Hi, Ephelidasa,
We only applied b/c DD9 was getting kicked out of her private school due to various 2e-related behavior issues and there was not recognition by either teachers or the school psychologist that gifted might be contributing to that. So we applied so that it wasn't just us saying "but she's actually really smart" and also to help her emphasize some of her positive qualities. She also scored low on coding, but she had other subtest scores that qualified her so maybe if you were able to have your DS do some of the other subtests (see the Davidson website) you could use those rather than the portfolio. But of course that can be expensive.
Here there are a few DYS kids in another part of town that we've met but DD hasn't really hit it off with any of them yet (even though they all seem like great kids). So the pluses would be meeting other kids/families, and maybe helping with advocacy in school. But it may not do much good. I think it's a great resource and am very grateful for this board, but to be honest as far as I can tell it hasn't made any difference for us. Our fortunes have risen and fallen with the compatibility with particular teacher(s) or lack thereof. Maybe things will be different in the future. I can say that this board has been tremendously helpful, at least in terms of esprit de corps, so it's great that it's available to everyone.

Good luck to you and your DS, whatever you decide.

Last edited by Dbat; 09/20/12 08:10 AM.