<p>Creek - I just had a conversation last night with my daughters ACT tutor. When we first started we talked about her realistic goal score based on the schools she was most interested in. </p>
<p>She’s showing signs given, the first act, the sat scores yesterday, plus the practice tests that should could very well pull it all together for the April test and hit what we claimed was her goal back when we were rational, not panicked and realistic.</p>
<p>I was asking him if we should continue tutoring, perhaps just practice tests and review between April and June. He actually said - if she hits her goal, stop taking it. She’s done.</p>
<p>However, is it really that big of a deal for kids to take the test again to just see? And as you get higher - and believe me - people on CC act like only 750 on sections is high but those scores are pretty decent - it is harder to score higher. I seem to remember 1300 being the magic threshold for more $</p>
<p>College tours are exhausting! We’ve seen Northeastern, BU, Penn, Princeton and Yale. All have merit—but DD was most drawn to BU, Penn and Yale. She’s a die-hard city girl and all three schools emphasized interdisciplinary studies which appealed to her. Tomorrow we see Brown and will see how it compares. I’ve driven the entire time and thank goodness my rental car has EZ Pass! Driving was fine everywhere except NY which had crazy traffic. DD’s SAT scores were great-up 150 Pts in writing so she is done with SAT forever!</p>
<p>BTW, my favorite was Penn. really vibrant campus, very involved smiling students and gorgeous architecture. Princeton was breathtaking but the campus was dead. Northeastern was by far the most practical if your kid has a strong idea as to what they want to do. Very cool modern campus. Student life seemed the most fun at Yale. The residential college system was more than I could have expected. Now I get why these schools have tens if thousands of applications!</p>
<p>go2mom -Sounds like a great tour so far and congrats on the final test scores. Wish we were there but we are not. If she liked Penn and Yale she should really like Brown. With their open course curriculum, she can mix and match whatever she likes. Also, Providence is big enough for that “city feel”. The only issue with any of them is their extreme selectivity. I swear by my EZ pass. I don’t know how I did without it for all those years. New York driving (city that is - not upstate) - good luck. Its an experience unto itself. :eek:</p>
<p>Made our two college visits to Mississippi State and Georgia Southern before heading to my parents in SC for some R & R. Son '14 preferred State over GSU, but he could see himself at either school, he said. The schools love their sports, which is big with him. Their dorms are beautiful. So are their campuses. The food was great at the schools, too. At State, Son met with a professor in his preferred major, and the two seemed to hit it off. Apps go online on Aug. 1, and they will be sent that night, along with one to his top school, Alabama. </p>
<p>As for the SAT, I thought he did well with a 1910, but he was not pleased with his math. (He seeks perfection, I guess) I was more concerned with the CR, because he really does not like to read. He’s already informed me that I should sign him up for the October SAT.</p>
<p>It’s making me rethink to some extent the location of the schools I’ll be applying to. I think really, really rural environments would be tough, just logistically but maybe the presence of large green areas should be considered. </p>
<p>Reading all the results thread has gotten me quite nervous - after getting through what will undoubtedly be the most stressful months ever, it’ll be a measly month until the CA opens. Unfortunately, I’ll be saddled with some graduation requirements/other online classes then, too. </p>
<p>Just a thought on - demonstrated interest. Do you think just emailing with the adcom for your region/asking meaningful questions counts? I don’t think very many schools that I am considering really care but I don’t want to tick off the admissions people. I know certain schools have virtual requirements to interview on campus, but again- that is unlikely for me.</p>
<p>I think that emailing meaningful questions is a perfectly good way to show interest. If there is an expectation that you would do an interview, email your rep and ask if there is any way for you to do it locally (unlikely in your situation) or via Skype or something like that. As mentioned on the thread linked above, even if they say no, you get points for trying.</p>
<p>Collegepalooza '13 is EXHAUSTING. I’m so tired. And confused. We’ve been staying at a different hotel each night … did you know you can’t use your room key to get into the room on the floor below? Yes, I went to the wrong floor and tried to get into someone else’s room. I’m not in jail though, so thank goodness for small favors. ;)</p>
<p>Tomorrow is our last tour, U of Rochester, and then we’re headed home. Finally.</p>
<p>DD14 is in LOVE w/ Cornell. Love love love. The info session was long though - almost 2 hours. But the tour guide was wonderful - probably the best tour we were on hands down.</p>
<p>go2mom … I don’t know what we would’ve done w/o EZ pass too!</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what you would have done w/o EZ pass – made your kid go rummaging through your purse to find enough cash for all the tolls! </p>
<p>S1 is at Cornell (as you probably gathered from my prior messages) so lmk if you have any questions I can try to answer or ask him for you. He’s studying CS through the college of engineering.</p>
<p>S2 is quite interested in Rochester, which we haven’t visited yet, so I’ll be interested to hear what your D thinks of it!</p>
<p>PatentSparkle, I echo BlueIguana. Of course, I’ve found that BI is truly the Gospel of College Admissions. She’s quite fantastic, really. October SATs made it for EA for my D13. Also I learned this with said D: the application, supplement if the school has one, and the $ have to be in by 11:59 PM on the day the app is due. If the LoR or test scores come a few days later, no harm. It takes weeks for the whole lot to be matched up and the file to be deemed complete. The Oct scores do need to be sent right in when you register BUT with super scoring if your child doesn’t exceed his earlier scores, oh well.
