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<p>They’re right about that. </p>
<p>I do think that if possible you should visit your top choices before choosing. Try to sit in on a couple of classes, eat in the cafeteria, “get lost” on campus and see if anyone offers to help, ask students what they like and what they wish was different. Try not to be too swayed by one really nice or one really awkward tour guide ;-)</p>
<p>89wahoo, that turned out to be an interesting rivalry for him. Notre Dame was on his “to visit” list this Spring, although I don’t think top of his list. But, prior to getting PSAT scores and finding out about their NMF deal, he wouldn’t even think about Alabama… now, he seems to be coming around to the idea that “free” isn’t something he should just walk away from! The day of the game, I asked him who he wanted to win and he said, “You can’t beat free!”</p>
<p>Wahoo and others—another class of '14 & '17 parent here. (Have to guess that name is a Virginia reference.) I hope that I will not be spending as much time here reading random posts three years from now as I am presently.</p>
<p>Ecouter–about your parents not taking you on visits…could it be that they didn’t tour colleges before applying? I pored over the Yale Insider’s Guide and a much larger college guide (can’t recall the name) and made most of my application decisions that way. Three sentence descriptions of acres of rolling green hills influenced far too much of the decision-making process.</p>
<p>My parents took me for an interview at one school within a university. Part way through the interview, the interviewer decided that I wouldn’t be quite the right fit for that program and sent me over for an interview with another school within the university. My parents interpreted this to mean that campus visits were a waste of time, and that we would visit in April if I should ever be accepted anywhere! When I was later accepted to that second program, they sent me for the accepted students’ visit with a neighbor who happened to be driving back to school in April. </p>
<p>Having said all that, I am sure we will visit at least 15 schools in our attempt to determine ‘fit’ and what it is my son is looking for in a school. The class of '17 son is along for the ride and comes up with better questions than any of the rest of us.</p>
<p>I like the way your boy thinks, Collegefortwins :)</p>
<p>I have a friend with B/G twins the age of my older son, who had some similar situations with their college searches (son was a NMF, daughter was interested in a field that required an art portfolio). The art portfolio was definitely the most stressful part of the process. I hope the auditions don’t wind up being too stressful for your D. It’s great that she has a couple of strong choices already!</p>
<p>(quick hint: when your son takes the SAT, have him use one of his free score reports to send the score to the national merit folks, since they’ll need an SAT score if he becomes a NMSF and wants to move to NMF)</p>
<p>mathmomvt, thanks for the advice about sending National Merit the SAT free score report. My son wasted two SAT subject test free reports (total 8) since we weren’t sure whether to send them to college this early. I just found out that CB charges $11 per college per test. :(</p>
<p>It’s not per test, 4beardolls. $11/school and they send every test you’ve ever taken, or some subset of them if the school allows choice. The ACT folks do make you pay per test. My S1 didn’t use any of his free score reports because he was afraid to send a score sight unseen (which you have to do to use the free reports). But I think for S2 we will send them to NM and to some potential safeties.</p>
<p>Are you all getting inundated with college mail yet? D is still getting stragglers, and S is also collecting quite a heap…the USPS would truly be in trouble without college advertisements…</p>
<p>Really? Then what I learned at the New Year’s Eve Party was wrong?! Maybe the parent said this had too much champagne or maybe I did? Anyway, this is why I love coming to CC and this thread. I can take $11 per school much better.
