<p>Excellent perspective, parentsparkle! Thank you for taking the time to share.</p>
<p>Hello all, I have been lurking around this thread. My oldest daughter is off to Ohio State in in a few weeks and I feel like I am entering round two. But it is a completely different adventure! My oldest was the perfect student and earned a full tuition scholarship to OSU along with getting admitted to Kenyon, American and some other great great schools.</p>
<p>My youngest is a fabulous creative earthy type individualist. In many ways she is more grounded than my oldest who was so driven by numbers and perfection. D14 really enjoys certain things like art and broadcasting at her school and is very popular with excellent social skills. But she just doesnât have a lot of discipline. Her cumulative GPA is 3.32 so far. 2nd semester of sophomore year was the first time she was on the honor roll and not the merit roll - so she seems to be trying a teeny bit more but I am so scared if she canât get at least to a 3.5 she will have difficulties and lose any chance for scholarships.</p>
<p>She is taking the most rigorous classes she can take and she really excels in language, art and history with a significant passion for acting/theaterâŠdoes not sing though. :)</p>
<p>She just received her standardized testing all Ohio students take at the end of sophomore year and they were very good . She tested advanced in every subject except writing which was almost at the advanced level. Her math and social studies scores were super high! And she has never gotten an A in any hs math course!</p>
<p>So, I am hoping the ACT will reflect these test scores. </p>
<p>Anyway, that is my girl. She has no idea where she wants to go to college and sometimes I think she acts as if she doesnât want to But, here and there, in the last few months she has seemed to talk about going to school for theater, art or communications of some sort.
I am signing her up to take the ACT this fall and she is taking a local ACT workshop at our local community college at the end of the summer (it was free with 4 hours of community service!)</p>
<p>I realize D14 is not going to be a candidate for most of the schools my older daughter was accepted to and that is fine - my challenge is going to be finding the best place for her, where she is going to thrive.</p>
<p>So, here we go!</p>
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<p>While I agree with this in general, I also think a <em>little</em> SAT prep (and/or ACT prep) can go a long way. By this I mean being familiar with the instructions and the types of questions, understanding when you should and shouldnât guess, knowing how fast you need to work, and how to manage your time during each section, etc.</p>
<p>Ms Pearl! I spent a while âstalkingâ the 2012 page hoping for hints to use with my D13, and I really enjoyed your posts. She sounds a lot like your D12. Like you, S14 is not as dedicated to his work as his sister but is the nicest, most easy-going kid ever. Loves his sports, his dogs, his video games, shooting hoops or riding bikes in the woods, etc- as well as sleeping and eating, of course. He wonât be looking at many of the same schools as d13 either, save her safeties which are his âreachâ schools. He is also sitting at about 3.4 which needs to come up. Heâs only doing 2 AP classes though- US history and chem (which really has me concerned, but we will seeâŠ). Divergent paths for different kids⊠I guess that will keep it fun! So glad youâll be here for the ride.</p>
<p>Welcome, MSPearl!</p>
<p>It is interesting the different timelines for ACT/SAT in different areas. Seems a lot of the kids in my area were taking ACT during sophomore year - my DS has two under his belt already, and hopefully weâre finished - unless he needs writing portion, which he did not take either time. (OOPS!!) I see some talk of not taking until Spring of Junior year and into Senior year. That would make me nervous! But at the same time, it does give them more class time to learn the materials!</p>
<p>I have a LAC question. My DS is interested in Electrical Engineering. There is a very good LAC college within a couple of hours from home that has very good scholarships (possible full ride??). The problem is, they donât have Engineering. They do have a 3/2 program with dual degrees - a BS from the LAC where the students attend 3 years as well as a BS in Engineering from the other school where they take 2 years of intensive engineering classes. For those of you with older kids - or those that have already looked into this - what are your thoughts on this? Why wouldnât the kid just start out at the school that they get the engineering degree from? Are there benefits to going to the LAC first? We will be touring the school with the engineering program next week, so I will also ask there! :)</p>
<p>I recently ordered and have received a SAT prep book with a title about âProfessor Dave.â There are not many reviews of this book out there so I sort of took a chance on it. Yesterday I sat down with it and read through part of the section on the subject area that gives my 2014er the most trouble. I have no idea if what I was reading is good advice but there seemed to be a heavy focus on test taking strategies explained in ways a typical teen should be able to relate to. We do have the blue book and another(Princeton, I think) that I have never looked at so I donât know if the Professor Dave book is repeating what is in those books but I thought Iâd share⊠It seems like a book a kid should be able to read and walk away with having gained some good test taking tips.</p>
<p>I think the point of the 3/2 programs is that you get a more well-rounded education, more personal attention and smaller class sizes in those first 3 years, and so on. Not the right fit for every engineer (my oldest would have hated it, and I would suspect my 2nd as well, but my youngest might ultimately like something like that) but for some who want more breadth and freedom than a usual engineering degree permits, it may be worthwhile.</p>
