<p>Perhaps I can relay my experience in getting S to be more independent/self-reliant. He had a dermatologist appt scheduled 2 weeks ago but that morning, he texted me he wanted to cancel. Normally I would have called the office, apologized, rescheduled. This time I told him: you do it. Call; apologize; reschedule. He did. </p>
<p>Somehow, he got the date mixed up – he thought it was this Friday; it was last Friday. He is sure the lady told him it was today. I told him “next time, repeat it back to her with the date – I’ll see you Friday Jan 4” at which point she would say “no – you’re coming in on Dec 28”. </p>
<p>I did help him out by calling as soon as the office opened this morning (while S was in class) and got an appt for today.</p>
<p>Do you think he learned anything from this? I’m trying to strike the right balance between helping and letting him figure things out.</p>
<p>I also told him from now on, he’s doing his own laundry. I walked by piles of dirty clothes in his room. This morning for the first time in years, he wore sweat pants. Probably the only pants that were clean…</p>
<p>ParentSparkle - I can see what you mean about the stress of senior year and is it worth it. When my DS13 started high school, I felt like “we have 4 years until college,” but then I realize that from day one, classes and EC’s etc. need to be planned way in advance… By early junior year, college thoughts have begun in earnest… so the ‘calm’ part of high school is really only TWO years! Going the ED route could maybe help senior year be less stressful, although it still has its own stresses (financial, possibility of regret over school choice…)</p>
<p>2015 - I am ALWAYS worrying about striking just that right balance… hubby has differing opinions, which can make things challenging. I’m right there with you on the appointments. Definitely good to make him be the caller and canceller! Can’t say if he learned… we can only hope and know that the changes will be small and take place over time. I did a LOT of college stuff (mostly because I really WANTED to!) but I do NOT imagine doing the same thing when it comes time for him to find a job after college!!</p>
<p>Blue - glad your son decided to drop that EC. Just the coach stress could be enough to ruin senior year, and at this point, doing well on AP’s is prob. the most important thing.</p>
<p>A bit of personal advice from just having gone through stuff with DS13 is to try to get the SAT’s done on the early side. Register on time… I’m still working on that one… but also, we didn’t start SAT til March with DS13, and thankfully he only took them twice, but the spring gets busy with AP’s and SAT II’s and then I would think it would not be ideal to have to take them in the fall. And we ran out of time to try the ACT. I’m hoping to use these things as learning experiences for DS14, and then DS16 down the road. </p>
<p>Am just about to check credit card for how much we paid for Dec SAT and then call College Board about the QAS thing…</p>
<p>Crud. What I paid for was something called Student Answer Verification… so it was 13.50 and it showed the types of problems he got wrong. It wasn’t clear to me when we registered that this was NOT the other service… so now we have to pay another $18 for the Jan test so we can get the service I really wanted for Dec… stupid learning curve… I have one kid left to get this totally right…</p>
<p>my2gr8boyz (hey, me too!)
I echo your advise to test early if at all possible. Lesson learned from S2. He was swamped from TECFH (the EC from He11) all winter & spring and while he prepped he didn’t test until May. So he had May SAT1s, 2 proms, APs, state standardized testing, and June SAT2s, ACTs, and finals. My unflappable son nearly came unglued one night when I checked on him studying for the ACTs. He had hit the wall. He retested SAT1 a second time in the fall and one SAT2. He met his goals, but had he been looking at any EA/ED schools he would have been toast. From this S3 has started much earlier. We hope (fingers crossed) to be done this spring knowing there is only the Oct SAT test date and the scores must be sent blind to any ED/EA school to arrive on time.</p>
<p>Early testing. Highly suggest, in case like me, you foolishly assume your child’s test scores will fall reasonably close to being in line with their grades. It’s not fun to discover they don’t. Early testing leaves time for prep classes too.</p>
<p>+1 to early testing. I had friends who ended up taking tests in November/December for the first time and while they almost all got in at good places, it was very hard on them. </p>
<p>Question(s) for the CC pros here :
I participated in one major EC last year and qualified for provincials (states) for it but since some personal issues came up, I did not participate as much this year and was not eligible to participate in the qualifying tournament. Should I try to explain the discontinuity in my app or ask my GC to elaborate on the reasons behind less school EC participation in general?</p>
<p>Also- in freshman year, I lived in the great state of NY and I got some state awards for writing and business (FBLA)- do you think it would make sense to include them on the CA? I’m still very much interested in entrepreneurship and will probably participate in this “create your own business” thing senior year. </p>
<p>I guess the issue with my ECs is that they’re somewhat limited to a few areas or were started in junior year. My school has key club type societies, which although are undoubtedly beneficial to the school and society, have never interested me much. As such, I didn’t participate in group activities until after I networked with some interesting people this summer. :/</p>
<p>my3gr8boyz–re: paying for QAS. You can wait until after his Jan scores arrive to decide about ordering QAS. I believe I mentioned earlier that I called CB b/c I thought the QAS was taking quite a while to arrive. Their reply, and I think the same info may be on their website, was that QAS orders placed when registering for the exam will be mailed 6-8 weeks after the test date and orders placed after the results are reported will be mailed 3-4 weeks after ordering. So, you could wait to see the score before deciding if you want to order QAS. The timing works out to be about the same and you wouldn’t have the Jan QAS back before the March exam date anyway. </p>
