<p>I posted my college visit reports, but can elaborate on any questions here. It was a gorgeous day yesterday and the campuses were probably uniquely alive with the political action. I think a visit in the winter could give a good "reality" check to some.</p>
<p>I had my dates mixed up and I know D is doing at least one (probably one) SAT II in Dec and that's the deadline that is today, so I'll do that registration. ACT is Fri, so I have a few more days on that one..</p>
<p>Queen's Mom - I did think about the boys at GT, but I wasn't sure whether that was important to your D given that Barnard is her first choice. </p>
<p>jackief - I went to register for the ACT and found out it's not being offered at D's school in Dec. (or any school nearby), so I have a feeling she'll be waiting on that one after all. It's also not offered in NY at all in Feb which would have been a great time for her to take the test. That means that she'll either take it in April or June - most likely June which is not ideal.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2, what I meant was: a girl probably has a better chance of acceptance at a male-skewed school than at a female-skewed school (women's colleges excepted, of course).</p>
<p>Besides at age 16, what girl doesn't think boys are important? ;)</p>
<p>LIMOM, the Feb ACT test isn't offered anywhere near us either. Look on the bright side, she can focus on SAT. For my D, the Apr date might have a conflict so I would really like her to try Dec.</p>
<p>I also saw the SAT II test prices jumped alot from last year! I registered D for one test last June which she didn't end up taking because she didn't have time to prepare adequately. I think I remember the price for one at that time was $18 with $8 (or $9?) for each additional. Now, the prices is $20 reg fee and then $9 per test making it $29 for one. Geesh. I will wait to register her until I talk to her to be abolutely she she will take one in Dec and see which of two nearby schools she prefers. They are never offered at our school, so we pick a public school in our city or a surrounding area.</p>
<p>Gender ratios- when we did our Bates tours yesterday and the kids/parents split into separate tours we were still close enough to see the other group at a distance. The kid our was about 6-8 girls and one boy. I mentioned this to our guide who said it was not the norm that the split is about 55/45 girls/boys. We are visiting a school this weekend with a much higher girl/boy ratio which I don't thin k she will like.. It was also interesting that all the kids on her tour did at least one sport. I think the kids talked more without the parents around, I wish more schools did that. It also gave the parents (me) more openings to ask questions.</p>
<p>QM- the ratio as well as the diversity in student interests is a reason I didn't go to a predominantly tech school but to an engr. school within a large university. But to each his own and your D will decide what is important to her and to set her apart.</p>
<p>Queen's Mom - I knew what you meant about a girl having the better chance of being accepted at a male-skewed school. But since your D has a definite preference for Barnard, and Barnard is all female, I wasn't sure whether she would want to be at a school that is so male-skewed. And you're right, most 16 year old girls think boys are very important - but I'm sure there are a few who don't share that opinion - not that I know any girls like that, but I'm sure they exist.</p>
<p>LIMOM - i have one of those girls ... well, actually, i have 2!!!</p>
<p>jackief - it's true that D should be able to concentrate on prepping for the SAT, but I don't think she was planning to prep for either - I think she was just planning to go in and take them. The Dec. SAT isn't given at D's school either, but it's given at another school nearby which is helpful. Now D is telling me that she still wants to take the ACT in Dec., to get it over with. I told her she could think about it for one more day and let me know tomorrow. I didn't think she'd want to travel so far so early in the morning. </p>
<p>I haven't looked at the price of the SAT IIs. No surprise that it went up. D will be taking either two or three of them in June - whichever she prefers. </p>
<p>I still haven't read your posts about your college visits - D isn't considering either of those schools at the moment - but I'll take a look anyway, out of curiosity. Interesting about only 1 boy and 6-8 girls being in the tour group. Those odds are a little scary for the girls, aren't they? Maybe for the boys too.....lol.</p>
