<p>He’s only studying Chinese this year. So I guess he can put fluency in Chinese as an EC - or something…</p>
<p>momreads - congrats on the 3200 win! Sounds like he had a great day! I saw the Microtel and wondered about it. Seems like it had a good price.</p>
<p>89wahoo - good advice! We have visited safety/in-state flagship already. And we have also visited a reach. He has liked both. We’re also visiting a match school a week from tomorrow. He’s pretty easy-going and will likely enjoy wherever he ends up. (Dreading working with DS2!) I also snoop on the '13 thread. 
I started my spreadsheet over the summer. I have things like 25-75 ACT/SAT scores, price, acceptance rate, costs.<br>
Congrats on the #1 acceptance!!</p>
<p>2014novamom & collegefortwins - DS really liked WashU! I loved the campus - the buildings were beautiful and mostly of the same style. Wonderful new engineering buildings. </p>
<p>I just did priceline for the Nasvhville hotel! $65 for one of the nice hotels on Vandy’s page! As soon as I get UA’s confirmation on the date, I’ll try it with Tuscaloosa, too! (Watch out world, the bargain shopper’s on the loose! haha)</p>
<p>Apollo6 - one thing I would wonder about is the timing of that ACT and whether it will “count” now that he’s graduating a year later (if I understand correctly)? I know that I was told that my DS cannot use his freshman year SAT score for at least one school (he did very well on CR that year, and I’m not entirely sure he will be able to beat it, so I was hoping it could be used for superscoring). Apparently, they will only take SAT scores from sophomore year or later? </p>
<p>Since your son’s grad year is changing, will fall 2011 now get considered as a freshman year score, rather than a sophomore score?? It may be worth checking with potential schools to see if it matters.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son on a stellar ACT score!!</p>
<p>I’d leave the 34 alone. Schools will see a 34 achieved sophomore year and that should be plenty impressive. I’d definitely have him spend his prep time on PSAT.</p>
<p>"I’d leave the 34 alone. Schools will see a 34 achieved sophomore year and that should be plenty impressive. I’d definitely have him spend his prep time on PSAT. " - mathmomvt</p>
<p>I agree with Mathmomvt.</p>
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<p>I also agree and would let the 34 stand on its own merit. Our DS-11 got 4 top tier admissions with his 33. :)</p>
<p>beadymom: My older son loved WashU. Got a good offer financially, but he still did not want to borrow money for his undergrad. So that National Merit from Alabama made the school his No. 1 choice. I remember him calling home two weeks into his freshman year, and he said that Alabama really was his dream school. Good academics. Great housing (he has had his own room all the way through college). Lots of opportunities. Great football!!!</p>
<p>Congrats to your son on his 34, Apollo6! I hope he is able to use it!</p>
<p>The ACT is the talk in our house right now with my 2014er testing on 2/9. I have a question…</p>
<p>What is the most efficient way to study for a child who, after two practice exams, is missing 0-3 questions in each of the four sections? I have read how the best prep is taking many practice tests and identifying areas of weakness. Generally speaking, this makes perfect sense. From a practical standpoint, I can’t help but wonder if there is a better way for a child who is getting most of the questions right. A practice test takes many hours to complete and most of that time is spent doing questions the child already knows. That seems somewhat like a waste of time given all of the other things kids have going on in their lives.</p>
<p>What if areas of weakness aren’t identified after a few practice tests but the child still misses a few questions? DC tends to claim actually knowing how to do the missed questions and seems dumbfounded the wrong bubble was filled in on the practice test. 
