Auburn ranks 2nd nationally among public institutions in enrollment of National Merit Scholars

Auburn University is ranked second nationally out of 145 public institutions in the enrollment of National Merit Scholars, the university's Office of Enrollment Services announced this week. A school news release  said the rankings are included in the recently released 2010-2011 National Merit Scholarship Corporation Annual Report.

The release said Auburn is first in the Southeastern Conference among public institutions and second, behind Vanderbilt, among all Southeastern Conference institutions. Auburn ranked ninth overall out of the 359 institutions where these scholars are enrolled, with Chicago, USC, Harvard, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Washington-St. Louis, Oklahoma and Yale ranked higher. Only Oklahoma was ranked above Auburn among all public institutions.

Auburn enrolled 181 new scholars this summer and fall, which is a 35 percent increase over last year's number of 134. Auburn moved up from third in the SEC and 16th overall last year.

Auburn's 181 National Merit Scholars are from 23 states and are enrolled in all of the university's 10 undergraduate colleges and schools.

Auburn also enrolled a record 45 National Achievement Scholars from 19 states, an 80 percent increase over last year. The students are enrolled in five of Auburn's undergraduate colleges and schools.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is an independent, not-for-profit organization that conducts the National Merit Scholarship Program and the National Achievement Scholarship Program as annual competitions for recognition and undergraduate scholarships.