<p>arisamp, reporting seems to depend on the school. Some schools will allow students to use score choice, some want to see everything the student did. I get the vibe that some kind of superscoring for the SAT IIs is more common than for the SAT itself. Part of that might be because of the different requirements on how many SAT IIs are required. If a school wants to see all scores, but only requires 2 subject tests, then what else can they do but superscore if an applicant has taken 3 or more different subject tests?</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the current policy of colleges regarding Score Choice:
<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat-score-use-practices-list.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;
<p>Note that the College Boards says this listing of policies will be updated annually and gives the link to access the latest listing on page 3 of the linked PDF.</p>
<p>Madboy1, a 2008 hs grad, took the SAT II Bio test twice, once after 9th grade Bio (as recommended by his school) and once again after AP Bio in 11th grade. His score the first time was (I think) 630, but was 780 the second. Last year, there was no score choice so all his SAT2 scores went to all colleges. It was our understanding that schools took the top score. While I can’t confirm this, madboy1 did very well in his acceptances so I have always believed that colleges are just as happy as we are to use the highest SAT scores possible. It’s in their best interest, isn’t it, to show how highly statted their admits are. There was even a college that paid $$ to their admits who agreed to re-take their SATs because those improved scores were so valuable to the college!</p>
<p>madbean - that’s the same situation my D is in. She’s taken Bio this semester and so will be taking the Bio Sat II this June. But she’s planning on AP Bio next year - so she has the chance to retake the Bio Sat II if she doesn’t do well this time. She understands the benefits of doing well the first time (one thing crossed off the list, one less thing to do next year etc) - but given her schedule, don’t know if she can actually get any serious prep work in the next couple of weeks. Oh well…</p>
<p>Talked with my D yesterday and we made plans for a summer college trip to Oregon/WA. So many good schools there. Planning to hit L & C, Willamette, Reed, and if time U Puget Sound. No time like the present to start in.</p>
<p>The other state I was thinking of was Iowa, with Grinnell, Cornell, and Luther, but my W will probably be in charge of that trip.</p>
<p>onward and upward</p>
<p>Anybody else ready for Sophomore year to be OVER? S’s schools has the 9th & 10th graders on teams, which is great for getting to know the kids, interdisciplinary projects and field trips. Unfortunately, some of S’s teachers have crossed the line from supportive to meddlesome and gossipy. H & I had been trying to ride it out (1 month to the end of the school year) but we can’t take it anymore and are going to meet with one of the teachers tomorrow. I am working on deep calming breaths, using “I” statements, and not screaming “Just back off!” Wish me luck.</p>
<p>Chintzy, that is terrible. I am sure the teachers at S’s school talk but nothing we ever hear about. H is very involved in the Father’s group and is at the school a lot, so I am sure he would have heard something if anything was going on. </p>
<p>I am so not in a rush for school to end on June 5th. 2 more weeks of classes, then finals. S is tanking Algebra 2 and Chemistry, subjects he is good at, but not working hard at. He needs the time to get his grades up. Of course, we just found this out.</p>
<p>Chintzy, I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with that. Good grief, who would think teachers would add to the HS drama? Sounds like you’re taking a very wise approach for your meeting. Hope it goes well.</p>
<p>mamom, a father’s group sounds like a great idea. Hope your son gets things turned around. It is hard to study when spring rolls around. I’ve warned my boy he had better be checking all his classes to see where he is at.</p>
<p>I love the Father’s group idea! Too often it’s all moms all the time on the volunteer front and dads helping coach Little League. It sends the message that mom thinks you should do well in school and dad thinks you should be able to hit an inside curve ball.</p>
<p>Mid term progress report was mixed: also not doing well in Algebra 2, which we knew, and a drop from a B+ to a C- in Italian, which we didn’t see coming. Everything else was fine, so I can’t complain too much. Just need to hang in there until June 19th.</p>
<p>S’s school has separate Mother’s and Father’s groups for some reason. His middle school had a parent’s group in which I was active with but H was not. So maybe the separate groups is a good idea. S goes to an all boys school and the Father’s group is very active there. Very active with something going on just about every month. I suppose they are good role models for the boys. The Mother’s group otoh, is lame, IMO. Really doesn’t do much. The Fathers group even beats the Mother’s group when it comes to sending flowers or helping out families with medical problems, deaths in the family, etc.</p>
