<p>We are doing college visits next week - spending most of the day of University of Missouri on Monday (to cover both the general college tour in the morning and the separate journalism college tour in the afternoon) and heading over to Kirksville Monday evening for a visit to Truman State on Tuesday (to give S an opportunity to check out a smaller school). I don’t think the smaller school is going to appeal to him, but you never know, and there are aspects of that school that I think may click. Seeing either school during the summer is not ideal, but I made it a point to schedule both visits when summer classes were in session so we wouldn’t be seeing deserted campuses. A visit during the regular school year is just not practical with his schedule. I will let you know what we find. The nice thing about Mizzou (for us) is that they focus on ACT scores, so even with his far less-than-stellar grades, S is an auto admit to their journalism school, which is very intriguing.</p>
<p>My nephew graduated from Mizzou in journalism and is doing well in that most difficult field. He had great internships at ESPN in the summers and got a job out of college. As I understand it there is a “Mizzou Mafia” through which many connections are made and grads are able to get jobs. Good luck to your S.</p>
<p>Mizou’s Journalism school is top notch, which is more important than ever given the financial difficulties of the print media. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Yay! The report card is finally in! My S has a solid B average this semester, the A in math counter balancing the C+ in science. Everything else was a B, except for A’s in music and advisory. I’m so proud of him. He really worked hard at the end of the semester and it showed in his grades! There is hope for him yet!</p>
<p>Has any one checked out parchment.com? You log in all the info about your child (GPA SATs ECs), choose schools and it rates the chances of your child getting in. I was up until midnight playing with it. It gives DS a 9% chance of getting in to Union, but he loves it so much we are going to apply any way, it will be his REEAACCH.</p>
<p>They sure want a lot of info and I found the privacy settings (i.e., No, do not release info to colleges, please) a bit wearisome. And it looked like the data it had on colleges was fairly old, like 2008-2009. Fun idea, though, but I’m guessing Naviance is way more reliable, if your high school has it.</p>
<p>My son’s HS has Naviance but it is a small HS with little data on the small LACs. 1 student applied to Hamilton in the past 5 years, based on that students stat I thought DS had a shot but after more research and discussion on this thread it is a totally unrealistic option. It’s hard to find reliable data on the small LACs outside your region.</p>
<p>I actually used “college data” site last year for D and it was actually pretty close. Now it does depend on self reporting but still… My first choice is googling the common data set for a school and looking at section C though.</p>
<p>I like looking at the CDS too. The Duckling is definitely applying to Rochester Institute of Technology, and I found a form on their site that breaks down test scores for each college (Engineering, Business, Art, etc). She is very solid in the Arts (where she wants to be), but much less so if she was planning on going to Engineering. I wish all universities did this! I guess it’s because you direct admit into the desired program.</p>
<p>On my spreadsheet, I list her chances according to Supersearch and Princeton Review. Princeton Review is generally more pessimistic. I’ve also looked at College Data. We do not have Naviance.</p>
<p>I use the GPA that is on her transcript, which is weighted, but not nearly as much as some schools do. I noticed her ACT report somehow calculated her GPA, and it’s really low - I hope schools don’t look at that!</p>
<p>NPR mom, that’s fantastic! Good for your son! </p>
<p>I was rejoicing too, because my daughter pulled off a “B” in US History. This was a class that we thought she may have to retake this summer, so a huge celebration here :).</p>
<p>We use college data site too. It was very accurate with my older son’s schools since it used the current common data sets. </p>
<p>I forgot that I wanted to mention something that happened to my daughter. We found an error on her transcript and she spoke up and had it fixed (had to turn in a form with her teacher to the registrar). Anyway, we are now shocked to find out that there’s now a new error! They put in a final grade of a C for English, but it’s a C+. Seems like a small issue, buuuutttt, for my daughter it’s the difference btw. a 3.1 GPA and a 3.09! Just wanted to mention this since we all tend to just assume the the transcript is correct. Calculate, calculate, calculate and be sure that everything is correct. This happened at my son’s school as well —there are mistakes made sometimes and it can happen at any school.</p>
<p>jkiwmom - that’s good to know about the college data site. I was unaware that they used the CDS.</p>
<p>Rubytuesday - My son also has Hamilton on his list. There was one acceptance on Naviance from his school. My son has a higher test schore but his gpa was eclipsed…lol. He’ll still apply though. We’ll just think of it as his Harvard :)</p>
<p>I think his list is finalized at 17. He has 4 safeties, 2 super reaches, and 2 lesser reaches. The rest seem like fairly good matches. Some he might not apply to depending on how his early applications turn out. It’s a lot but he will need a lot of financial aid. I’m just nervous about what his gc will have to say…</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip on college data site-I did not know about it.
