FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas is 50^th among higher education institutions for the number of National Merit Scholars admitted in the current academic year, according to the National Merit Corp., which has released its report on the National Merit Scholars for 2007-08. Forty-six National Merit Scholars enrolled in the University of Arkansas this fall as part of the incoming freshman class. The University of Arkansas is tied with Georgetown University and California Technical Institute in the number of its freshman National Merit Scholars.

 “This is great news,” said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “The state of Arkansas produced 128 National Merit Scholars in 2008, and clearly a substantial number of them chose to come to the University of Arkansas. This is a credit to our state’s schools and students. It’s also evidence that the university is providing the kind of quality education that can keep our best students in Arkansas, while attracting top students from around the country.”

“I’m very pleased to see that we are competing effectively against the major private and public institutions in the country. The quality of the schools in the top fifty is impressive,” said Suzanne McCray, interim dean of the Honors College. “But we plan to continue to be energetic in recruiting in order to continue to build an intellectually stimulating environment for all students. Our immediate goal is to enroll 50 new freshman Merit Scholars each year. We’ll keep working toward that.”

The National Merit Corp., which awards the scholarships, compiled a report including information on the selection process, the number of recipients each institution enrolled and the number of recipients each state produced. 

The University of Arkansas ranks fifth among Southeastern Conference schools, behind the University of Florida (166), Vanderbilt University (147), the University of Alabama (83) and the University of Georgia (54). Vanderbilt is a private institution. The three other schools have substantially higher enrollments than the University of Arkansas.

Five other institutions in Arkansas enrolled National Merit Scholars in 2008: Harding University (10), Hendrix College (8), John Brown University (1), University of Arkansas-Little Rock (1), the University of Central Arkansas (1) and Ouachita Baptist University (1).