<p>thanks Rodney…Phew…I think she can manage one main essay and then tweak it as needed. Writing is not her favorite thing!
SlitheyTove- love your idea! One year when she was a preteen and away at summer camp, one of the Harry Potter novels was released. The camp arranged for delivery during the night with someone dressed in costume. She is a huge HP fan and would react better to a howler than me!</p>
<p>kathieP - and everyone else - I see how challenging it is to schedule these visits!! What is tricky is that although the student can always apply sight-unseen and then go back and visit if accepted, as LOTS will do, there are many schools that note whether or not you visited/toured, etc. prior to the admissions process, and (in the words of several admissions officers) give you a “gold star” for having made the effort to trek to their campus, which is noted by admissions - not going to get you in or not, obviously, but it is a minor element. Very frustrating!</p>
<p>holliesue: The only thing is that with each college asking its own specific question on their supplements, the number can add up to a daunting total, even if they are short answers. My S waited until the fall to get started, and he was almost overwhelmed by the amount of writing. Especially since the colleges expect some degree of insight in the answers. I am hoping my D will get started as soon as the supplements start appearing this summer.</p>
<p>Why is it that our daughters seem to be more into this process than our sons?</p>
<p>Mu d is not at all into the process! She delegated the research to me! It is nice that she trusts me to come up with the list for her, but I wish she was a little more invested in the process. On the other hand, she is literally crumbling under the pressure of school and EC’s, so it is somewhat understandable that she has delegated to me. she does enjoy the school visits and is quite vocal about her opinions after the visit.
I will definitely keep in mind that she should begin this summer. Another thing I learned from CC! I never would have thought to have her begin that early.</p>
<p>I feel so fortunate that I started researching the college admissions process when my S was in 7th or 8th grade. CC was an early fave. Everything I read warned me to get my S started early. Thank goodness I listened and was able to convince him to listen. </p>
<p>Starting last August, after first spending some time figuring out what kind of school my S wanted (I had given him a checklist I created from the many on the Internet), we used the Internet to look at about 20 schools I had pre-selected from my research. We only looked at one a week so it wasn’t too time consuming. My S narrowed that list to 8 he wants to visit. </p>
<p>I’ve spent the last week playing travel agent. During a 3 day weekend in Feb that my S has off on a Friday, we will go up to Atlanta on a Thursday night after school and visit GA Tech on Friday. Over Spring Break in March, we will fly from Florida to Boston to visit WPI, Olin & MIT then fly to California to visit CalTech and HMC. Hopefully we’ll be able to share Passover with one of the Hillels in Boston. Good way to see the real thing. In the Fall, we’ll visit CMU and Rice on two separate long weekends with teacher workdays thus days off. Unless a new school of interest pops up, we’re covered. He’ll make second visits once he is accepted.</p>
<p>Re: SATs. We were fortunate to find a great tutor. My S started with her once a week during the first week of school. He feels very ready for the SAT next week and ACT in Feb.</p>
<p>Most of friends (almost all IB students) are starting to stress out b/c they have not started ‘the process’. They all have 3-7 AP exams in May too, math, science, robotics, debate competitions, and tons of ECs. My S has been convinced of the value of starting early. He told me he has already started thinking about what to write on his essays. He also said he wants to finish as much as he can over the summer. I think (pray) he has finally outgrown his procrastination tendencies.</p>
<p>FIMathMom- I am duly impressed and wish I had your planning and forethought! I thought I was doing good because I started looking at schools fall of her sophomore year. Everyone in her school thought I was nuts for starting so early!
