<p>Newsgirl, Reed is very impressive. My son now says he would have applied if he knew about it sooner. Your son will get a great education there. Reed is very rigorous and has no grade inflation.</p>
<p>Achat
Thanks! He is really looking forward to it- when we did the college hunt/tour last year, he spent the night on campus and said it felt like home. He is aware of how challenging it is, and is a teeny bit worried about the math/science requirements - although he has taken challenging math & science courses in HS, its not his thing. He is a fantastic writer though, and loves History & English. </p>
<p>We both loved Portland as well.</p>
<p>Yes, if we had done a better due-diligence last year while looking for colleges, Reed would be on our list. There are parents here, dmd77 and emeraldkitty4 who have daughters going to Reed. You could find out more info about classes etc from them. Reed is certainly a college our family feels we missed....ah well.</p>
<p>digmedia, thanks so much for this thread. Your first post is something that surely seems to be one worth keeping, printing or engraining upon one's psyche as "the long strange trip" unfolds. I, too, plan to print it and tape it somewhere so that I can see it often in order to remind myself of the great truths therein. My favorite bulleted point is
[quote]
Do not take over the process from your kid.
[/quote]
This is something more of us parents need to be reminded of - or hit over the head with - more often than not. </p>
<p>I've got three years til my daughter graduates from high school and I'm tying one hand behind my back as I type.;)</p>
<p>Lots of good advice here, but to supplement maineparent's thoughts on standardized testing, I would advise having kids take the ACT early and often if schools on their radar will consider it. Not only can you avoid having the entire history of the student disclosed to potential colleges when reporting scores, but if you omit the high school code when registering, you can avoid having the scores all over their transcipt like destination stickers on old style luggage. Our high school places each sticker on the transcript, allowing colleges to see all standardized testing even if not officially submitted. The key is to not supply high school information to ACT and then you can pick and choose which scores will be submitted to colleges. You can also then pick which score to submit to high school for guidance counselor to use in preparing college recommendations and for high school to use in calculating school's average ACT scores for graduating class. Also, if kids can pull a good ACT score early without the pressures of worrying that scores will follow them, that confidence can help them relax a little about the SAT.</p>
<p>2VU0609, </p>
<p>I am one of at least two :) strong supporters of the ACT and what we call "kicking the SAT drug." Nedad is the other. We have both mentioned a number of kids we know attending Ivies, top ten LACS and other great schools who ONLY took the ACT. So far as I know, just about every school takes it, including Yale, Princeton, MIT, and Dartmouth (who wants the new ACT, with writing). Since it is content based, the student doesn't also have to take the SAT IIs. My kids, nieces, nephews, godchildren, and many of their friends, including some sals and vals, from good schools in the Northeast (where the ACT isn't common) have done very well and as a bonus really enjoyed their junior and senior years in high school, without the endless pressure to squeak up another 10 points, or pay for intensive tutors because everyone else was!</p>
<p>As you say, you can pick which score to send, unlike with SATS, where you risk being sneered at by the adcoms as someone who has nothing better to do if you take it three times or more (trust me - I know LOTS of adcoms, including at the Ivy I interview for). But most of these kids just took it once. I am an ACT cheerleader - a rare bird in the Northeast.</p>
<p>voronwe:</p>
<p>Based on your positive comments, S is planning on taking ACT. Hey, us Cal types might even like it, despite the former President of UC. thanks.</p>
<p>Small nit: according to Dartmouth's web site (link below), for class of 2010, they require the new SAT or ACT+ Writing, PLUS two SATII's; SATIIs do not appear to be an option for admisison to Hanover, unless I'm reading incorrectly. Do you know of other schools that waive their SATII requirement if a kid takes the ACT?</p>
<p>You're right, bluebayou - you have to check each school's website to see what they are doing about SAT IIs. Some schools do not require SATIIs at all; some require them for placement purposes only; some (like Connecticut College, the #35 LAC), will take three SAT IIs OR the ACT.</p>
<p>Yale's website says:</p>
<p>"Yale requires the submission of the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT I) and any combination of three SAT II Subject Tests, or the American College Test (ACT). "</p>
<p>Ditto Amherst and Pomona, top ten LACs, and also Wesleyan - Sat I and three SATIIs OR the ACT (According to their website). Another top ten LAC, Bowdoin, does not even require SATs or ACT.</p>
<p>Check out the websites of the very, very few remaining schools that didn't take the ACT in the past. Because the new ACT has a witing component, even a number of Ivies like Yale are taking the ACT in lieu of the Sat I <strong>AND</strong> the SAT II.</p>
<p>Kick the SAT habit! It's addictive - but just say NO!</p>
<p>My advice would be to take the ACT in addition to the SAT-I. If the ACT score is higher, then use that in lieu of the SAT-I. If the reverse is true, then you might be stuck taking some SAT-IIs, if they're required (or retake the ACT).</p>
<p>We live in ACTland, and my recollection is that Princeton is one of the few that have reluctance about the ACT - their wording is vague, something about no other college requiring the SAT, anyway, some combination of ACT and SATIIs is permissible for every other school we looked (about 20, mostly LACs, plus HY, Brown and Dartmouth). NO one knows, but I think policies about the SAT/SATII/ACT will be changing over the next couple of years, as data on the new test becomes available, and committees begin to get a feel for the essays - so sophs and juniors need to check each school's most recent requirements. I'm an ACT champion, too, although I think the new SAT is a little more ACTlike, and my child did almost exactly the same on both tests, although her math and English flip-flopped in comparison to the math and verbal - if anyone cared to investigate her scores that carefully, it gave her an equivalent to a 1590 SAT, so doing both can give a more accurate picture of their abilities, smoothing out some of that "on any given day" stuff.
