Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Do you list DYS on a college application?

That's completely illogical, and doesn't follow from anything I've written. Don't take it so personally; we simply disagree about how something could be perceived on an application. I'm not the only one who feels this way. From that perspective, since I really don't think that showing DYS status (again, if an admissions officer even realizes what DYS is) will ever tip the balance in favor of an applicant, I wouldn't risk running into an admissions committee member who feels as I do.

(Actually, now that I think about it, someone could mistake the word "Scholar" in the title to mean that a DYS admittee actually has some sort of proven scholarly ability, i.e. that it is an academic honor like being a Rhodes Scholar. I still would err on the side of caution-- too many people might actually go look it up.)

Not me, for the reasons stated. One can rest on one's laurels based on taking a test or two to demonstrate intelligence, or one can show actual fitness for the sorts of endeavors that take place at a university. The proof is in the pudding, and I'd give priority to applicants who appear to realize that. Go-getters go get. Between SATs and other tests there must be plenty of information already on test-taking ability.

I didn't say it was elitist; I said it showed a sense of entitlement (to entry at a place of higher learning). I don't consider people with high test scores to be the academically elite-- it takes more. If one is actually academically elite, high IQ test scores don't matter. Many brilliant people must have scores that don't accurately reflect their real-world abilities, and many others don't have scores at all.

Advocating for a child's educational needs and competing for university entry aren't at all the same. One demonstrates fitness for top college spots by actual ability and worthiness, not potential ability and educational need. In addition the sorts of things one chooses to put on one's academic resume give context about one's own personal values, a negligible factor when advocating for a young child's access to services.

I would hold it against her if she tried to gain entry to a program for accomplished young adult skaters by showing raw potential instead of developed potential, absolutely. Every time. By the time people are ready for college, I would expect them to demonstrate the sort of work ethic that leads to actual success, and they would naturally then be able to show fruits of their labor which would also show their ability. Trying to gain entry essentially by virtue of one's genes would show the wrong set of values, and potentially point to a weak applicant with something to hide. Aside from the active discounting based on these ideas, though, I could never give an applicant an edge because of DYS entry because a similar applicant might simply never have been in a position to apply to DYS.

The thing that's apparently missing from your viewpoint is the realization that by college age, one doesn't have to rely on best-guess testing from young ages to predict performance; one can show a record of actual performance (together perhaps with the sorts of standardized tests like the SAT that are well-accepted for college entry). That's far better for predicting success than membership in a high IQ society often achieved at the age of five, especially with such wide possible variance in testing conditions and even in controlled testing of a single subject from year to year. At young ages we must do the best with what we have available, and we comply with testing requirements to get into programs we think would work well for our children. We don't IQ test children for college entry, because it's an inappropriate and unreliable tool. When it comes to testing, the SAT test for example is more achievement-focused (though apparently somewhat g-loaded), and allows a direct comparison to performance of other applicants. If an applicant already had SAT scores or the like, IQ-test scores would add nothing useful-- they would seem in the nature of padding at best.

Membership in DYS just doesn't show college fitness. It only shows that a person achieved a certain set of scores on certain tests years before, and possibly needed to put together a portfolio because the test scores weren't completely there, possibly at age five, where a portfolio could consist of speaking about knowledge memorized from popular cable TV science shows and the like. Enhanced fitness for advanced studies at college age? Hardly. And SAT tests already provide enough achievement-test differentiation, of a type seemingly better suited to predicting college aptitude, so that more isn't necessary of a less reliable type-- even if the vast majority of applicants did go off to college with early IQ scores in hand.

My recommendation for anyone who's considering listing DYS status: instead put one's IQ and/or achievement test scores right on the application, and the age at which they were obtained. It's exactly as valid a demonstration of academic fitness for college, and more straightforward.