<p>CRD, you can put me in the camp that believes the ACT alone is just fine. My personal datapoint refused to take SATII’s at all. IMO she did very well in admissions and scholarships.</p>
<p>(Now, I am among the group that says "Don’t trust the schools when they say they’ll 'only look at the highest score. Send ‘em all.’ " Human nature just don’t work that way. You can’t un-see the lower score. If you are deciding between a 35 ACT kid and a 35 ACT/2170 SAT kid, all things being equal otherwise, the 35 kid is going to win most times. I’m more comfortable with my position as to scholarships, but I believe it to be true in admissions also.</p>
<p>I wish I had known what a horrendous year this was going to be for admissions, and made D apply to our local State University where admission was virtually guaranteed, and we could pay full tuition out-of-pocket. We assumed that prior year freshman-class stats would hold. We believed what we’ve been hearing for years from GCs and teachers – that her good grades in a rigorous program, her scores, and her ECs were her ticket to good schools and juicy scholarships.</p>
<p>In the end, we dodged a bullet and she will be going to her #1 school with a good FA package, but we could have avoided some sleepless nights if we’d had one “in the bag” during that long March wait.</p>
There really is no evidence of this. My kid has a 28 ACT & turned down the Univ. of Chicago for Barnard. Curmudgeon’s kid used ACT only and turned down Yale for a full ride at Rhodes. We had another very frequent, test-obsessed poster on this board with a daughter with strong but not perfect ACTs (maybe 34?) who, I believe, turned down Duke in favor of Stanford. Many, many ACT success stories abound on these boards. </p>
<p>What you have is a parent of a kid with stellar ACT scores speculating as to why her kid didn’t get into certain colleges. Maybe the mom knows of other kids who got in to the same schools with SATs and that is the source of her speculation. But no one gets told the reason for rejection – and a quick check of the common data set would probably show that there were other students who submitted only ACTs and who had lower scores who were accepted. Its not all about test scores.</p>
<p>In fact, in many ways I think test scores are the least important part of the equation, once the student has scored above a certain level. That level may vary from one school to another-- but I honestly think that the college ad coms are fully aware of the limitations of standardized testing in terms of the usefulness of information. </p>
<p>Help your kid focus on her strengths, and to match her particular strengths and talents to the schools she would like to attend. Curmudgeon’s kid raised goats. The Stanford kid I mentioned above wrote an essay about how she left her socks lying around the house. The admissions committees are looking for things that bring each application to life. They don’t go home at the end of the day remembering the test scores of the applications they’ve read.</p>
<p>I wish my wife and I had known that in saving for your kids education, YOU SHOULD NOT PLACE ASSETS IN THE NAME OF THE CHILD! The same dollars that would be assessed to your Estimated Family Contribution at a rate of 5.6% if left under the parents name, get assessed at 20-25% if under the child’s name. It’s essentially like paying for the student’s education, and then having a forced contribution of 20% of your savings to the school. But that’s actually an improvement - until a year or two ago, it was 35% for kids’ assets.</p>
<p>In any case, our DD was the very first one in our family to apply/attend a US 4 year college. There are so many things we did not know at the time.</p>
<h1>1, I wish we knew that EA is none binding; DD did not apply single one early because our financial situation</h1>
<h1>2, I total over estimated the chance of merit aids and way under estimated most of the CSS profile EFC. What we were asked to pay from Cornell, Duke, WashU, etc were essentially impossible for us.</h1>
<h1>3, it is not the test scores that get you admitted. One should has a set of scores that meet the baseline of the school. After that, score really does not mean much. If your child was not admitted to certain school, I really don’t think it is all about test scores.</h1>
<h1>4, the shock of my life - it is actually those “small” or “unimportant” things that your child does in every day that get your kid into the most selective colleges.</h1>
<p>Dad II: What were some of the small/unimportant things that made the difference for your D (and how did you know)? For the life of me, I can’t figure out what tipped the scale for mine.</p>
<p>I wish I had known that all those great scholarships that people kept telling us their kids got were actually financial aid.</p>
<p>I probably wouldn’t have encouraged d to apply to some of the schools she did. It was very hard for her to get accepted to some great schools, and have to decline because the only financial aid we qualified for was unsubsidized loans.</p>
<p>although we aren’t in the “I wish I had known” phase yet, I concur with Dad II’s #3, that is definitely the vibe we are getting from admissions officers.</p>
<p>I also have a hard time putting stock in the “lack of SATs” issue. It is speculation why the results are what they are for some of the decisions. The colleges have converters. The counselor who gave this opinion likely had come from the days were ACTs were treated with less weight.</p>
<p>My take-away from the two I helped into top colleges over the last five years is that nothing really substitutes for perfect grades in high school. If your kids miss this goal, then everything becomes a process of compensation – the more they miss the mark of perfect grades, the more difficult it becomes to compensate, despite all of the other things they can show in terms of qualification.</p>
<p>reasonabledad, my daughter had perfect grades in the most challenging classes her competitive high school offered, scads of Honors and AP classes. </p>
<p>She was in the GPA-based Honor society. Some classmates admitted to colleges where she was waitlisted/rejected, were not. So, perfect grades aren’t it either! </p>
