@g8rmomk8ans Hang in there. She has time to figure things out.
@g8rmomk8ans like others have said, hang in there! You both will find and figure out what works for her
Nov 2nd SAT scores are in…1120 for S21…pretty much what I was expecting given that it was still marching band season and we were at an away football game the night before and he hadn’t put in much prep/practice at all. We’ll use this as a baseline…serious prep will need to start now!!! I’m aiming to have him retake in March and hopefully improve by 200 pts…if he can conquer his anxiety over testing I’m sure he can do it, because I’ll know he knows the material and his grades and class rank prove that ??♀️
@Momof3B, it’s nice to have an SAT done to have that baseline. It’s also too bad that the kids have to be there so early in the morning given that there are activities like your son had the night before…adolescents DO require sleep…seems as if that’s forgotten sometimes. (My daughter’s schoolbus comes at 6:00AM). Hopefully having done one round of the SAT and knowing what to expect, his anxiety will ease a bit before the March round. We’re hoping for a 70-100 point gain for March (from an October first attempt which came in at 1230) for S21, but I think he already came close to maxing out his verbal score, so it’s mostly got to come from math which is going to be challenging. There is certainly lots of room for improvement on the math…but I don’t know how likely he is to conquer it on test day. If he even gets a 50 point improvement, we might just call it done…but an August test next year is a possibility if really needed. In the meantime, we’re putting it out of our minds until January when we’re going to do a bunch of prep again. (S21 did a lot of prep over the summer, so his isn’t a complete baseline score…might be tougher for him to get those 70-100 points in comparison to your son’s 200 points since your S21 is really just getting ready to dig in on the prep for the first time). Congrats on having one done (and likely knowing what to focus on for the prep moving forward).
@Momof3B thats a great baseline. We are basically in the same place. D took her first SAT in October, no studying, got an 1240. Her plan was then to study and take in December. Well she hasn’t had time to study, so she will take it in December with just some basic prep. Then really dig in and possibly take it in the Spring. We have to check that the dates work with her competition schedule. Worse case she studies over the summer and takes them in August, hopefully for the last time. She is hoping to get her score into the 1400’s although the schools she seems to be interested in now her score is basically good for. I think I finally convinced her that she doesn’t need to go to a very competitive big name school.
@AndreaLynn he needs to be in the mid 1300’s to get into his top choice state flagship (Texas A&M) Which is going to all holistic review for anyone outside the top 10% (auto admits) next year. His class rank and GPA are already there (hovering around 15%/ 3.59’ish unweighted/4.1 weighted) he just needs to conquer the testing beast! He has automatic admission to all 3 of his safeties with this score but I don’t want him to “settle” when I know if he just buckles down and applies himself he can get into the top state schools!
@nichols51 thank you! It’s so reassuring to hear that we’re not the only ones in this boat! That’s why I love this subgroup…I’m always internally scared that my kid is the “only” one not cracking 1400+ on their first attempt with zero studying lol
@Momof3B I’m sure he will get what he needs. Sounds like he just needs the time to prepare properly, which with these kids busy lives is not an easy task.
Good luck to everyone! My D isn’t taking the SAT until April - they have the whole school take it then. She could take it sooner but we don’t see the need.
I took her to visit Western Colorado this weekend, her first “official” visit. They had their big “preview day” event. There were about 250 people there (parents and students), I was surprised they had such a big turnout. They put on a really good show - the school president did a presentation and he really knows how to sell his school. They really stress the individual attention, small class sizes, etc (it’s 2700 undergrad and about 350 grad).
D liked it but would prefer someplace bigger, so she said it’s her safety. But given the other schools on her list are essentially safeties for her, I don’t know that she’ll actually apply. She did find a sweatshirt she really liked 
In…
DD 21 started out strong but ran into some ongoing health issues. Is shooting to graduate as AP Capstone scholar but that might be a bridge too far. About 3.5 UW and 4.4 W GPA as of now. Not a good test taker with average ECs…cross country, soccer, NHS. Looking mostly at smaller state schools like UNC-Asheville, UNC-Wilmington and UNC-Charlotte. Stretch schools are UNC-CH and NC State.
D21 got her PSAT scores the other week, an even 650 on both sides. We thought she had a shot at NMSF but it looks like she came up a bit short. Oh well.
We are planning a couple of trips to visit some schools. She wants to see Utah State and we got her to agree to visit Utah, which I think will be a better fit for her. We are going to take a road trip out there over spring break (we live in Denver) and make a full vacation out of it - go to Moab and some other places.
Northern Arizona is still at the top of her list so we are going to visit there in June. S20 is going to U of Arizona next year and has orientation, so we will head up to Flagstaff for a few days and make another vacation out of it.
And she is going to take a trip up to Glacier National Park this summer with her aunt so they will swing through Bozeman to check out Montana State. And maybe by then she will have some idea of a major, but if not, there’s nothing wrong with starting undeclared.
D decided she wants to do one of the visit days at MSU, and she also thinks she’ll get much more out of it if I take instead of going with her aunt. So we are going to go at the end of Feb., which also will let her see what winter is like there.