I think kids should take both tests, especially with the changes. They can take them relatively close together, then have the leisure to decide which scores to send. Some kids will do dramatically better overall on one than the other, and others like my daughter, will find that the subscores in the weaker area will markedly improve. because</p>
<p>Dragging painfully back to the original topic......
I thought about this post for a while without responding. I think Digmedia pretty much nailed it, but I'd add (or maybe just emphasize) one point: Make sure your S/D owns the decision, and knows that you support that. I had my favorites for S#1. He chose otherwise, and probably was right. I have my leanings for S#2. Lord knows what will happen next year when that rolls around. D1's decision time is still a few years off, and who knows? But there's a couple of reasons to tell your S/D that it's his/her decision - and mean it. First, it's important that that freshman-to-be owns the decision, and is excited about it. There are a lot of disappointments ahead - it takes enthusiasm to overcome some of them. Second, and maybe more important, they still know things about themselves - consciously and unconsiously - that we don't, for a lot of reasons. So even if their judgment is flawed at times, they've got the raw data to work with. So yeah - make sure the apps are in on time. Pay the application fees. Arrange the campus visits. But tell your S/D that it's his/her call. Say it early and often, until even you believe it. And then shut up when he/she doesn't pick the school you really want him/her to go to. </p>
<p>Because your kid is probably right, and you're probably wrong.</p>
<p>Great thread! I am a new member to this board and have been spending WAY too much time here just reading, reading, reading. I am very new to this whole college-search process and feel like I really don't have much to contribute in terms of answering questions that others might have. I'll probably be the one doing all the asking for several months to come!</p>
<p>I do think that parents can get very carried away. What I try to do is research schools, bring them to S's attention and then get more information. If he doesn't want to pursue it, fine. I am this way with everything: whether it's buying a house, car, water softener....you name it: I will research it to death (often to the dismay of DH who just rolls his eyes ;) ). At least then S can make an informed decision. </p>
<p>I know this is probably the wrong crowd to ask, but what if S/D says they want to be an auto mechanic? A hairstylist? Not everyone on the earth was meant to be a rocket scientist and some people are very happy in life with "just" a trade. Not to mention, I'm sure everybody has heard the doctor/plummer joke. The reason I'm thinking this is the wrong crowd to ask is that most likely the parents who come to this forum already have a child who does well academically, or they wouldn't be here to begin with.
I'll be the first to admit that we have 4 sons and 2 of them are very bright, one of them tests well but "forgets" to turn in homework sometimes, and the other struggled tremendously while in school. We'd of course love it if they all went on to get wonderful degrees, and I think 3 of them will. One of them I'm afraid will not. Sometimes we just have to remember they are not us....and sometimes that is the hardest thing.</p>
<p>Yeah, as open-minded as the parents here generally are, there seems to be a bit of self-selection for participation on this COLLEGE Confidential board to not consider much not going to college at all. ;) I can think of a few exceptions to my immediately preceding statement, but after reading here I have to remind myself that many millions of Americans don't go to college at all, and we don't hear much from those families here.</p>
<p>Dr Drewsmom:</p>
<p>This is after all COLLEGE confidential, so the posters, both parents and students are self-selected. But there should be a thread for other types of eudcational paths.
I personally think that some vocational schools are terrific and that their approach can suit some students who are more concrete, hands-on learners than others. And of course, they can train them for careers that can turn out to be very rewarding in many ways.
There are colleges that are the opposite of LACs in their intense focus and ought to have a forum of their own: culinary schools such as Johnson & Wales, technical colleges such as the Wentworth Institute in Boston (where I'm told one can learn to be a great car mechanic), and so forth. Maybe the mods will consider this.</p>
<p>"Maybe the mods will consider this."</p>
<p>Or maybe they won't. A request was made for various individual colleges on the new threads site for study abroad, U of Iowa, and various other colleges a while back and nothing has yet come of it. Overworked mods perhaps? Ivy bias?</p>
<p>RE vocational schools. Don't go with just what the school says. Call the local business and ask for their rec, talk to many people in the field. I have run into tons of Pharmacy tech students who spent 10-20K believing that they would have a great future-not always the case.</p>
<p>
[quote]
This is after all COLLEGE confidential, so the posters, both parents and students are self-selected.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Which is why I prefaced my statement like I did ;) .
I guess I was thinking of people who still have younger children. Just in case those kids don't have the same plans in mind as older bro/sis.
lamom: good thinking to get referrals on a voc school.</p>
<p>2VU - Thanks for the tip about not including the high school code on the ACT form. That is something I hadn't thought about and I will let my daughter know not to include it - she'll be registering this week for the April ACT. That way, the ACT is risk free, which should, in and of itself, relieve some of her test anxiety.</p>