<p>Were checking out Southern California schools that weekend.</p>
<p>I havenât planned any visits for Presidents weekend. I was just thinking about trying to find one to visit within driving distance for Monday. </p>
<p>At this point D has a good list but is sorely lacking in stat schools. So that is her HW. I told her she needs 2 NY state schools and one other out of state school on her list. It appears that we will be full freight so those state schools really become quite a bargain.</p>
<p>So apparently my D took the AIME test yesterday. Her teacher âstrongly suggestedâ that the whole class take it. Doesnât sound like it was particularly fun or successful. Guess they needed to make sure they had kids for the left side of the bell curve.</p>
<p>MomofNEAâfor HIGHLY selective schools, not visiting can be considered âlack of interestâ if you live within reasonable driving distance. If is a long trip, they would expect you to visit a college fair or school presentation in your area.</p>
<p>We have a couple visits scheduled over Presidentâs Day weekend. We need to get them in when we can. My goal is to have all of their applications in by the end of October if possible. They have such a busy fall so we will see. A couple places they will probably apply have rolling admissions so we will try to get those done as early as possible. Summer visits are limited too because of their schedules.</p>
<p>WowâŠeven in my sonâs magnet school, they donât offer any of the math competition tests. Never heard of them until I joined CC. The only science fair that gets any play is the local district wide one and perhaps the PA Junior Academy of Science if they do well at the local contest. Iâd never heard of Siemens and all those other contests until I joined CC and never in a million years imagined a sizeable amount of kids doing research in real laboratories outside of a sponsored summer program. Sometimes I do have to remind myself that most kids arent doing these things.</p>
<p>I donât drive so there is no way that I and my son could visit many schools. Between bus/train fare, hotel accomodations, and time away from work/school, even instate school visits arenât very feasable for us financially. For many people, visits just arenât doable. Colleges know this. There are other ways to show interest besides visiting.</p>
<p>We are probably going to hold off visiting colleges until the end of the semester, when we will have a better sense of which schools would be right for him. He is taking a very rigorous courseload with a lot of core science and math subjects. If he gets a 3.7 or higher this semester, it might be worth looking at the highly competitive schools. Otherwise, a less competitive class of schools.</p>
<p>My daughter also took some kind of math competitions a few days ago, maybe AMC. Not sure whatâs the difference between AIME and AMC. She told me these things so I could write down on her list. D1 forgot everything she did in high school so when it came time to fill out the application we left a lot of things out.
School visits have to wait until summer, hopefully she will get into one of her summer programs and that would help her narrow down college choices for EA, ED, etcâŠ</p>
<p>I read this study a few years ago, and was just thinking about it today. It is from 2005 and reviews how UC Berkeley goes about their admissions process. I found it fascinating, it gives a peak of how they go about analyzing the application <a href=âhttp://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/05/16_houtreport.pdf[/url]â>http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/05/16_houtreport.pdf</a></p>
<p>tx5athomeâI got a âURL not foundâ message from that link. Do you have another link?</p>
<p>Sorry!! Try this and then click on the link on the bottom. [05.16.2005</a> - UC Berkeley releases new report on freshman admissions](<a href=âhttp://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/05/16_hout.shtml]05.16.2005â>05.16.2005 - UC Berkeley releases new report on freshman admissions) and I redid the link on my previous post so hopefully it works.</p>
<p>Yesterday was the AMC-12. Our school doesnât prepare the kids at all except give them a few sample problems the week before to look over. She answered less than half the questions, so does not expect to do very well. I think if she spent more time preparing, a better score would be possible. DrGoogle, I would not have thought to list it on her applications. Is there any value to list on applications merely that she took it?</p>
<p>tx5athomeâwe could have saved him the time and effort and just posted a link to this site :). That pretty much confirms what we have been told by everyone, meet the entrance requirements (grades, test scores, classes) and you get in providing there is room. Obviously when you get 40,000 applicants for 2000 spots, all of the âextrasâ matter.</p>
<p>MomofNEA - I donât think my son is really engaged either. </p>
<p>Of course, I am a very long term planner and he is spontaneous. He does have a lot going on with ECs too. I enjoy the college planning. We (yes really we) decided Iâd give him a âbigâ list based upon his criteria and what may be affordable (after merit/FA). Heâd narrow it down by end of June (after knowing GPA). He really has little interest in digging deep enough on the financial end. The GPA to retain the merit is a high priority for me. Not even a consideration for him.</p>
<p>Visits would need to be in summer for schools that are close and want to see the love. But, given he doesnât want to stay close, we could be doing no visits. Iâve heard from various sources, close is considered a 1 day drive, no overnight. So Iâd think 5 hour one way max.</p>
<p>If I were him, to max the FA/merit game, Iâd apply to 10-15 schools. Heâll apply to as little as possible - maybe 3 schools total if he qualifies for a Bama scholarship. Honestly, if Bama were smaller it would meet 95% of what he wants. If he overcomes the size issue this summer, he may be a one and done kid.</p>
<p>So that was what they took. DD came home yesterday and said she took the âsmart peopleâ math test today. Do our kids learn to select words based on how I talk to them? I guess every family has code talk. </p>
<p>She did say there was a place for our address and a box to check if you DONâT want mail. This is all so surprising. I know College Board and ACT sells the lists, but the AMC or AIME or whatever company sells the lists of names and addresses, too?</p>
<p>She said if she got at least 60 out of 150, the teacher gives them a 100% on one assignment in the grade book. </p>
<p>Without CC, I would not have known what she was talking about.</p>
<p>Longhaul: What the big schools will tell you, which we have found to be true, is that you can make a big school small, but you canât make a small school big.</p>
<p>mncollegemom: What I found interesting, was towards the back of the 76 page document, it detailed how various activities are looked at and it gave some insights into what they are looking for in the essays.</p>
<p>mamabear, some schools might ask for the AMC score. I think she is also part of math club?? Sheâll decide later to list it or not in the application but at least she has this in her activities list.</p>
<p>DrG â I donât believe your D would reference the AMC at all on applications unless she was at least the schoolâs high scorer. Of course, Math Club could be listed as an extracurricular.</p>
<p>76 pages? Uh, is there an executive summary? ;)</p>
<p>Geminimom, some of the math summer programs asks for the AMC score. She will list them, if she gets in that is great, if not that is ok too. Apparently, her teacher told her she is in the top 5, whatever it means.</p>