<p>Are any of your kids taking SAT prep classes and/or studying for the SATs over the summer? A friend may be hiring a private tutor for her son to study over the summer, with the aim of taking SATs in October, and if he does well enough, be done with it so the spring can be spent studying for APs and SAT IIs. </p>
<p>I’m trying to decide what makes the most sense for S2, who will be playing HS football in the fall on top of a tough junior year schedule. I think it might be too much, especially with PSATs again in October. I was thinking about having him take the SATs for the first time in December or January, between his fall and spring sports. Anybody planning to have their kids take the SATs in October?</p>
<p>S took the SAT May 6th. He has been taking practice tests for a while now and doing reasonably well. We wanted to see where he may need more work. He may take the Princeton Course offered at his school jr year. He is registered to take the USH and Chem SAT2 in June. Depending on how he does with the chem practice tests he may skip it and just do the USH. I expect that the CR and W portion of the SAT can only improve with another year of English so he will probably retake again next spring. </p>
<p>My S is also very busy in the fall playing football. I think spring is a good time to take the test, especially if you can schedule it for right after finals when the pressure is off. I think academically jr year is going to be very tough.</p>
<p>My S took prep courses over right before the March SAT in his Junior year. One regret that I have is that I did not consider the ACT until almost the end. And that was because my S insisted he wanted to take it. He scored higher on the ACT percentiles just using a study guide then he ever did on the SAT after two prep courses (Princeton allows for free refresher courses). I will see how my D does on practice SATs and ACTs before we decide on prep classes for her</p>
<p>Before I start, let me tell you several important facts about me</p>
<p>1)I recently finished my freshman year at QU
2) I was accepted into Binghamton University as a transfer which I will be attending in the fall
3)My GPA in QU was about a 3.3 when I applied for transfer
4) My SAT’s were 1100 and I got a 10,000$ scholarship to QU before I attended.
5) I am a Political Science major</p>
<p>For the first semester I hated QU and for the second semester I did not like it much more. Before I bash the school, to be fair there are several positives that go along with QU that I should mention. First, QU provides a very good teacher-student atmosphere where the prof. actually seem to take an interest in the individual. I became friendly with all my prof. and they were very flexible with extensions, etc. It reminded me very much of high school. Also, the campus is beautiful and spotless. However, the beauty of the school is deceiving as it is by far their biggest selling point.</p>
<p>This school is boring. When you get there, you realize the beauty of the campus cannot sustain your attention forever. Each day I would wake up, go to class, go to the gym, go to the library, then go to sleep again. And this is not because I was anti social or did not explore what QU has to offer. THERE IS NOTHING THERE. I was bored nearly every day and so badly wanted a small town to walk around in that is near the school. Instead, I was stuck in this small campus with nothing to do from Sun-Fri until I went out on the weekends. </p>
<p>The kids are clickly. It is a small school and meeting friends early is essential. Kids won’t hesitate to ostrasize you and the friends you make early on that live closest to you, will almost certainly be your best friends throughout the yr. There are a good amount of guidos which I hate. Lots of kids with muscles popping out with the gold cross and the gel in the hair really got me angry. Many of them were in my classes, contributed nothing, and made me wonder…why am I going to college with kids on this level. Although these are petty acusations, they were all jerks. Only about 25% of the males fit this profile but they are a real damper on the school as they are cocky, arrogant, and many times mean (especially at clubs when they drink a beer or two)</p>
<p>I consider myself a intelligent, sophisticated person and the biggest offense was on election night when NOONE SEEMED TO GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE ELECTION. I was a member of the Democratic club, and even there, the members seemed much more into food drives, clothing drives, etc. as oppossed to the election at hand. I could not find ONE PERSON to have a conversation with about the election as all anyone seemed to want to do was play Halo. </p>
<p>Dont be fooled by the beauty of the school. I was duped as many are, and I am warning you that there is more to a school than the appearance. Looking at that clock tower for 8 months gets very boring, especially when you are looking at it nonstop with no chance of escape until Friday night.</p>
<p>My son is going to take the SAT II in US History in June and might take the SAT in October. Our school has offered an after school SAT prep class before but with recent budget cuts, I don’t know if it’s going to happen this fall. If they offer it, he’ll take it. My older son half-heartedly did an on-line prep class for the SAT and my daughter did nothing. Both scored about the same. I like the idea of taking it in the fall along with the PSAT and if the scores are good, they’re done.</p>
