@scoutmom2002 It’s always nice to get a diagnosis because then you have something to work with. There are a lot of schools that superscore the ACT.
@ITBgirl If his GPA and ECs are strong, you might considering focusing on test-optional schools when you put together your list. There are lots these days.
I am a graduate of the parallel thread for 2019. I clicked on this one initially by accident, but it is great to see all of the activity. The 2019 thread was a lifesaver for me. I see that a lot of you are currently focused on standardized testing issues, so for what it is worth I can tell you about our experience. Our S took the SAT four times, twice in his junior year and twice in his senior year. The first, third and fourth scores were remarkably consistent, the second time was higher, so we submitted only that one set of scores. One thing I believe was helpful in our case was that we prepared our list primarily on the basis of his best junior year scores, rather than assuming he would do better in the senior year exams. We had a reach or two “just in case,” but the core list was based around the spring junior year scores. As his scores did not improve senior year, we cut a couple of reach schools and applied to a couple test-optional reaches without submitting test results. Among the remaining reach schools, he was successful in only one case, where he was accepted with good merit but, after all, did not like the school when we visited. He did really well with the schools on our core list, and I believe the whole process was relatively stress-free for him (note that I did not say it was stress-free for us!). In the end he accepted an RD offer from a test-optional school where he nonetheless submitted his scores. We didn’t necessarily follow the common wisdom in all respects, but the fit was perfect and I think the school felt it as well. In a way, applying to college is similar to investing a particular pile of money. Most of it should be invested in a balanced portfolio including some high-risk investments and some safer investments. Maybe save a little mad money on the side for investing in the next Amazon . . . For investment advice, the CC community is an endless source of experience and wisdom. Best of luck to you all.
That hockey rink becomes a basketball floor.
Two or three years ago the team was pretty good in the conference and go up and down in rankings. DU women’s lacrosse is in the NCAA tournament this year (boys didn’t make it) and won yesterday in overtime on a goal by a player who was my daughter’s buddy on a 7th grade team with my daughter feeding goals to her all the time. Fun for me to follow.
Anyway, there is no football but a big hockey and lacrosse following, gymnastics and swimming. They are all in the same building (well, lax outside) and it is fun to watch them all. It’s different than football but still sports.
DU also has a gorgeous performing arts center.
@scoutmom2002 my D focused on the ACTs. Surprisingly, a lot of schools do superscore it. If you can’t find it on their standardized testing page, a quick email to admissions from your D get you the details.
I was a regular on the Class of 2017 thread and am also a scout mom. My S’s 14 and 17 are both dyscalculic, as well as dyslexic. The older one dealt with it by attending (and then dropping out of CC). The younger took both the ACT and the SAT and felt the ACT played more to his strengths, so we focused on it exclusively. We got him a private tutor, an amazing young man who teaches math at a local college. My son’s ACT math subscore went from 19 to 25 (27 composite) and could have gone higher if, as my son now admits, he had actually done the HW the tutor assigned. My own piece of advice to you is get accommodations for the test if you don’t already have them. We had to fight with the ACT because S17’s GC didn’t describe his LD in the proper terms but when I realized what had occurred, we filed a successful appeal.
In terms of the test, what we did was analyze the first set of subscores in math. He did best in geometry, then algebra and never even took trig. So his study plan was to reinforce the geometry concepts to get the most points, then work on algebra to increase his likelihood of doing well on that aspect. The tutor analyzed the type of trig problems that were most common and did some focused teaching for those concepts only. My thought was that there was no reason to teach him trig, the only goal was to score high enough to get into college. It worked. He got into the school where he belongs. The only regret he/I have is that if he had gotten the score up another point or two, he would have gotten an extra $1K per year in merit aid at his SUNY school.
Last tip - my son took his required math class from college at our local CC over the summer after freshman year. With the only requirement being that he get a C in order to transfer the grade (but not the grade), he finally understood math and actually earned an A! He had been stressing over taking the class at college because his friends said it was hard and he didn’t need any GPA busters, so the CC solution worked beautifully for him.
