<p>How long was your drive? ^^^ The closest testing center to us was an hour and a half away so we went down on friday and got a room so D could have a full night's sleep. I wish ACT offered more testing centers closer to us.</p>
<p>Today's college talk will be about getting their priority apps completed and getting an essay done. With their work load being so much lighter than last year, I am asking for a rough draft from one D and a revison from the other by Sat. </p>
<p>I saw that someone else is thinking it would be a good idea for applicants to get the common ap done for the safety schools ASAP with a good essay and then rework the essay for any reaches. How many of your kids are using that strategy?</p>
<p>YAY!!!! for being done w/ testing in October. My two will be as well.</p>
<p>My son will graduate in 2110, so I am not a member of your club, but I want to say that I feel so sorry for all of you who had such long drives to the ACT testing centers. My son took it for the first time yesterday, as a junior. Since NJ did not offer it for Sept. we drove into NY state, but our drive was shorter (about 40-45 minutes). I was able to drop him off, drive home, and then go back again. I am glad that I did not wait around. They started the test 30 minutes late! Unfortunately, my kiddo was ill, so this won't be the score he will be sending. It was good experience for him to still take it.</p>
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I told her in August that because some schools D is applying to that I need the transcripts to go out. She told D to stop by early in the year but she has since been tied up with class changes, etc. and said she would meet with the seniors soon about college applications.</p>
<p>SOON?!?! Ugh. I hope she doesn't totally spazz out when D walks in there with a list of 13 colleges to send transcripts to and 13 Letters of Recommendation that she needs to fill out.</p>
<p>The first application deadline for D is October 10th at Florida State.
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<p>Our GC met with parents before transcripts could go out. That took place around the third week of October. They also needed to give time for teachers to write ther Letters of Rec. They really don't get much notice, bc most students do not ask until the first full week of school. My son applied to 14, and the GC got it out, but she was not happy. We have no regrets!!!</p>
<p>We drove 45 minutes but thanks to no street sign it was actually 70 minutes to the school for the ACT. S got to the door- few following behind-and the door was locked. But they were let in as the true final time was 8:05 and this was 8:00. He thought the test yesterday was much more difficult than the one last Spring. He did get a 30 last Spring (without a calculator) and we are happy with that-although it matches his SAT and hoped that the ACT would just improve a little (using a calculator this time) so that he would send the ACT instead of the SAT.
That said-I learned from this forum and checked it out-and yes, the SAT and ACT are on the student's transcript at his HS. S did not put the HS on the ACT (did not know how he would do-so why list a poor score if it turned out that way) but had put the code on the SAT so the transcript will have them. Not sure what to do about the ACT-wait until the scores come and then just have the highest sent to the HS?
Our GC told the class that they do not need to sent their SAT's as the school will take care of that and it saves the student money. S did not list any schools on his SAT's or his ACT's as he did not have a list at all last spring when he took them and just did not on the one yesteday either. I had decided that we would just pay the money when we actually knew his list. Also, knew it would not be a long list.
So just wondering what anyone's thoughts are about the reporting stuff and what did your D/S think of the ACT yesterday?</p>
<p>Paladin - I am an alumni admissions rep for Lafayette and was at Lehigh for part of my grad school work, so send any questions my way....actually, there is a current senior on the Lafayette board that does a super job...</p>
<p>oregon101...funny you should mention a calculator. DD forgot hers. The nice owner of the little place where we stayed offered his son's. But fortunaely there was a Longs next door and we were able to buy one at 7:30 sat a.m.</p>
<p>LOL, I knew that my son might be one to forget his calculator. What I did, because he would have thought I was crazy, was to lay out the snacks, bottle of water, #2 pencils, admission ticket, ID,etc. the night before. All he had to do was wake up and get dressed. While he was doing that I got his breakfast together and he ate that in the car (40 minute drive).</p>
<p>yes, THE calculator--last spring I decided that he needed to be responsible for this and did not remind him about checking on-line as to which one he could use. He showed up with the TI-89 which is not allowed. So this time there was a discussion about the right one and he had lent his TI-84 to his GF and planned on using the oldest one we own. After some "discussion" he did get his calculator back from the GF and did take it. And, of course, he thinks he did better last spring without the calculator as this test was more difficult. Go figure.</p>
<p>D2 finished her one and only application and submitted it this morning. Hooray! The coach emailed all the recruits last week and told them to get the applications ready and turned in as today was the first day of processing. I still want her to have a backup but she says no. She is very stubborn!</p>
<p>Happy to report D produced a first draft of her Common App essay this weekend. It might have helped that she was grounded (on an unrelated charge). She certainly had more time and was better rested! ;)</p>
<p>I went through the Common App, supplements, and individual apps for all 9 schools on her list and compiled a master list of all the writing she has to do. Although the list was daunting at first, it enabled us to see quite a bit of overlap, so that 1 essay can be reused/retooled for several different purposes.</p>
<p>It's very frustrating here in the Northeast how hard it is to take the ACT! Like historymom, we would have had to do an overnight, which wasn't possible with her fall sport. Now she's taking it 10/25, and we're just hoping for the best.</p>
<p>NorthMinn YAY!!! congrats on so many levels.</p>
<p>Chintzy: TwinE got a draft done too but it is not revealing enough of her character/personality. I suggested that she use it as a "jumping off point" and tried to provide some direction. She may listen, she may not, but at least it's a start.</p>
<p>Well, we had help in an unexpected way. Since we evacuated to my brother's house in Austin to escape Ike and school was cancelled Friday - Tuesday, my son actually was able to make some progress on his college apps -- a first draft of an essay and filling out the common app. And now that we've returned to Houston (although staying at my mom's house since she has electricity and we do not), we find out that school is cancelled all week! This means REAL progress can be made on the apps. This is especially helpful to us because my husband was in critical condition in California (where we were on vacation) for most of August, so the whole college process was difficult for my son to take control of. We are now all back together in the same city, my husband is recovering, my son has time to get his college apps under control ... a LOT to be thankful for. Who needs electricity, A/C, a home-cooked meal, their own bed?</p>
<p>chentzy--Good one! How about EE = Essay Envy! To my embarassment but totally true, someone recently referred to me as my S's secretary--yikes! My S and I laughed about it, saying I prefer to be called "Executive Assistant!" sigh.. I have the materials all gathered, but we're missing just a few little items...like...oh...the essays!!! But "we" did gather the Teacher Rec materials last night because he's doing one early and one rolling, so he got those to his teachers today. Breathe.</p>
<p>Way to go Historymom!!! One down! D2's app is in, ACT scores sent, transcript sent through Docufide, the only thing left is GC form. Hopefully she'll get it sent quickly!</p>
<p>blackeyedsusan, I am sorry that you have had such a difficult time! I am glad to hear that your husband is on the mend! Is your home damaged, and what is the extent of it?</p>
<p>blackeyedsusan, talk about making lemonade out of lemons! Wishing you nothing but blue skies from here on out.</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota, I'm a newbie. What's Docufide? Our guidance dept. has a seminar Thursday night and I already know I'll be the parent who asks the most questions!</p>