Top 3 Scholars of Texas (Dallas, Arlington: 2015, house, school district)

[LauraLama]

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releas...ntial-scholars

Congratulations to Plano ISD's star student of 2015 for keeping the tradition by winning top scholar award. Heartiest congratulations to semifinalists as well, 5 of you went that far while not a single student from neighboring districts could even qualify. Shout out to most influential teacher from Texas as well, you are the nes who raise PISD students to these heights.

[frenzyrider]

Originally Posted by LauraLama

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releas...ntial-scholars

Congratulations to Plano ISD's star student of 2015 for keeping the tradition by winning top scholar award. Heartiest congratulations to semifinalists as well, 5 of you went that far while not a single student from neighboring districts could even qualify.

Yaayyy! Congratulations to the student. Now it is confirmed we have a GripeWater in another form who turned a positive story to a negative banter.

[LauraLama]

Take Tums, Mr. Gripewater. I mentioned neighboring district on purpose. Bantering aside, we are very proud and you are rightfully jealous.

[frenzyrider]

Originally Posted by LauraLama

Take Tums, Mr. Gripewater. I mentioned neighboring district on purpose. Bantering aside, we are very proud and you are rightfully jealous.

I know you did Gripewater And clearly you did not get the reference to GW. Don't have to talk down on other districts to feel proud.

[LauraLama]

Not talking down, just rubbing it in to PISD bashers. Let me have it.

[Jack Lance]

The fact that the whole state of Texas could only produce 3 of these scholars, which is the same number as Alabama btw and 5 fewer than New Jersey is embarrassing IMO

[Big G]

Well, even though I'm a PISD supporter, not a basher, I'll still let you have it.

To qualify as a candidate for this award, you have to have (in TX) an 800/800 Math+Verbal on the SAT, or a straight 36 on all parts of the ACT (36 composite isn't enough).

1) That achievement, at that level, is likely much more a reflection of time spent at Karen Dillard than of one's school district quality.

2) There were, in fact, more than a few students from neighboring districts, such as Frisco, that reached this level.

3) There is a mountain of paperwork involved in going forward in the competition, and ZERO monetary reward. It's easy to imagine students saying, "No thanks!" to taking part in a low-odds, pat-on-the-back award competition like this.

4) It's also easy to imagine a particular school's administration/counselors saying, "Why bother?" to this application process. I know that Plano Senior hasn't had a semi-finalist since the new principal took over some years back, even though there are numerous candidates from PSHS each year. Could be coincidence, could be that the school doesn't view this as a good use of their time anymore.

---

Given all that, jumping from ONE student from PWSH winning this award to "crowning" the entire Plano ISD with "You're Winner!!" is a bit of an over-reach.

[LauraLama]

Thanks.

1. Neighboring districts are homogenously affluent and percentage of students attending KD, PR or private prep is equal or higher than Plano ISD.

2. Plano has a much higher percentage of perfect scorers.

3/4. Fair enough. Not every student wants to score perfect on SAT, fill out forms and write an essay for a lowly Presidential Scholarship and free trip to DC but there were candidates from most districts and they were weeded out in semi and final rounds. Senior and Jasper had several candidates as well.

Just one from PISD? Only 3 made it from whole state so yeah it is an honor for whole district and we are proud, specially for maintaining this annual tradition to send a kid or two to represent Plano and Texas in White House among top students from whole nation.

[Big G]

As a much less subjective measure - and one that should still please the OP, as PWSH comes out on top - here are the number of candidates for this award (aka perfect SAT M/V scores), listed by school, from North Texas:

Public:
Plano West 11*
Plano Senior 4
Coppell 4
GC Colleyville Heritage 3
Lewisville Flower Mound 3
Plano Jasper 3**
GC Grapevine 2
Richardson 2
Plano East 2
HP 2
Allen 1
Lovejoy 1
Arlington Martin 1
HEB LD Bell 1
Lewisville FM Marcus 1
Frisco Liberty 1
Garland 1
Irving Nimitz 1
McKinney 1
Dallas SEM Townview 1
Plano Shepton 1**
Rockwall 1
Southlake 1
Wylie East 1


Private/Other:
TAMS 11
St Mark's 8
Hockaday 2
ESD 1
Parish 1
Cistercian 1
Cambridge School 1
Greenhill 1
Coram Deo 1
Brighter Horizons 1
Trinity Valley 1

*Includes one student nominated for artistic merit, rather than scholastic merit
**Students not eligible for award - not seniors

I think this gives a much fairer picture of the spread of extremely exceptional talent around DFW.

[LauraLama]

OP is very pleased but must mention few facts.

1.West 11 but technically 15 because both Jasper & Shepton feed to West.

2. TAMS 8 but 5 of them went there in 11th grade when they take PSATs, while they attended PISD from K-10. One can say that PISD's real total is 26.