<p>Here’s what’s interesting to me: where are these top quality schools where the merit is so well-defined that you know exactly what your ACT or SAT score needs to be?</p>
<p>I’m clearly missing something.</p>
<p>I know Ohio University gives free tuition with act of 32. Let’s face it, you need a solid act score to be in the running for top scholarships at certain schools. Maybe not a defined number.</p>
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Lots of schools provide numbers. It’s easy enough to get a ballpark idea. Obviously a 30 ACT is going to get you a better chance than a 25 ACT.</p>
<p>As I understand it, the tippy top/reach -for- everyone schools don’t give true merit aid and everyone knows you need a very high score to get in at all. My son applied to quite a few schools that could be described as “good, moderately selective LACs” and most, but not all, had info on their website about what was needed for various levels of merit aid. Lots of OOS publics do as well.</p>
<p>Look at these University of Oklahoma OOS awards from their website:</p>
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<p>If a student interested in OU with an ACT of 28 could retake and get one point more, that would be worth $46,000! I think that in such case it would be entirely reasonable to tell your kid, “You can go to OU if you retake and get one more point. We’ll hire a tutor or send you to a class if you want. Or you can choose an instate school.” Then, it is the student’s choice.</p>
<p>While American doesn’t have the requirements for merit scholarships on their site, they did throw out numbers at the info session.</p>
<p>mathmom, do you remember what they are? Ds2 is interested in American …</p>
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<p>exactly!!!</p>
<p>Letting them make a choice that we do not feel is the best choice is very frustrating though. I believe that is much of my frustration. Yes,it is his choice not to study more, but I know that it is not the best chioce.</p>
<p>YDS, I don’t have my notes any more. My recollection is that what they said was the average was around an A- GPA, and around 1450 M/V SAT scores. My son got the highest level award, with a 93 UW GPA, (which included 8 orchestra A+'s so there were tons of B’s), 6% rank, and 1480 superscored SAT. White male. One of his best friends is going there and loves it.</p>
<p>Thanks. The scores he’ll have; it’s the ranking that’s a concern. Oh well, he can try and see what happens.</p>
<p>OP Update: After considering all responses, we decided to give up trying to get D to study/prepare last fall and let her be responsible for her own effort. After minimal studying, D took her first official test in May. Didn’t do that bad, but not well enough for a lot of the merit scholarships she would need to get in order to attend various potential schools. </p>
<p>After school ended, she subscribed to an online prep site, and has been doing some practicing here and there (not enough, IMHO). Today she took another full practice test and did worse in all sections than she did in May. </p>
<p>Whenever I ask whether or when she is studying <em>today</em>, she just gets irate with me. Meanwhile, H is on the other side saying that I should be getting her to print out results, working with her more hands on (more like I was able to do with S), and so on (pressure on me). Our tenuous financial situation exerts pressure as well as I am concerned about how we will pay for anything other than one of the in-state options in the absence of a decent merit scholarship.</p>
<p>After today, I see the writing on the wall that after a summer of suffering, trying in vain to get her to prep more, she gets the same or worse score and it’s all for naught. Is it really worth the stress? Or do I just resign myself to going to war with the army we already have, as it were?</p>
<p>I have no good advice, but I sympathize with you. DS doesn’t study for standardized tests nor do summer homework over the course of the entire summer vs the last 2 weeks. DH has always lived in the short term.<br>
I’m the only one who “sees” the GPA/test = opportunities = avoid 15 years of debt = impact on marriage/kids/career. </p>
<p>IMHO, on-line prep works for limited students. DS agreed to SAT Math tutoring last year with his teacher (who is not an SAT tutor). He meet with him 3 times (30 minutes each). The teacher could see that DS was making the questions more complex. </p>
<p>Is there someone (not you) who she is comfortable with who can “watch” her and determine steps to simplify?</p>
<p>Some of the test optional schools DO offer merit without standardized scores.</p>
<p>Was it a college board test, or provided by the prep company? There can be huge differences. When I took a practice PSAT from a Barron’s book I scored even worse than I had on the previous year’s PSAT. It really shook my confidence and discouraged me from studying. Be wary of tests that weren’t produced by the college board, they can do more harm than good.</p>
<p>^It was from Barron’s. S used the same study guide (although not online). He also did better on the “real” exam than he had been doing in the study guide, but within a reasonable margin.</p>
