That type of distinguishing between hard and hardest APs happens at schools, but likely won’t be a make-or -break it issue for most of the schools your child applies to, as the application contains many other factors to be examined in holistic review. I suspect it may matter most at the most highly-selective schools.
I would talk to the principal and/or the head GC. Why should GC’s preference for biochem be a factor in admission for humanities or math students? Sounds like discriminatory behavior.
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There are some higher tier colleges who look for full-pay high scoring kids, but with GPA in the lower deciles. This helps maximize yield. Most notably all of the colleges who selective and need-aware. Even well funded schools like UChicago do this (but to a lesser extent).
The 33 ACT score looks fine. Not sure if driving up the ACT by a few points will meaningfully change the narrative. He is a full pay, midwestern student, with solid grades, but not at the top of his class. ECs look decent. So I’m sure many adcoms will like to have him in the incoming class.
Being from an under-represented state can also help – so applying to colleges located far away from home is a good idea. Looks like you’ve already done this.
Applying binding ED1 will be the biggest boost to his application. Find a place which is a clear #1 and apply early. Have an ED2 option in place, followed by an RD plan. If applying ED1, some colleges allow concurrent EA apps (UChicago, MIT, Caltech) so carefully read what they allow.
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I disagree that he needs professional tutoring for the ACT. Work on math and science which are the most teachable, and forget starting over with the SAT. Do math and science practice sessions at home, and timed, over and over. Take it during the first sitting offered in 2022.
I think he has a great shot at Bates and other top LACs, especially with ED.
During course selection (after seniors are done with their college process) have a heart to heart with the GC in what the requirements are for checking that box. Based on your course selection possibilities for next year, I think it should be checked.
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Thanks for the feedback. The fall play is finally over and now the ACT is in two weeks! He’s taken a few practice sections this weekend but his heart does not seem to be in it. He has been so busy I think he is just exhausted. All his pals are retaking so he feels he “should.” Kinda ridiculous, as our other child worked his behind off to get a 30, with tutoring, etc. GC said there is not really a down side to taking it again even if it doesn’t improve. So, I am now thinking June might be a great time to retake if he decides he wants one of these reachier schools. Maybe follow through with December (he’s already signed up for) and get the test info release, then consider putting more effort into June if motivated?
As far as his GPA, I just tried to estimate it again. It was around 3.9 after sophomore year but it’s possible he gets a B in the mix this year, which is why I put the range. It’s also possible he gets all A and A-, in which case he should be in top 10% if he sticks with a 3.9. He will be somewhere between 3.8-3.9 after junior year, based on this semester’s grades so far. There are almost no 4.0s at our school (many years none), but there could be a bunch of 3.95s - I have no way of knowing that. If kids make it into the top ten % after junior year there is an award for that, so that’s the only way they know anything about their rank. I am guessing he will be right around that cutoff point if he brings the B up, or a bit below it if not.
Personally, for my kids, February was the best date to do the test. Christmas break allows prep time without being overwhelmed, that’s why I never let them take in December (too busy, theater kids too). It won’t “ruin” their break either, I find that spending an hour, 3 times a week does it when you are only focusing on 2 sections. Just be sure he reviews every wrong answer and KNOW why he got it wrong. June is busy, exhausting after spring. But I get you already paid for December, are I guess why not. As long as he doesn’t have anything more fun to do that Saturday morning.
All of my kids had tutors which significantly reused their scores. The biggest benefit were strategies, not content. They go over practice tests and the tutor would explain why they got questions wrong, and why they thought their answer was correct. It also helped with timing and how to solve certain problems in a quicker way.
Circling back to say – on retaking ACT in Dec – if his heart is not in it right now, maybe reschedule for a spring date and keep that as a possibility for later. No reason to suck the life out of him with more testing now, especially when a successful junior year will likely be more compelling than a 1 point rise in his ACT.
In the meantime, think about the “narrative” about what he wants to do in college, and what he brings to campus. An active theater guy may be more interesting to Bates, Vassar, Grinnell, Mac and Denison than at Wesleyan and Skidmore where the arts are such a central part of the campus identity (while Vassar is historically more “artsy,” the male “bump” may help more.). His dedication to Taekwondo, including his teaching role, and his covid grocery store job, make him sound like the kind of active, curious committed student that many LACs are looking for.
A long way of saying, if he’s not revved up and confident Dec is the time to pick up some extra points on the ACT, I’d recommend rescheduling and letting him focus on fall semester courses.
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I learned more about how the high school uses the rigor checkbox. 7 or more Honors/AP they said gets the highest rigor checkmark. So he should get this marked, I think, assuming he takes a couple more APs as a senior.
I hadn’t been sure how they determine it but when they said they include honors classes, that was good news!