<p>Also want to pass along that CB will mail a copy of the test booklet along with the sheet that lists student’s answer versus correct answer and difficulty of question, but the booklet is not the actual booklet the student used during the exam. I mistakingly thought my son would receive the booklet where he scribbled notes or calculations so that he could look back and attempt to figure out what he had been thinking. Now I have a blank copy of the test that my younger son can use in a few years. </p>
<p>Separately, I agree with all of you who have suggested getting the testing out of the way early. I was concerned about how my son would perform on the tests, so I decided to have him prep for the SAT the summer between sophomore and junior years. (Pros and cons of testing that early but I felt the pros outweighed the cons, and he had already covered the math content in school.)</p>
<p>Our plan was for him to take the Oct and Dec tests and if the scores were not where we hoped, to then regroup and prep for a spring sitting of the ACT. Fortunately, we are all happy with his Dec SAT scores, so he doesn’t have to think about standardized testing until SAT IIs this spring.</p>
<p>Some early tests can be a good call. There is less stress because you know that you will have plenty of opportunities to retest if need be - it keeps the anxiety down. Also, APs and SAT2s and exams come into play and the schedule gets very busy in the spring. Not every student is ready in the fall of Jr year, but some are.</p>
<p>@98whaoo Thanks! I hate reinventing the wheel!
quote: Finally, once the list is coming together, make a sheet for each school. When the apps are started, put down the due date, the last accepted test date ( generally October for EA or ED and December for RD but not always). Finally, have your kiddo write down the user name and password as well as any security questions and answers for each school. </p>
<p>Done! I hadn’t thought about last accepted test date, that’s a good one!!!</p>
<p>ecouter11 – I am by no means an expert, but my gut tells me to include the NY portion of your high school ECs. With regards to the other EC that you had to pull back from, I would agree – have GC address it, then you should list it on the Common App but then say that you were not able to give it your full attention because of what came up.</p>
<p>There are very few kids who stay with an EC from 7th grade through 11th. If your reasons for not giving it all are considered and mature (time constraints; wasn’t what you thought; needed to give time to school/home/other ECs) it will all make sense in the big picture.</p>
<p>Speaking of early testing…DS took ACT twice during Sophomore year and we are happy with scores. But…he did not take the writing portion, so he still needs to either take ACT with writing or SAT. I asked him yesterday which test he would prefer. He wants to do ACT again. Does anyone see a problem with NOT taking the SAT? I do think he will need to do a couple of the SAT II tests. He’s in AP Biology and Honors Pre-Cal/Trig this year - so maybe Biology and one of the Math tests? How will he know which Math?</p>
<p>We’re looking forward to our visit to a nearby college in a couple of weeks. I’ve been looking tonight for other colleges that he may be interested in that are having special open house type events on President’s day in February. Any suggestions for schools around Texas/Oklahoma/Missouri with engineering?</p>
<p>Everything that I have read indicates that the vast majority of colleges accept either the SAT or the ACT. There is no need to take both if you are content with your scores on either.</p>
<p>You don’t need to take the SAT if you have ACT scores. Also, very few schools require SAT II. Of those that do, some do not require it with ACT, so check each school’s website.</p>
<p>My DD is a junior and took her first ACT in the fall with a score more than good enough to get in at any of the colleges shes looking at. She got a low score on the writing portion, should she retake to increase this score? How important is the writing portion? We are going to have her consider taking it again later this year because she could get more merit aide if she increases a point or two. If the writing portion is important maybe we should make her retake it?</p>
<p>I feel the following advice would work with either situation but by writing portion your not talking about the essay but the actual section correct?</p>
<p>If what she got it above what she needs for certain colleges that is great. If increasing the score could get you eligible for more scholorships that’s also a reason to retake. I don’t know how it works at your school but a lot of HS have a manditory ACT in April or something so then would be you chance. Practice up!</p>
<p>I’m running net price calculators for several schools that I’ve been collecting as a ‘mental list’ of possibilities. I have to run them twice, once with a sibling in school, once without, as there will only be one year S2 & S3 overlap and it will make a difference. This is the start of fact finding for a notebook and spreadsheet as I found I’ve been looking up information, then looking it up again. So much easier if I’d just recorded it the first time. This morning’s portion has been very depressing…very. We never considered private schools with S2 and there were no net price calculators when he applied. With S3 the instate publics that he’s interested in are reaches so I’m trying to find matches. Everything I’m coming up with are privates. I’m going to try to meet with his GC after mid-terms when she has had a chance to get her Srs situated and pick her brain for schools I’ve overlooked.</p>
<p>newfaith–most schools don’t even require the essay from the ACT and a 6 is “ok” and not going to hurt her any. If she takes the ACT again, I would suggest taking it with writing again to bump that up a bit but anything over a 6 is typically ok.</p>
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