Our school district also offered the test on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the past. Strangely, most public schools had the test on Wednesday (half day off for those not testing) and charter schools and privates chose the Saturday. This year the NMC chose two different Wednesdays for the test (Oct. 14 or 28 I think).
Iād love to have ds do well on the old SAT and avoid the new one all together but we will see. Iām hoping to go visit some VA schools around Thanksgiving break and then a few weekend trips in Dec/Jan, Feb break and some weekends in the spring. DS would prefer not to go in NY State or the Northeast so we will save some of those schools for later in the process since we are closer by.
@Collegecue ā you may know this already, but most college campuses will be empty during Thanksgiving week, and I would be surprised if any are offering tours & info sessions.
We would all prefer to avoid the Northeast after last yearās winter!
Depending on the college they may be open on that Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. DSās school has classes the Monday and Tuesday. Although I also doubt there will be tours going on that weekā¦
@MichiganGeorgia ā sorry, I should have stated that more clearly and accurately as you did. Yes, my son is still at school until Tues night before Thanksgiving (perhaps Wed morning), but I would be very surprised if there were any tours or info sessions. Visitors can still attend classes and visit dining halls.
I had a big project at work, and now Iām 5 pages behind, not to mention the other threads.
Welcome to all the new folks! We passed 1000 posts!
Sās school changed their PSAT date from Oct. 14 to Oct. 28, so now he has longer to procrastinate. Theyāve historically taken it on the Wednesday. Usually the 10th graders took the ACT Plan. This year 10th grade will take the ACT Aspire on the same day the juniors take the PSAT. (9th and 12th grade have assemblies and counseling activities.) Last year, the ACT Aspire fell through, so they let 10th graders take the PSAT if they wanted to. There was another public HS that used to offer the Saturday PSAT date, and 10th graders could take that.
Heās taken the one PSAT practice test, but I donāt think he ever finished scoring it. Iāll try to get him to do some practice tests from the new SAT book over the next 3 weekends. Iām frustrated with him similarly to @CT1417; he got over our NMSF cutoff last year, but since this is a different test, he should at least practice on the new question types and the timingā¦
There was another thread (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1814653-who-is-writing-the-questions-for-the-khan-academy-redesigned-sat-prep.html) in which the OP was arguing that the Khan Academy new SAT practice for math didnāt seem very similar to the CollegeBoard book. They found a link to the Khan Academy job announcement for SAT Math question writers that didnāt seem like they were looking for people with a lot of experience.
After the PSAT, we will decide whether he should take the ACT or retry the SAT. His June SAT score was good, but not great, and not good on the essay (he hated the prompt).
We havenāt toured colleges yet. We are in CA, so we should just do a NorCal and SoCal trip sometime. We donāt get many school breaks other than the standard holidays, so it may have to wait for spring break and/or early summer if we want to visit when they have tours. His school is off for all of Thanksgiving week, but he has a community college math class on Tuesday.
S plans on attending a math competition at Caltech in November. Several kids he knows are attending there, so he will probably get the insiderās tour. He may also be going to NYU for a hacking competition in November, but I think heāll be too busy to tour much and NYU doesnāt seem like his style. (Weāll find out about that trip in a few days; the scoreboard has been down, so he doesnāt know.) He still tells people who ask that he wants to major in physics. I often wonder if that will change to CS or a double major.
We went to a local admissions session put on by Yale and MIT. Unfortunately, the MIT guy was stuck in traffic, and the local alumni interviewer coordinator and a couple local student who went to MIT for undergrad ran most of that side of things. Yale looked really cool by comparisonācool houses, activities, food, etc.
School and ECs are going fairly well. Heās really busy, so I wouldnāt suggest SAT prep during the week to him. Weekends are really the only time, and then only blocks of time between several other things.
I figured there wouldnāt be much going on on campuses but we are visiting family in VA so want to get ds on a few campuses anyway. He is so undecided so we want to start getting his brain thinking about different types of campuses. We have family members attending a few schools in VA so although we may not be able to get an official tour we hope to be able to visit with some students and see a little what life is like on campus.
@CT1417 I donāt mind the cold and snow by ds wants to at least consider warmer locations first. And I would love to visit him somewhere warmer for 4 years. LOL.