Creekland- I say have one more try. D had ok scores but they were about 20 points off the threshold for an honors program at her favorite safety. She still had a chance at it, but it seemed worth a try to pick up 20 points in either CR or M, right? She went up 200 points. She did no prep- between the apps she didn’t do over the summer despite my nagging, the senior year course load, and wanting to do stuff with her friends it just didn’t happen. So, we said just try, who cares if you don’t go up? Relaxed, she did (relatively) great. Got the honors at her safety and, 6 hours later, an EA admit to her long-time #1.
EA is great by the way. Please, please insist your kids at least find one EA safety. Watching D’s friends who are just getting acceptances agonize all year has been dreadful. Getting one in the back pocket is simply enormously relieving. (For you, too.)
As to the SAT quest for perfection. I agree with the above, and if you don’t think a 2300 or 2350 is as good as a 2400, look at the recent acceptance threads… It’s fine. Everywhere.
S14 and I started our college tour yesterday. His favorite school was the safety D used. I so hope he can get in. He’s a totally different student than she is. We found him a safety that he likes a lot- in fact he liked it so much that I pointed out he need not feel bad if a safety is near the top of his list. That seemed to surprise him. Shaking my head. I guess the conversations I had with his sister about ‘fit’ didn’t resonate with him. We found the first school that left us both cold, too. Nothing to dislike, but nothing that made us excited about it either. First school I’ve toured without leaving feeling affection for and this one is my third child to tour (step-S graduated from Va Tech in 2009). S14 is the easiest, most laid back child imaginable so that he didn’t find so anything to like surprised me. He definitely is more into the food options than his sister was though! That keeps coming up. Dorms too, which surprises me since he’s a boy. Figured that was more important to girls.
Anyway, hoping to be more active here now that the '13s are finished, at least with the arduous part. The hard part, I expect, will come in August.</p>
<p>Fourth and final is this age. He has watched his sisters stress to graduate at the top of their class and score as high as possible…and not achieve the dream schools. One has graduated a limitless ivy, top of that class and go on for a prestigious masters. Older brother stressed less in hs, had his pick of not top ranked but amazing schools. He is graduating engineering at a top school with a great job. So he decided not to stress. A 75% on a test? Oh well. A couple C’s with no balance of an A? Oops. He took ACT’s once, scored a 31 self studying a bit. He wants to go to U of Central Florida ( not Florida residents). Simple
We did the college tour last week. Three schools and really no interest in more
Frustrating, somewhat, except as a friend said today with a disappointed '13 D, maybe he has the right idea. I hate to burst first time parents bubbles, but there are a lot of kids with perfect or close to perfect grades in all honor/ap/ib programs with amazing ec’s and good if not perfect test scores. None of these will definitely equate to that dream school. Have safeties you love. Go for the not top schools but great schools and get a great education and have some fun. Just because your kid is President of or top athlete with top stuff doesn’t get you in those always mentioned schools.
So yes, I wish he would be open to options and maybe by fall he will. But if not, more then likely it will be the most relaxed, stress free senior year of four kids.
Last thoughts, find safeties you love, you don’t have to visit every school before getting accepted and what a kid wants as a junior can be very different then what a senior decides to do spring of senior year.</p>
<p>I think I will just sign youngest up for the June test. It’s at our school, so several of his friends should be taking it then. His scores are plenty high enough to get in to the schools he’s interested in, but if he can just garner 70 more points in the M/CR it’d be worth an automatic 2K more at one of his favorite schools. If he can’t - well - it was only $50 and a Saturday morning.</p>
<p>I agree with the pp who suggested doing an EA school, but I’ll also add the option of doing rolling admission schools. Middle son used Alabama and Pittsburgh as safeties - both do rolling admissions. Pittsburgh even ended up his second choice due to their depth in neuroscience. U Rochester won as they also have depth in neuro and cognitive science + a campus (Pitt is more integrated into the city). My guy definitely preferred the campus setting. But still, getting that first acceptance at a school they wouldn’t mind attending just relieves a LOT of stress. </p>
<p>Fortunately for us, oldest wanted a school he could easily get in and had rolling admissions - he was set and done by the end of Feb (or maybe beginning of March). It would have been earlier, but we had to wait for the financial package. Youngest may be like that, but without the higher stats. Unfortunately, that can make the financial part of it dicey. High stats is no guarantee, but it certainly gives more options for both acceptances and merit aid (where schools offer it).</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about the option between getting into a honors program at a less competitive school or one of the herd at a more rigorous school. </p>
<p>For my older his #1 issue was being around other intellectually curious students. He never liked being that weirdo smart kid and loves being just part of the crowd with other smart kids.</p>
<p>However - looking for my d - she is not really as concerned with that and has suffered a little being in the shadow of her brother. And she is the one who is diligent and works hard for every grade she gets. I noticed on a couple of tours we saw she’d actually qualify not only for scholarships but honors colleges as well. It really did her a world of good to see that.</p>
