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.