<p>kathiep-my D took the World HIstory exam last year, did fair, but we have decided not to apply to schools that require the subject tests. Quite a relief for her not to have to take any more of them! Just waiting to see how she does on the SAT, if necessary will retake and consider taking ACT</p>
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<p>In our area most people take the SAT, starting with the PSAT in soph or jr year. The ACT is catching up in popularity here but since we had more experience with how to prep for and take the SAT, my kids decided to start with that and then give the ACT a try of necessary. D1 took the SAT once and was done, D2 took it twice and was satisfied and didn’t want to spend the time learning another test. They both started sitting Subject tests as soon as they had relevant AP courses, which has made them relatively painless.</p>
<p>My laugh for the day: I was looking for the profile used by a local private school that does a stellar job of placing students at colleges. There was info on the junior year spring break trips to go look at colleges. Over the course of a week, the kids see 15 schools. Actually, that’s really over the course of 5.5 days once you account for traffic. My favorite is the first day: Harvard, Tufts, MIT and Northeastern. Those poor kids!</p>
<p>We are just not going to have the opportunity to visit any schools before summer; long weekends are booked with theater/crew and other school commitments and spring break will be spent on a school-sponsored trip to Italy. I would love to have my D be able to see schools in session, but that’s not going to happen. There will probably be time in early fall to do some visits, but not many, and would have loved to have gotten that done sooner to narrow the application field.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove wrote: <My laugh for the day: I was looking for the profile used by a local private school that does a stellar job of placing students at colleges. There was info on the junior year spring break trips to go look at colleges. Over the course of a week, the kids see 15 schools. Actually, that’s really over the course of 5.5 days once you account for traffic. My favorite is the first day: Harvard, Tufts, MIT and Northeastern. Those poor kids! <</p>
<p>I have no idea how they do that. Sure Harvard and MIT are within walking distance, but you have to drive to Tufts and Northeastern. And don’t most campus tours take a couple of hours and then you have a short intro by an admin? That is crazy, we are thinking we could do 2 schools a day that are near each other.</p>
<p>How on earth do they see those 4 schoools in one day–perhaps privately scheduled tours?</p>
<p>Plus aren’t the kids exhausted/missing stuff</p>
<p>We did
Mon BU-- using the T
Tue Holy Cross and BC in afternoon (rented a car for 1 day at Copely Sq)
Wed Dartmouth (RT bus from Boston–easy)
Thu MIT
Fri Tufts am then Harvard pm (used the T)</p>
<p>Just the time getting around Boston–Tufts is past Harvard ont he same T line --but you need a bus transfer or a bit of a walk) Harvard to MIT can be done by bus or T Northeastern is on the other side of the Charles --closer to BU than the other schools…</p>
<p>Slithey, my S1 did that same exact trip or one nearly identical and I was relieved that it was the GCs that were shuttling him around and not me. Just avoiding the drama of navigating campuses and driving around strange cities was a blessing to this always-a-little-lost mom! His HS group had charter buses, private tours arranged at each school to fit their schedule, GCs to help them go over what they had just heard, and parties with HS alums in each city–and I think they did about 2-3 schools per day. Still, it gave them a taste of the east coast (we’re from the west), a sense of small vs. large, urban vs. rural, LAC vs. larger U, etc. </p>
<p>Some kids might have discovered a school’s forte in a particular major or program, or looking around at the kids on campus, picked up a vibe. I’m not sure. My own S got the feeling there are a LOT of schools out there (LOL) and he could be happy at just about any one of them. He’s pretty independent, adaptable and self-driven so after realizing that, it was mostly about the architecture.</p>
<p>My junior S2 is also going to take the HS spring college tour but is doing an equally crazy week in the midwest. If he comes home as open-minded (or was that bleary?) as the first, it may be worth it.</p>
