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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Because the list of Presidential Scholar candidates is purely a matter of having perfect/near perfect SAT/ACT scores. The fact that DC's threshold is considerably lower than DC or Maryland's gives a huge boost to the DC private schools.  ... [/quote]
I'm not so sure you're correct about DC's threshold being lower.  I haven't seen much direct data on this point, but you might be able to get a rough sense by looking at the state SAT reports:
CA - https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/sat/CA_14_03_03_01.pdf
DC - https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/sat/DC_14_03_03_01.pdf
MD - https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/sat/MD_14_03_03_01.pdf
VA - https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/sat/VA_14_03_03_01.pdf

I don't have time right now to dig into all the numbers, but I just did a little quick math to see what % of students in CA and DC scored in the top section (700-800) on the sub-tests.  A quick glance suggests about the same % of DC students as CA students are in that top range (although it might bear checking closely because I see some big swings in some of the sub-tests).

Perhaps others have better ideas on the best methodology to approach this problem in light of the limited data we have.[/quote]

A much simpler skin test can be applied to this.  The National Merit Qualifying Score for DC is in fact higher than either VA or MD.  It has been for several years.  Given the similarity in format with the SAT, PSAT scores are very highly correlated with SATs.  The NMSF qualifying score is determined by the top 1% in a given state or district.  Even if the pool of DC applicants is smaller (and remember DC while smaller has all of the independent school kids on the Presidential Scholars list, even those residing in VA or MD), we are only talking about the tail end of the distribution.  It only takes 40 kids total to determine the cutoff.  So, perhaps a 10 point difference, but unlikely much more and the sign could go either way.[/quote]

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