Woot, happy to say that the UVM portal is finally showing D17 as complete! Phew. Obvs not expecting to be in the 11/10 group of decisions but just glad to have it done. 
Yay, @kt1969! I know we really shouldn’t hope to hear on 11/10, but I know I’m going to be anxious/disappointed when we don’t, lol.
@klinska Was your D’s app in early? I’m not really sure if it follows any logic. I just have 12/14 in my head as decision date so I won’t get my hopes up.
@kt1969, no, she got it in on Halloween, got the email that everything was complete on 11/1. I need to get 12/14 in MY head as the decision date…
My D’s transcript is still not in at UVM even though all other schools received it Oct 29-31. Grrr. At least I don’t even have to think about whether she’ll be in the Nov 10 pool. It will make mid-December more exciting with at least four decisions coming in.
@curiositycat333, as mentioned I didn’t see D’s essays, but she also lacks community service. If your S has done any through school or clubs I think talking about that is fine.
Got the WWU log in today and all items are showing as complete. Very interesting though as it shows there is an LOR there! Which makes zero sense. When we originally made the LOR requests through Naviance we had included WWU. However the GC made a point of saying WWU didn’t want them so we went back in and “cancelled” the requests. And yet it shows they got something on the 24th. I am wondering if that is really a LOR or if it is a counselor report, I don’t recall WWU asking for that. It looks like they are showing the transcript we uploaded, versus the one the school sent simply by the date of the transcript. Odd.
I’m with you guys regarding UVM, not expecting to hear on 11/10 but will be bummed when we don’t.
grr on the transcript at UVM @snoozn
Still no portal info from one of S’s schools unless something came by paper copy while I was out of town. Hopefully no one is tossing mail while I am gone, I don’t trust them!
I give UVM until Wednesday to show the transcript and then I send a polite email. Yeah, that’ll show the bastids!
@eandesmom, ha, I think you are the only one having the problem of a college showing more than requested rather than missing things! I don’t get why schools would send paper copies before emails. We got a snail mail from Clarkson with all the portal information and never even received an email verifying that they’d received her app. C’mon Clarkson, with a paper copy I can’t even cut and paste the url, user name and password (first world problems for sure!)
Seriously, zero electronic word from Ursinus. At least we have the common app confirmation email and know they took my money. LOL! Really hoping some snail mail came while I was gone. I will be calling tomorrow if not. I did go in and double check S’s email but our spam seems to self destruct/only show in spam if you mark it as spam and trash auto deletes as well. I get copies though so I know nothing came in. Given that the UVM original portal email bounced to him, I am concerned the same thing happened so I think a call is warranted if there is no snail mail when I get home tonight.
I have NO idea what went to WWU that is categorized as an LOR. What was kind of nice there, is since they allow you to upload your transcript yourself, I included his WWU and UW transcripts and those are also noted on his portal as being in the file. So that’s kind of cool.
Here is the situation. My S is not an elite student going after the very top colleges, so please keep that in perspective. Three of his top 6 colleges of interest are Colorado Boulder, Virginia Tech and Appalachian State, and these three colleges apparently superscore both for the SAT and ACT. So, S made a “solid” (for him) 24 Composite on the September ACT, and it presents well across the board, as he had a 21 English, 25 Math, 23 Reading, 25 Science (and an 8 in Writing, 23 in ELA, and 25 in STEM), and it shows as “college ready” in each subscore and “proficient” in understanding complex texts.
He can get to a 25 Composite if he submits his October (just got results today) ACT score, as he will pick up a 27 in English, which nicely shores up his weakest subscore. But his October score report would show a 23 Composite and, in addition to the 27 in English, a 20 in Math, 23 in Reading and 22 in Science (no Writing), and thus two of those subscores do not show as “college ready” and it also shows “below proficient” for complex texts. (If asked, he could just say he was trying to shore up English only, which is pretty much true, but they won’t ask.) If he sends his February ACT score as well, he would pick up a 26 in Science, but that would move him only from 25 to 25.25 on the Composite calculation, and thus would still show as a 25 Composite (so since February was only a 22 Composite, with a 21 English, 19 Math, 21 Reading, 26 Science, 24 Writing, and would not increase his 25 Composite superscore from using only the September and October tests, I’m guessing the February scores should not be sent (but please chime in).
Based on what I’ve seen, a 24 Composite is in the 74th national percentile, and a 25 is in the 79th percentile. Perhaps importantly, a 21 in English is in the 58th percentile, while a 27 is in the 85th percentile. For each of the three colleges at issue, a 24 Composite would be at the lower end of the 25th -75th percentile midrange for admitted students, and obviously the 25 Composite would push him a bit closer to the middle.
So, does he leave it alone and just have the “solid” 24 Composite from the September test before the admissions offices, or does he submit one or both of the October test (to pick up the 27 English and the 25 superstore Composite) and the February test (to move his Science only from 25 to 26 and not move the needle on the bottom line superscore Composite above the 25?? Does he gain more than he risks? Will the colleges focus on some of the negative aspects from the other test reports, or will it be more of a “blind” plug it into the computer situation and he will just be viewed with a 25 Composite instead of a 24? Thanks for your views!
Hi @lakeviking! We had a situation something like this with the SAT, where my D’s most recent test in October, which we had every reason to believe was going to be as good if not better than her June test but wasn’t (it was the worst of the three she took). We had already sent scores, so there wasn’t really anything we could do about it, but I couldn’t resist picking at the scab and asked a similar question in the College Admissions forum. For our situation I was concerned, because the first and third sitting my D took were very close to each other, but the second sitting was much higher and looked like a real outlier and I was afraid schools wouldn’t “trust” that score. Basically, I was told they will look at the highest scores. Period. Sometimes, especially if you spend a lot of time on some of the threads where students and parents are talking about super-competitive schools, you forget that the large majority of schools are looking for reasons to admit students, not keep them out. That’s the reason they superscore.