<p>I think she may do well being at the top of the heap vs one of a crowd.</p>
<p>Eye ( my iPad won’t let me spell your name) I think we have a similar pair. D got into great though not Ivy schools and will happily attend UVA. She’s worked hard but S14 hasn’t worked as hard and will have other choices. Seeing the chance for honors programs just delighted him!</p>
<p>fourkidsmom… I just loved your post!! Did you have a 2012 kid? I thought I remembered you on that thread. My DS14 is the caboose too. He has also watched his older brothers go through admission cycles and he knows that you can get a great education as a wide range of schools, so he will definitely not be stressed out about where he gets in. He will have a little different thing going though, as he will be a theater major and will have to endure auditions as part of his application. which is VERY subjective, and can no way know how you will do… gaging by SAT scores and grades do nothing. I second the EA and rolling schools too. Believe it or not there is an EA theater audition at Emerson, and a rolling at UM.</p>
<p>Love Fourkidsmom’s post also, but just wanted to suggest that it may make sense to visit one’s safeties so that the Ad Coms do not decide the student is only using that school as a safety. I doubt visiting matters to the same extent at the large state schools, but the level of student’s interest is considered at some of the smaller LACs my son may consider for EA.</p>
<p>"…find safeties you love, you don’t have to visit every school before getting accepted and what a kid wants as a junior can be very different then what a senior decides to do spring of senior year."</p>
<p>I completely agree about that minds will be changed throughout the process, as I have seen this already with my HS Jr. He is forming opinions as we visit schools. And, truly, I shouldn’t be offering my opinions as he is my oldest and I am only blindly guessing at this point.</p>
<p>First- thankyou to the person many many pages ago that said these big spring break college touring trips can be used as “ruling out” trips. It is really what it felt like and DS even said after Northwestern…I have had enough tours, they are all the same, and I think what _____ (my friend) says. “You apply to a few places, don’t fall in love with anything, and then see what the money looks like” was pretty mature coming from a 17 year old. </p>
<p>We drove from Ohio to Chicago. Drove through Valparaiso on the way and then had time to drive through U. of Chicago. I thought they were on spring break but the streets had tons of parked cars. We thought it was a cool campus, but they don’t have his potential majors so we didn’t go to the tour the next morning. </p>
<p>We made it to Evanston early and walked around and had lunch. We sat in on the info session. I would not recommend touring during spring break. It was not a vibrant active place and we didn’t go in dorms, libraries or a student union. Very disppointing! Our tour guide told about her many wonderful opportunities which led to her true happiness at NU. We got tired of all her “fabulousness” I figured NU would do a great job working around the freezing cold and wind and utilize buildings but oh no. We were prepared for the cold.</p>
<p>PART 2
After leaving NU, DS remarked that he is starting to picture himself more at our state flagship. I agree with him. </p>
<p>Next day we drove to Illinois Institute of Technology. They provided a parking pass and a sit down with an admissions counselor. I loved this- he covered all the details that I have been encouraging DS to look up and read himself. He gave lots of info about his potential major, the student body, co-ops, etc. We used the meal passes to grab a small meal. Evanston seemed so far from Chicago but at IIT you could see the skyline from the campus. It was small, nerdy and directly under the el.
We saw both dorms (1 suite, 1 traditional) the union, the engineering building, and a few more.
The tour guide was the most unscripted that I had experienced. My son joked after that she said “yeah, it’s a pretty good school, I guess” haha.</p>
<p>The trip was a success…we knew that it would be our last “parent-led” trip but will encourage him to think out of the state and reach a little in a couple applications.</p>
<p>We got to have some fun also. Took my two teen boys and mother to Book of Mormon. It was a great show and made me kind of a cool mom for a couple hours.</p>
<p>We had a great trip. Saw schools, etc. We are fishing in the right pond. SAT scores are right at middle of scores for target schools. Interviews went well.</p>
<p>5boys- you are right, same Mom. D3 was the theater kid so I know where you are coming from. 17 schools, all but two needed auditions either in person or a DVD. She was a shared valedictorian, active in theater school and community and felt like a failure (spoke and cried it out) when she was in academically everywhere but 2 but only made it in to two programs for theater. Sigh…It was probably the hardest, stressful time I’ve ever had as you just want them to take your wonderful kid in their programs. For those of you just reading and not so lucky to have a theater kid- most of the programs take between 8-16 kids so you are really taking a crapshoot on the theater, especially musical theater as we did, acceptances.
On those visits, after all of this, I took the boys to visit a large state school, a private big school, a specialized school and a small school. That narrows the idea of what they want. Older S applied to 6 or 7, by the time spring came around, he was only really interested in two. Went to visit his #1 and his big school he had thrown in there- fell in love with the big school and didn’t like the #1. There’s a lot of growth in this year and what they like as juniors can be totally different April of senior year.</p>