<p>Something else to think about is how well she will do in college if she is struggling with English in High School. College classes often depend on just a few grades. Applying to a couple of more safety type of colleges may take some pressure off of your daughter. Most of the colleges that my kids applied to were match schools and safeties, if felt good knowing that they were going SOMEWHERE and would be successful.</p>
<p>I’ll add Iowa State University to the list on post #17. It is very strong in the math and sciences, top notch engineering and agricultural/life sciences colleges, well-known for their (Applied) Statistics dept. Their app deadline is very late (I think one month before beginning of classes for each semester), the issue would more likely be in not finding housing if applying late. Gorgeous campus, a lot of tradition, and friendly atmosphere with many student activity options. Similar to Purdue.</p>
<p>I agree that it depends on what is meant by “top notch.” If top notch means HYPSM, those C+ grades are going to be a serious blow to her chances. You can start working on the Plan B right now. But if top notch means a good balance of reach and match schools, then you may want to wait until you have the April results before worrying about devising a Plan B.</p>
<p>If there are schools she’d like that are still accepting applications, I say go for it. No reason to stick with Plan A when it looks like it might not work out. ALWAYS have a Plan B (and C, D, etc.)</p>
<p>And even if she gets into her Plan A schools, the fact she is struggling in high school does not bode well for doing well at them. I wouldn’t want my child to go someplace and struggle simply because it has more prestige.</p>
<p>wedgedrive, are we talking about the same student?</p>
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<p>If so, why the angst? Is WPI not where she wants to be and if so, why did she apply? Is it concern that her acceptance or scholarship will be revoked? I’m trying to get a handle on this.</p>
<p>Or is WPI her safety that she is not wild about?
and her other schools are all big reaches (like Top Twenty schools)?</p>
<p>From my admittedly limited persepctive (never having set foot on either campus) I question whether the same student could be a “fit” at both Warren Wilson and WPI . My query is based solely on their websites and rep.</p>
<p>If she would choose to take a year off or go to community college rather than attend the school she considers her “safety”, I think she should apply to two more safeties with 3/1 or later deadlines. I agree you should consider Pitt.</p>
<p>Incredibly OT:
??? My God, I’ve turned into a cartoon duck.</p>
<p>I believe Penn State’s application deadline was November 30th for fall first year admissions and February 1st for transfers and international students.</p>
<p>Karp–The priority deadline was Nov. 30, but apparently you can still apply (its just that some programs and campuses might be closed out)</p>
<p>wedgedrive, thumper1 - lots of students have 504 plans at colleges and professors are just as obligated to honor the accommodations that have been agreed to, as are teachers. The federal 504 law is an anti-discrimination law overseen by the Office of Civil Rights. A 504 Plan is not the same as special education (IEP) or modifying the curriculum. It is a means of leveling the playing field for someone who meets the federal criteria for a legal disability but is trying to particpate in regular education (there are specific criteria, including disabilities that impact learning and that prevent equal access to the curriculum). So, if a student has dysgraphia, for example, but knows the material, he/she is not punished for needing more time to write - he/she is given the accommodation of more time, just as a hard of hearing student is allowed to have an FM system, etc. Going to a writing center is not going to help the student who has to write an essay for an exam but needs more time to get down on paper what he/she knows. While it’s nice to choose a college that offers a lot of support services, it would probably be better to choose a school that understands their obligations to students who need accommodations, if indeed your daughter demonstrates a a disorder in this area. At work, people who have disabilities are allowed accommodations to access their jobs and to perform their jobs (to certain limits) via the ADA law - this is similar for students.</p>
<p>Hi everybody,
Thanks for all your input. You have given me a lot to think about. The “top notch” schools are Skidmore, Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Oberlin, Colby, Bates, Bowdoin. Her SAT scores are high 700’s, she’s taken honors & AP classes, gotten A’s in the math AP’s. Her grades have been uneven because of her difficulty with writing. I see her in a small school where the profs might get it that she is bright, hard-working but struggles with essays. Smith invites parents to submit a statement about their daughter…We are thinking of doing this, and thinking of what to say. I do not want her to be seen as lazy because she is anything but. Given her high SAT scores, it would be easy to think that was the issue. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Wedgedrive, I’m familiar with a number of those schools and, as liberal arts schools, they are generally reading and writing intensive. She scored in the high 700s in the writing section and has trouble with writing? Hmmm… Is her problem organizing her thoughts? Is it the physical process of writing or something else? And does she just need extra time? </p>
<p>I suspect her biggest problem will be on tests because most schools will have some sort of ‘writing center’ that she can use for papers and take-home written work. I would call (no need to give your name) and find out. I know that when we visited UVA, there was a table set up at the library with several writing assistants. Students could just take their papers over and ask for help. </p>
<p>By the way, if writing is difficult for her, is she likely to get through Bates’ required thesis? That may be something to consider in a few weeks.</p>
<p>2collegewego–Ah! I missed the Bates required thesis. She could do it, but she we could hate it and probably other course work would suffer. Thanks for pointing that out. Her V SAT score was in the mid 700’s, but the score on the essay was low–I forgotten the scoring but she got 1/2 the available points. If she is a math-science major, couldn’t she miss some of the intensive wiritng classes?</p>
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<p>These are all schools with significant writing in their courses. Even being a math/science major will not exclude a student from the required Core courses which can be very writing intensive (these courses are writing intensive at many schools). </p>
<p>DD is an engineering major (can’t get more math/science intensive than that) and she has significant writing requirements in her core course…not at the above schools, however.</p>
<p>If you happen to go really late into the process without an option that you like, [url=<a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org%5DNACAC%5B/url”>http://www.nacacnet.org]NACAC[/url</a>] publishes a list around the second week of May of schools that are still accepting applications for their fall class. There are often some pretty good choices on that list.</p>
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I am NOT up to speed on LD’s nor am I one to accept that what is will always be.
