<p>Welcome aboard to all of the new posters. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome and appreciated. As stated by glido, the fun will begin very soon. Then the countdowns and the waiting. It will be quite a year. :)</p>
<p>Just a reminder -</p>
<p>Tomorrow, December 28th, is the regular fee deadline for registering for the January 26th SAT. The late registration deadline is January 11th.</p>
<p>Momfromme - McGill sounds great - real international feel, I understand. NM should open up a lot of doors for safeties with merit money, but your son will have to look closely to find the best fit for him. Does he like the state flagship? Thatâll be by DSâ14âs financial safety.</p>
<p>Itâs school break so we are trying to get caught up. DS is supposed to fill out Naviance survey over the break and he canât even get through it. It seems to frustrate him since he feels he doesnât know what he wants to do, doesnât have a list of colleges he wants to apply to, etc. He compares himself to his closest friends who are seniors waiting to hear back from colleges and feels he is âlike a babyâ compared to them. He is envious of the kids who know what they want to major in and where they want to go. I feel for him and on the one hand know that many of these kids will change their minds and have been explaining this to him, but on the other hand having some idea of interests might help.
At the same time we have had a discussion where it seems he is looking at a vocation from the perspective that it must be vital to human life (medicine) versus something like music ( which he loves and is good at , btw) that he thinks may be more of an enhancement than âvitalâ for human life. (BTW it is vital for his life but I think he is looking at what others will think) Believe me I challenged him on this one, but at the same time i was struck at his conflict and how overly strict his parameters seemed. His concerns are not based on monetary gain but more of helping others in their basic needs. We discussed how we canât all be plumbers, doctors and sanitation engineers but then our conversation was interrupted.
Sorry for going on, but heâs a bright kid who has many interests and is already getting frustrated with the college talk. I donât want to push it, but how do I promote him starting to articulate his interests and do some self-eval so he doesnât just have to answer âI have no ideaâ to his GC?</p>
<p>TinnyT - When S2 applied to schools I happened to have three very close gfâs with kids the same age all applying to schools of similar calibre. The kids had all started school together at 5yo and three would be graduating form the same hs. We found a very natural way to navigate conversations about college applications, visits, SAT study frustrations, etc., without becoming competitive, talking about GPAs or scores much (if ever really). They were all very different students and had varying results in admissions. If your mom has been friends with these women for a long time it is doubtful this is the only thing they discuss, and if they do they are adults and understand GPAs and SATs are simply institutional measures. They are not the end all of a persons valueâŠfar from it!! The things I am most proud of in my kids have squat to do with numbers, tests and data. I will say, get a group of parents together to talk about college admissions and 99% of the time they are not talking about their kids specifically. They are talking about frustrations with the overall process, financial aid (or lack thereof), etc. Itâs far more likely that your mom and her friends are talking about it in far more global terms as opposed to specific personal terms. Finally, I highly doubt your mom has any reason whatsoever to be disappointed in you. Take that worry off your shoulders and donât go there again!</p>
<p>mrspepper â our school uses Naviance but so far, Sâ14 has not mentioned needing to fill out a survey. Sounds like one more piece of pressure our kids donât need.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would frame your childâs career aspirations in very broad strokes now. No need for him to feel like he knows what he wants to major in. Another idea is to ask him what he definitely doesnât want to do. </p>
<p>With my son, I suggested that heâd be good at business, because business is about relationships, and heâs good at relationships. So when we visited Gettysburg last spring, and they asked each visiting student what theyâd like to study, S said business.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>AvonD (Cptn) -</p>
<p>Thanks for the countdown. Hard to believe how soon these will be coming more frequently! I was thinking about AvonMom this week (and the entire Avon family) and where your family was just a year ago. I hope that her recovery has continued to be positive and successful, and this was a much different holiday season then last year. I hope AvonS is enjoying his time at home. I know S2 is sleeping (a LOT). Heâs working over break but the firm is closed this week. I had to nudge him about buying spring semesters books on Amazon (the better used prices go quickly). Who knows if he moved on that. <walks away,="" not="" my="" problem,="" problemâŠ=""></walks></p>
<p>Avon â yup just signed DSâ14 up for the January SAT. Heâs also already signed up for the February ACT (I think! â he had accommodations for a writing disability, and the sign-up is more complicated for ACT with accommodations). We have to figure out how the accommodations will work. His ticket doesnât give a location, we have to check with his school to find out where the testing with accommodations takes place. But it will probably actually be at his HS since it is the biggest and only public HS in the region.</p>