Any advice on taking the SAT IIs? DS’s GC said he should take the SATs for a second time even though he received good scores (better than his GPA would indicate) but about the SAT IIs? Are they necessary/helpful? He isn’t applying to any Ivys, his reaches are Union, Dickinson, Gettysburg.
Oh jkiwmom we found a mistake on my sons report card too B- instead of a B in Spanish, can’t be fixed until Fall.</p>
<p>This might be helpful: [Compass:</a> Admissions Requirements](<a href=“SAT Subject Test Requirements and Recommendations - Compass Education Group”>SAT Subject Test Requirements and Recommendations - Compass Education Group) FWIW, my two oldest did not take them. DS#1 only applied to one that even “considered” them (not even recommended), and DS#2 didn’t apply to any where they mattered. (DS#1 ended up at a CTCL school; DS#2 is at a very good OOS public.)</p>
<p>D took her an SAT II in Bio just after she finished the class in 10th grade (her idiot GC said she should wait until senior year to take any SAT II’s- yeah like she would remember the material two years later. :rolleyes: ) When we saw her junior grades we knew that most colleges that required SAT II’s were out of the question so she never took another- but we don’t regret that she had that one under her belt (and she got a good score so had she needed it- it was there for her).</p>
<p>Most schools that require Subject tests waive that if the ACT is taken. There are a few that don’t though. Williams is one I remember off the top of my head because it’s an LAC with a fairly large selection of CS courses. I had originally planned on having my son take some subject tests but then he scored ok on the ACT, similar to his SAT score. Any schools that would still require subject tests were stratospheric reaches so I figured why bother with the aggravation of another test to study for (even though I’d already paid for them). S was through with testing, happy with his scores, and I couldn’t really justify pushing him to take more.</p>
<p>I AM smiling!</p>
<p>Ruby, don’t be discouraged from applying to a school that your child loves! The stats are just summaries of what has happened in the past. There are always expections and acceptance at any given school, especially selective ones, can be completely random.</p>
<p>My favorite acceptance story was told to me by a friend, as I remember it: a young woman had her heart set on Bucknell-the only school she visited that she would even tour. (She rejected others on sight.) The girl applied ED to some special program and was rejected, not even deferred. She was heartbroken and decided to call admissions to let them know that theirs was the only school she wanted to attend. The school found an error in her application (that the small program was erroneously marked as full) and accepted her on the spot.</p>
<p>The moral of the story, IMHO, communicate your true wishes! It can’t hurt and may help. Schools want students who REALLY want them. Remember my daughter’s 11 visits!</p>
<p>Also folks, I wanted to mention:</p>
<p>I recently re-read a chapter in Loren Pope’s book, “Colleges That Change Lives,” called (I love this):</p>
<p>TODAY’S “LEARNING DIABLED” WILL BE TOMORROW’S GIFTED AND THE SAT’S OBSOLESCENCE</p>
<p>It’s SO reassuring, especially to the parent of a male child. </p>
<p>My son will not retake the SAT!</p>
<p>The only SAT II’s our kids are planning on taking are ones that test out of required non-major courses at just a couple schools on their list. One school uses the SAT II for placement into foreign language classes and if DS gets into that school and decides to attend that school (aka-gives him huge money to go :D), he will take the SAT II for that in the spring, senior year (next year). Most of the schools they are considering don’t do anything with the SAT II’s so it’s not worth taking them.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice on the SAT IIs, I think it’s a little late in the game to take them, I’d rather have him focus on his applications. I feel like such an amateur at this and his GC is useless.</p>
<p>Best admission story I’ve heard lately is about a girl who got a free ride at Syracuse because she played the tuba (the band needed a tuba player).</p>
<p>@Rubytuesday2, I know of a girl with a similar story: full ride at Hopkins because they needed a tuba player in the marching band. Of course, she was also very intelligent and more than qualified enough to get into JHU, but it’s still a fun story!</p>