@TheStig2 Yes, it’s always parent’s role to be obsessed and embroiled in drama and conspiracies while kids navigate smoothely oblivious of all 
My DS1 said to me last night, stop reading useless stuff and go to bed!
^This. Love it!
@Leafyseadragon – I think we won’t know until September, but the change in the scale from 240 to 228 has to have some impact on the states at the top. I think we know that the prepscholar -12 is way too generous and I’m reasonably sure that those of us in the middle shouldn’t expect any drop (and maybe even a point or two up). I’m sorry that I didn’t write down the page or comment # of the people who went through all the concordance entries, but I think that you should be hopeful and assume that you’re on the bubble at least. The scores may be compressed, but they can’t be so compressed that a 223 this year is exactly the same as last year. I know that the purpose of the different cutoffs is to try to build in allowances for the quality and funding of public schools in different states, but having such radical differences in cutoffs is not good for the kids or their program.
Got an incomplete summary of the PSAT over the phone tonight from daughter, but sounds like Commended is in the bag. Thrilled to see a consistent picture taking shape at BS, what for all the sacrifices.
She also reported on the first meeting with counselor, who said she should take the new SAT in March and ACT for the second time in April. Apparently, the voice/advice of the counselor is going to be authoritative, whereas parents may or may not be heeded! I have long since given up on the reverse psychology model or any other – it’s all whistling in the dark, for now. We are pretty much looking from Virginia to Mass/Maine, 1000-5000 undergrads, and a strong Classics department. The search will not be nearly so time-consuming as son’s; I think that she saw about half of his schools on visits. Two different dispositions, with daughter not so prone to blind-siding or surprising us.
The take-away from process with the first child, now that we’ve gone wire to wire, is to relax and step back. I’m pretty conversant, at this point, with all the testing numbers, the public face of the colleges, and the operating principles as articulated by professionals and the sages of CC. Really great scores/grades get (the unhooked) you over the threshold at all of our targets, which might include a single HYPtastic school among eight or nine on a final list. She will present a solid record of commitment in a few activities, but without as much recognition as All-State older brother. I doubt that Olivia Hallisey-like focus is a standard required of every admit at the very-selectives; our kids are not that type, anyway. Holistic admissions is all about things that can’t be “seen” or “controlled”: the life that a junior’s already lived, student essays, teacher recs, and the agenda of a college admissions office. So, I intend to chill, though I will of course enjoy the camaraderie and insights of this forum. ~O)
p.s. Stephen Colbert’s encounter with Miss Hallisey is not to be missed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkdTdG_gR-8
Thanks for the view with kid #2. We are in the midst of HS search (day not boarding) for kid2 and starting college in earnest with kid1. We are planning some local college visits in March. He has a general list and we just got Naviance access this week. He has had some group meetings with college counselor but no individual yet. He took SAT in Nov but did not do as well as he wanted. Will take ACT in the spring and will talk to counselor about new SAT. He might want to take new one for NMSQ - not sure how that all works. Lots to learn this year.
I’m curious about your response. Where did you source this information, that boarding school kids’ scores are ranked differently?
@rebeccabw If you are asking about PSAT and NMSC, it’s from NMSC guide. Page 8.
http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19162104/#Comment_19162104
Just wondering if other parents of BS juniors will be doing a college tour trip during spring break. We are planning to see a handful of schools in PA and attend a family reunion in Philly. CameoKid and I visited RPI last week. We found the campus larger than we had expected… I was very impressed. And she loved it.
We are looking at local schools over break. School college counselor suggested looking at different kinds of schools over break (rural, urban, small, large, etc).
DD is going on a Northeast College Tour trip for a few days at the beginning of Spring Break. It will be a jam packed few days, but I think that it will be beneficial touring schools with her college counselor and meeting some BS alumni that are enrolled in some of the schools. DD really doesn’t have a clear idea yet of what type of school she wants to attend so I hope this trip will help narrow some of the parameters. Plus, she is actually excited about it. It is so much better to hang with friends rather than parents dragging them around! I did that with DS’15 and it was a bit stressful for us all as he was our first and there was a steep learning curve for the madness that college admissions has become
@TheStig2: sounds like a great plan. I think my kid’s school does a trip in the spring to a few Boston-area schools. I wonder whether most boarding schools do these kinds of trips with a CC?
We will probably save our “trip” for summer… but we will be in the town where one school is located over spring break. I have encouraged her to arrange a tour etc while we are there. Stay tuned. LOL
Just a question, how many schools have you all visited or planning to visit? I feel like DD has already seen quite a few schools: with her older brother, summer programs, family trips. After this Spring Break trip, I am thinking we will hold off visiting schools until she has an “apply to” list roughed out.
We are probably going to look at 4 schools over break (1 per day over the 2 weeks). He spent last summer at a high school program at a city college and will be back at a high school college-based program again this summer. Plus his time at boarding school gives him a general feel for parts of the college experience already (living in a dorm, eating in a dining hall, time management etc.).
It really is better for the HS kid to see the colleges when they are in session with full classes, but that’s not always possible, as we found with our first, a soon-to-be graduate. The second kid will make a couple day trips to nearby schools over March break, and one extended 4-5 day trip north to see maybe 2-4 schools she’s in the process of identifying. We won’t do as much during this summer as we did in 2015, in part because the sister saw so many with older brother. She’ll try to do re-visits in the fall for possible ED, and has one strong preference already. I wouldn’t be surprised at a final list of 7-8 schools, especially if there are no “far reaches” involved.
Based on my experience with my two kids, I agree with @Charger78 that its best to see schools when they re in session. In addition to March break, another good time to visit some schools was during the last week in August. Many colleges are already back in session by then and its before boarding school typically starts.
We saw 3 at the end of last summer… Just to get her feet on a college campus, as she was somewhat intimidated by the whole idea. She went to the first one reluctantly, but enjoyed herself so much once we got there that she wanted to see a couple more. She is very interested in one of those but wants to return in the fall when students are there. We are attending a family reunion in PA next month during break and will see 4 schools there that interest her and are easy day trips from where we will be staying. And then a handful more that we will see in summer/fall. I expect the list to change a lot along the way… Hoping to end up with nine at most.
We saw many of the popular lacs summer after sophomore year - 8 or more I would guess and none ended up on the final list so we saw 10 more universities summer after junior year. Only saw 1 school in session during the school year which was unfortunate.
So now that we are getting day school acceptances for DS2 (and the final costs for each school), the question of college tuition is looming closer. Does anyone know how to figure out which schools count secondary school tuition when they calculate family EFC? I know many just consider it discretionary spending. We will ask the BS college counseling office, but wondering if anyone has researched this yet, or has BTDT with older kids.
We have a younger daughter with special circumstances and high tuition and medical costs. It seems from our experience with colleges that the Federal form does not take this into consideration, but the CCSA (?? I’ve already blocked the acronym from my mind, the whole thing is so unnerving!) which many of the private schools require does take secondary tuition into consideration.