<p>D had rocky sophomore year and this junior fall term but recently, I would say after school introduced the Naviance to junior, she seems more aggressive about improving the grade and start looking for colleges. Still has no idea about what to major but we will not push her, just give her some suggestions about the “real world”.</p>
<p>She took the Jan SAT as first time but already registered for March. She took the test at a private school near our town. It was held at the gym, as she said, lot of people there. During the test, there were bunch of boys came in and started play basketball ! The basketball game continued for a while, almost half of the session, until some kids who took the test complained about it.</p>
<p>That’s terrible, flyinglandbird, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s against CollegeBoard procedure.</p>
<p>I meant to say 5.5 days after you account for travel time from the west coast. </p>
<p>madbean, that’s exactly the type of trip this is: charter bus, private tours/info sessions, etc. It’s a tradeoff: you can do a mad dash that gives flavor for a large number of schools, important when it’s a group of kids with varying stats and interests. Or, you can do something slower and far more targeted to just one kid, but only seeing 1-2 schools a day. </p>
<p>This may be the only time I’ve ever wished that spring break wasn’t during Passover! :)</p>
<p>Slithey–wonder if it’s the same school!! </p>
<p>It is a mad dash–and I like your spin-- The Taste of College Tour. </p>
<p>I’m always a little conflicted about touring colleges, to be honest. Fate can lend a hand–or not. One great tour guide and the college may look amazing. One poor tour guide and the college goes to the bottom of the heap. It’s emotional. </p>
<p>It seems worthwhile to get our kids to begin thinking about broad categories of universities, and to perhaps rule in or out ones that seem high on their lists (for example, my S1 had NYU as a top pick pre-tour, but upon standing in Washington Square (is that it?) and seeing all of unwashed Manhattan walking by, he changed his mind. Of course, for another student, all that is exactly what makes the school attractive. </p>
<p>The campus visit is important and we ended up visiting his final choices post-admissions letters when it was all very real and he was a year older and wiser. Those visits, btw, are a whole different story with the university rolling out the red carpet and the student knowing they are wanted.</p>
<p>CIA - And one of the parent said she will report it to CB.</p>
<p>I can’t even imagine how distracting that would be, so I’m glad one of the parent’s are reporting it.</p>
<p>So tom is the day for Jan scores…</p>
<p>You could certainly do Harvard and MIT in one day. If they lined up private tours, so that you only needed about 90 minutes per school, I think you could fit in all four. Harvard to Tufts is a very short drive. Harvard to MIT is walking distance. MIT to Northeastern is about 10 minutes drive.</p>
<p>Testing:
At our school, typically, kids take the SAT on March 13, then again in the fall if necessary. Sometimes a few take the ACT if their SAT scores in March are not what they want.
At a friend’s school, all juniors take the SAT in Jan. and the ACT in Feb. They find that about 1/3 do best on SAT, 1/3 on ACT and 1/3 can go either way.
Most of you all should have PSAT scores in hand - if those are in the right ballpark, stick with the SAT, I’d say.
Remember that you can do SAT subject tests on lots of dates.</p>
<p>Well another day off of school tomorrow making it over a week since we’ve had any school and over 2 weeks since we’ve had a full day.</p>
<p>I am a bit concerned about how far behind we’re going to be in our AP classes, but I am enjoying the mini-winter vacation.</p>
<p>S’s school decided yesterday to close today in anticipation of the big storm forcasted in the Boston area. A lot of boys travel over an hour to get to his school so I appreciate why they closed. But wouldn’t you know it the storm was a bust and the school closing was a waste.</p>
<p>Many moons ago when I was in school…
One yr–I recall we went to the end of June–and 4th of July was on the following weekend because we had so many snow days…</p>
<p>on the flip side there are areas of the south that have hurricane days in the schedule instead of snow days to make up for damaged buildings, lost power, water damage etc</p>
<p>Well our student will be retaking the SAT in May/June along with the sub tests…
no miracle in pulling off a killer score on the first and only run at it…</p>