Is it ok to join this late in the game? Just found CC a few months ago and havenāt posted too much. We have just one child (IVF and then heart failure after delivery) so we are rookies at the whole college scene. Both husband and I went to state schools āback in the dayā and worked our way through paying with cash and <$20K in student loans. Itās been an eye opener realizing those days are long gone lol. We are recovering after a two year layoff period when my husband was laid off from the defense industry, found a job 4 months later only to have that plant close down entirely 5 months later and back in the job search all over again.
D is in the IB program at school, despite saying for years she would never do IB because of the workload reputation. She fell in love with the different style of learning/studying and so far is doing well. She was in orchestra up until this year but quit after a huge drama involving the director and the whole department resigned. She has joined some other clubs and has started a photography business as well. We had no clue Jr year was such a crazy busy year and I wish we wouldāve done a lot of things differently this summer.
We hope to tour some colleges on spring break and are compiling a list. Thanks for letting us learn from all of you!
Welcome, @carachel2 ! My DSās school has about 5 college/university reps in every day and the kids sign up for ones they are interested in. He has gone to info sessions for Columbia, NYU, Boston University, American University, and Indiana University. Since he is looking for a city or college where he can continue to dance, some of the smaller schools in small areas just donāt seem to fit the bill. The prices are shocking and the lack of merit for kids who donāt qualify for financial aid is disappointing. So, for me, I feel like some of the schools arenāt a good return on the amount of money spent. $280K for four years not including travel, etc. just seems so incredibly expensive even if you can afford it. Feel free to convince me otherwise if you have a good argument for spending that amount.
Living in TX we have some great options but he is in a very tough public high school and you have to be in the top 8% of the class to get into University of TX these days. Top 10% for Texas A&M. Unless you take all AP or Dual Credit, you get left in the dust. Unfortunately for him, he is taking two languages which doesnāt weight as high as something like AP Statistics. It is back to the argument of doing what you love or gaming the system. It is a tough call to make as a freshman in high school. Can you see Iām in a complainy mood today? I know, I knowā¦it will all work out in the end.
Anyway, he takes the PSAT on 10/14 and I hope he is ready. Good luck to all of the kiddos taking it next week!
Yes, welcome @carachel2. I have two kids. The oldest (D15) is now a college freshman. S is a junior in HS who wants to go into computer programming. He is also taking the PSAT next Wednesday (and I have been nagging him to study and keep getting āyupā as an answer. We have looked at a boatload of colleges with D15, none of which S is interested in. So now we will be looking with him over winter break, spring break, and summer. Their school also has colleges visit on a regular basis. John Hopkins and Harvard are coming this month, with more planned. He is a very bright kid, but also a āType Bā personality in that he will do what is needed but not go overboard. I donāt think he would thrive in a high pressure, type A environment, so we wonāt even look at the ivy/lottery schools. It will be interesting again this second time around!
@jedwards70 ā¦oh yeah, I feel the complaining mood! It all makes me a little bitter sometimes. Iām thankful that both husband and I are professionals, but weāve dealt with layoffs along the way and my 4 year stint in grad school and our priority on me working only part-time has left her 529 without the $240K colleges seem to think it should have.
Oh to think how naive we were when we told her when she was little that all of her work would pay off and there was no limit to the awesome schools she could attend. I wish I wouldāve found CC when she was in K! We have run the numbers also and there is just no way we can justify what the sites say we could pay. She really wants to get out of Texas and head somewhere East, but unless she pulls in a ton of merit and can reduce our total costs to <15-20K a year I donāt see it happening. We will be fine with most of the state schools. She would have some legacy help at A&M but she wants nothing to do with the rah rah football scene of Aggieland.
We are in Texas also. I would say her school is semi-competitive maybe? Lots of smart hardworking kids duking it out, but nothing like the schools in Southlake, Westlake, etc. Iāve heard about. With the college reps you are describing it almost sounds like Westlake?!! We have a family member who graduated from there as a NMF and she wasnāt even in the top 10% I believeā¦it was crazy!!!
She chose the IB on her own and so far the workload and stress have been manageable. In fact, her friends who are loaded up on 6 AP classes seem to be way more busy and way more stressed. I hate the weighted/AP/IB environment and the push to do them allā¦so dramatically different than back in my day. We all just took English and Science, lol!
