Am I interpreting something wrong when I look at Davidson's ACT score cutoffs? 7th grade, 24 as a composite score corresponds to 1180 on the new SAT, according to the College Board. I think the 1300 listed for SAT is the old test, which corresponds to 1360 on the new. 1180 to 1360 is a huge gap.

Same with Math - ACT of 23 is about 540 old/600 new SAT, whereas the old 660 SAT cutoff is 690 new SAT. Again, 90 SAT points is significant.

It seems much easier to qualify with the ACT. Am I missing something?

You may be missing the part of the DYS qualification webpage which sates: "For questions not addressed on these pages, please email ysapplications@davidsongifted.org. Emails will be answered within three to five business days."

You may wish to contact the DYS program with your observation and your resultant question.

Yes, I'm aware I can contact them directly. "Hey, your criteria seem too easy" wasn't something I was going to raise with them. Like when I'm searching for a hotel, I read customer reviews rather than contacting the property and asking them. I thought others in the same position may be able to share their actual experiences.

Discussing facts is often beneficial. A recommended approach may be the presentation of your sources, such as score equivalency tables, followed by your question as to whether these various criteria present a discrepancy in the DYS qualification criteria.

Other threads have discussed the changes in DYS criteria, including whether the recently updated criteria were "too easy".

I noticed that as well last spring and mentioned it in passing in one of my posts about Talent Searches and SAT Concordance. At first I thought it was a talent search phenomenon but concluded that wasn't the case after reviewing NUMATS and CTY statistics. Who knows? Perhaps it is a demographics issue - too many East/West Coast members and not enough Midwesterners?