I thought I was done with talent searches but then both DS13 & DD13 asked to take the ACT. Does anyone know what the current 8th grade cut-off ACT scores are for JHU-CTY Grand Ceremony? It's clear that DS13 made it since he has one perfect 36 but DD13 only has a 34 (Reading). There used to be a chart on the website for all the tests (SAT, ACT, SCAT, STB) but it is gone. I know they probably need to raise the SAT cut-offs to be consistent but the ACT test hasn't change so I am not sure why the chart is gone. Has anyone maybe taken it in the fall and received info?

28 and 31 for 7th grader and 32 and 33 for 8th grader for Math and reading respectively.

Congrats to your DS and DD!

Mine took it last year.

CTY seems to have removed many/all? of their scoring cutoffs online. I believe the data in this article is still accurate:

CTY ACT Score Requirements which matches the data above.

There's also an SAT version. Oddly, the SET cutoffs didn't change with the new SAT norms - I don't know if the other cutoffs did or not.

Thanks, Peter! Hopefully the cut will remain at 33 or at least go no higher than 34. Unlike some of the other talent searches, CTY's cut-offs previously did not fluctuate from year to year. It's just weird that they completely removed the charts.

The question is whether CTY plans on changing their Grand Ceremony cut-offs for this year.

It's very weird that they are keeping the SET cut-offs at 700. Then again, maybe not if it keeps qualifying for SET simpler. Even prior to the new SAT, it struck me that the cut-offs were so lopsided since it was so much easier (statistically) to qualify for Math compared to CR (verbal). Now, it is just weird because the 800-scale verbal score is an average of the CR and Writing subscores whereas traditionally talent searches never consider the Writing scores since it cover language usage/mechanics and rhetoric. With the new SAT, it is a lot easier to score the equivalent of 700 (35 subscore) on CR but it may be harder for many verbally gifted kids to score the equivalent of 700 (35 subscore) on writing as well in order to achieve the 700 verbal score. It just seem like you would no longer be getting kids with the strongest verbal reasoning skills while kids who have learned/memorized grammar but not have the highest verbal reasoning skills might now qualify. Interestingly, NUMATS has been using only the 40 scale CR subscore and disregarding the 800 scale verbal (EBRW) score.