<p>'09 mom popping in for a visit. Many of us are members of booster clubs, PTAs and charitable organizations that give scholarships to graduating seniors. If your '11er is your oldest child, you may have never seen the scholarship applications. This year was my first time and I’ve formed some strong opinions. I would encourage you to think about this topic in the next year, so if the way your group hands out scholarships needs to be changed, you can do it when you don’t have a dog in the hunt, so to speak.</p>
<p>First and most importantly, I don’t think that any of these community/school scholarship applications should ever ask for SAT or ACT scores. Those are designed to help colleges in the admissions process. A student could have been suspended multiple times for behavior issues and have a pefect SAT - is that the person to whom you want to award your scholarship? A student could be the best school citizen ever and have low SATs - do you really want to deprive him of your award based on that?</p>
<p>Grades are important only if they really are. For example, it makes sense for a sports booster club to award scholarships not to the stars - who have already received a lot of notice - but to the scholar athletes. Then grade are relevant.</p>
<p>But I also think that in groups like choir, band and theatre, scholarships should be based on devotion to the organization rather than grades. I’d much rather see the choir scholarship go to the middle of the class kid whose LIFE was choir rather than to the kid with great grades who was minimally involved in the program.</p>
<p>In my area, the elementary school PTAs give a small scholarship (usually $250 or $500) to a grad who went to that elem school. I made Son pick up an app for his old elem school but didn’t make him complete it. I’m not exagerating when I say that it was more involved than ANY college application he completed - two essays, two rec letters, etc. etc. It would make much more sense to have them write about what they learned in elem school that will serve them well in adult life.</p>
<p>And charitable orgs should base their scholarships on community service and adherance to the values of the organization, not grades or SAT scores.</p>
<p>Okay, rant over. I just hope I inspire some of you to look into this next year. You obviously can’t be asking for changes the year your own child is applying for scholarships, but next year you could have a real, positive impact.</p>
<p>Our music parents group gives a (very) small scholarship to any student that had been in band or choir for four years in HS and was going to college as a music major. When I was a member of our elementary school PTA, I was able to get a $200 scholarship pledge for a senior student that had gone through that particular elementary, had a gpa over 3.0 AND did not have any other scholarships or grants. At the time, I had a senior in HS also, and saw the same kids getting numerous awards.</p>
<p>'10 Mom here who participated in our Community Scholarship review process this year (because I obviously can’t next year!) We do NOT provide duplicate scholarships. Next month, we will announce over $130,000 in small ($300-$1,500) scholarships to 102 award winners (about half of the applicants.) Our six award winners for the Booster (sports) Club are TRUE scholar athletes who will be attending Wake Forest, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz (2) and Mt. St. Mary’s College.</p>
<p>Check out this recent CC thread on SAT test prep:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/717296-report-rips-sat-prep-courses.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/717296-report-rips-sat-prep-courses.html</a></p>
<p>My experience based upon a son who just finished his freshman year of college:</p>
<p>For the self-motivated student there is no need to go through a prep course. My son studied on his own, couldn’t have done better, and met a girl at a summer program whose parents had paid big bucks for a private tutor. She had the same scores on the same SAT IIs and he said it was tremendously satisfying to know he had done it on his own. For a kid who isn’t self-disciplined, I can see where a test prep course would be of help assuming it is not a financial burden to the family. And even if the fees are a bit of a stretch, if the kid is going to a school with guaranteed merit aid for certain score/GPA combos, it could be cheaper in the long run to pay for the course if your kid has trouble studying on his or her own.</p>
<p>So far as scholarships go, I recommend having your kids pick up applications during the upcoming year so he or she can get an idea as to what the donors look for. Here, it seems to be standard for scholarships to require one or two recommendations, and a fair number want one from someone in the community. Many are limited to someone attending an in-state school. Community service is particularly prized when awarding scholarships. Participating in a wide variety of activities is also a huge plus. The principal has said the biggest scholarship winners are generally not the kids who have admission to the most “prestigious” schools. I agree with that. Many schools prefer students who have devoted themselves to a high level of achievement in one or two areas. Our local scholarship donors prefer kids who have devoted themselves to a wide variety of activities.</p>