The 1380 being quoted is the best guess for NMSF ‘qualifying’ score. It had been 1960 under the old 2400 exam format. That is the SAT score that a NMSF needs to qualify his National Merit status. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
209 is the PSAT score that has been reported at the cutoff for commended. No one knows yet what the PSAT score for NMSF will be by state, but regardless of what it is, the current estimate is that a 1380 will be the new 1960.
Does that make sense or confuse the issue more?
@Pri930— as to why one would want to take more subject tests? Perhaps to demonstrate mastery of the subject, especially if the student attends a less rigorous HS. One word of caution: if your child plans to apply to any of the handful of schools that require submitting full testing history, your student will want to be certain that he is prepared for the test so that he is not forced to submit a score that he is not happy with.
Georgetown is the only school I know of that requires three subject tests. Some schools specify that they want one humanities and one science, or Math II and Physics or Chem only (some schools at CMU).
RE: banking & CC. I had a card issued for each of my sons the first summer each commuted into NYC. I am not quite sure why I felt they needed a card being an hour away from home. Power outage requiring them to book a hotel room? All it was ever used for was to top up the subway pass.
They use this card for gas or Dr visit copays. I had the college son open a card in his own name connected to his checking account. Governor Ball tickets, eating out with friends, albums…those are on him. My card is for direct school expenses: adding to laundry or dining account, an online exam fee, bus ticket home. I am averse to debit cards (only person in America, I know) so they only have charge cards.
I have to figure out how much to fund for groceries for next year’s off-campus housing. Should pop over to the 2014 thread to seek ideas.
Two years ago, older son was fine with me logging in to check but younger son did not want to ‘risk it’, so he waited. Meanwhile, he was fine with the fact that I had stumbled upon that 30 minute window in January when PSAT scores were released a day early.
@CT1417 I’m also averse to debit cards, so there are 2 of us.
I’m thinking about what to do along the lines of an ATM card for S for this summer. There isn’t an ATM for our bank on the CU-Boulder campus, but I suppose he could use another ATM with a service charge. I guess I’ll change his savings account to a checking account. He has a prepaid credit card from a previous trip, but has only used it once.
Our kids have also had teen checking accounts for a log time. They both have ATM cards that can be used for debit or credit charges. D often traveled for her sport, so we got her one of our credit cards in her name. She is very responsible. She used it to buy gas when she lived at home. We also got D “real” checks when she graduated from a teen checking account to an adult one at 18. They have come in handy at school for paying her music teacher and also paying some of her college charges when we couldn’t (it was easier to reimburse her account online than navigate the payment system on my old iPad!)
S17 has checking account with debit card attached to our accounts (like many others have described). We got it for him after he took consumer economics last summer (will probably do same for D19 next year). This system works really well for us (as long as we watch the number of transfers per month).
The first is being named commended. That score is national and is 209. (That is the Selection Index on their score report. It is NMSC’s calculation based on weighting of the scores.)
The third step is completing the application. That is when the confirming SAT score has to be submitted. (They also have to submit transcripts and an essay, etc.) This is where the 1380-1390 (again, guesses at this point) will come into play.
So kids who believe they surpass their state’s cutoff for NMSF (step 2) need to have an SAT score above that range.
@Ynotgo Thank you for the concordance table links.
Now I am annoyed. Based on d17’s scores on the new PSAT, it looked like the new SAT was the way to go compared to her old SAT score and her ACT score. Looking at the concordance tables, the new PSAT predictive score was just over her old SAT score and below her ACT. Surprise!
grrrrrrrr
@greeny8 She is actually signed up for the June test. I think if I had the concordance tables earlier, I would have had her retake the ACT instead.There is always Oct if June doesn’t work out. However, I was hoping June would be the last of the testing!
Yes, you can use IP proxies from New York to see AP scores on first day itself if you can’t wait Lot of kids know that technique. Basically College Board don’t want to pay for extra bandwidth so they go by IP address.
Yep, my D used the IP trick to get her scores three days early last year. She was not willing to wait, especially since her friends who spent the summer elsewhere would actually get their scores on the first day. It is just silly that CB doesn’t release all the scores at once, so I have no problem with her checking her scores “early” for our location.
I don’t know if any of you have kids old enough to have experienced this, but CB used to charge $8 (I think that is what it was) to view the scores online. One small blessing in the testing craze.
@2muchquan People willing to pay $8 for the privilege. (Btw, my kids corrected me. You had to pay the $8 to get your AP scores by phone. Gah…I just know that I have given way too much $$ to CB over the yrs.)
My kids have “High school checking” accounts under my own checking acct at Chase.
They each get their own debit/ATM cards and I can easily transfer money in and out of “their” checking accounts.
I understand when they upgrade it into “College checking” account, it will be a separate account.
@Ynotgo Do you have a Credit Union checking account? There are many Credit Union ATMs at CU-Boulder. I believe you can use any Credit Union ATM/debit cards on those machines. The other national banks around here are Chase and Wells Fargo. Colorado does not have Bank of America nor Citibank.
@Ynotgo I believe Chase does. We use our local credit union for the younger boys but for SD14 we use Chase as there are no nearby credit union ATMs for her to use at her school.
D told me lots of kids at her school got their ACT scores by snail mail, but none for us yet. Hopefully tomorrow, which is also when SAT should be up. Nope, no nail-biting going on in this house.
Re feelings on sports – None of my 3 are really into team sports at all. D11’s feeling toward school sports is highly negative. She hates the traffic tie-ups on game days. One time I missed her dance performance because there was some really huge game (don’t know what sport) going on. The closest parking was about half an hour away. Obviously the dance department screwed up by not checking this, but D still blames sports. She also mentioned just the other day that they send the football team all over the country even though they lose and do not send dancers to the American College Dance Association even though they win!
D17 leans toward less emphasis on sports, which I guess goes along with wanting to attend a smaller school. S18 is neutral.
Re Harvey Mudd – D never looked at it as a real potential, more in the way that lots of STEM kids will wish they could go to MIT even though it probably wouldn’t work for most. Of course in the back of her mind she may hold out hopes for perfect SAT scores! If she did have the stats, we’d certainly take a look. D11 looked at Pitzer and I really like the 5 college set-up with all the campuses connected (unlike the consortium in MA).
@Ynotgo
The leadership camp sounds like a good experience – my D could use that. As far as eligibility, you or your kid could call and explain your situation to find out if he would be eligible. Those programs are usually pretty good. Here’s the link for the one D is doing: http://www.mymaven.org/. Only in 4 locations right now, but who knows, they could expand in time for your C21!
@eandesmom
I hope whatever combo of camps your S ends up will turn out for the best. When D11 was researching schools by her 2 majors she looked into Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. It wasn’t on her list long, but we found out (probably from that same review site) that the initials really stood for “Rich White Underachievers.” (I’ll just point out that I know nothing about the school!)
If the rest of us make fake kids, you’ll friend them, right?
Lot of kids know that technique. Basically College Board don’t want to pay for extra bandwidth so they go by IP address.
(Btw, my kids corrected me. You had to pay the $8 to get your AP scores by phone. Gah…I just know that I have given way too much $$ to CB over the yrs.)