<p>. . . against GC and college counselors is that bleak rush of adrenaline-fueled anxiety that floods over us when we find out some bit of seemingly critical information that somehow our GC or college counselor never informed us about or, worse, knows nothing about.</p>
<p>And that is especially grievous to the extent that we take on the job of “doing the best for our child” . . the kind of imperative has no inherent stopping rule, nothing to tell us when our interest has gradually evolved from interest to passion into obsession.</p>
<p>Then, out of the blue, comes a bit of information that proves that we are NOT doing the best for our kid . . . if we were, we’d already know what “superscoring” is and which colleges use it, which takes us down the path of restesting, which leads to research into which pre-test interventions yield the highest results, versus the risk that the retest scores may be lower on some portions, and how will that look to the 2 schools of the 14 on the list, both of which are semi-reach LACs that offer some merit aid, if the third retest shows scores going down in the writng section, but stay even in verbal . . .</p>
<p>Hard enough to handle that all oneself, until we light on the GC, a paid professional who should know all these details, then doesn’t, or even worse, pooh-poohs our intense questioning about the percentage of retakers whose scores go down in Math but are higher in verbal. </p>
<p>So we vent about those overworked, underpaid college counselors who are trying to manage the goat rodeo that is their rising junior class of close to 200 kids, most of whom want to go to college and are looking for schools with average SATs in the average range (mid 500s on each), then are hit with a parent of a kid who’s got an SAT cum of 2180 and deperately wants to get their kid above 2200 superscored, and who then asks if it would be better instead to take the ACT just for those 2 LACs, buit only if the ACT score is 31 or higher?</p>
<p>I confess that I am obsessed with college applications right now, and know that because even though my second kid to go to college is done taking standardized tests and I know more than the average bear about the subtle strengths and weaknesses of different elite LACs, I still felt the sharp pang of anxiety at not knowing what the hell superscoring was.</p>
<p>So join me in taking a chiil pill, outsourcing more of the college stuff to the kid who is going to go, and, as my religious guide says, pray that we will be protected from “all unnecessary worry, anxiety and fear.”</p>
<p>Peace</p>
<p>Kei</p>