<p>Mike W. - I knew there had to be a few...........lol.</p>
<p>the visiting groups were so different between the two schools which are highly overlapping schools. And since they are only 30 mins apart I wouldn't have been surprised to see people from the first also at the second, but that didn't happen. It was mostly local families, mostly MA, NY, NH which also wasn't surprising considering it was a weekday during the school year. Bates - all girls but one, all juniors. Bowdoin - all boys but one (us) and all seniors but one (us). It was strange but tells you not to draw conclusions from one visit and small sample sizes.</p>
<p>I just double-checked, and found a closer Dec. ACT. It's about 15 minutes away, so not bad at all. Provided it's not full, it should work out well for us. What a relief.</p>
<p>My S is signed up for both ACT & SAT, the first 2 weekends in December. Get them over with! </p>
<p>Tonight is NHS induction. My last child is well into his Junior year...this is starting to get scary and emotional!</p>
<p>Congrats mommusic! D's school doesn't do the NHS induction until the end of junior year.</p>
<p>I see your S and my D have the same idea about the tests.</p>
<p>LIMom you are smart in having your marvelous D do both in December to get a baseline. I wish we had thought to do both but our area is SAT centric so we didn't. I would never have had twinK take the SAT again if she had done the ACT earlier because she did so much better on the ACT. I anticipate that your D w/ her huge brain and terrific test taking talent will do very well on both tests but this way you get to know if she did better on one then the other and she can then concentrate her efforts on the preferred test.</p>
<p>Historymom - you are too, too kind about my D's test-taking skills - I can only hope that's all true. Our area is pretty SAT-centric too, but it seems like most kids do both these days, so we figured, why not try both early on. And you are exactly right - if we see that she does noticeably better on one test than the other, we'll just have her concentrate on that test for the spring.</p>
<p>So nice of you to visit us from the '09 thread - and congratulations to your amazing twinE on her acceptances, and good luck to twinK on her apps - I'm sure she'll have similar success once all of her files are complete!</p>
<p>now that LIMOM has joined the 09 thread ;) I'll have to keep this up in the first page. </p>
<p>Did the ACT reg for Dec. Going to "university preview day" at Clark U today. D is tired and is grumbling. We'll see how it turns out.</p>
<p>Well, I have a few friends over in the '09 thread, and since they decided to visit here, I thought I'd respond in kind. Plus it can't hurt to hear how the current seniors are doing. ;)</p>
<p>Let us know what you think of Clark - D's gotten lots of mail from them, but hasn't looked at any of it. We haven't had the time to visit any of the "preview days" she's been invited to - there's just never any free time. Hope you have a nice day - it's a little gray and drizzly here.</p>
<p>Younger S is playing football this morning, and D is off and running - just too many things going on today.</p>
<p>I had big plans for college touring on Election Day and Veterans Day. Then D broke her foot. I decided it's not worth trying to tour with crutches, we'll wait till February break if it's not too bitterly cold!</p>
<p>Our HS is now offering one test session with PLAN, which is a kind of prep to ACT, like PSAT is to SAT. After explaining what I understood the differences were between SAT and ACT, my DS decided to pass on this. He'd rather do his own prep if it turns out he takes the ACT.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the water polo season is done. Parents of aquatics athletes manned the snack bar at the homecoming HS football game. H and I manned the soda and ice brigade. Talk about being nerve central! By 9:30 I could had sworn we'd sold an ocean of soda and that the paramedics would need to be called for a diabetic coma! One more go around next year.</p>
<p>Lafalum - sorry to hear about your D's foot - ouch! </p>
<p>FindAPlace - Yay for water polo season ending for this year. Does that mean your S is done with sports until next fall?</p>
<p>Lafalum - sorry about your D's fx. I know what you're going thru. Last year S broke his ankle @ XC and D broke her collarbone in the gym class wrestling unit. </p>
<p>We're headed to Gettysburg on Monday for Son's first college tour. Will post a report in the visit database.</p>