<p>"With only one “B” on his report card in the past 8 years, not scoring well on a test has discouraged him. "</p>
<p>He may not be happy, then, in a school in which he’d be with lots of high achievers and possibly wouldn’t be able to be at the top of the class.</p>
<p>My d. spent several hundred hours working on her SAT/ACTs over a period of months. Worked at it virtually every day. Never gained a single point in either.</p>
<p>Turned out it didn’t matter. She got into 6 of the 7 schools to which she applied, got into her first choice (where her scores place her in the bottom 15% of the class), is carrying a 3.9+ GPA, and is having a blast.</p>
<p>I’m late to this but: If you haven’t already done so, get your S a copy of the Fiske Guide. It’s a fascinating book, and a good antidote to the “HYP or bust” mentality. It might open up all kinds of possibilities in his mind beyond the name-brand schools. My D spent most of last summer poring over it, and emerged with a wonderful list of great-fit schools, most of which I’d never heard of.</p>
<p>My daughter had comparable SAT scores & ACT, along with similar high GPA at a high school that was far less demanding than IB. Accepted at Berkeley, Chicago, Barnard. High GPA, low test scores is much better than the other way around. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that you can count on admission – but like some others, my d. got into reaches, was waitlisted at schools she thought were matches. In at all her safeties. Applied to 12 schools, got into 9. The only college that rejected her outright was Brown, where I never thought she had a chance in any case. </p>
<p>As long as there are a couple of true safeties on the list (that the kid is wiling to attend) it doesn’t really matter. My d’s safeties were UC campuses & Fordham – perfectly reasonable. </p>
<p>A male student who wants to attend an LAC is at a slight advantage, and there is also a good array of test-optional LAC’s he might consider – though as noted, my d was accepted where she wanted to go despite the test scores. I think its just a matter of targeting well for the reach colleges – instead of studying scattergrams you need to be figuring out what your son has to offer the college that they might want in a student. My d. had studied Russian – and spent time abroad – so one thing I looked for was colleges with strong but underenrolled Russian depts. I counted profs & I counted students. If your son is looking at LACs, among other things, simply look at the male/female student ratio. If the school has 65%+ female students, that’s probably worth anywhere from 75-150 SAT points right there to a male who is a strong student.</p>
<p>If I had it all to do over again… I would have focused less on test scores. Too much stress on my d. to retake tests she didn’t do any better on. In hindsight she could have gotten more sleep on a couple of saturdays and the results would probably have been the same. (Obviously the test scores she ended up with didn’t help anyway). </p>
<p>Have your kid play to his strengths. Being realistic means making sure there are some true safeties – but beyond that if the kid wants to reach, let him. </p>
<p>You also mentioned that you are in a good position financially for college. In the current economy, that may be a huge boost for some need-aware colleges – and if your son falls in love with a reach, then consider ED.</p>
<p>If you take a careful look at the F & M admission statistics, they take about 80% of their students Early Decision. So unless he like F&M above all others, chances are not as good as you think. It’s not really good as a safety. But I bet he would get in ED.</p>
<p>“If I had it all to do over again… I would have focused less on test scores. Too much stress on my d. to retake tests she didn’t do any better on. In hindsight she could have gotten more sleep on a couple of saturdays and the results would probably have been the same. (Obviously the test scores she ended up with didn’t help anyway).”</p>
<p>I could not agree more!</p>
<p>Good luck. I agree with all the very good advice given above.</p>
<p>Some test prep may raise his scores and I suspect the ACT is the one to concentrate on, if he is willing (my son was not). You should check this carefully but it is my understanding that the ACT, perhaps with some optional modules that I don’t know about, can often substitute for the SAT/SAT II combination. Beyond that concentrate on “match” schools that don’t require test scores. </p>
<p>As an old alum I would like to put in a plug for F&M… Bates and Conn. College are also really great schools that were mentioned. I don’t believe he would need to submit scores at any of these schools given his high class rank and the rigor of his schedule. </p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with trying one reach, perhaps Early Decision and then considering a 2nd round Early Decision to another semi-reach school should that one not work out. I think that he would be accepted Early Decision at the three schools I mention and many others with similar profiles. If he really likes a particular school and wants to try to end this process early.</p>
<p>
I find that statistic extremely doubtful – can you please provide a source? I think you are misreading the stats – that is, I found that F&M accepts more than 70% of its ED applicants, but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily represent a large proportion of the entering class. (I couldn’t find their CDS, though).</p>
<p>From F&M’s CDS: For class of 2012 there were 410 admitted early decision with total class of 588 - 69.7%. Many LACs are around 50%.
