Ditto what LMHS73 said. Right now it’s pretty much an unknown with lots of potential, but he’s excited and so are we.
S’13 is home from college, but then off again in a week and not back until July. Enjoy the HS kids while they are still tethered to home.
What’s AP Capstone program? My DD1 doesn’t know if school offer this program… is this program available in most high schools or if its pre-AP class preview classes offered during summer only?
It’s a new type of AP program, if you take the AP seminar class and the AP research class plus four other AP classes of your choice and score 3 or better on all the exams you get a special certificate from the College Board.
Here a link with more info:
https://lp.collegeboard.org/ap-capstone
I think it is new enough that most High Schools don’t offer it yet. Next year is the first year it is being offered here.
Our DD’s school doesn’t yet offer AP Capstone. She starts her summer job today - will work some afternoons and weekends until school lets out in 2 weeks. All of the seniors on her team have made their college choices. That has prompted DD to start looking up schools on the Internet. She has started announcing their acceptance rates! I told her it is too early to get into all that. Best to just focus on what you can control – study for your exams.
Thank you @3scoutsmom!!
Some counselor recommended my DD1’18 to study SAT this summer since she already finished Algebra 2, but I’m concern about her reading and writing and not sure if she should take the old or new SAT. When is the earliest age or grade to take SAT? Does the counselor make sense? He doesn’t know my DD, only know she is taking Algebra 2.
@jjkmom, your daughter should take the SAT when she is ready, anytime from 9th grade on. Have her do some timed practice tests at home to see where she is. I think your counselor is suggesting taking the SAT sooner because the SAT does not have math past Algebra 2 and does have a good bit of geometry which some kids forget as they get into the higher maths.
My son is also in Algebra 2 this year, he will be taking a local prep class this August to prepare for the new PSAT in October. In our house the PSAT is much more important than the SAT because of the potential for National Merit which would give my children options they wouldn’t have otherwise. S18 will take the PSAT in 10th grade for practice and in 11th grade when it counts. The PSAT will be in the new format, if he dose very well with the new format on the PSAT we may wait and take the new SAT in spring of 2016 if not he’ll take the old SAT the last time it’s offered, January 2016. He’ll also take the new SAT in Nov 2016.
I strongly recommend getting SAT/ACT testing done before the second semester of the junior year if possible. My D16 has friends that are going crazy with studying for the SAT, AP tests and SAT2 test all at once, she is very glad finished her SAT testing in the fall.
It’s been some time since I’ve checked in… who was the Mom with the child attending the Snow Farm art camp? My son was accepted to CCY at Wesleyan but we are also waiting for other local programs before making a decision. The CCY audition was a great experience and I was impressed with the program staff. Based on that alone I would recommend you apply next year… however, if my son attends I can provide a more in-depth review.
@magnetnh it’s my son that attends Snowfarm. I’m glad CCY worked out for you! I think next summer S18 plans to apply for an apprenticeship at glass studio, we’ll see I haven’t even gotten this summer figured out yet!
@3scoutsmom, I thought PSAT can only be taken in the junior year and our kids '18 won’t have choices but to take new SAT, which I heard the vocabulary part is easier. I didn’t know that PSAT also has new format, thanks for heads up, she had PSAT practice exam offered from her MS, but she was sick that time and doesn’t care much… I was told PSAT doesn’t really count or not require to list when applying college unless kids getting National Merit. I know many kids getting that but still didn’t get offer of scholarship from colleges, however, it does look good to list on the application. I guess I will need to look into whether to take old SAT or new one in 2016. My concern is that she has more AP classes in 11th grade and only one or two in 10th grade, so she may need to get SAT done earlier… howevé, like you said, she should take it when she is ready and I don’t think she is yet…
@jjkmom You’re right that colleges don’t care about the PSAT unless you make National Merit but for us National Merit is a big deal as it means a Full Ride or Full tuition to some schools. have you looked at this list http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/ ?
The 11th grade PSAT is the only one that counts for National Merit but the College Board does not have any rules about what grade you are in to take it. Many students take the PSAT in both 10th and 11th grade. With my daughter the PSAT was a very good indicator of how well she would do on the SAT.
Does your D have a plan of how she is going to get ready for the PSAT/SAT? I know some kids can just self study but mine really need some outside motivation. S18 will be taking a local prep class this summer. It’s frustrating that the College Board hasn’t released the new study materials for the new format yet. I have their new official book on pre-order from Amazon but no ship date yet.
My DD will not study for the 10th grade PSAT. It doesn’t count for anything and I want a true baseline of where she stands without prep. I used the same strategy for DS 2014. He did fine on the PSAT (commended scholar with a score of 214) and his SAT score was pretty close to his PSAT score without any studying. Turns out the ACT was better for him anyway – scored a 34 without any prep at all, not even self-study. If he had bothered to study he could have boosted his score a point or maybe even two but at that point it’s not worth it to take again.
