<p>Just booked our first official college visit w S16. He has a four-day weekend at the end of October. We’ll fly to San Diego, visit a family friend (who sadly has metastatic cancer), then after a day at Disneyland we’ll visit Pomona and Harvey Mudd. Both are lottery-type schools, but we have to start somewhere. I don’t yet know whether he’ll try to connect w the swim coach or not. May be a bit premature for that. </p>
<p>no AP’s here yet, so no certificate…PSAT’s…I just want him to take it a little more seriously than he did in 10 grade.
on another note: anyone have a kid who is involved with the arts: music, theater etc? I am having a difficult time knowing how to guide my kid. </p>
<p>My D13 is just starting out as a theatre major in a BA program. There is a lot of info on the theatre majors forum. </p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel I don’t know how much you know about that area, but Harvey Mudd is in a nice area. Pomona is a bad neighborhood even though it is minutes from Mudd. I grew up about 15 minutes from there and am now an hour away. As you most likely know, the Claremont Colleges, La Verne and Cal a Poly Pomona (my alma mater) are right there also. </p>
<p>@Mysonsdad – No, I didn’t know that about Pomona. In my naivete I didn’t think that there were ANY bad areas around there. I may hit you up with some questions as we get closer to our visit. Thanks!!</p>
<p>@drmom123 - S is very involved in music and theater Musical theater is something he loves. He’s been involved in theater since middle school - participating in the musical each year. Since he joined high school, he’s also started doing the plays and this year,might actually do this all three seasons. Great fun to go watch !!</p>
<p>That being said, I don’t know if he’s going to pursue this in college. Go over to the theater forum or the musical theater forum and it is very very scary 
S is good, but I don’t know if he is that talented or dedicated as some of those kids seem to be. When we visited colleges this past summer, we did check if he could participate in theater programs even if he wasn’t a theater major and it looked like it was feasible, at least in some schools. We did take him to see Emerson which is more of a arts/theater program and he came back saying he didn’t see himself applying there.</p>
<p>D16 is in her high school Thespians group (she’s a techie), but probably won’t be a theatre or tech major. She’s interested in some kind of science field, possibly environmental.</p>
<p>My d16 is in orchestra and although she’d like to continue her musical education she doesn’t want to major in it. It was pretty high on her college wish list to find a program specific to her instrument that accepted non-majors. S18 does glass flamework - not your typical high school medium. I joked that if they get tired of living at home they can just run off and tour with a renaissance festival;-)</p>
<p>Out of curiosity I did some research into the the number of NMSF at our school. Below is the info I found, class sizes my not be totally accurate, some sites gave different numbers for the same year. Our school does not require the PSAT and it is always given on a Saturday here. I don’t know the actual number of 11th graders that took the test each year. I’m a little concerned that the number of NMSFs dropped a bit this year even with a drop in the cut off score. I’m afraid this doesn’t bode well for our school for the class of 2016 especially since the PSAT is the morning after homecoming!</p>
<p>2015 19 NMSF class size 642 min 218
2014 21 NMSF class size 660 min 219
2013 27 NMSF class size 627 min 216
2012 15 NMSF class size 653 min 219
2011 44 NMSF class size 638 min 215
2010 32 NMSF class size 590 min 216
2009 28 NMSF class size 576 min 215
2008 26 NMSF class size 645 min 215</p>
<p>As I was poking around the web for this info I learned that the STEM magnet school in the very large, neighboring school district had more than half the NMSF in that district. My daughter has a friend in that school and her mom told me that they had all the juniors taking practice PSAT tests and doing test prep in school. It’s interesting to me how some schools really put some effort into PSAT prep and others, like mine, don’t even tell the kids that they can get a free study guide with a practice test when they register. </p>
<p>Parking up date - D16 went to go pick up the premium parking pass from the PTO auction and they REFUNDED her $75 for returning her regular parking pass! I had no idea they would do this! School gets out at 4:05, it used to take her and her brother 30/45 minutes to get to the car and exit the parking lot, she reported that from the new space they were able to get out of the parking lot by 4:11 and she is not stressed about finding a spot in the morning anymore <:-P </p>
<p>@3scoutsmom: Wonder what changed between 2011 and 2012? I would hate to see what our list would look like. I can think of…maybe 3-4 kids in last year’s senior class, and two in the current one, whom I would even remotely expect to see on a NMSF list. Maybe a half dozen on my kids’ class (out of 350-75 kids)-- and I’m not convinced either of mine is a likely, based on last year’s PSAT, though I’m hopeful that reviewing Algebra II will pull up math for S.
