<p>As the parent of 2 girls (motivated to do well in school) and 1 boy (not as motivated), Juana’s S sounds like a lot of the boys I know. I see it among S and his friends. Mine has one EC and is starting to wake up to the fact that he needs to keep pushing with grades. Don’t know about language immersion, but S has applied to a summer pre-college program which I think will help him with experience living in a dorm, eating in a cafeteria, going to classes on a college campus. I don’t think it means they won’t be ready for college; they may not get in everywhere they apply, but the boys I know will end up somewhere and for the most part, be fine.</p>
<p>dignified1 (post 1087) - you nailed it. D is a very smart kid, has done well so far on the academic front and with her ECs. She did well on the SAT on her first try, but is certainly capable of more. She knows it and she’s the one who wanted to do it again. But I don’t her see prepping for the test - at least, not the way I’d like her to.</p>
<p>She has high goals/expectations for herself and I’d like her to have the choice of colleges that she could get. Shouldn’t have any regrets - if only, I had done a bit better, scored a bit higher… I give her the same talk even with sports - leave it all out there on the court - the outcome of the game is out of your hands, but you need to be happy/satisfied with your effort.</p>
<p>She had a crazy day Saturday (volunteering all day) despite feeling a bit under the weather - and then was really feeling sick yesterday. She did do the rest of the homework and other must-do work, but I don’t think she got to take a practice test like she has planned. Oh well. Frustrating for us to watch, but it is her life - we’ve got to let her live it, make the mistakes (hopefully, nothing too major!).</p>
<p>Thank you mamom. I guess I could have found that myself with a little snooping; thank you for saving me the trouble. I am so glad to have found the CC community…what a great resource.</p>
<p>A friend of mine handled her not quite ready sons brilliantly</p>
<p>When her sons were finishing hs–they went to a cc nearby and lived at home. They had to have a part time job as part of the deal.
Many of her sons’ friends didn’t do well in college away from hom e(too much partying and poor academics) and ended up coming back.</p>
<p>Her sons grew in maturity and saw the difference. They learned responsibility, budgeting and many skills to be on their own… etc.
The last 2 yrs of college they went away, much more mature and ready for the launch.</p>
<p>It saved her alot of money and troubles and the boys saw themsleves how much they grew in comparision to their friends.</p>
<p>She said initially when her sons’ friends were all leaving for colleges away from home, she felt “like the bad mom” because her boys were staying home, however her intiution and budget friendly choices proved her right…</p>
<p>I dont think this in gender specific, I myself made lots of poor choices the first 3 semesters at college …the freedom to choose, and all of the “fun” everyone was having (almost 30 yrs ago) etc… yeah, girsl make those bad decisions too…thankfully I grew out of it ((:o))</p>
<p>Our HS recommends taking SAT and ACT tests twice each. I understand the logic behind this recommendation. But lets say a kid gets a perfect (or near perfect) score on his first SAT test, is there any reason for him/her to take ACT? Do you know of any well known universities/LACs that take only ACT score? Any scholarships or awards that this kid will not be eligible for?</p>
<p>fogfog - I agree. Not necessarily gender specific. Thank goodness my college was optional P/F the first two semesters and I chose that option. I made loads of poor choices and less than great decisions freshman year that did not harm my grades. My sophomore year I settled down and learned how to balance fun and schoolwork.</p>
<p>keylimepie-I don’t think there is a general rule regarding which test to take and how many times to take it. I think it depends on the schools you are applying to (I believe most don’t care which you take) and the score you are striving to achieve. My S took both. He is satisfied with his ACT score so he is not planning to take it again, but want to see if he can improve 2 of 3 sections on his SAT score so he will take it again. The admissions section of each school’s website usually addresses this. Maybe there is even a site that summarizes the test requirements and average scores for every school. Anyone know??</p>
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<p>I don’t know of one site that has all the schools info collated, but if you google “common data set” for a particular school you can usually find the middle 50% SAT scores and the the % of admitted students in the top 10% of their graduating class and their ave GPA.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. All the schools that are currently on Ss list take either test, and some prefer SAT, but the list can change. I don’t want to have my S take unnecessary tests, but don’t want to close any doors either. Right now, this is purely theoretical; he doesnt have a (near) perfect score. I just wanted to hear, if anyone knows of any drawbacks of not taking ACT.</p>
<p>keylimepie,
My S will not be taking the ACT. It is not common here and I know of no kids who will be takingit. We talked about having him take it just to see, but decided against it because of scheduling issues. If your S is happy with his SAT scores, they are good enough for him to get into the schools he is interested in and they are good enough for any merit aid he hopes to be offered then he is done.</p>
<p>keylimepie,
No need to take the ACT. A near perfect score on the SAT is enough. I’d also caution against taking either test twice if the first score is high enough. Most colleges will insist on seeing all scores and why have the extra stress? My D insisted on taking the SAT a second time even though she scored 2240 on the first try. We went through a month of stress in which she didn’t have time to study for the 2nd SAT, but refused to let me reschedule it. Result? A 2250! Was it worth it? Your quess is as good as mine.</p>
