<p>I left out AP testing in May of 10th, 11th and 12th. Will likely end up with 8 total. </p>
<p>@Dragonflygarden I see, wish our school paid for the PSAT. Best of luck to your son on the PSAT next year, even if it means heās stuck taking SAT ;-)</p>
<p>S16 took the PSAT in Oct of his junior year and scored just high enough to make the NMSF cutoff here in CA. However, the cutoff has been trending steeply upward over the last couple of years, and who knows whether he can repeat that performance (when it counts). Heās theoretically prepping for the PSAT over the summer. He could be doing more, he could be doing less.
Weāre trying to figure out when heāll make his first go at the SAT. Weāre toying with November, as hopefully heāll have āpeakedā with his PSAT training for the October exam, and the only thing that heāll have to add is a bit of work for the essay.<br>
He took the Chem subject test this past June. Heāll likely take the Math2 and ?Biology at the end of his junior year.
His high school offers very few AP courses, and itās rare that kids take one before their senior year. That said, he may take the U.S. History AP test after he takes regular ole US History this (junior) year. He tests well, and if he can get a 4 it might release him from some distribution requirement once heās in college.</p>
<p>FWIW, we made a strategic mistake with S14ās testing schedule. He took the SAT for the first time in March of his junior year. His scores were good, but not as good as he/we expected. Since he had to take a couple of subject tests in June, he really couldnāt prep and re-take the SATās until October of his senior year. At that sitting he did better than weād expected, and had we had those high scores earlier it might have influenced his application choices. All worked out in the end, but in retrospect we would have liked to have finished the testing done earlier. His high school gave us no help/advice.</p>
<p>btw - in terms of visiting multiple colleges in one day (did someone ask that here) - today we visited Yale, Princeton, and Penn. It was too much. 
But two would have been fine.</p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel - agreed, the timing of these tests is very important! I like the idea of taking the SAT near the PSAT, late fall or early winter, and SAT2 tests near the same time as similar AP tests in May, since thatās the only time the APās are offered. I also think itās a good idea to take the tests as soon as the student is ready just in case they want to retake it.</p>
<p>BTW - Asleep was it a typo that your S16 already took the PSAT as a Junior?</p>
<p>We tried to spread out APās as much as possible but itās really hard to take many AP class in 9th and 10th grade here.
Hereās her AP testing
9th grade CS
10th grade World History
11th grade APUSH, APCHEM, Physics 1/2, CALBC, AP Lit
12th grade AP Lang, AP Gov, AP Micro or Macro, AP German, AP Physics C (both parts)</p>
<p>@fretfulmotherā
How did you like the schools? We visited UPenn Wharton briefly with DS16 (he loved it) on the way to visit DD at Princeton last fall. The two schools are only about 1 hour apart. Iād like for DS to see Yale also. </p>
<p>@3scoutsmom, enjoyed reading about your daughterās Girl Scout activities. Great organization. </p>
<p>Our testing schedule:
9th: PSAT, SBA (required state testing), AP US Govt, SAT2 physics and math 2 (spring)
10th: PSAT, SBA, graduation exam (state requirement), AP Eng Lit and Calc AB, SAT2 chem and World History (spring)
11th: PSAT and SAT in October, AP Music Theory/Eng Lang/Bio in spring. Probably no more SAT2s at this point, though Chinese is a possibility. Maybe a second SAT in spring if fall score is below 2200. Maybe an ACT.