It does make sense since I think the absolute most APs you could take at his school would be 7… maybe 8, but it would be unusual for a kid to load up on both science and social studies APs senior year. They strongly discourage taking 2 science APs at once, and you can only take them senior year.
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S ended up taking the December ACT, with only a couple practice sections because he was so busy then. Score came back - math and English up and science down - so his superscore remained at 33. I guess he was technically at 32.5 and now is at 33.25, so he needed one more point to get to the 34. Still, having gotten the math up a couple points might help him look stronger as that was his lowest section.
Maybe he will retake in June after finishing precalc, but we will have to see. The only reason I say that is that he really hasn’t prepped very much, so it’s not inconceivable that he could raise the superscore with more serious effort. If he isn’t interested in working at it a bit more, I will suggest he not redo again. It is already a fantastic score.
He can now schedule a meeting with the GC at school, so that’s exciting.
Yes, retake it later this summer with less distraction. That is good to see gains in math.
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I’m not sure you’re using the accurate definition of “superscore.” If some subscores went up but others went down, the superscore goes up, because it’s the combined score produced by combining the best subscore ever attained on each section. The drop in science score wouldn’t lower the superscore, it just wouldn’t raise it. Are you computing this way?
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His original score computed to a 32.5 which was rounded up to a 33. So he needed four additional section points to get to a 34, right? He only raised two sections by 3 points total. So the superscore is now a 33.25, which also rounds to a 33. I think that’s how the rounding works? If on a 3rd try he raised one section one point, I think the superscore would compute to a 34 (33.5 rounded up).
Such minutiae!
The composite actually went to a 32 because the science and reading went down a total of 4 subsection points.
He isn’t worse off though, right? If I remember the Common App correctly, you self report your highest score for each section, and your highest composite.
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Ah, I see. Yes, he raised his superscore but not by a whole point, and his best composite didn’t improve because of the drop in the science score.
How about giving the SAT a go? No science section!
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It sounds like your son is a terrific kid and an excellent student.
It’s like buying a lottery ticket and hoping you have a winner when you apply to schools like Bates, Bowdoin, Tufts, and the Claremont colleges. Consider that before they even start to look at applications like your son’s, they’ve set aside almost 200 spots in their freshman class just for athletes. And there are dozens more spots that are going to applicants with some other kind of a hook. When there are only 500 students in a freshman class, the numbers work against a regular kid like your son.
And it doesn’t mean the educational experience is going to be any better and those super selective school. They’ve just gotten good at attracting a large number of applications in relation to the number of spots available. Of the schools on your reach list, Wesleyan is the one where he has the best shot mainly because it has a freshman class of about 750, so the number of spots available is about double the number at the other small schools after the hooked applicants are accounted for.
It’s fine to try to get his scores up and that will help, but he’s already a strong candidate at just about all the school below your reach level. I’d focus on what would be the best fir for him, where he would have the best educational experience.
Personally I like what they do at Whitman a lot, but that’s just me. You have a list of wonderful schools. Find out the ones where he likes what they do a lot. It’s not as easy to immediately discern as one might think.
This is a world where college enrollment is approaching 60:40 female:male. Colleges would prefer 50:50. So the suggestion to look at the gender distribution to see where he would have an advantage as ar Vassar is smart.
Best of luck.
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Thank you! Interesting point about the size of Wesleyan’s first year class vs. some others. How would Tufts fit into this consideration? Similar do you think? Or maybe it’s even more competitive to start with.
I have heard nothing but good things about Whitman. I hope to get him out there to see it, if he thinks it looks good.
I love Whitman, too, and think they would love to improve their male-female ratio. Whitman’s pandemic class was smaller than usual, so they may be interested in accepting more applicants overall — both good things for your child. 
If he doesn’t think he wants rural, then Whitman may not be for him.
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I think that Tufts is more competitive to start with. They’re really not in the same category, Tufts being a research university and Wes being a small LAC. Tufts has long been known as the back up choice for Harvard aspirants, so it attracts applicants who want to be in Boston at a medium sized research university. That seems to be a bigger group than those who want to be in a small LAC in general and in suburban central Connecticut in particular.
Quite true. I was just giving an example of how each of us can find a school where we just really like what they do there - with emphasis on what they do vs where they are, how nice the campus is, etc.
What I personally like about Whitman is the general outdoorsiness of the campus and it’s students and how a student can pair almost any major with a focus on the environment. But that’s just me. I’m not recommending it for this student. He seems to be into theater, so that would seem to be important. He also likes martial arts. Academically he’s interested in Sciences and history. Actually Wesleyan sounds like a potentially good fit for him, but there are others in his list that would probably work as well.
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