2018 U.S. Presidential Scholar Candidates from DC Private Schools

[Anonymous]

Every year some poster appears on these threads to troll GDS. No one from the school has said anything, but one troll post purports to praise the school for its U.S. Presidential Scholar Candidates. I do not assume from the posts above that someone from National Cathedral School or someone from St. Albans School has come to tout their numbers for purposes of admissions season. In fact, I assume that it is more trolling by someone unrelated to any of these schools.

Instead of focusing on the numbers from Georgetown Day School, National Cathedral, or St. Albans School, why not focus on all of the schools' candidates including the outstanding DC Public Schools candidates, and the candidates from Edmund Burke School, Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, Gonzaga College High School, Maret School, Sidwell Friends School, and Washington International School. A real member of the GDS community, and not a troll, is alway happy to be honored with such a deserving cohort.

[Anonymous]

The list of 2018 candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program has been published.

Note that this honor -- unlike the National Merit Semifinalists (NMSF) -- is chosen based on the State (or the District) in which you live, and not the State (or District) in which your school is located. And while NMSF is selected based on your PSAT score from October of Junior year, the U.S. Presidential Scholars are chosen based on your highest SAT or ACT scores.

"The U.S. Department of Education then looks at test records for the top 30 males and top 30 females in each of the states/jurisdictions. For each examinee, the SAT score is converted to the ACT Sum of Scores, according to a concordance table. Each individual examinee's highest test score (in a single test administration ) is identified, and duplicates and/or lower scores are dropped."

https://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/select.html

By way of explanation, in most large, and/or competitive States (e.g., California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia), you can assume that the top 30 males and the top 30 females in those States will all have earned a perfect 1600 SAT score (or concordance tables will equate that with a perfect 36 ACT score). In fact there will be more than 30 individuals in those States who earned either a 1600 SAT score or a 36 ACT score, and all of them will be U.S. Presidential Scholars candidates. In the District, some smaller (e.g., Wyoming) and/or less competitive States (e.g., Arkansas) the top 30 SAT scores may/will likely dip below a perfect 1600 (and thus accordingly will the qualifying ACT score based on concordance tables). So, for example, DC might have 12 female students per year earning a perfect 1600, 17 earning a 1590, and with 1 spot still available, any female student earning a 1580 would also be a candidate. Also, for some reason, a majority of candidates from each State (or the District) qualify for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program on the basis of their ACT scores.

Finally, the candidates selected for artistic merit, through a different qualifying process, will not be introduced into the list until the Semifinalist level in April.

"Arts candidates enter the Presidential Scholars Program selection process at the semifinalist level. In April, the Commission on Presidential Scholars makes the final selection of up to 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts."

https://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/select.html

I put this explanation in to say that each of the following DC private schools have many excellent students who do not make the list. (Spoken from experience as a few years ago my DC was NMSF in a DC private school (we live in Maryland). DC took the SAT one time, earned a 2390/2400 and was done, but that was not a high enough score for U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.

When going through the private school list, please note that you will have to review the names from DC, Maryland, and Virginia, to get complete numbers. Also, one name from Georgetown Day School appears twice on the DC list, and I omitted the second reference from my tally.


Edmund Burke School -- 4


Georgetown Day School -- 8


Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School -- 1


Gonzaga College High School -- 1


Maret School -- 4


National Cathedral School -- 6


St. Albans School -- 6


Sidwell Friends School -- 7


Washington International School -- 2


https://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/2018/candidates.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see the GDS self-promotion department is working overtime this application season.

Oh, please. GDS already gets an overwhelming number of applications and can afford to be quite selective. Why would they want to drive application numbers still higher and take on the additional burden of having to read all of them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please, you are certainly trolling. Not a GDS parent, but a frequent poster on these threads.

Especially since they actually tied with a DC Charter school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fantastic achievement by GDS, which has more than any other DC-school. But congratulations to all, of course.

With a graduating class half the size of GDS's, Burke did just as well on a per capita basis.

- GDS parent

[Anonymous]

Did GDS double count a kid or is there really two different kids with the exact same hyphenated name with slightly different spelling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see the GDS self-promotion department is working overtime this application season.

Oh, please. GDS already gets an overwhelming number of applications and can afford to be quite selective. Why would they want to drive application numbers still higher and take on the additional burden of having to read all of them?

Anonymous wrote:
Fantastic achievement by GDS, which has more than any other DC-school. But congratulations to all, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did GDS double count a kid or is there really two different kids with the exact same hyphenated name with slightly different spelling.

The published list of U.S. Presidential Scholar candidates does indeed repeat the name of a Georgetown Day School in DC. However, there is another GDS candidate(s) in either Maryland or Virginia, so that the tally of eight total is correct. That was discussed in the original post.

[Anonymous]

I recognize the posts above as trolling, as I have repeatedly seen several posts with similar wording and identical sentiments on these private school threads. I do not know why GDS gets trolled more than the other schools in this forum, but it indisputably does.