<p>KaMaMom â most schools that take the ACT want the ACT with writing. I think kids should always take it that way unless they are very sure everywhere they plan to send it does not care about the writing. But if your daughterâs other SAT scores are comparable to her SAT Writing, she may not need to bother with the ACT at all. Just a thought.</p>
<p>I think that most schools that ask for âall scoresâ are somewhat flexible on the ACT scores since you have to pay each time, and may take unofficial copies of all but the best score. My sonâs ACT was significantly better than his SAT, but I think he ended up sending all scores everywhere except for one reach that allowed you to send only your better score. It gets a bit complicated if they want SAT subject tests too and your ACT is your better score. Also the common app asks you to self-report all scores, and if you are trying to âhideâ some of them from a school that doesnât require you to submit them all, you have to create additional copies of the common app, which is possible but a bit of a pain. (In my DSâs case the one school he did not want to send his SAT score to was not a common app school, which made that piece easier.)</p>
<p>Mrspepper: Our school does not have Naviance, so we had to do our survey with our son.</p>
<p>We started with location. Our son prefers looking in the South for a school. Heâs never been to the Midwest or West Coast, so it really does not appeal to him (no offense to anyone living there). He also does not want to go to school in Virginia (our state), because most of his graduating class will be in state. He likes the idea of going elsewhere. Then, we mentioned the size of the school and what kinds of things he would like on campus. He wants to run cross country/track and field if he can. He also loves college football. Finally, we discussed majors â he is a math kid, so he wants a good math/business program. Weâve been to see four schools with him, and he liked all four. We probably will look at two or three more. He is not into the âdream schoolâ idea, which is a good thing, because weâve seen lots of kids very disappointed when the âdreamâ does not work out. </p>
<p>Hope that helps a bit.</p>
<p>Does anyone here have thoughts on womens colleges? I had initially 100% written them off when I began looking after sophomore year but Iâve come to rethink that decision, especially after I realized that a number of women I admire have attended these institutions. Iâm interested in scientific research and premed (specifically neuroscience and possibly biochem/microbiology and immunology).</p>
<p>Thanks Momreads and class of 2015! We visited a few schools last spring and at the time, he liked them. Now he says he is not crazy about the city of Chicago. Totally surprised me since he has always enjoyed our visits there. We tried to discuss locale in general but he says it doesnât matter to him. (Matters to me!) He loves div. 1 football but I really think a college where he was taught by professors, that he could get to know, would be a better environment for his learning style. Arrgh he so confounding right now. I dread asking him tomorrow what he would like to do for summer. I guess itâs time to start applying. I imagine he just wants to relax after he gets through this year and will not be in the mood to book up his summer. I donât blame him but it would be great to make some decisions before the break is over and we go back to the never-ending cycle of homework.</p>
<p>ecouter11: My daughter is (obviously) at Barnard and one of her best friends is at Wellesley. The two are very different from a âwomenâs collegeâ perspective. My D really doesnât feel like she is at a womenâs college because of the close integration with Columbia. Barnardâs dorm situation is definitely all women and there are a lot of programs focused on developing leadership skills for women. Her friend at Wellesley feels it is much more like a womenâs college. She says it is a good environment for learning and she feels she can focus more on academics. Are there specific questions you have? Is there a specific womenâs college you want more information about?</p>
<p>ecouter11:
</p>
<p>Go to Smith! Go to Smith!</p>
<p>Sorry â that just slipped out. :)</p>
<p>I echo BarnardMomâs take on the differences between Barnard and Wellesley (going by what friends who have attended each one have said). I think each womenâs college has its own personality, but what I think is common at all of them is a deep respect for womenâs education and a real sense that you can speak up in class and ask questions and further your learning without being intimidated by the boys in the class. My niece went to Smith as well, and she loved it.</p>
<p>I need some advice for act prep. So far he has taken psat-sat-psat and improved a lot each time so practice really pays off. He is pretty resistant to prepping for the act at this time so I gave him 2 choices A 4 hour basic class on mlk day or 1.5 hours a week until the feb date. He chose the self study but I Am going to add some directed review with mom. (20-30 minutes) I am going to have him concentrate on science and reading. Math was near perfect on other tests.</p>
<p>Besides practice tests and going over answers what else should he brush up?. He will probably take the April test also and the goal is to not have to take any test as a senior.