I think sending the free SAT report to NM Scholarship is low risk compare to sending them to colleges.</p>
<p>Re: sending SAT scores to schools prior to the start of Sr year…Our GC mentioned that he had heard of a school ‘clearing’ their electronic files in August or perhaps once the school finished with all wait list activity for the incoming fall class. An organized applicant had his early scores discarded in this clean-up. I realize this may not be an issue for the NMF school, but just wanted to mention the possibility of a school not being ready to accept material now from current juniors.</p>
<p>As this is my first time through the college admission process, I do not have any firsthand knowledge.</p>
<p>CT1417, that would be a great question to ask during college fair or visit.</p>
<p>Hmm, I know I’ve been told by some schools that they will hold scores for juniors. I think somewhere with the SAT data is the year you plan to graduate, so they’d know not to expect the application that same year. And it’s a way of “showing interest” early and getting on their mailing list (if you’re not already, or maybe getting bumped up to a different level of mailing list). But it’s a good point to double-check that the schools do indeed have your scores on file when you actually do apply! There’s nothing to lose in sending them (unless they’re horrible) even if they do clear them, as long as you remember to double check.</p>
<p>DS 11 used the free report scores for a preliminary list of schools and he didn’t apply to some of them. They must have held the scores over to his senior year as we started receiving a lot of mail including requests for him to submit the rest of his application materials as his file was incomplete. I am sure it may vary by school but our experience is that the schools held the junior year score submittals.</p>
<p>Collegefortwins: My oldest son is a senior at Alabama. Loves the place (not just the football, either!). His roommates the past three years have been engineering majors. Many of his fraternity brothers are engineering majors. It is a very good program. Lots of options available for students. His roommate worked for Exxon last summer in Denmark. He is a Truman scholar. One of his best friends is a Hollings, Goldwater and Mitchell scholar, and she will do her grad work in Ireland. He knows some chemE majors who are going to med school. So, do point your son in Bama’s direction. My younger son, the '14, would love to go there, too. Not interested in engineering, but the business school is excellent. He likes econ/finance/statistics.</p>
<p>89wahoo: We are getting a few pieces of mail or e-mails a day. Ole Miss, New Mexico State and ECU just sent my son birthday greetings.</p>
<p>4beardolls, I can confirm that it’s $11 per school and you can choose how many or how few dates/ scores to send. Although most schools seem to ‘superscore’ the SAT, collating the best score on each section even if the are from different test dates, you cant choose to only send one SAT I section, such as math… You send the whole thing from each date. With the subject tests (SAT II) you can take three in a sitting and send 1, 2, or all of them. In addition, if you choose to send the scores when you sign up for a test, you can have them sent for free. The $11 is only if you want to see them before deciding which to send (with subject tests) or whether to send them (regular SAT). The ACT is different, they hit you for each date you send. Also, most schools don’t combine sections from different dates on that one. What you get on a given date is what you get, as a rule. I don’t quite see why they only superscore SATs, but that’s generally the case. YMMV so check carefully.
I am ridiculously glad it is Friday. Have a good day, all!</p>
<p>With you on TGIF! 
The only school that I know for sure superscores the ACT is Wash U in St. Louis. I think my daughter just read that Indiana U does as well, but I haven’t verified that. Not sure why not all schools do?!</p>
<p>momreads, good to hear about your son and the options available. That’s the kind of info I need to sell DS14 on the school! Think we’ll visit over Spring Break.</p>
<p>Happy Friday! Thanks to 89wahoo for the clear explanations on the score report fees. I don’t feel so bad for not using the free SAT reports now. Paying the $11 will give you the ultimate ability to pick and choose your best one(s) out of all SAT/SAT subject test you have ever taken.</p>
<p>I think I’ll have DD use the free score reports to send to state schools where she’ll have to send scores, and wait on the score optional privates on her list. If I remember with DS’11 we sent the first batch of SAT I scores to some schools and the second batch to others. We didn’t auto send the SAT II scores as we wanted to see them first!</p>
<p>DD hasn’t received any college mailings from any new schools, but has received FOUR prom dress catalogs this week! Actually the first one was addressed to DH! One of her friend’s fathers also received the same catalog! DH flipped thru it on the table and said he didn’t think he wanted her to wear ANY of the dresses! As she’ll probably be attending two proms in less than a week (her’s is on a Thursday night), we’ll be looking for really good deals on dresses! Assuming she’s still with her boyfriend, she’ll be going to both of their proms. Actually, even if they aren’t still together, she’ll be going to both as her home town friends are planning prom dates for her and two other girls who are in their group but don’t go to the HS anymore. I asked her about it and got “oh the boys know they’ll be asking who they’re told to ask!” Luckily it’s one big group of really good kids. They just have to pull the sophomore boys in with the junior girls who go to the HS!</p>
<p>As far as “superscoring” I believe the ACT folks discourage it, which is why most schools don’t do it, even though most do superscore for the SAT (which the SAT folks do seem to encourage).</p>
<p>@4beardolls: Regarding the online Spanish course, D14 is not doing this for credit, and the school is not paying. She asked her HS about online classes through virtual high school or something, but was denied (because the school already offers the class, kind of…). Right now her motivation is to actually learn the language before a spring service trip to Central America.</p>