<p>collegeboard.com has the middle 50% of SAT scores for the universities and colleges they list. And they also have the the middle 50 % for ACT for the most part too.</p>
<p>dignified1: If my D scores that on her first try, there would be no way she would do it again. Actually, we gave her a goal: If she beats her brother’s score for the SAT then she can stop. No more SAT or ACTs.</p>
<p>mamom, can you clarify your comment that if you take the ACT with writing you do not need to take the subject tests (SAT 2)? Yesterday D2 (2011) came home from her first meeting with the college counselor frustrated that she’d been preparing for the SAT because she was told what you wrote–were she taking the ACT, she wouldn’t need to take the subject tests. We’re in CA where the SAT is much more common but this is my second time round and I think I’m fairly well informed but this was news to me!</p>
<p>I checked the UC Davis site and it appears to not be correct; I interepret what I read on their site that either the SAT or the ACT AND two subject tests. I checked on three other schools on her list (all private) but none require subject tests so that didn’t help me determine what the bottom line is…D has dyslexia and these tests are very tough for her! She’s been studying really hard for the SAT and she’s hoping the studying will have paid off but she’ll be just as anxious about the SAT 2s…studying for the ACT from the outset would have made much more sense for her if it meant she wouldn’t need the subject tests.</p>
<p>On another note, D2 and I took a 7 schools-in-5-days college visit back east over her Feb break and had a great time. Really helped D start to narrow down what she’d like in a school. She saw Lehigh, Bucknell, Elon, Boston College, Northeastern, GW and American. If anyone has any questions about our experience, feel free to ask.</p>
<p>collage1, I can’t say I’ve done much of a survey on this question, but I have started looking at a few college sites (to try to get a little knowledgeable for when my son decides he’s ready to think about colleges), and there seems to be a range of policies. The UC’s, as you note, require either the SAT or the ACT, plus two SAT subject tests. Same for UVa, Columbia and Carnegie Mellon. Harvard requires either SAT or ACT, plus three SAT subject tests. Amherst requires either the SAT plus two SAT subject tests OR the ACT. University of Chicago just requires SAT or ACT, with no subject tests either way. This may be a completely unrepresentative sampling - I’m sure others here would know better than I do - but it does seem that even if your D were to take the ACT, the likelihood is that she would have to take a couple of SAT subject tests anyway.</p>
<p>P.S., just noticed the list of visited schools in your post, so I checked those sites and found that none of your listed schools except BC requires subject tests regardless of whether you take SAT or ACT. BC requires two subject tests if you take the SAT, but not if you take the ACT. So I guess it really depends on your college list. (Of course, my son hasn’t started a college list, so that makes it a little harder.)</p>
<p>wow nynyparent–thank you! I looked up a few before posting and neither required them (SAT 2s) but I wasn’t up for checking her whole list (includes some that we didn’t visit on this last trip). Do you know of a quicker source than checking each school’s website? I know this will reduce d’s anxiety, though, knowing that if she doesn’t do as well as she’d like, many of her top choices don’t even require them anyway.</p>
<p>Collage - If you google, “colleges that require SAT subject tests” you’ll find some helpful sites. Here’s one - <a href=“http://www.highereducationstation.org/articles/2008/2008_09_SAT_II_Subject_Tests.pdf[/url]”>http://www.highereducationstation.org/articles/2008/2008_09_SAT_II_Subject_Tests.pdf</a> None of the colleges on my son’s list require them. I had him take the US History test last year when he was a sophomore just because he was already taking AP US History and I heard that lines up well with the SAT II, but after seeing that he was not going to be an a straight A student, I realized another test would be pointless. I’m not saying that to put him down, but the colleges that require the SAT II tests are just out of his ballpark. He was happy to not do any more!</p>
<p>collage1. So sorry for confusion! S researched several schools, like BC, and found that if he took the ACT he didn’t have to take SAT2’s. I assumed that was common practice. My S will/has taken SAT 2’s because he took them right after he finished USH and Chem last year.</p>
<p>I am sorry our student didn’t take the SAT2 for Bio when finishing Bio Honors–because the teacehr had been the AP bio teacher and was a tough cookie…would have done well and had one done…</p>
<p>FWIW
alot of the schools on our kiddo’s list require the math 2 for engineering…and another science…it may depend on majors…even rather than by university…however I am not sure about that.</p>
<p>Does it matter when you take the tests (SAT I & II) ? I knew colleges will not accept any scores before 9th grade but how I read from other thread, Carnegie Mellon will only accept test scores in junior or senior years. Is that true? Any Carnegie Mellon parents or students here ?</p>
<p>Well my S is interested in CMU and I haven’t seen anything on their web site that states tests must be taken in jr and sr years. S took two SAT 2 tests last year right after he finished the class, which I thought was what was usually recommended. He willprobably take another two SAT2 tests this year so I suppose it doesn’t matter for my S but I would be interested in others responses.</p>
<p>My S was accepted into CMU’s CS program as a junior, so all his AP tests and subject tests were from soph year. His SAT scores were also from soph year. He retook them in jr year, but they were sent after applications went in.</p>