<p>My older son took a Kaplan course (sort of - he skipped most of the classes). He did way better on the real SAT both before and after the class than he did on any of the practice SATs Kaplan provided. We didn’t even bother with outside test prep for S2.</p>
<p>Kids are difficult. I think both my kids could have done better than they did - but in the end they got into schools that were good fits for them. One is launched at his dream job, and the other is certainly putting together a resume of interesting experiences.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it then! Honestly I think I got about 50 points (~500 SAT points) lower on my Barron’s practice test than I did on the real thing. I would definitely recommend that she work through at least some of the tests in the blue SAT book if at all possible, especially for the CR sections. The college board writers have a distinct style that is hard to replicate in other brand’s practice tests, and getting used to their approach can be very helpful. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>I would take the real test from CB. I printed out the tests from CB and assigned my daughter to take one on the day that she is free. On the day that she is not fee, she can take smaller sections, not having to do 3 hours total. But it’s good to do one to get a feel of how long the test is.</p>
<p>Pfft. Anybody who graduated middle school can get a good score on the sat. Not to mention, more and more schools are making it optional because, let’s face it, the test is criminally easy and has no tangible use.</p>
<p>If you think of it in terms of collegeboard trying to make money off you, you will be much less inclined to force your D to study for it.</p>
<p>My guess is that your daughter is being a typical teenager. She is indulging herself in typical teenager magical thinking…“of course the money for the college I want is going to magically appear, especially because my parents don’t want to disappoint me”… combined with typical teenager defeatism…“why prepare for a test I’m just going to screw up on anyway…”</p>
<p>You’ve probably already done this…</p>
<p>But sit her down at a family meeting and treat her like the adult she is fast becoming. Maybe do this on a Friday night.</p>
<p>And say to her that she is of course aware that the family is in a tenuous financial situation, and that money doesn’t grow on trees. And that you have exactly $x/year for college…and that is all. And if this amount includes loans, for you or for her, say so explicitly.</p>
<p>Show her the financial breakdown/ cost calculators from a range of schools she is or might be interested in. Show her the FAFSA, and what is likely to be the expected family contribution. And let her know that the family contribution they expect is not to be forthcoming from the family, only the amount that you have already given is going to be available…period.</p>
<p>Show her some of the merit money available with certain score combinations. Tell her that this is the way she can expand her circle of options, and whether she chooses to do so is entirely up to her. If she is happy with the options she has given the family financial constraints, without pursuing merit money at the other options, then that too is entirely up to her.</p>
<p>I would end the meeting by asking her to think things over, and that there will be another family meeting on Sunday night, where she will have the floor. On Sunday, have her talk…what does she see as the path she wants to take, given what she has to work with. What is her plan to make what she wants happen?</p>
<p>Then sit down and put the basic parameters of what is now the family plan in writing, to make the ramifications more complete.</p>
<p>I didn’t read the entire thread, but had an interesting conversation about the SAT with D2, who recently graduated from college. She didn’t prep much for the test, got a disappointing score on the math section, put in some minimal tutoring and raised it only a few points. It probably killed her chances at a couple of her reach schools, but she graduated from an excellent LAC.</p>
<p>In a dinner conversation the day before she left home to take a job in her field in New York, she mused that she probably could have done better on the SATs if she had cared enough about the score to put in the time studying. But she chose to spend her time pursuing other interests and felt that her scores were “good enough” - and we supported that choice. </p>
<p>Incidentally, she has used more or less the same strategy in taking the GREs - once - in case she decides to go to grad school later on. Again, she scored “ok” and feels that she’s checked off that box in her life plan. </p>
<p>So my point is: you can end up with a successful college/career experience without stressing over the SATs. Or ACTs. (YMMV: one of D2’s close friends is in a field where test results matter and has studied very, very hard for both SATs and GREs.)</p>
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Regardless of what we as individuals might think about the standardized tests and how they are used, it is nonetheless necessary to play the game -at least at certain institutions. They want a certain number in order to award admission, or to award a certain scholarship. If a student wants admission or that scholarship, he/she has no choice but to attempt to get the required score.</p>