Hi DRK,
This message is from the Davidson Institute/Academy Staff:
The decision to update eligibility requirements for the Davidson Academy application stems from the previous scores being closer to the 95th percentile, rather than 99th percentile. The original scores reflected the SAT scores reported by intellectual talent searches; we looked at a broader range of scores, knowing that students taking the test in the context of intellectual talent searchers were younger than students who typically take the SAT. We believe that the lower scores resulted in us casting a wide net which resulted in many students being invited to the Academy for the curriculum-based assessment portion of the application process. However, we were turning away approximately half of the applicants we invited for that next step in the application process. Raising the bar to reflect the 99th percentile on the SAT was done to increase the likelihood of academically prepared and intellectually qualified applicants being invited to our curriculum-based assessment, with fewer of those students being turned away following that assessment. The SAT scores currently listed are more consistent with our intelligence test score expectations. We will continue to evaluate our score criteria over time and consult with experts in gifted education and testing as we do so.