<p>beadymom - </p>
<p>Here is a recent thread discussing 3/2 programs:</p>
<p><a href=âhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1364224-whats-scoop-3-2-programs.html[/url]â>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1364224-whats-scoop-3-2-programs.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the link! Iâll keep my eye on that conversation.</p>
<p>The biggest ding Iâve read on them is that the kids just donât finish them. I think that is touched on in that thread. Now, certainly with any student that heads into engineering there is a percentage that will change their major no matter where they go to school so some of that is unavoidable and may have happened anyway. I would certainly ask at any school you visit that has a 3/2 program if they have data on the percentage of students that complete the program. I would want to know that.</p>
<p>Thanks 89 and beadymom!</p>
<p>Yes, around here most kids take first act in fall of jr year. Some take in the winter/spring of sophomore year if they are doing dual enrollment at the local community college. </p>
<p>I am sooooo nervous for her to take the ACT, I am not conveying that to her (or at least trying not to) I am not sure she knows how important it is. I think secretly she would love to go to Ohio State like her sister but at this point she would have to go to a regional campus for a year and then transferâŠnot necesssarily a bad thing especially that it would save us a lot of money. :)</p>
<p>Interesting comments on the 3/2 programs. S is currently @JHU figuring out whether he wants to be an engineer, so I may be jumping into that conversation later this summer. Right now, Iâm just waiting to hear what he has to say after he has been exposed to engineering. Either way, heâll know more about what he is looking for and that, I hope, will light more of a fire under him to do well in school and on the testing.</p>
<p>Hey parents. Iâm a student but Iâve been following this thread anyway. 
I just had a quick question about the PSAT. My school doesnât offer t and last year, when I asked my counselor about getting it, he said heâd try but it fell through. </p>
<p>This year itâs more important for me and Iâd really like to take it so I was just wondering if you had any tips on getting my school to cooperate? My mom says sheâll talk to admin but Iâm not sure what she can do. </p>
<p>Thanks! :)</p>
<p>You can take the PSAT at a different school if yours doesnât offer it. Search here <a href=âSAT Suite Ordering â SAT Suite | College Boardâ>SAT Suite Ordering â SAT Suite | College Board; for schools in your area offering it. Good luck!</p>
<p>I just noticed youâre in Canada â that makes things more difficult. <a href=âCollege Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Toolsâ>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools; addresses students outside the US, but you really need the school to come through for you. Unless you live near enough to the border to take it at a US school that already offers it, or the search turns up another Canadian school near you offering it. </p>
<p>Are you eligible for National Merit? If not, why are you trying to take it?</p>
<p>Practice, really. Itâs less expensive than the SAT and would be a good way to gauge my preparation. I wrote it once and got a 2190 without really prepping. Writing and my poor sleep/eating habits did me in. I slept really late the night before (2 am ish), didnât eat real fast and ran out of gas in section 10 which happens to have the writing questions I am worst atâŠgo figure :-/. </p>
<p>Anyways, I want to rewrite it on the November test date and the PSAT is usually early Oct. so itâd give me a way to check up on my progress. Plus, I have a friend that hails from
Texas who is eligible for NMS, so if our school offers it, itâll be mutually beneficial for both of us. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for replying btw!</p>
<p>In that case, try to find a school that offers it nearby, but if youâre not eligible for NMS itâs not worth jumping through too many hoops for, in my opinion. You can always buy a book and take multiple practice tests :)</p>
<p>How do you know if you are eligible for NMS before youâve taken the PSAT?</p>
<p>I was asking ecouter if he was eligible because heâs in Canada, and you have to be American to be eligible (since the N = National). Check here for eligibility requirements: [National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NMSP](<a href=âhttp://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#entryreq]Nationalâ>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php#entryreq) Of course you wonât know if youâve <em>qualified</em> until (long after) youâve taken the PSAT. I say âlong afterâ because the cutoffs in each state differ each year, and those arenât released until fall of senior year (when you took the test fall of Junior year!)</p>
<p>Dâs testing plan is PSAT and SAT this fall and then the ACT in the Spring. Since she was close to the state NMF cut off on her sophomore test, she is spending time this summer preparing for the PSAT. </p>
<p>She took the ACT as a 7th grader so she is familiar with the test format. Will probably spend some time prepping in the winter.</p>
<p>Is anyone else still (impatiently) awaiting AP scores? S could care less, though if he finds out theyâve arrived and decides to check the mail, he may squirrel them away if he does not like them. D found out by phone (clearly, impatient like me) but at least we will get TWO envelopes, so I will know they have arrived should he hide themâŠWe are in Virginia. Seems like the rest of the country has them and with no disrespect but really- even Alaska and Hawaii do!</p>