@CT1417 and @greeny8 The only schools I am aware of that do not accept Latin as a foreign language are the military academies (and even that may have changed.) I do not think for the vast majority of schools that it is an issue.
@payn4ward Investigate the schools before making the decision to take the subject test. Not all do give credit. Spanish would be the most likely to award credit. I have never seen a credit for expository writing. I have seen a few give credit for science (the link Impost d for TAMU had credit for a physics course) and a few give history credit. Most of the time subject tests do not give credit.
Weāve decided on targeting subject tests only for general admittance purposes. Any class credit will be icing on the cake, but there are too many scenarios when applying to 10+ schools IMO. Iād drive myself crazy. Plus, I donāt really mind her taking a refresher course once she matriculates. These kids are so busy right now!
For some reason, my D is concerned about the SAT IIs. She thinks they are pretty hard. I think weāre doing Math II and either Physics or Chemistry (for the kid who wants to go into Bio now, after initially thinking Engineering). Any opinions out there about Physics vs. Chemistry subject tests? Sheās had a 2-year Chem/Phys AP class. I havenāt heard it being offered at other schoolsā¦I feel like itās somewhat uniqueā¦but not sure.
@2muchquan ā Can she ask her teachers and/or classmates how the curriculum overlaps with the exam content? My son took the Bio Subject Test after 9th grade honors bio, but did not take the Chem subject test after 10th grade honors Chem. While he had to self-study a couple of bio topics, I think he felt that Chem would require too much self-studying. This was largely a function of the curriculum in his school, as a fair # of 9th graders take Bio subject but fewer 10th graders take Chem subject test.
He has not yet decided about the Physics subject test b/c again, he is concerned that his AP Physics C class will not have covered enough of the subject test content.
The CB website includes a content overview for each subject test in addition to practice questions.
He took the Math II at the end of pre-calc last spring. He was fine with it, but he likes math.
We got those same letters in the mail, and it was kind of funny because it showed up for both my junior D (who had very good #'s on the PSAT) and my sophomore d (who had ok but not stellar numbers because it doesnāt count and she didnāt prep). We know itās all baloney, but I canāt quite bring myself to just toss it all.
The identical letters for vastly different scores really drove it home for them, though.
Thereās a big box at the top of the stairs thatās used for the college brochures-we open and put all of the letters, flyers, and rando dross into it. Itās crazy how full itās getting. Iām thinking of making some sort of collage out of it someday, I think Iāll have enough paper.
I told dd not to provide her email address. My two oldest were inundated with mailing and didnāt keep up with the college-only inbox. Dd has been requesting information directly from schools and programs-----and even then, some schools email her all the time!
Not much paper has come to the house unsolicited. Itās probably because she had selected 10th grade on the PSAT, before we made the decision that sheāll graduate early.
Paper mailings (not those silly form letters) helped her older brother because he didnāt know what he wanted to do or where he wanted to be. D is pretty darn specific about what she wants, academically, that her range of schools is much more narrow.
The mailings that we have gotten are ridiculous. At this point she doesnāt want to even see it so I just throw it all in the trash.
I totally forgot that my DD also took the bio subject test after having taken the AP course. I have a D16 so I was confusing who took what and when. So even though she has already taken 2 subject tests, she still needs to take the math 2 and she wanted to take one other because her score on the bio wasnāt what she was aiming for. Not sure if she will test in May or June since she will have 5 AP tests in May and the stress might be too much, but if she waits until June, school will be out and she may have burnt out.
I signed up DS for chemistry in May and physics in June (he is taking AP chemistry and Honors physics this year,) but DS says, āwhatās a one more test? Iāll take both chemistry and physics on the same day in May.ā Well, whatever works. He doesnāt prep, so itās not much of burden for him. The scores areā¦ wellā¦ it is what it is.
Due to New SAT issues, May scores wonāt be available before June test (unlike in past years,) so DS will have to wait till October if retesting is needed. Thatās a bummer.
āThereās a big box at the top of the stairs thatās used for the college brochures-we open and put all of the letters, flyers, and rando dross into it. Itās crazy how full itās getting. Iām thinking of making some sort of collage out of it someday, I think Iāll have enough paper.ā
We set up a college-specific email address for S (and D15) to use for requesting college info. That way when they are done with the whole college thing they can just ditch the email address.
S took the Math 2 subject test after precalc. He said it was easy and that was borne out by his score. This year he will take the Physics 2 test after advanced physics. He isnāt shooting for an Ivy, so he should only need 2 subject tests (whew). He is resigned to the testing, but really doesnāt study much for the tests.
And as an aside, the 2015 thread really didnāt pick up much until about now either. Got hopping once the college visits began and the whole process became more ārealā.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Definitely, more testing for placement purposes will be decided post May 1, 2017.
The expository writing was in the Tufts link you posted earlier. Not sure if DS will get 4 out of AP Lang. (Not sure how hard it is to get 760 in English subject test either.) Perhaps there is a motivation issue (do you want to place out of exp. writing?) though!
I was surprised to find that his 3 in AP US Gov will get a credit at TAMU and UT (+additional easy test.) DSās school only has standard or AP path (no honors,) so he is being dragged into lots of history/english AP classes grudgingly since freshman (AP human geo) and getting low AP scores.
At this point, the only EA college other than ** State/Public ** universities on our list is CWRU.
It seems that EA is not so common among private colleges.
Is it worthwhile to complete application early for RD?
About half of D15s private schools (LACs) had EA options. Maybe it is a tech school thing not to do EA. I think it is worth it to do EA when it is offered because it is not binding and it get an application done and out of the way so there isnāt so much of a crunch in December. Also, it is a relief to the students to know that there is a college that wants them. It reduces student stress. By the same token, if you can get your kid to complete an RD app early, it is less to do during crunch time and therefore less stress for everyone.
I think MIT and Caltech both have non-restrictive EA. Thatās about as techy as it gets. DS wonāt do any ED or restrictive early actions, but he probably will do those two as EA (if he writes the essays in time).
The UC system deadline is 11/30, so having deadlines on 11/1, 11/30, and 1/1 should help to spread things out a bit (I hope).
If you are looking for scholarships, many of these seem to have early deadlines, even for RD applicants. Iām going to try to have my D finish all apps by 11/1. But, most of hers seem to have EA or Rolling admissions.
Another benefit of EA is the early feedback provided, in case one is thinking of EDII. My older son applied ED to one school and EA to a few. If had not been admitted to his ED, I liked the data provided by the EA decisions.
Younger son may go SCEA, which will severely limit the EA options.
Grrr. SCEA. Who came up with that?! Tulane has SCEA, which means we have to wait for RD instead, but get her app in early if we want to compete for the named scholarships. No ED or SCEA here.
@2muchquan ā I am out of the loop. I didnāt realize that Tulane had dropped their regular EA. They offered both concurrently a couple of years ago and were REALLY quick to render a decision and large scholarship award. As in, within a week or ten days of submitting the app. IIRC, the turnaround time seemed to depend on the regional rep.
Returning to edit. Tulane still appears to offer EA with a Nov 15th deadline. They are now on the CA, so I donāt know if the app is still free as it was a couple of years ago.
Tulane has SCEA, which means we have to wait for RD instead, but get her app in early if we want to compete for the named scholarships. No ED or SCEA here.