12th: Not sure. Maybe AP Chinese. Want to do the Chinese testing in some form, since she is homeschooled and her studies are with a tutor, as opposed to an accredited program, just to validate the āmom gradesā</p>
<p>Oh, and I am interested in reading school visit reports too! Our visiting is quite limited due to geography My oldest only visited a few schools, after she was accepted. We did find that some schools will pay a portion of the plane fare for visits after acceptance, which was helpful.</p>
<p>@3scoutsmom ā Youāre right. It doesnāt matter how many times I proof-read my posts. Theyāre still riddled with typoās. He took the PSAT in his sophomore (not junior) year and just made the cutoff. Like all our Class of 2016 kids, October of his junior year has not yet happened.</p>
<p>And BTW, I checked out the link to the Morocco trip. Your daughter does appreciate what generous and fearless parents she has, yes?</p>
<p>I have no idea what value the colleges put on scouting activity in the application/admissions process. Neither of our kids have done scouting, but I do hope that the schools put significant value on the fact that a lot of these kids have sunk a lot of time, effort, work, and dedication into their scouting achievements.</p>
<p>@Dragonflygarden - We liked Princeton a lot! Penn was mostly locked up, no tour on Sunday afternoon in July, so it was hard to know what to think. The driving was so ridiculous around Penn but Iām trying not to let that sway things. Yale was just āokā - doesnāt seem to have much to recommend it above other schools. (Penn has a terrific Hillel, by reputation - so that is pushing it up there, along with its engineering reputation.)</p>
<p>I have DS16 and DS20 with me; DH is home with the little this week. :)</p>
<p>D16 tool the ACT twice as a sophomore to see what it was like. Weāll be doing PSAT/SAT this year with ACT in between, likely in December (Marching band kid). Obviously hoping for a shot at NMS. We only have 2 APs so those are in senior year. She is taking classes tho as Iāve mentioned, she should enter college with 30ish credits. </p>
<p>@fretfulmother Princeton is a wonderful school. My son wants to study Business/Economics so he ranks Wharton at UPenn as his #1 right now.</p>
<p>In case anyone is interested we have also visited UVA, William & Mary, and U Richmond (all instate with very highly rank business programs). UVA has a very pretty campus but it big and right in the middle of a city with lots of busy streets. WIlliam and Mary (public) is smaller and more compact and in historical Williamsburg which is a great town. U Richmond (private) has a very pretty campus on the western side of Richmond. Everyone was very nice at each school. We liked Richmond the best but DS will probably apply to all 3. </p>
<p>Does anyone think the community college route is a bad way to go? I know Iāve mentioned it on here before, but it am starting to think it is looking better and better. I was at Starbucks the other night and saw a former student of mine who was the Salutatorian 11. She decided to go to a CC and even though she was accepted to some tier 1 colleges. She told me she was glad she went the CC route just due to all the money she saved. In my area a local school district will pay for the first two years at the CC if a student qualifies and it is very easy to qualify. You basically just have had to do all your schooling in the area, got decent grades and not have been a discipline problem. </p>
<p>@mysonsdad my understanding is the merit funding is really limited for a transfer. Donāt get me wrong, one of my degrees if from community college. Itās affordable (in your case free) and English 101 is English 101 at 79 a credit or 379 a credit but it wouldnāt make sense for my kid because we donāt qualify for any aid at all and itād mess with the merit. </p>
<p>@mysonsdad
I donāt think there is anything wrong with starting out at community college but it can have a few drawbacks. My DD attends Princeton for less then cc would cost due to their fabulous financial aid. I also know a few top kids from our HS who were offered merit scholarships to the 4 year university in town that made tuition there cheaper then cc. Another thing to consider is the ability to transfer to a desired 4 year college. I think most schools take transfers but I know Princeton does not. </p>
<p>Lastly I think kids taking a rigorous HS curriculum would be bored at CC. My daughter earned an IB diploma which some colleges award up to 2 years of credit for. It would not have made sense for her to go to cc if other options were available. </p>
<p>@mysonsdad Itās a very individual thing. Because we live outside of our CC tax district classes per credit hour cost about the same as our local state U. As others have mentioned colleges donāt offer many scholarships to transfer students. Again in our specific case D will have already completed 2/3 of an AA degree by high school graduation with APs and dual credit so going to CC for one semester doesnāt really make sense for her.</p>
<p>If your CC is free then it could be a very good deal for you. I know in some state if you graduate from a CC you are auto admits to state schools so this could be another plus to go the CC rout</p>
<p>A huge number of kids from our high school go the CC-to-local-state-uni route. Itās usually accompanied by a parental explanation of finances, but I think a lot of it is a local culture that assumes all kids end up at the state uni and never leave the area. (At best, they end up at Flagship U, then come back.)
For us, I would have reservations. The first is that I think it would be harder for both my kids to stay motivated living at home and going to the CC. Iāve seen too many of their friends just sort of drift off into slow progress, then dropping out altogether. The second is that, due to finances that still havenāt quite recovered from the depression/recession/what-have-you (plus twins in college), weāre looking at a fair amount of need-based aid. With that in mind, if the kids can get into higher tier schools, it may well be cheaper than the CC. (The Boy is probably also applying Questbridge-- The Girlās numbers arenāt quite good enough, nor are her ECs-- so that will almost certainly impact the equation.)<br>
Dual enrollment impacts the issue as well, both positively and negatively.
All that having been said, itās a good alternative for many kids. Beats the heck out of high debt.</p>
<p>Okay, another testing question: If a kid is taking AP physics is there any reason to also take the SAT 2 Physics test?</p>
<p>@petrichor11 Some schools (and colleges within schools, like engineering) require a science SAT 2. If your student doesnāt already have one, why not do physics? Kill two birds with one year of study.</p>
<p>@Mysonsdadā I know few pre-meds who went CC route. It does not have prestige factor at the beginning, but saves a lot at the end. Here in California, if they transfer to top UCs, they will graduate from excellent universities at the half the price and without 200K in loans.</p>