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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.reddit.com/r/psat/comments/1fehvjy/2025_nmsf_delaware_and_washington_dc/#lightbox[/quote]

For DC it looks like less than 50 kids?

SFS 11
GDS 7
STA 6
Walls 6
NCS 3
Basis 3
WIS 2
St John’s 2
Latin 2
Maret 1
Field 1
JR 1
Gonzaga 1[/quote]

Interesting. At the top end in Texas you have private schools with 20-30% of their graduating class earning NMSF.

I’m guessing the discrepancy has to do with distribution of student bodies among public/private schools among other things. [/quote]

Compare the score cut cutoff for Texas and DC. That’s your answer. [/quote]

Cutoffs this year
Texas 219
Virginia 222
Maryland 222
DC 223 (as a poster notes they get stuck with MA/NJ’s cutoff)[/quote]

PP as asking why so many more in TX and the answer is because TX has more students, thus is given a larger number of semifinalist spots. It's a proportional allotment.[/quote]

That is not what I am asking:  The allocations are proportional to students in each state/district and the cutoffs are proportional to top 1% of each jurisdiction.   What I am asking is why do the top private schools in Texas get larger CLUSTERS of NMSF than their comparable schools in DC area.

In Dallas, St. Mark's School of Texas had 29 this year out of a class of about 100 (30% of class).  Hockaday 13 out of 125 (10% of class).

I don't think the cutoffs explain all of it.  Basically you need around a 1486 PSAT in DC/VA and 1460 in Texas to make the corresponding cutoffs, and both of those scores are still 99th percentile nationally.  So that can't explain all of the different distribution nor does the allocation of spots because those are proportional.

[b]My guess reading through the thread is that TJ is taking up 99th percentile kids that would probably otherwise cluster in the top privates[/b] whereas Dallas doesn't have anything public quite as comparable as TJ.  Dallas Academy for Talented and Gifted (closest public to TJ) had 16 out of a lower hundreds class size.

[/quote]
No. TJ is in VA, it doesn’t take from the top private schools in the area. It has nothing to do with that. [/quote]

It does actually. Every year, at each private, usually 1-2 or more turn down the private after TJ admissions are out. I can name more than a few in older DC's TJ class that we saw at the admissions events for top privates. That's not even counting the ones that decide not to go because of Moco programs which release invites before the private school deadlines.[/quote]
TJ doesn't not affect the top private schools, really. Now if you say the MoCo magnets and the top schools? Yes, probably and vice-versa. [/quote]

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