<p>Yes, I think his passion for music is what sets him apart from a lot of kids - not sure how to capitalize on it since he no longer wants to be a music major.</p>
<p>Lake Forest is very small. He might do well in that environment since it is close to Chicago, but we are just looking for a fit right now so we’ll look at that on one end and a school like BU on the other. My college was 900 students, we all lived on campus and knew everyone’s business. Yuck. Like a huge extended family that you could never get away from!</p>
<p>Lake Forest is a school where there is a majority of extremely wealthy kids. It’s not known for a Jewish presence on campus, either. I wonder if your son wouldn’t feel, in many ways, like a fish out of water there.</p>
<p>I’ve heard people going from 180-2200+ on the SAT so he could get over a 2000 if he studies. I’ve also heard that Kaplan isn’t really worth it. I’m not sure because I haven’t gone but the schedule for the course over 10 days is half practice tests. You can get 10 of those in the 20$ SAT practice book. I don’t know if the other information will cover enough to be worth paying 500$ +for. But I am not very experienced in that topic, just my opinion based on bits of knowledge</p>
<p>So I am thinking maybe he should use the gifted musician angle when applying to great schools that are NOT known for music, but do have a music program, such as Tulane, Occidental, or Reed. (Applying as a music major to Oberlin, Rochester, etc., he won’t stand out). Will that give him an edge?</p>
<p>Tove, we live in an urban school district, and our arts magnet is a school where the artistically gifted grads go on to decent art and music schools, but academically gifted kids are a rarity. Most of them go to MLK or Hume-Fogg, the academic magnets. The majority of the grads from his high school go to really small, less competitive schools like Tennessee State, Cumberland U (TN), UT-C, etc. My son changed horses mid-stream from music to law. That’s fine, the high school is still a good fit for him but he just has to work harder to get the education he needs. One kid got into Vanderbilt (not Blair) from his school last year, but she was exceptional. We do have kids get into Blair from time to time. DS does not want to go there, he wants to leave TN, although we have spoken to the admissions officer at length there and she thinks he has a shot. What can I say, Vandy is an awesome school but you can see it from our porch…</p>
<p>Luck, when it comes to standardized tests, my son has so much anxiety that I think the structure is worth the $$$. Kaplan has this all-inclusive package that for $1000 gives him unlimited access to help on every test, repeatedly, until he graduates high school, including SAT IIs and AP. Since the school he goes to is so horrible academically, I thought it was worth it so he could have the extra help on those latter tests. Historically students at his school don’t do well on them.</p>
<p>Look at the SAT optional schools. My neice did horrid on SAT. We started looking at SAT opitional, she feel in love with a few and the 2nd sitting of the SAT she greatly improved. I think it was because the anxiety was gone - She had targeted schools that didn’t care about SAT, so she was more relaxed.</p>
<p>Pitzer is a great SAT optional for the student you are describing. But, FA is not as friendly there as at the other Clares.</p>
<p>Always try the ACT as well as the SAT. Some kids do better on it. Many of the schools mentioned are very difficult to get into - Georgetown, for example. It would help if we knew what kind of major your son might be interested in.</p>
<p>Consider Lawrence Univ in Wisconsin. Pretty school, liberal arts and music conservatory. Generous merit aid. Walking distance to shops, restaurants, etc.</p>
<p>Re: Wesleyan is selective, but not as selective as Brown. I would put Wesleyan as about the same selectivity as Oberlin. And Vassar, at least among current high school and college students, doesn’t have the reputation of being a women’s college at all even if it was a woman’s college 50 years ago.</p>
<p>It’s a little hard to give advice without knowing more about his interests (academic and otherwise), but I’ll give it a shot! :)</p>
<p>University of Rochester seems to be a great fit! Great music program (for non-majors, too) and the opportunity to build your own major with the open curriculum.</p>
<p>Case Western isn’t all that hard to get into, but the students are incredibly smart. The professors seem very involved. Known as a techie school, though… not sure if that’s something he is into.</p>
<p>Drexel’s students are down-to-earth and work hard. The campus is located in Philadelphia, where there are many things to do.</p>