Nice surprise on the parking money. Is it yours or hers?</p>
<p>@petrichor11 that money’s mine :-)</p>
<p>The state cut off jumped four points between 2011 and 2012 my guess is that many kids prepped just enough to feel safe since the historic cut had always between 215/216 there were many surprised and sad kids in TX that year. Maybe other things, like maybe having homecoming the night before the test (can you tell I’m pretty bugged about this? Not for my D as she could careless but I would hate to be the kid that has to pick going to such a big school event or being well rested for the test.)</p>
<p>I will also be annoyed if the basketball coach insists on having practice the Saturday morning of the free ACT/SAT practice. This is the same coach that calls them names re: their intelligence in practice. If he believes that don’t they need the ACT/SAT help?</p>
<p>@Cheeringsection is this a travel team or the high school coach? He won’t forgive a kid for missing one practice? Last night I walked into our high school’s volleyball team practice and half the team was gone due to a One Direction concert. </p>
<p>D is off to the ACT this morning. MIssing swim practice, but she can make it up later in the day. Coach will send her the set.</p>
<p>PSAT info came out yesterday at school. We have switched to Wednesday test day because the Saturday numbers fell so low due to sport commitments. Limiting it to 60 kids, didn’t think they could legally turn anyone away. But it may get them to sign up sooner and not wait to the last minute. Since I think only 30 took it last year, doubt it will fill. D won’t make the cut, but good experience for her with another standardized test.</p>
<p>D16 is at the first marching band competition for the year. They have qualified for state finals at this competition for the past 10 years. She has a solos (they are doing Gershwin) and she’s feeling the pressure a bit. She did go for breakfast with some friends so hopefully they’re giggling and relaxing. </p>
<p>She registered for the PSAT yesterday through the school. It was $14 which I thought was cheap compared to what I paid for the ACT. They’re taking it on the Wednesday. Our school, like many others, did not push the PSAT, or talk about NMS, just said it’s practice. Ugh. We had zero NMSFs this year. I talked to D and she understands that it would get her a full ride at UK (her dream) and commended would get her a full ride at Wright State, but after seeing this year’s NMSF thread I was careful to tell her it is one day of many days and not her whole life. </p>
<p>Has anyone’s older kid taken the ACT and the PSAT or SAT? Where the scores pretty similar, or is one more suited for a certain kind of kid? Anecdotes welcome. Hope everyone is having a great fall weekend. </p>
<p>My older D (13/17) took all 3 except she didn’t take the PSAT in 11th because we forgot to register for it. Oh well she had taken it 7,8,9,10 and wasn’t close to the NM cutoffs so there was really no point in taking it in 11th. She took the SAT once and the ACT once then decide she liked the ACT better and prepped for that. She took the ACT one more time and was done. She also took the SAT 2s one time only- Math 2 and Lit. </p>
<p>My S’16 has taken the PSAT since 8th also and would rather not take the PSAT this year. He took the ACT last June and liked it better then the PSAT/SAT style so wants to focus on the ACT. Plus at some schools if you send the ACT you don’t have to send any SAT2s or less SAT2s. Also son isn’t interested in any schools that would give big $ for NM. </p>
<p>My D’19 is in 8th and her school is making the PSAT mandatory this year. They made it optional for the kids last year and very few signed up. I didn’t have D’19 take it last year because being the third kid I realized there is really no point taking it so early. She will have plenty of practice in 9th & 10th and with prep classes. </p>
<p>Based on the experience of S14’s peers and reading innumerable notes here on CC: There are plenty of kids who show a significant disparity between SAT and ACT scores. As best I can tell, if such a disparity exists it’s far more common for the ACT score to be higher. </p>
<p>I think due to the content on the ACT and format which is more in line with what they see in school is the disparity you may see.
Act is more criculium base where the SAT is more logic based. But both can be master with practice because they both are a multiple choice test given to the masses.</p>
<p>What type of pencils do your children use on the standardized test? Old fashioned #2 or mechanical pencils?</p>