Curious, because when parents from other area private schools post good things about their schools, as I read about our School regularly, no one either criticizes the posters for being proud, or trolls the schools. But GDS, for some reason, is treated differently.

Maybe I am particularly sensitized to undue criticism in a day and time where even our would-be role models use social media to relentlessly bully, harass, or criticize others. Or perhaps as a minority parent at another highly-regarded school on the above list, I especially acknowledge and recognize GDS's original social purpose to serve those communities others harassed and marginalized.

Whatever the reason for it, I would hope that the ongoing trolling of GDS would stop. This is an amicable forum, and not some crazy manifestation of an uber-competitive environment that ultimately stresses and creates anxious children. GDS is one of several excellent local private schools. It has a lot to be proud of, including a very impressive student body. The most intelligent of my son's peers is a freshman there, and they always have a good number of NMSF and PSC, as does our school. I do not see the need here to keep picking on a good institution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recognize the posts above as trolling, as I have repeatedly seen several posts with similar wording and identical sentiments on these private school threads. I do not know why GDS gets trolled more than the other schools in this forum, but it indisputably does.

Curious, because when parents from other area private schools post good things about their schools, as I read about our School regularly, no one either criticizes the posters for being proud, or trolls the schools. But GDS, for some reason, is treated differently.

Maybe I am particularly sensitized to undue criticism in a day and time where even our would-be role models use social media to relentlessly bully, harass, or criticize others. Or perhaps as a minority parent at another highly-regarded school on the above list, I especially acknowledge and recognize GDS's original social purpose to serve those communities others harassed and marginalized.

Whatever the reason for it, I would hope that the ongoing trolling of GDS would stop. This is an amicable forum, and not some crazy manifestation of an uber-competitive environment that ultimately stresses and creates anxious children. GDS is one of several excellent local private schools. It has a lot to be proud of, including a very impressive student body. The most intelligent of my son's peers is a freshman there, and they always have a good number of NMSF and PSC, as does our school. I do not see the need here to keep picking on a good institution.

Sidwell, GDS and the Cathedral schools are constant targets on this forum. I don't think that will ever change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recognize the posts above as trolling, as I have repeatedly seen several posts with similar wording and identical sentiments on these private school threads. I do not know why GDS gets trolled more than the other schools in this forum, but it indisputably does.

Curious, because when parents from other area private schools post good things about their schools, as I read about our School regularly, no one either criticizes the posters for being proud, or trolls the schools. But GDS, for some reason, is treated differently.

Maybe I am particularly sensitized to undue criticism in a day and time where even our would-be role models use social media to relentlessly bully, harass, or criticize others. Or perhaps as a minority parent at another highly-regarded school on the above list, I especially acknowledge and recognize GDS's original social purpose to serve those communities others harassed and marginalized.

Whatever the reason for it, I would hope that the ongoing trolling of GDS would stop. This is an amicable forum, and not some crazy manifestation of an uber-competitive environment that ultimately stresses and creates anxious children. GDS is one of several excellent local private schools. It has a lot to be proud of, including a very impressive student body. The most intelligent of my son's peers is a freshman there, and they always have a good number of NMSF and PSC, as does our school. I do not see the need here to keep picking on a good institution.

Sidwell, GDS and the Cathedral schools are constant targets on this forum. I don't think that will ever change.

I agree, though I have seen some bright spots on this forum. In my experience, the threads about academic honors, college admissions and test scores are the worst. Last year, though, I had a very difficult situation with my oldest child and received some genuinely nice and even compassionate words of advice and encouragement from posters. We just have to celebrate these moments, however few and far between.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, you are certainly trolling. Not a GDS parent, but a frequent poster on these threads.

Especially since they actually tied with a DC Charter school.

I really wouldn't bring E. L. Haynes into it. As a DC taxpayer, the thought that they actually have more Pres "Scholars" than SWW or Banneker (whose scholars are for real, I know some of them) is already hard enough to swallow...

[Anonymous]

It's interesting reading this thread - often the points made about non-private schools attempt to cast doubt on the numbers/achievement, but no one seems to be doubting that the numbers of the private schools are too high. E.g., EL Haynes has a shady connection to the process; TJ parents are crazies who tutor and pressure their kids from a young age; Blair is high because of the magnet which draws from the whole county, etc. Always a reason the achievement shouldn't be deemed as impressive for a school.

[Anonymous]

And by the way there is no super scoring and if you take it twice, only the first time you take it counts.

To all those nominated, please fill out the onerous application. There are 6 semi finalists chosen from each state (and DC), 3 male and 3 female, and then a final phase where 1 male and 1 female winners are announced. Some kids do not fill out the application because there is no $ involved, just a trip to DC! But our child won this amazing award, and I cannot recommend enough to anyone who is nominated to apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is a post in the DC private school forum, but scrolling down the MD list, there are an impressive number of kids coming from Blair HS.

Well they have a lot more students to choose from. How many students in the graduating class from Blair? Some of the private small schools only have 80 kids in the class.