@eb23282 Montana State and Utah State are both requiring test scores for merit aid.
WVU still shows merit tied to SAT and GPA
My son’s top choice right now is Ball State… and while they and others will potentiall do without scores, the 3.3 GPA isn’t going to really do that much (or not nearly as much) compared to a 30ish ACT (~1400 SAT).
But for us it’s really just icing on the cake so to speak, since the schools he’s looking at I’m fine sending him to without any merit, but a good test score can open up a few currently unaffordable schools that he can’t really consider right now.
UT Dallas still requires SAT/ACT score for merit scholarships. You can submit your score after the 12/1 application deadline for full scholarship consideration, but only “as long as funding remains.” So if you don’t have your SAT score in by 12/1, then they might run out of scholarship money. They are using rigor of curriculum, Grades, SAT or ACT scores, and Class Rank if applicable. Since we don’t have class rank in WA, I really think that having a good SAT score will help S21 qualify for merit aid.
Have your kids done many interviews? We’ve only had a few and mostly sought them out. One at Clark which was with a student as it turned out, Ohio Wesleyan yesterday and Roanoke today. When the applications are in, I think we’ll have the DS reach out for a few more as his particular personality is more forthcoming in dialogue than writing at this point.
What’s been your experience?
My daughter interviewed at Syracuse. It was with a grad student and D reached out to set it up since it’s her top pick school. None of her others require it, so she hasn’t done any others.
S21 interviewed at 9 of his 10 schools. He’s not a natural at it. His first one was a little rough, but he improved greatly as he did 2-3 a week for several weeks in a row. All of his were with admissions officers - none with students. He didn’t really want to do them, but as a homeschooler, he was required to at some schools, so I thought it would be good to have him do them at all schools in order to demonstrate interest. Most of his were just conversational and not as evaluative, although they did vary a bit on that spectrum. We decided about a week ago to have him apply to one more school, so he didn’t interview there over the summer since he wasn’t planning to apply there at the time…I think we’re going to just wait it out and see if they contact him to say he has to. If so, he’ll do it, but if not, he’s glad not to. It was a good experience for him to go through, I think. This is a kid who balked the other day when I asked him to call a restaurant to see if they were open for takeout. Phone calls and video calls are not his thing. After several minutes of discussion, he did eventually call the restaurant. ?
@nichols51 good luck! I agree, I think it’s good practice for anyone, but especially for kids at this age.
Hi all, after getting the recommendation from here to call the school to make sure that the SAT was still on, I got the confirmation that S21 was on their reduced capacity list for the 10/3 SAT at a HS in ID, 5 hours away from home! So glad I called as the capacity was reduced from 280 enrolled down to 80!
Lots of kids there from the Seattle area (incl us), some from OR, a couple from CA, and even one from HI! One family from the Seattle area didn’t bring a picture ID for the student and were turned away! So glad that we were able to get in and now S21 will have an SAT score to submit. So relieved that it’s over, now will just anxiously await the score on 10/16. 
Happy to get those first two acceptances last night. Makes it a little more real. D has two more applications to submit, hopefully in the next few days and we are done with applications. I think it will be difficult to keep persuading her to continue to watch all the college virtual programming for the schools she has applied to with so many conflicts with her fall sport and just general school work. Good luck to everyone!
@scotiagal Congrats to your D on the two acceptances! So great that you are halfway through the application process, it must feel like a relief! I cannot get my S21 to focus on even starting a draft of the main essay yet! We did submit one of those preferred applications for Montana State that only had you fill in a few things, like GPA, and he got accepted! I am happier about having a bird in the hand than he is though, so who knows if the kid even really wants to go to college! :neutral:
Congrats @scotiagal !
@kethra , my D has also been accepted to MSU. I think it’s her top choice right now but it’s hard to tell with her.
Question about whether to apply TO or not…
S21 got his Sept 26th SAT score back…raised it 60 pts from Nov 2019 (6 cancelled tests from March lol)…he made great improvement in Math. According to the common data set for his top choice school he’s in the 25th percentile for test score. The rest of his app he’s solid: strong essays, 3.6 unweighted GPA/4.2 weighed, section leader for marching band, part time job for the past 2 years, solid community service. He’s just not a good standardized test taker…thoughts?
Should be submit his 1180 SAT or apply test optional?
He’s got 5 other assured admit safety schools.
@Momof3B, congrats to your S21 on the score improvement. I’d probably lean away from submitting the score if the rest of his application is stronger than the score, and the score is at or below the 25th percentile (as long as you have believe that the school is treating TO applications as they claim to be). Also, if he’s planning to major in a STEM field (I think he is?), then a math score that isn’t strong for the school may be particularly detrimental to his app especially if he has good grades in high level math classes already.
No STEM major…he’s leaning towards business degrees (supply chain, marketing etc) or possibly economics. I think we’ll go TO, that’s what my gut intuition is telling me. He took Pre Cal in 11th grade and finished with an 90 and is taking AP Stats in the Spring (our school is on accelerated block scheduling).
Late reply - just found this forum. We are in WA also (Seattle suburb), and D21’s school does rank. Official ranks came out last week of Sept. It must be a district-by-district thing, rather than statewide. Also, D21’s transcript does have weighted grades.
@Momof3B We’ve been told by a few different admissions offices NOT to submit scores if they are not at least in the middle 50th% for that school. Any stat that we report to the schools, the school has to weigh and report on their common data sets so anything that is below their current average is a demerit as far as admissions.
Reporting back on Roanoke application without the essay. Son reached out for an interview after submitting the application which went well and he got accepted a week ago. There both his GPA and ACT scores were on the high end. He’s hugely relieved and the acceptance does seem to have helped to ease his writer’s block. It’s been painful but he’s almost done at last with his personal statement and supplementary essays. Starting to see the light at the end of this tunnel.
List now seems to be:
Allegheny
Clark
DePaul
Kalamazoo
Lewis & Clark
Ohio Wesleyan
University of Pittsburgh
University of Puget Sound
College of Wooster
maybe a couple more thrown in?
Now if only we can start to effectively handle Covid and hold a good clean election and make it smoothly to inauguration day.
S21 submitted his apps to UT and TAMU yesterday, both test optional. Now the wait begins!
The rest of his apps are all academic safeties, he’ll get those in today and tomorrow and then we’re done!
Congrats to those getting applications in!
None have gone in for S21 yet, but he’s really close to being able to submit his whole batch of EA apps (he only has 2 that are RD)…truthfully, he’s pretty much done on his end but waiting on something from a teacher.
@BktoNJ - 3 overlaps for my S21 in comparison to your S21’s list - Wooster, Clark, and Kalamazoo. It’s great that your S is getting close to finishing his essays!
@Creaky that’s interesting that your WA school ranks, which school district are you in? We are in LWSD and they do not rank.
@Momof3B woo hoo that you got the UT and TAMU apps done! I am pressuring our S21 to get his done this week before the October 15 early admission deadline. Right now it will be TAMU and UTD.