Visited with D2 - students we met were smart and engaged and spoke highly of faculty mentoring and advising. There seemed to be a diversity of interests among the students and active extracuriculars. Merit scholarships up to almost half tuition are offered for high stats (very directly in an interview - which may sway some EDers) and I bet smaller amounts for others.</p>
<p>The only reason the OP’s son should consider focusing on test scores, is because he “loved Dartmouth and Wesleyan and liked Middlebury, Amherst, and Lafayette.”</p>
<p>I usually agree that there are better ways of spending time than hours of test prep and practice tests, but without a sports, development or minority hook, this candidate will need to have scores higher than the low 600’s to be a solid candidate at Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Amherst and probably Middlebury - reach schools for every student.</p>
<p>Student doesn’t need a 750+ on each section…but…something approximating 700 would certainly bring him closer to the mid range at the schools he loves. Or … student (and father) need to find some other schools they love.</p>
<p>Look at Sewanee: The University of the South. It has a great campus, is academically sound, and not too hard to get into. They are well regarded with respect to faculty resources See USNWR National LACs.</p>
<p>lotsof, Building a college list requires equal parts optimism, pessimism and realism (AKA, reach, match and safety). Don’t fret too much over which are reaches and which are matches. </p>
<p>Concentrate on finding at least one, preferably two, safeties that the thought of attending doesn’t bring on hives – in your son or you. Researching, visiting and settling on lovable (likeable?) safeties is a challenge, but they are out there. Keep at it until your son is satisfied. Do this first, then apply to as many reaches and matches as your son can handle. </p>
<p>I have mixed advice on the SAT. My son’s scores increased 100 points (out of 1600) after he took a prep course and repeated the test. Sometimes just getting used to the format is all it takes. If your son does this and is still disappointed in the results – DO NOT worry about it. Some kids are just not good test takers. His grades and rank are stellar and this is enough. </p>
<p>No matter what he should take the SATIIs. His scores won’t hurt him and not having them may unnecessarily restrict his choices.</p>
<p>In my opinion, what’s going to get him in or keep him out of selective LACs won’t be his scores. He needs to devote a high level of energy on putting together an application that aptly conveys his personality. He has some interesting elements – martial arts, metal band, international experience – which could add up to more than the sum of his parts. His essays, recommendations, resume need to reinforce his total persona. Small colleges especially like multifaceted kids. He should think about what he can contribute to the campus community.</p>
<p>If he likes Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Amherst, then I’d suggest taking a look at Bowdoin, Skidmore, Hamilton, Kenyon. Wesleyan seems to be somewhat different in character from the others, but still has a good degree of overlap. It was my son’s second choice, but he ended up at Williams.</p>
<p>If you’re likely to pay full freight, then I’d recommend that he choose a school for early decision. I believe it helps a lot at small LACs.</p>
<p>Is your son perhaps ADD too? It runs in families and smart kids are inattentive and unclassified all the time. Have you looked to see how many he missed on his tests vs. how many he possibly didn’t finish? It might be too late to get extended time but would explain the discrepancy to your husband at least. The Science portion of the ACT is not so hard given the time.</p>
<p>S does not have ADD. I don’t think time was an issue. I am going to order the test/answers for the latest SAT so that I can get an idea of where his problems are. I think that he should try the ACT again since he had a higher score (28) on it with no prep at all. The math section (27) I think will go up because he didn’t have his graphing calculator with him on the first try and that was the first thing that he complained about when I picked him up after the test. The science (24) was the second complaint; he said that he would have needed Bio 2, Chem 2, and Physics 2 to get a decent score. From what I have read on CC, the science is more of a reading/interpretation test, so maybe if he looks at some sample questions, he will decide that he can, indeed, do better on it. He only got an 8 on the essay when English/writing is one of his strengths. From comments on CC, longer essays tend to score higher, so I will pass that hint on to him. The comment on his score sheet said “Your essay acknowledged counterarguments on the issue but did not discuss them.” Of course, it also said that it adequately supported general statements with specific reasons, examples, and details.</p>