<p>I’d recommend visiting a few schools to see if he is more interested in a LAC or a university. That will help him hone in on specific colleges a lot easier.</p>
<p>Also, don’t worry too much about your son’s test scores. There are many schools that will give great scholarships to a student in the 85th percentile!</p>
<p>Firstly, he’s a sophomore. Chill! It’ll be fine. He’ll get in to an amazing school no matter what. Secondly, if he keeps up a 3.9 unweighted (or the equivalent), he should at least be fine for Reed. I had a friend get in there ED who had a much lower GPA, with a 2260 SAT and pretty good ECs. It’s fine. :)</p>
<p>Also, don’t worry about how rigorous his course load is compared to students from other high schools. Most (if not all) colleges look at the difficulty of your course load in the context of your high school. If he’s taking the most challenging courses he can within the high school, they’ll see that and take note of it. </p>
<p>For a lot the schools you’re looking at (Occidental, Reed), you should be fine. Just relax and make sure the schools he applies to are schools that he’ll be happy at!</p>
<p>Thanks! True, it’s early, I want to be clear we’re not stressing here or anything. Just looking to expand our list of schools to look at to include some that are less selective than the ones he seems to like. We can’t find anything in the “second tier” that looks like it would work in the event the scores don’t come up.</p>
<p>At the present, his interests are in the Social Studies - International Studies, anthropology, sociology, possibly economics. He’s a great writer, but he doesn’t seem to be interested in an English major although that could change.</p>
<p>twomules, thanks for that link to the Xiggi method. I followed it and read it, but I am still not exactly clear what the method is! Am I missing something? Is there more information somewhere? All I got is to break it down into small bits and only use the real SAT tests to practice. It talked about strategies and learning what the tricks are, but it didn’t seem to elaborate.</p>
<p>Reed is amazing for social sciences, especially the social side of anthropology. (I thought about applying, but I’m interested in archaeology, so no.) I just wanted to reinforce the message of ‘relax, don’t worry, it’s going to be fine’ because it seems that a lot of people nowadays send the opposite message. As a senior who’s already been accepted at my top two schools, I just want to make sure you know that your son already has amazing stats, he’s looking at amazing schools, and that it is still possible to get through this process without getting too stressed out.</p>
<p>He doesn’t have to be a music major for his talent and interest in music to make him stand out! Many schools allow you to send in an arts supplement–you would send in a recording of your son playing, and the admissions office would then either evaluate this itself or get an evaluation from its music department. A great arts supplement could really help his chances, and it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t plan to major in music. Many drama and arts standouts don’t plan to major in these areas–but they still send in supplements, and these help them get into the school. Music shows he can commit to something, and schools will probably hope he will join their orchestra or involve himself in some way extra-curricularly with music at the school.</p>
<p>You should be proud of all your son has accomplished so far! Good luck! :)</p>
<p>Thanks! We are very proud of him. We are definitely going the low-stress route. We are actually enjoying this part of it - looking at potential schools and majors. He works hard every day keeping his grades up and practicing. I don’t want to add any more worries right now. </p>
<p>It’s good to know the music angle will help, I am sure plenty of applicants play an instrument well so it’s not novel or anything. But he plays a lot of different instruments in several genres and yes I guess that does show commitment!</p>
<p>i think someone mentioned this – have him try some practice ACT exams – some kids do better on the SAT, some on the ACT. from what i’ve heard the differences are – the ACT questions tend to be more straight forward, but time is more of an issue on the ACT – you really need to learn to pace yourself to the time alloted.</p>
<p>also, do not underestimate the value of practice on these standardized exams. when my oldest took a psat practice test, we were a bit concerned – also did not come close to level of gpa. but a lot of work on practice exams, and studying vocabulary helped a lot and final SAT scores were right where they needed to be for schools in line with gpa.</p>
<p>you are lucky in that you have time on your side. loads of time for working on it without making test prep the focus of life.</p>