What has worked for others and are there any tips or tricks?</p>
<p>This thread is for parents of present sophomores, right? Or am I missing something? Our DD '12 took the ACT early summer between Junior and Senior year in H.S. (May/Juneâish). Isnât now a year and a half early?</p>
<p>giterdone - Parents of the hs class of 2014 are parents who have a student graduating in May/June of 2014, so hs Jrâs right now.</p>
<p>If you follow through with your plan (which will require much willpower) youâll do fine (say easily a 30+ score on the ACT). The important thing is to do at least a little bit of something on a regular basis so the test date doesnât sneak up on your son; as he has already taken the psat and sat youâll have some experience in test scheduling. For study material, youâre right to focus on taking practice tests. In between tests, try doing really intense practice on the sections that your son has the most difficulty on. Also, ignore the really detailed âtricksâ that ACT study books give, have your son use logic and common sense to figure out his own method - it will be harder to do but will be worth the effort.</p>
<p>Other than that, you should remember that the science part is actually closer to reading than to knowing science (that hurt my own sonâs score).</p>
<p>Hello all. I discovered CC after my Class of 2012 son was fully into the college admissions process. I learned so much after the fact that I vowed to stay connected in prep for my Class of 2014 child. I have faithfully been a lurker for the past year and hope to be an active participant to share any insights that I have from going through this process as well as to learn from so many who have traveled the path before me. My son is majoring in Chemical Engineering and my 2014 kid would like to major in BioMedical Engineering or ChemE. The kids are complete opposites in areas of interest and resume (despite similar college major interest), so I feel like this college search/admissions journey is like starting all over again for the first time.</p>
<p>Looking forward to the journey with all of you!</p>
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<p>Thanks for the replies, both of you! Classof2015, Iâm guessing youâre a Smith alumnus? :D</p>
<p>Well, Iâm mostly curious as to which womensâ colleges would be best for a student is heavily interested and involved in science research + wants to do premed. Iâve heard that Wellesley is more polisci/humanities oriented. I know another girl who graduated from Mount Holyoke and is now also working at some sort of politically minded thinktank. Iâve heard Smith and maybe Bryn Mawr (?) are better science schools.
I am actually really, really interested in politics, public policy and even economics as hobbies (or even more) but I also enjoy the sciences.</p>
<p>The leadership/developing skills ideal is perhaps what attracts me the most to these schools. I am very passionate, maybe too much so 
about many issues and want to network with similar people. Unfortunately (?) or fortunately, Iâm somewhat introverted + sensitive and the world is run for extroverts; as such, I think along with growing intellectually and being prepared for postgrad (professional schools, grad school), itâs also important for me to become more refined/polished with regards to dealing with people. Thatâs not to say Iâm entirely socially inept haha, but I sometimes feel that you need something more to be truly successful.</p>
<p>In some ways, I think LACs would be better environments for me to work on this but at the same time, I have to look at the research/academic opportunities side of this. Money is somewhat important for my family too; my parents say that they will pay but frankly, I donât see the point in paying 60k for a so-so school. Obviously, the top tiers give outstanding FA but you can hardly say the same for all universities. Canada has some pretty good schools that would probably also be way less expensive (although far, far larger than US schools) where I could also do quite well at. My doctorâs nephew went to McGill for 2 years, wrote his MCATs, sailed through medical school (paid 11k a year, normal tuition!!) and is now doing a neurosurgery residency at Harvard. So much to think about haha. Life is so confusing!! :)</p>
<p>ecouter11 â I am definitely positively a proud alumna of Smith! I went in premed, then changed to a double major in art history and economics. Smithâs Econ dept is very strong, and I really believe I received a solid foundation in economics there. The econ classes I took in business school at NYU were not as thorough or well taught.</p>
<p>Smith has also pioneered a program in financial literacy, founded by Ann Kaplan '67, first woman partner at Goldman Sachs. Through this program, Smith women learn the fundamentals of financial management. It is my belief that if more schools had programs like this, we might have avoided some of the subprime mortgage meltdown, because consumers of credit would have been better able to analyze the plethora of credit opportunities available to them.</p>
<p>Having said all that, I will acknowledge that a womenâs college is not for everyone. It was not for my D, who chose a coed school. However, I have been utterly dismayed at the lack of advising and attention to her learning process. I know she would have gotten much better attention at Smith.</p>
<p>If youâre interested in Economics, subscribe to the Boston Fedâs white papers. Excellent scholarly research on a myriad of topics. In early 2007, The Boston Fed was the first Federal Reserve to find a link between declining property values and rising mortgage delinquencies (before that time, the only reason people defaulted on their mortgages was because of job loss or illness).</p>
<p>Iâve herd women at Agnes Scott get great chances in the science field. They are very close to the CDC in Atlanta.</p>