I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve got a pretty laissez faire attitude towards the whole testing thing. I have better uses for that prep test money LOL!
@2014novamom unfortunately we can’t afford a “laissez fair attitude” we aren’t poor enough for need based aid and not rich enough to just right a check for all three kids for 12+ years of college. D16 is likely NMF (score of 231) and plans to take OU up on their $120K five year scholarship. I think that was a good ROI of both time and money spent on prep.
To each his or her own on test prep, I say! Thank goodness for options.
@3scoutsmom Absolutely agree that if a kid needs test prep to qualify for merit aid, it’s a good idea. In our case, with the baseline we had from sophomore year PSAT I knew his scores would be good enough to get generous merit from a number of schools in consideration. I also knew from looking at their CDS’s that the more selective schools on his list don’t give merit aid and we are full pay.
Given our circumstances, the time and money expended on a prep course probably would not have yielded more merit aid than he would have gotten without. And it played it just as I thought it would. No merit aid from the highly selective schools, $22-25k a year from selective schools, and nearly full rides from his safeties.
With test prep in our area running as high as $6k we were strategic in our choice. I did pay for an essay writing class but that was only $300.
And oh, happy Mother’s Day to all the moms on this discussion!
@2014novamom where are you located? Wow! $6K is a lot! The local prep class here is less than $500 (after sibling discount and sign up with a friend discount ;-)) It covers both PSAT and SAT and unlimited proctored practices tests and group tutorials, they even include a notebook and a copy of the CB Blue Book. The online prep course was $400 but had a money back guarantee if she didn’t hit 2300 and I spent about $100 in misc prep books that can be shared between kids. So a little less than $1K per kid for test prep.
My D couldn’t have hit 2100+ without prep and clearly needed it to hit 2200+. 220 PSAT is what’s need to be safe for NM in our state and 220+ would have been a gamble without that online prep classes in addition to the local class. Making Commended wouldn’t give enough merit to make some of the schools on D’s list affordable. It really is harder to increase scores past the 2100+ range! In our situation the almost $1k was well worth the 231 PSAT and 2310 SAT (750M 760CR 800W) scores.
For time, the local class taken in August before 10th grade is seven two hours classes (14 hours), for the on-line class taken Aug/Sept 11th grade, she did in under 30 hours so if you add in practice tests and the misc books I’d guess she put in about 80 hours over two years for prep, so a full work week a year, though I think she put in more time the second year than the first. Most of it was done in the end of August when she didn’t have much else going on. I asked D how much time she thinks she spent on PSAT/SAT total and she thinks it was closer to 60 hours across two years so maybe it was less. If we split the difference and call it 70 hours, the OU NM scholarship is $120,000 minus the $1,000 I spent so $119,000 divided by 70 hours = $1700 hour and that’s not factoring in any outside scholarships! There are some local scholarships that 1500 m+cr is the ‘magic number’
You have a point about the amount of merit aid from the different tiers of schools. We are looking at schools that give full ride/ full tuition. I’m very excited about the new Texas Tech National Merit scholarship that cover 100% including transportation and personal expenses! I’m not ruling out higher priced schools for the boys but they know from the start that price is a big factor and having higher test scores is never a bad thing!
It’s great that your kids can get the merit they need with no prep! For us the investment of time and money is worth it but I can see if you have the scores you need for the merit you want it then you wouldn’t want to waste time and money on prep.
For some of us with kids who struggle with test taking and have testing anxiety, the prep classes were necessary to get a high enough score for admittance into schools besides our state U’s. So, we spent about $2500 on private ACT tutoring and I believe the 6 pt jump in score was worth it. What I did find to be a waste of $2k was the private college counselor who offered no additional information beyond the research I found on my own. And while the counselor did offer essay and college app review before hitting submit, this proof reading was nothing I couldn’t do as a parent. With #2 child, I will save on the college counselor and evaluate the need for test prep.
Each kid has a different path to college. Test prep or not, private counseling or not, and so forth. What works for one kid may not work for another. We gotta support each other’s choices in this crazy journey!
Helimom74–I agree. We needed the test prep to have college options. Others look for test prep for merit options. We all have unique kids with different needs and abilities. And I’m not against private college counselors. I just found that my research was pretty thorough but some counselors may offer more services to make them worthwhile. I’ve also heard that prices for some private counselors can be $10k so perhaps I got a deal.
@3scoutsmom, thanks for sharing the list! I am surprised that there are so many universities provide full ride for students, however, most of them were out of state for me (we are in CA) and not on the top 50 ranks. I don’t know whether unwound choose no tuition debts or chose to send my DD1 to the best school she can get in, but we have very similar situation, inhale 3 kids, DD1 '18, DD2 '20, DS3 '22, we will investing on preping classes as well, and hope to get some scholarship support for college cost. We are not qualify for need base, but also no $$ for full tuition out of state either.