkeley, Clemson, LSU, Maryland, Virginia, Wisconsin, UCLA and Georgia. (Click here for a complete chart of schools with 20 or more Scholars.)

Each fall, Baylor invites National Merit Semifinalists to a special program called Invitation to Excellence where they can learn about the school. National Merit Finalists who list Baylor as their top college choice are eligible for the Regents’ Scholarship, which covers full tuition costs for eight semesters.

Sic ’em, National Merit Bears!