Welcome @carachel2 ā itās certainly not too late to join. Judging by the other āParents of the HS Class of 20xxā threads, this one will probably kick into high gear this spring. All you lurkers are welcome to join the party anytimeā¦ <:-P
DH and I actually attended A&M ('87), but I was there from OOS and was a dyed-in-the-wool 2%er (translation: one who does not follow traditions). There are ways to attend A&M without being a football fan, but it can be difficult.
DS is my oldest, so I donāt have been-there-done-that advice, but I think there are some lists of schools with merit aid that may be helpful to you, carachel2. Try the threads linked from here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html
Our school has numerous college visits, but DS only does those if he feels he can skip the class, which isnāt that many classes. He did the Harvey Mudd visit because it was during PE. He may attend the UCLA one next week. Stanford was during his engineering class, and he had some machining he had to finishātough to finish a machining project as homeworkā¦
We have an IB program, but it is very weak in STEM topics. IB Biology SL and IB Math SL are the only math/science courses. But, they do let AP kids take IB courses a la carte. My son is taking IB Spanish SL, which is proving to be difficult, even though the teacher was also his Spanish 3 teacher last year. Heās been forced to admit that he may need to study for the class in addition to just doing the homework.
Welcome @carachel2. Never too late to join in. I just recently found this thread myself.
@carachel2 Weāre not in Westlake but another very similar suburb in a different city. Same issues at our school as Westlake. Itās nice to have another Texan to feel my pain. Such great schools here but there is no guarantee of getting in. It sounds like Californians are in the same boat.
@Ynotgo Iām an Aggie, too! I am a two percenter as well but loved A&M. I wish my S would give it a chance.
So, all that being said, I am always looking for suggestions on good schools with some merit aid in a big city. Not an easy task. My S is an only child so this is my first rodeo (yes, it is a TX joke)!
Hey, does anyone know how you can find out your childās class ranking? It doesnāt show up on our PowerSchool account, and Iām not sure if there is a way (maybe ordering a transcript?). Iād like to know so we have a better idea about her chances at her dream/high reach schools.
@jedwards70 ā¦oh man, I feel your pain. Just hearing the stories from Westlake make me cringe. I am glad D is more of a bigger fish in a smaller pond (although still almost 1000 in her graduating class). The 8% and 10% rules from our big schools make it very tough if you arenāt loading on all APs.
@Ynotgo ā¦I was kind of a 2%er! Only now as an adult can I admit I actually loved being on campus DURING a football camp and loved going to the library during the games! So quiet and peaceful 
I realize now what an introvert I am but D is the same way and has embraced it even in high school. Iāve tried to tell her about the Honors colleges at A&M and how she can make it her own experience, but the conservative rah rahness makes her want to run the other way!
@carachel2 I attended exactly one football game at A&M. They played Cal Berkeley in a pre-season game, and I cheered for Cal secretly, on the inside where it counts. You are right, the campus was nice and quiet when everyone else was at a football game or burning an outrageously large pile of timber.
@MSHopeful, I guess you would ask the office or your GC for a transcript. Here, they print transcripts for all the kids twice a year when they are signing up for next-semester classes. Last year, our counselors had a problem where the new software they were piloting could only print class ranks if they printed transcripts for all ~500 students in the class at once. They abandoned that software pretty quickly after the rumor went around the parent community that the school had stopped providing class ranks to colleges (and some other problems, Iām sure).
Thanks @Ynotgo. I know they provide 2 free a year and my daughter got one recently for a scholarship application she filled out (but didnāt look to see if there was a rank or make a copy because she was āin a hurryā to turn it in). Iāll get a transcript and see what it says.
Hi, Iāve been hanging around CC for just a little while as well. We are in IL. Our state schools are nothing to write home about, so we are looking OOS, and as our 529 is also a little light, we are in search of merit aid like a lot of you.
@MSHopeful Rather than waste a transcript, canāt you get on the phone (or email) with your Dās GC? Iām on a first-name basis with my Dās GC, which my D thinks is a horrible situation. The GC has been great, though. Turns out our HS does not rank, which is more the norm these days I believe.
@2muchquan Thatās a great idea. I have never spoken to the GC since my daughter is so on top of everything, but I will find her name and send her an email. I appreciate the advice!