He does make some use of accommodations at school.
Good luck.
@techmom99 These are great tips for the ACT math. Do you have any for the ACT English? My dyslexic DS20’s English score is relatively low and he’d like to bring it up. He did well in Math and Science and fine in Reading. The ACT test he took did not offer the score report unfortunately.
Just thought I would give a run down on my daughter’s stats/results as it might help give some of you some insight. We did not get a penny of financial aid and so my daughter was reliant on merit and/or lower cost options. She had a 1160 SAT but 3.4 uw which was over 3.6 weighted due to lots of AP. We live in WA state.
Declined at Cal Poly and USD. Waitlisted at Vermont (never got back to us further).
Accepted: Univ of Denver ($0 merit), Point Loma ($0 merit), San Diego St ($0 merit), Drexel ($17k per year merit) Manhattan College ($25k+ Per year merit), Ohio Wesleyan ($34k per year merit), and Western Wa ($1k recognition).
Three schools were more reasonable from a COA standpoint (room, board, tuition and books): Manhattan College at approx $35k per year, Ohio Wesleyan at approx $24k per year and Western Washington at $21k per year. My wife and I refused for any of us to incur debt for an undergrad degree.
My daughter initially wanted to go to Manhattan College. We explained she would need to do 10 hr per week work study, maintain a GPA for scholarship and would not have money to hang out in NY.
My wife and I wanted her to go to Ohio Wesleyan for many reasons. She hated the small town and it felt stifling to her.
So, she will be going to Western Washington and I will write her a nice check when she graduates with the cost difference. Beautiful place, 1 1/2 hour drive from us.
Marketing major.
Feel free to PM me.
My daughter did the Friday at U of Denver in April and liked it a lot. We did not attend with her. I did not even know they had any special programs for learning disabilities. She has dysgraphia and ADHD but no accomodations at high schooler or for testing.
Interesting that so many like DU. I can’t get my D to look there. She thinks it’s fratty and privileged. On paper, it looks like a great school for her. Can anyone dispel her fears?
@murray93 DU was the safety for both of my daughters. They were high stat students. My S20 fits the stats on this thread. My D18 loved DU. The campus is beautiful. She is anti-Greek and did not find it to be fratty. She would have been very happy to attend DU.
With my 3 kids, I have toured probably 30 different campuses. Our DU tour guide was the second best that we had of all the schools. She was a freshman and it was only her second tour. I was so impressed that I went to the admissions office after our tour to let them know how good she was.
I really wish my son would consider it. But he really wants the football experience. We are going to tour Boulder this summer so maybe I can convince him to just take a look.
There are frats at DU, and a couple have prominent houses on campus (and the school has dorms that are designated for fraternity/sorority use), but I don’t think they are dominant. The Hillel also has a big house that is part of campus. I’ve not heard of them hosting wild parties and I live very close to the neighborhood (close enough to see/hear the graduation fireworks). I’m involved with one of the sororities, and they’ve just built a gorgeous house a block from campus. No wild parties allowed. Almost all live in the dorms for 2 years because many of the scholarships are for housing, study abroad for junior year, and then live off campus for senior year.
The school is in a nice area of town, and the school makes an effort to include the community in events. For example, the women’s gymnastic team has a ton of little girls attend every meet. Tickets are available through the gyms around town, the girl scouts, grade schools. Every meet is packed. My kids went to a k-8 school just down the street and we did a lot of sports, birthday parties, and summer camps at DU, especially gymnastics and skating. DU hosts robotics competitions and destination imagination so a lot of kids from the region have visited.
It has a really nice theater/concert hall. It has a lot of diversity in the student body. A lot of international students.
It is on the light rail, so students can easily get downtown (or even to the airport, but not as easy), out to Golden, to Boulder (bus) for sports, concerts, government internships, hiking, restaurants, business internships.