<p>This probably is discussed somewhere else but I can’t remember. If he does decide to go with the ACT and the SAT IIs, will that be a problem? I am going to have to do some serious persuasion to get him to do more testing.</p>
<p>OP, Judging by the schools your S likes, he would love Bowdoin. Bowdoin is test-optional. They would love his GPA in an IB program, they would love his class rank. Bowdoin is certainly in the same class as Middlebury academically. He should also consider Bates, another excellent school, a slightly easier admit, that is also test-optional. Both of them are stronger academically than Franklin and Marshall. Both of them feature smaller classes with lots of discussion and extremely strong liberal arts programs. Bowdoin is probably a bit more in the Dartmouth mold, Bates a bit more in the Wesleyan.</p>
<p>BTW, according to what I’ve been told by people whose kids took the ACT for talent searches, one doesn’t need to actually know science facts to do well on that section: it’s a matter of being able to read graphs and interpret them. But that’s hearsay.</p>
<p>After initial interest in Dartmouth and Wesleyan (before taking any tests), S has been resistant to college visits and any talk of retests, etc. more than likely because he is disappointed with his scores. When he returns from Germany in the beginning of July, we will start planning another visit, this time with some interviews. The one small bit of interest that he is showing is for a trip to the Boston area. Given his stats (unweighted gpa 3.9, IB diploma candidate, ACT 28) does anyone have any recommendations for Boston or area?</p>
<p>My immediate reaction is Boston College. While somewhat of a reach, his GPA certainly qualifies him and his test scores are right at the 25th%-tile. A good retake, (especially with a big improvement on the CR portion), plus a strong interview should be a great help.</p>
<p>Others:</p>
<p>Tufts - Right now the scores are just too low
Babson - Good school highly business oriented though
Brandeis - Similar story to BC though less of a reach
Bentley - Probably a match</p>
<p>With a little luck he’ll visit one of the campuses and fall in love with it and that will give him the incentive for the retakes.</p>
<p>Forgot about Northeastern, the test stats are roughly the same as BC/Brandeis but the urban campus may be a turn off.</p>
<p>Mom of a DS who applied for 09, and will be at a safety next year (with lots of merit $$) here - this year was brutal for admissions, and hard on the egos of kids.</p>
<p>Had I to do it again, I would have encouraged DS to set his sights lower - because the rejections in our house were very difficult all around. DS1 had 5APs this year, 710M, 710CR, 650W, and SATs in the 700s. Also, had intensive ECs, 3.9 gpa before senior year (falling grades in too heavy an AP load lead to Bs in APenglish, and Cs in BCCalc this year while he was working an EC30+hours a week) - DS1 also lived abroad and worked abroad for a summer - was outside the magic top 10% in his hs. Had good recs that I saw. Rejected at all the schools on the OPs reach list - by all means apply, because my DS1 is only one data point - but cushion the expectations !</p>
<p>
In my opinion this is TERRIBLE advice if the 2 reaches are programs with low acceptence rates for this applicant. For example, anyone applying for top tier schools like Harvard, Duke, or Swarthmore … or students shooting for full merit scholarships to pay for school … or students who need to audition to get into peformance programs. In cases with low admission odds only applying to two reaches makes it very likely the student does NOT go to a reach school … if you’re applying to programs with tough admission rates I’d recommend a lot more reaches like 6-8 (assuming they are good fits and the applicant can write that many excellent applications)</p>