To be eligible for the Davidson Young Scholars program, applicants must:
The Davidson Young Scholars program does not discriminate based on race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or disability.
Download and review the Young Scholars Application Checklist and Procedures (PDF) to ensure your application materials are ready when you begin the Application Process.
The Davidson Institute strongly recommends keeping a copy of your application materials, as well as typing and saving your responses to open-ended questions in another program before pasting the text into the Application System. If you are logged into the Application System and there is no new information submitted within a 60-minute timeframe, your session will time out and you will receive a server error. Your information may not be saved.
Access our Application System to complete the application. The Davidson Institute strongly recommends that you keep a copy of your application materials for your records, as all applications and uploaded documents become the property of the Davidson Institute and will not be returned.
If you have already applied for a Davidson Institute program using the Application System, you may use the same login information to apply for the Davidson Young Scholars program. If you have started a Young Scholar application for an applicant, please select the appropriate name from the drop-down menu on the APPLICANT page. Review FAQs about the Davidson Institute’s Application System as needed.
Applications completed by the first day of each month, or the next business day following a weekend or holiday, will be reviewed in that month. Applications are not considered complete until Parent Agreement Forms have been signed by each custodial parent, and the Nominator Form has been submitted. See ‘Email Correspondence’ section below for more information regarding these forms.
Young Scholar applications are reviewed on an individual basis to determine if an applicant is qualified, if more information is needed, or if the Young Scholars program is not a good fit at that time. Upon review of the application, additional testing or information may be requested in order to determine the applicant’s eligibility.
Decision notifications will be sent via email at the end of the same month in which the application is reviewed. All applicants will receive an email stating whether the applicant is accepted, not eligible, or if more information is needed. Please do not contact staff to check on an applicant’s status during the review month as this delays the process for all applicants. If you have not received a decision notification by the first day of the month following the review, please first check your junk/spam folder. If you do not see an email, please contact ysapplications@davidsongifted.org.
In order to minimize the chance of email sent by the application system and the Applications Team being classified as spam by your email provider, please add @davidsongifted.org to your safe sender list and notify your Nominator and all parent/guardians to do the same. Please note the email address used by the online application system, youngscholarsapps @davidsongifted.org, is an unmonitored mailbox and emails sent to that address will not be read. For further details on adding an email domain to your safe sender list, please search online or see our FAQ: "Q. Will I be receiving any email notifications after I apply through the Application System?".
Immediately upon submission of the application, each custodial parent and the listed Nominator will receive emails with links to complete their respective forms. The application will not be considered complete until all these forms have been received by the Davidson Institute.
Parent/guardian(s) listed as the Primary Contact on the Parent/Guardian page of the application will receive emails at each of the following points:
Applicants accepted to the Young Scholars program must complete an Enrollment Process before services can be made available. Details and instructions will be emailed to all accepted Young Scholars. The process requires signatures from all custodial parents agreeing to the policies that govern the Young Scholars program, including a strict Confidentiality Policy. It also includes updating and confirming contact information and schooling information, and selecting passwords for the Young Scholars Online Community websites.
For more information about this process, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions about the Young Scholars program and application process. If your question is not answered in the FAQs, please email ysapplications@davidsongifted.org. Emails will be answered within three to five business days.
Started in 1999, the Davidson Institute for Talent Development is a 501(c)3 private operating foundation. Our mission is to recognize, nurture and support profoundly intelligent young people ages 18 and under, and to provide opportunities for them to develop their talents to make a positive difference. Profoundly gifted students are those who score in the 99.9th percentile on IQ and achievement tests. Read more about this population in this article.