Is this simply a matter of needing to read more carefully? </p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>mathmomvt: We are in No. Virginia (hence my user name) so a relatively big state. My DS’s school, although a large public, is not so prototypical though. It’s pretty nerdy. The captain of the football team was accepted EA to MIT and the head cheerleader has also been accepted to both Cal Tech and MIT. It’s really hard to stand out from this pack.</p>
<p>college4many, I have exactly the same question except in SAT. DS14 did four practice tests and missed from 1 to 5 problems on the entire SAT. He thinks he will not do well on the essays so would like to get as close to perfect score as possible on the multiple choice questions. I would also like to know the most effective and efficient way for him to improve further. Although, I did notice that he improved ever so slightly in the last couple of tests just by practicing.</p>
<p>When doing those charts for admission, include financial aid deadlines and scholarship deadlines. Over the years, I have heard all kinds of horror stories about kids missing deadlines for those two things. One of my son’s friends missed the deadline for applying to his No. 1 school. Sent everything in three days late. Did not think it would create a problem. Then, his offer came back. A lot lower than expected. He went to see the financial aid people during his sppring break, but they could not offer additional monies. </p>
<p>So add financial aid and scholarships to that chart.</p>
<p>college4many, have your son do a sample test where he circles the answer on the test as well as bubbling the bubble. If it turns out that he actually mis-bubbles some of his correct answers, have him save 3 minutes (or whatever it takes) at the end of each section to check his bubbles against what he circled. </p>
<p>If he’s “really” getting some problems wrong, then of course have him review the correct answer and explanation, and try to figure out how he should have arrived at that answer. I do think though, that at the point where they’re getting a very small number of problems wrong, that there’s an element of luck involved in their ultimate score. Schools really do appreciate this much more than students do, and are not going to treat tiny score differences as a big deal, even though it might seem like a big deal to the students.</p>
<p>I know that S2’s school has taken an exceptionally hard line on fin-aid deadlines this past year. Multiple mailings, both snail & email, reminding people of the drop-dead date. As a current student S2’s wasn’t too involved and he and DH promised to have everything done a month prior to the deadline. I was curious at the lack of one document (can’t remember what it was now) and questioned DH who insisted it wasn’t needed. I asked that he call fin-aid and confirm. Again I was told everything was taken care of. Two days prior to the deadline I got a very funny feeling and logged into S2’s student account to find said document listed on the ‘to do list’. With DH on a business trip 20hours one way, and S2 at school 2hrs another way, neither with the documents they needed to get the darn thing done, let alone with S2’s signature…Let’s just say I blew a nutty. DH’s trip was not one where he could grab an hour or two to take care of this, he was up to his eyeballs 20hrs/day. Between the three of us, scanning papers from here, and middle of the night coordination, S2 was able to fill out the form with DHs help, sign, and deliver just in time. I was NOT a happy camper! </p>
<p>Sometimes schools are taking things late and offering lower amounts, as momreads shares. Some are moving towards a very hard line where a deadline is a deadline. I don’t know if an exception would have been made, however given the buildup of communication regarding that deadline I would not have wanted to test it.</p>
<p>Can I vent here? Just found out that DD’s school has scheduled auditions for their spring musical this Wednesday and Thursday afternoon - during exam week! It just doesn’t make sense to me as they’re dismissed from school after their last exam at 10:45 and are supposed to leave by 11:00. Then to come back for auditions at 2:15 to 4:00? Did I mention that we live 20 minutes from school? With all the driving and getting ready, that’s an hour of study time lost to driving, not to mention the two hours lost to auditions for a total of three hours of studying time lost each day. Then I realized that callbacks are Friday after school, on a long weekend when we’re supposed to be leaving right after school to head up north to go skiing. The later we leave, the more traffic we hit. I’m not a happy camper! Don’t know why they can’t wait a week to do this, or could have gotten their act together and done all this when it was originally scheduled for last week!</p>
<p>Ok - venting done. Don’t know if she’ll decide not to even audition but she’s not doing a show outside of school this spring as she’s choreographing the little kids show so she was looking forward to doing the school show, even though she’s not thrilled with the one they chose to do.</p>