Thank you, Klinska. Yes, I imagine that the 3 schools at issue all would like to just get their average standardized test scores for admitted students as high as possible, for their own stats and rankings, etc. Please, others chime in. Where are you, Colorado experts, lol?
In case you didn’t know … the Class of 2017 college acceptances are being posted here:
Just got D17 score for ACT back and she went from a 30 in 10th grade to a 31 in 12th grade after a year away. Not too bad. She did much better in science, got a perfect score in Reading and near perfect in English but she did much worse in math with a 19. That is what cost her. Was hoping for a 32 but 31 is not bad
UGH my UVM friends.
I feel I may have steered my child poorly regarding EA. I did not realize until last night that UVM wants 1st quarter grades for EA applicants. Beyond the fact I am not sure how to even request that, first quarter grades are not going to be pretty here. It is HE_ _ week here for the fall play, opening night is Thursday. Quarter end is on Monday but with no school Friday I suspect that really, Thursday is it for marking. He did not feel good about his APES test yesterday and has a Calc one today he is not all that sure of. Didn’t do well on a Poetry test in AP lit which brought that grade down a ton. He doesn’t think grades will go down but they won’t go up either. Which means we would be looking at 2 B- (AP Lit, APES) a B (AP Calc) and a stupid B+ that better go up in Theater Tech. That report card if it stands certainly will not help him.
I am letting him skip Jazz today to study for the Calc test. I am quite sure some poor choices were made over the weekend with time management that didn’t help things (was out of town). But UGH! Oh well. What will be, will be, right? I am not overly worried for the semester, this is a very traditional pattern for him but I likely should have steered him to RD at UVM. We appear to be safe everywhere else.
@lakeviking we had a very similar situation, each of his 2 tests had one section that was below the benchmark. Combined, all are above for a 25C. I figure, if the common app asks for self reported scores of best subsection, all tests, then the schools really are looking at the best and not overanalyzing where one was low on one test versus the others. For his schools, I sent all scores. I wish we had a 3rd score to toss into the mix but we do not.
I can only speak from my OOS CO Boulder experience but a good friends son is there now, with similar (lower I think) ACT scores and at the lower end of this GPA thread. They felt it was a reach for him and were surprised he got in. He had decent EC’s but not really anything unique. I would tend to agree that you may not gain enough to make sending the Feb scores worthwhile and if showing low scores are a concern I’d say the concern over the 19 in math for me would be higher than the gain of the 26 in the science.
@eandesmom Where do you see that UVM is requiring first quarter grades? On common app I see “midyear report”, which I think is after the first semester.
@kt1969 it’s on their website
@eandesmom Huh, I see that. I also have no idea how to request that. They are showing the app as complete so I guess I’m not going to worry about it.
@eandesmom Those grades are fine. I would not worry about. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I don’t think UVM is expecting all of their accepted applicants to be super geniuses. Just decent students with decent scores, that are involved with stuff. They like OOS students. If your son was literally bombing 1/2 his classes it might be an issue. But some B’s, don’t sweat it. A C, wouldn’t worry about it. Your son has been consistent throughout his school years and is taking challenging classes. He’ll be fine!!
@lakeviking My older D12 (graduated college last June) had even lower ACT scores and a lower SAT than your S. She got into 1/2 the schools she applied. Many were small LAC’s and some were state schools. I don’t know how your S stacks up at the schools he is applying but I’m confident he can get in somewhere. I personally don’t believe in taking & re-taking these tests over and over. Some kids just aren’t good test takers. Focus on other aspects that are going well.
@lakeviking, CO expert checking in! (Okay, “expert” is probably pushing it – I’ll go with “Mom in CO who knows a little bit.”) Your S and my D have two overlaps with CU and VA Tech. According to CU’s website they do superscore the ACT (which many schools don’t – often only the SAT is superscored). So I think there is no reason not to send all his scores. I can’t be sure, but I suspect the AO making the decision won’t even see all of them. At least I’ve always thought the superscoring is done either automatically or by some poor student intern who spends hour after boring hour entering scores. I definitely wouldn’t “explain” the scores anywhere in the app barring very unusual circumstances.
For your S’s other schools, I’d definitely check and see if they superscore the ACT because if they don’t I think you’d just want to send the highest composite.
My oldest D is a senior at CU and her fiance is a recent grad. Her ACT was 27 (I don’t know the subscores, but math and science were probably lowest!) and her GPA was 3.7. This was at a hs with “no rigor.” They didn’t offer any advanced, honors, AP, IB, etc., so that may have put her at a disadvantage. She also had very limited EC’s. Has your S looked into CSU in Fort Collins (just a little north of Boulder)? It doesn’t have as much “name recognition” as CU, but I think it is an equally strong school and my hs senior D prefers it to CU. It’s a bit less selective and a bit less expensive too.
Let me know if you have any other CO specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer.
@eandesmom, D and I went into the whole EA thing knowing it might not be the best strategy because her first semester grades should be very strong. She really wants to know decisions ASAP. It looks like UVM’s first quarter requirement will have a ding – showing a B in AP Calc, while she now has an A. I hope it’s not a big deal, but applying to engineering they may pay more attention to that than I’d like. Funny thing is the 2nd quarter and current grades are barely over a point apart which is possible since her school doesn’t do the plus’s and minus’s. (Okay, I just refreshed the page after CC logged me out and saw @RightCoaster’s post regarding UVM. Point taken – I promise not to worry.)