My D’s achilles heel is writing. Not test-taking writing but writing with style. Not research writing but writing with flair. College essays were much akin to Hell for her …and by “her” I mean everybody within earshot. </p>
<p>Everything was sooo formal and for formal read stilted, humorless, “just the fact’s ma’am” Jack Webb writing. Now understand, this is NOT a formal stilted kid . This is a witty , sarcastic, caring, personable child who is intuitive in face to face interviews and excels at them. </p>
<p>Her high school, small/medium size rural, just didn’t tax her enough. She could make A’s without getting any better. Again, like yours , mine tests very well (but also like yours, her essay scores , both SAT and ACT, were less than perfect). </p>
<p>The app essays were my bonk up side the head wake up call. Jeez, she’ll never get through an intensive college course with this skill level . Many hours of work later we came up with a system that she used to write some pretty good essays. She would talk the essay to a recorder, just ask herself the prompt and then go into interview mode. All that was left was for her to edit . </p>
<p>She chose to go a writing intensive college with strong liberal arts core type requirements for a science major. She took freshman writing even though she had AP’ed out of both freshman English courses (again, she is a master test-taker). She intentionally took the great prof who “gave no A’s” and made her first non-A. But she made an A- and more importantly she had faced down the dragon. </p>
<p>She still thinks it takes her twice as long as her classmates to write a good paper but that doesn’t bother her too much. She knows it takes her classmates twice as long to understand heavy chem and bio. </p>
<p>I know your kid ain’t my kid and I’m not saying that she is but there are some parallels. If she happens to make it into one of her writing intensive schools , she can make it. She just needs to find something that works for her, take great advantage of office hours and writing centers, and rely on (play to) her strengths. She has plenty of them. ;)</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, Thank you. I tried to get our daughter interested in engineering schools, because I thought it would be a better fit, but she came back with liking pure math over applied math and perhaps wanting to be a music major…so, here we are. An analogy: I have a friend who I can tell is very bright because of what she talks about (and what she does for a living), but I regularly have to resist the urge to complete her sentences. Our daughter is not quite like that, but sometimes her sentences come out as “word salad” if she is excited/distracted. My friend went to a small callege where the profs took an interest in her & helped. That is what I am hoping for our daughter.</p>
<p>Wedgedrive–</p>
<p>I see no reason not to throw in a few more applications if you have the money and it’s not too onerous (although I think your daughter will get into several of the schools you have listed). Based on what appears to be your daughter’s preferences, I would suggest the following which are a subset of the ones I already mentioned:</p>
<p>Muhlenburg–really nice school in Pa., and although the deadline is Friday, it only takes common app and there’s no supplement
Drew-good school in NJ, same Friday deadline, but although there’s a supplement it doesn’t require an essay
Agnes Scott–although it’s outside the areas of the country your daughter has been looking at, it’s a wonderful school and she could take classes at other colleges in the Atlanta area.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Wedgedrive, </p>
<p>I suspect-- and I’m just working on hunch here-- that your daughter has an expressive language disability, the sort that benefits from work with a speech pathologist. One of my children has this sort of disability and people-- even teachers-- are not as familiar with it as they are with dysgraphia or dyslexia. But it’s hard (at least here) to qualify for speech therapy through the school system especially when one is older. (And, not coincidentally, he loves music, math and science.) Anyway… from what I’ve seen with my son, the weakness is sort of always there. You have to learn to work with it. If she can organize her thoughts well verbally, then I think that Curmudgeon’s ideas are very good. If she struggles orally also, she needs to find a formalaic way to answer essay questions. </p>
<p>Those are not schools I think I would have chosen for my son-- who fits your daughter’s profile. My daughter, however, applied to about half of those schools (so our girls may well be in school together next year)-- but her strength is her writing (she earned an 11/12 on her SAT writing). I think your daughter will get into some of those schools but I think the writing will be a challenge. That doesn’t mean she can’t do it. Her SATs are strong for Skidmore, for example, so I suspect she will get through with higher math/ science grades than English grades. But they are not, perhaps, the best fit. </p>
<p>There are schools that have an ‘open curriculum’ and those may have fit her better but I don’t know if any still have dates open. There are smaller tech schools that may fit her. But, again, I do think she’ll get into some schools on her list. </p>
<p>When she gets her acceptances, I would look at the general school requirements. She may want to downplay schools that have a large writing requirement or that require many English and Social Studies classes. Bates does have a required thesis. Students in <em>some</em> majors can opt to take a massive exam and I understand that option is there primarily for math majors-- so there is a way around the requirement for her but it will only hold if she doesn’t change her major over the next 4 years. </p>
<p>I do think that I would work to prepare my daughter for her writing requirements this summer. Have her take a summer writing class-- even if it’s at the community college-- just to get her ready. I would have her audit. She doesn’t want the credit; she needs the knowledge. Either that or see if one of the English teachers will tutor her privately this summer.</p>