<p>Wow! I check out for about a week and the thread lengthens by miles! Took me awhile to catch up.</p>
<p>89wahoo … I have an 8th grader, too. I don’t know if I’m ready to keep up with 2 threads seeing as I’m failing at this one. I’ll look for a 2017 thread. And thanks for that ACT score info. So much to learn.</p>
<p>And it’s interesting to hear that some schools cram APUSH into one semester. I can’t imagine the workload as my D’s year-long APUSH is time-consuming enough! APGov is a one semester class which seems doable. </p>
<p>Welcome to Collegefortwins and txvelle: double the worry, double the work, but double the love, too!</p>
<p>Welcome to CT1417 and 2014novamom, also. </p>
<p>Apollo … Congratulations to your S. A 34 seems to be that “magic” score that opens doors to even top tier schools. I wouldn’t worry about retesting. </p>
<p>Re-entry after winter break has been tricky in our house. Everyone shared the common cold, and DD is still tired and not ready for finals next week. Science Olympiad meet over the weekend took an entire day that she needed to work on projects. Grumpy! Right now, H and I are just trying to steer clear and help out as we can. After finals, we’ll start the college talks again. The every-two-weeks version has been working for us. With her course load this year, it’s hard to ask for more! She’s done some initial CollegeBoard and Naviance searches with scores and interests, and now is perusing the Fiske Guide as well. I am going to get a spreadsheet and that binder going now that she’s figuring out some possibilities. But I have to be careful not to spook her; it’s a tightrope walk! I want her to find her own momentum and own the process as much as possible. Ecouter inspires!</p>
<p>amom124 - Vent away!! I’m so sorry that your DD has to deal with the stress of auditions when she should be studying. That is such poor planning and undermines their primary mission as educators. I’m also sorry that it has the potential to interfere with your travel plans you obviously spent time arranging for your family. It’s hard to get everyone moving in the same direction and spending family time together. Then to think that your exit is going to be held up…urrgghh!!! :mad:</p>
<p>I also feel your pain. Mid-terms week coming up, all activities are cancelled by decree of the administration so students will study. S3’s coach ignores that and ADDs hours to their schedule. I have no words… (well I do but all you kind people would see is a string of stars)</p>
<p>PortlandiaParent - Hope everyone in your house is on the mend and the flu doesn’t set in. It seems to be in epidemic proportions everywhere.</p>
<p>akmom124, it sure seems like there needs to be better planning at your DD’s school, too! Absolutely nothing extra-curricular should be happening during exam week and this is a supposed “mandate” at my DD’s school … BUT, there’s a Science Olympiad meeting and then there’s a piano ensemble required rehearsal. Seriously. I feel your pain. Vent away. I’ll vent along with ya looking just like blueiguana’s red grumpy-face emoticon!</p>
<p>argh, blue, I would have been FUMING! Glad you checked, though!</p>
<p>The thing for parents of returning students to remember is that you need your kid’s signature on stuff, and he/she doesn’t live with you anymore, so that gets more complex. Planning to get all the tax/financial aid stuff done during spring break, if your kid will be home, is probably a good idea (assuming that’s well before the returning student deadline).</p>
<p>Sympathies to those whose schools schedule EC stuff during exams – our school does too and afaik has no policies discouraging it at all. :(</p>
<p>I am immensely grateful that our county, for whatever reason, does not seem to push mid-terms. My sympathies to you all suffering through them. Even without crazy decisions about auditions and athletic practices the kids are stressed and, well… Not as much fun to have around. 
S has a new attitude. I guess D getting in to her top choice has spurred him on. Anyway he’s seeking his teachers for extra help, setting up times to meet with them etc. I’m surprised, and pleased. I told him I want to make an appt to talk to his GC (a totally clueless wonder, but we are stuck) and discuss his ideas about courses for next year.</p>
<p>Great news, Wahoo’s S, for kicking it into gear!</p>
<p>And bad news for the schools that schedule so many EC’s during exam weeks. Our exams are really strange. More like punishment than exams. If a student has not missed more than 3 days (I think!), and they have an A or B in the class, they don’t have to take the exam. Does that mean they retained everything they learned? Does that help prepare them for college final exams? But I guess it does keep the good students in school instead of calling in sick or skipping (which they wouldn’t do anyway!).</p>
<p>momreads - great advice on adding the financial aid deadlines to the spreadsheets! Merit money is one of the deciding factors in our household. I’d hate to miss that by a day or two and cost $$$!</p>