<p>Furthermore, she was an AP National Scholar, but those weren’t announced until admissions decisions were already made. Turns out many admitted classmates weren’t on that list either!</p>
<p>Who knew in college admissions, goats and socks would be preferred over grades, AP classes and entrance exam scores!!</p>
<p>Just about the ACT thing: Son took the ACT only, added SAT II scores and was accepted into many schools including an Ivy. Your scores were much higher than his. This year was so hard, I think we may never know why our kids were or weren’t accepted. I do know that, after having two kids take only the ACT, I am very comfortable with its acceptance by colleges, and will encourage my third to take it only as well.</p>
<p>Next time, though, I’m paying more attention the the SAT IIs, and having S3 take them one at a time after he finishes a particular subject–e.g. science or math, area.</p>
<p>The most selective schools are a whole different story from those colleges where kids have an overall 50% chance of getting admitted. When it come to those top schools, everything and anything can count. The admissions officers are looking for reasons to disqualify rather than reasons to accept as they need to cut, cut, cut. So if your kid is on some wish list the school has, which changes by the school, by the year, even by the day, it can make a big difference. It is such a moving target for the most part, and you never know the status quo.</p>
<p>What I learned from my third child’s admissions experience, is that going against the grain really pays off. We looked for geographic advantage, schools that wanted more males, that really wanted his test scores. That way we got not only admissions but some fine merit awards as well. With the older ones, we were more in the herd mentality and though they got into goodly number of their choices, they did not do well in terms of merit money.</p>
<p>In a recent conversation with my now freshman D, she said that was the one and only thing she has regretted about her college choice: the fact that she didn’t have the guts to apply to any place too far from home (she is about 2 hours form home, but in a very different environment than what she was raised in, so is really learning a lot of “life lessons”). She did not have the confidence back then in high school to feel comfortable very far away from home. </p>
<p>The good news is that she has grown tremendously in just one year and now has the confidence to apply for Study Abroad opportunities and will not be so restrictive on grad school, should that be in her future. And I will say that, as a parent, it is great to be able to get up to campus to see her in various extra-curricular activities. She has the rest of her life to live far away if she so chooses-but, hopefully, not too far!!</p>
<p>As for my D it’s hard to tell what put her over-the-top. She had a somewhat unique profile. Knowing what I know, I’d never discount “goats and socks” (a wonderful candidate , uniquely and honestly presented). </p>
<p>But as for my datapoint, she also had a starting role on a state championship team, a state qualifying performance on the tuba, was the val, had hundreds of hours of community service (some self-designed projects), school leadership roles, among many other things. What pushed her into the admit pile at school A might not have been what pushed her in at school B. Stretching beyond opportunities provided by courses at her high school, a 35 ACT, and the highest GPA in memory didn’t hurt either. But if it makes anyone feel better to think it was just the goats or that her admission was just chance or whim over their more deserving progeny, go right ahead. Do whatever you need to do. This process is tough on everybody. </p>
<p>I’ll likely be doing the same thing in a few months when mine is rejected from medical schools. :eek:</p>
<p>Interesting, D decided on a college 14 hours drive from home and after her first semester opined that it was too far away and is glad her brother will only be 3 hours away. She’s staying at her college because she loves the school but she does wish it was closer to home. (Life lesson #1: “Maybe being around my parents isn’t such a bad thing after all…”)</p>
<p>cpt nailed it, hit all types/levels/geographical benefit</p>
<p>She did a mix of schools that almost tested all “theories”</p>
<p>We did a no scores needed school, D got in based on grades/gpa. Would “probably” be either waitlisted if we sent them, perhaps even rejected.</p>
<p>We did a limited admittance program, she was at the lower end of scores, but still in the ball park–>rejected.</p>
<p>She sent “only” ACT to a predominately SAT school, she got in, while kids at her school had higher SATs and did not get in.</p>
<p>She sent app to a school building their science/research she got in, if she went in as a undecided/humanities would have been rejected she was accepted.</p>
<p>She was waitlisted at a school that her guidance counselor said their wasn’t a chance in … she would even be considered</p>
<p>So put the unique,not typical student read the background noise going on at schools.
If sports are your thing and your a left handed 90/mph pitcher, look at the schools who only LH pitchers are juniors/seniors.</p>
<p>1) Should have applied to some EA and rolling admission schools.
2) Should have used that one ED option more wisely.
3) Should have done more research on our own to find out which school would have wanted our D1 more - read up on each school’s special programs (art, dance, film making) for possible hook.
4) Should have insisted on having all applications be done before the ED result came out.
5) Should not have believed everything adcoms/GC said during general public meetings.</p>
<p>One of my daughters was accepted very early to a school with rolling admissions. She liked it well enough to eventually accept. However she was thrilled that she didn’t have to do any more applications as she was already in a terrific school and didn’t have to fret. I should have encouraged more apps to other schools.</p>
You can’t un-see the lower score. If you are deciding between a 35 ACT kid and a 35 ACT/2170 SAT kid, all things being equal otherwise, the 35 kid is going to win most times. I’m more comfortable with my position as to scholarships, but I believe it to be true in admissions also.</p>