I wish I had thought to get my D an SAT tutor. She insisted that she would study on her own. It has barely happened. I am curious to see how she does next SAturday. I am anticipating that I will need to get her into a course so that she has some structure to the prep.</p>
<p>HollieSue-Based on my experience and the experiences of many of my friend’s children, I suggest you use whatever money the SAT course costs and apply it to a one-on-one tutor. My S took the SAT in 7th and 8th grade and the ACT in 8th grade. All without prior studying. He therefore had a baseline understaning of what he needed to work on.</p>
<p>He knew he could and would study math on his own. He dreaded the other sections and we both knew he would procrastinate and not be able to effectively learn in a class. The tutor was able to teach him the skills he needed to bring his PSAT score way past NMF level for our state. She has done this with many other students.</p>
<p>FIMathMom-thanks for the suggestion. I don’t even know of any private SAT tutors around here. And I doubt our GC will be of any use. I’ll have to start investigating! My D is pretty much “writing off” the writing section. (yes, pun intended!) Her writing is not strong.On the PSAT she didn’t even get a 60 on it. Fortunately none of the schools that she is interested in applying to look at it for admission. She is fairly strong in Math (not stellar, but a 700 is probably in the ball park), so if she can get her CR score up she will be competitive for scholarships at the type of schools she wants to apply to (definitely NOT the top LAC’s).</p>
<p>I actually got the name of our tutor from one of the college counselors (not GC, the ones you pay privately). I asked for a few recommendations. Then I asked other parents of top students and kids who go to private school in our area. Last I asked the GCs at a few of the private schools. The same names kept popping up over and over. I interviewed one, liked her, had my S go once and he gave the thumbs up. You could also ask the head of the English Dept at your child’s school. BTW 700 IS stellar. No need to sound apologetic. As you know, helping your child find the right fit is the key to this process.</p>
<p>We don’t have any college counselors in our area! (or private schools for that matter!) But I will do some detective work and see if I can track SAT tutor down. Thanks for the idea!</p>
<p>If you’re near enough to SUNY Binghamton (or any other college) you can ask around for a colege student SAT tutor.</p>
<p>HollieSue - I just tried “Binghamton SAT tutor” in an Internet search engine and came up with a few possibilities. This is not as good as getting a personal referral, but you can get references from the tutor to call.</p>
<p>BTW - my sister graduated SUNY Binghamton in 79. I graduated Albany in 76.</p>
<p>Thanks FIMathMom. I live outside Binghamton, but commute there for work. I will follow up!
I graduated from Albany in 82!!</p>
<p>Small world, my next door neighbors are both Binghamton SUNY grads!</p>
<p>I think my son will do better with group tutoring just because the teacher that is doing it is a favorite. While a personal tutor might be good for some kids I’m not sure that it’s true for everyone, depends on the kid and the teacher. </p>
<p>As for a college counselor, I think that can also be hit or miss. Read a bunch on this site, investigate other sites, buy a few books and visit the colleges. I can’t imagine turning this over to someone else. The college search can be overwhelming, especially with your first child but it’s not brain surgery, it’s common sense and research and a little bit of gut instinct. Oh, and remembering that it’s the kid on the couch that’s going to college - not you and not some imaginary kid. </p>
<p>It’s easy for me to get caught up in all of the possibilities and forget the priorities - the major, the cost and the chance of acceptance.</p>
<p>Definitely not using a college counselor! I am enjoying doing this with my D.</p>
<p>Kathiep - My sister lives in Lititz. Are you near there?</p>
<p>Lititz is about an hour away, but not too far from my SIL!</p>
<p>I agree with you both. My S and I have gotten very close as he has gone on his college admissions journey. I can’t imagine turning it over to anyone else. These are my last 18 months with my only child and I love every minute of them even when he drives me crazy!</p>
<p>I second the private SAT tutor suggestion, if you can swing it financially. A private tutor can tailor the prep to the particular areas your student needs, which is really great. My son was scoring great on the math sections, but struggled with the essay, so his tutor spent a lot of time with him on the writing section. In a group class he would have had to to sit through lessons covering math concepts he already knew cold.</p>
<p>The SAT prep class given at our HS offers the option of doing math or reading and essay’s or both so if you are good in one you don’t have to sit through the other. From what I understand, the math is not as much about knowing the math but becoming familiar with the way the SAT questions are asked. If you look at the Xiggi prep method, <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice.html</a> much of the instruction is about the mechanics of the test and not the content. </p>
<p>For my son, part of the reason for a class is that he tends to tense up during the big tests and over think the problems. By being in a group, I hope that he will just plain be more comfortable and used to the problems by the time the test date rolls around. We actually had a private tutor early last fall and our son would do fine here at home working on problems, but did not do well on the Dec. SAT and I think part of it is that it was just too casual and comfortable here. That may sound silly, but son was willing to go the class route this time so we’ll see if anything changes.</p>