@techmom99 - thank you for the great advice. Yes, D20 has accommodations for both SAT and ACT (also had to appeal to ACT - they require specific wording in IEP report).
She is set to retake both SAT (June 1) and ACT (June 8) - I hate that they are back to back but such is life. Also, great to hear that colleges also superscore ACT.
Her target school right now is University of Mary Washington in VA (in-state for us). Her test scores are in line for UMW; however, her GPA (due to poor historical math grades mainly) is currently a 2.7 uw…we are guessing she will barely hit 3.0 uw by end of this year. We are also looking at good schools that match her GPA…Radford, Longwood and privates like Roanoke (also at top of her list) and Randolph-Macon College.
We are trying not to stress and she understands that it is perfectly fine to start somewhere else and transfer if she does not get in to UMW.
Thanks for the comments on DU. If I can get her to look, I bet she’d like it. She’s a musician so the music school should be appealing. I also like that they are now test optional!
D got her SAT scores back today. 1160. Was hoping for over a 1200. She REALLY does not want to take it again, and I plan to let her choose her course on this. Her target school has a 90% ED acceptance rate (plans to apply ED), is test optional, she has really good grades this semester, and stellar ECs. Her SAT is high enough for auto admit at two state schools (not super appealing ATM, but something) and should get her in to one of her private safeties. She also has several other TO schools on her list she can apply to. Anyone else get scores today?
My D got her SAT score back today. She got an 1100 and even though it’s abnormal here, we are happy with that for a first try, and it’s actually in the range of possible for her number one choice school. She’s taking the ACT in a few weeks and then we will let her decide which works better for her, study for that one over the summer and take it one more time in the fall.
My son got a 1280 (650E, 630M). He is disappointed because he got a 730M on his last practice test and he thought he had done really well on the section. He’ll take again in June and possibly August. He’s hoping for a 1350 total. He has some super reachy schools on his list but some good matches and safeties so I’m ok with as many reaches as he’s willing to do applications.
My son got his SAT back today also and only managed a 1090 (really didn’t study and I know he can do better). I even shed a few private tears just out of frustration. He will take it again in August and his school is offering a summer Khan prep course for just $5 that I think I will sign him up for. The prep course is the first 2 weeks in July. Do you think it’s worth taking then since it’s about 6 weeks before the 8/24 SAT test date? Just want to make sure he retains the info. I guess he can always use the Khan online to refresh but he wasn’t very motivated to do that for this past test.
We are really only targeting Cal state schools (Sonoma State, SFSU, East Bay, etc.), but 1090 just makes them less of a safety option. And he’s also interested in University of Nevada Reno but needs a 1240 to get the WUE rate which would make it affordable.
He did have UC Merced on his list but that will come off if he can’t raise his SAT a decent amount. Same with Cal Poly SLO.
His grades have dipped this semester too and I know he is not focused because he has a girlfriend for the first time. We are trying not to push too hard because we don’t want a complete rebellion, but it’s so hard when we know he is not reaching his potential.
Ugh, I have such a stress headache this evening 
1160 here, too. A year ago, I would have been happy for her to break 1000, but because her PSAT was 1280, I thought we might get a nice surprise with the SAT. She won’t get a scholarship, but she still has a chance to get into the in-state public college she likes. Both reading and math were high enough that if she goes to CC , she won’t have to take placement tests and end up in non-credit remedial classes. I guess that’s a consolation.
She’ll be testing again in maybe October and December. I hate having her test so late, but both my other kids made unexpectedly big jumps on the December SAT which helped with scholarships.
Sub 1200 here too. Taking ACT in a couple of weeks and hoping that’s a better test for him. My daughter had a low SAT score compared to her ACT so crossing fingers. One good note was that he increased his math 40 points, and as an engineering hopeful, that helps. He’s also taking Pre-Calc at our local CC this summer, which should increase his math scores even more if he retakes this fall.