S21 just found out that he’s made it to the final round of selections in our state’s Governor’s Honors Program. This is fairly incredible for him - with his ADHD/executive function/dysgraphia/processing speed, he’s had a hard time and worked so hard. He found a subject area that he does well in and worked hard to do something pretty special in it, and he’s been recognized as a result. He is not a kid who is going to have top SAT scores or a long list of major awards or a ton of AP classes, so getting to this level of the selection process (which has required him to be nominated, do an interview, a test, and two applications each including essays) is pretty incredible (something like just over 1/2 of 1% of high school sophomores and juniors get to this point).
There is one round left to go, and it will, of course, be putting him up against other people who all impressed enough to make it this far, and I think only about 1/3 of those will make the final cut, so his chances are pretty slim (especially since the final round features yet one more panel interview - hardly the easiest for my quirky, shy kid). Additionally, he homeschools, and last year I believe only one homeschooler in the entire state made it all the way. So it doesn’t seem too likely for him. ?The state semifinalist award that they have currently given him is something he can include on college apps, but if he were selected and could actually have the 4 week experience of attending GHP this summer, that would be amazing.
Waving hello!
My S21 fits right in here and I hope more parents of the B/B+ students will join. I’ve read a lot of the 3.0-3.4 thread for 2020 and got a lot out of it including some schools we had dropped but are picking up again. I’m happy to have a virtual place to share the ride, and information.
Son has 3.3 GPA UW/3.7 W, taking ACT Feb 8 and SAT March 14th. Practice tests are 27 and 1250. He’s in an test prep class so we will see.
He goes to a large competitive public HS here in NJ and his grades put him in the 60th percentile. Curious how schools will treat the rank.
He works hard for everything he gets and like a lot of seemingly underperforming kids (boys) he’s got ADD, a helpful 504 plan and accommodations with the test companies.
We’ll be chasing merit, seeing how close we can get to a net price to Rutgers in-state tuition. Son has an adventurous, curious personality and would rather go oos if possible.
He’s a humanities kid, won’t likely be a STEM major but is undecided. He definitely wants to travel a lot.
He also wants to play in a full symphony orchestra in college and keep studying music but doesn’t want to major in it.
We’ve seen a ton of schools and have quite a few more visits to go. No dream schools yet, or not that are targets or safeties, but lots of great places out there.
Anyone have favorites?
Looking forward to hearing/sharing everyone’s journeys.
@BktoNJ my son is just on the cusp of this group…3.5 UW/4.2 weighted…solid B+ student in 15% for class rank but with pretty bad test anxiety! His first SAT (to establish a baseline) was in Nov…he went in with so-so prep (it was at the end of marching band season and the morning after a big away football game) and got an 1120. He’s retaking the SAT in March (our school has an SAT day for juniors/seniors on March 25) and the ACT in April as well. He’s hoping for a 200 pt improvement. He’s been hitting the prep pretty hard and is taking an official practice test on Feb 17 at a local test prep center that’s offering it for free.
We’re in Texas and he’s really only targeting in state schools…he’s already in auto admit range at 3 schools which are his safeties…of the two flagships (TAMU & UT), TAMU is his #1, if he gets his SAT up I think he’ll be a match for full admission but UT is a reach for sure.
@Momof3B good luck with the test prep and congratulations on knowing you’ve got options!
Our net is so wide. Looking at LACs where he might get some merit and possibly more attention to keep him on track.
We have lots of reaches and high matches but not many likelies.
He’d love to got to Macalaster or University of Rochester but I think they are dreams and likely unaffordable for us with his stats even if he did get in.
Schools he’s liked without particular passion so far are St. Olaf (his father and I loved it), Allegheny, Pitt, Temple (Tour and campus feel were meh, but had TERRIFIC conversations with profs in his possible majors at the open house and he loves Philly), Clark U (extremely friendly and interesting but student/community orchestra, not student only), Hobart (same deal with orchestra, maybe too remote), Dickinson (great feel, campus, global emphasis but probably a reach and too $$).
Next up are our in-state flagships- Rutgers and TCNJ, Juniata (he had a great interaction with Admissions officer at a college fair and would likely get merit).
Considering Susquehanna but am concerned that it maybe too religious and it’s incredibly white. Good merit there though possible and lots of happy Alumni here on CC.
Spring break we are headed to Ohio Wesleyan, Wooster and Denison. Denison seems particularly hot now and maybe a big reach but we have a family friend who’s a prof and maybe that will help??
Possibly University of Puget Sound and UDenver this summer when we go out west to see family.
Would LOVE to hear anyone’s impressions of any of the above.
@BktoNJ, I’m on the regular 21 thread but took a glance here just now. If your son might be OK with a compact (but nice) campus he might like Muhlenburg, not too far from NJ. Very friendly and nurturing campus…for example we happened to see a pickup game of basketball with both professors and students happening at lunchtime during our tour. I think it has a nice music program. You also might want to check out Goucher (Baltimore suburbs) and McDaniel College near the border of PA not too far from Frederick Maryland. McDaniel is a pretty little LAC with a nice emphasis on study abroad and has it’s own campus in Budapest. My D felt these were all a little too small for her but they’re nice schools.
@inthegarden thank you so much for popping over and offering these sensible suggestions. As it turns out, Muhlenberg is the only college we’ve seen than he has definitely nixed. We had an underwhelming info session with the admissions officer, similarly our guide was definitely phoning it in and Allentown was for the most part pretty sad. He said he’d rather be in the middle of nowhere than there. Sooo.
Goucher is interesting but I am a bit concerned about their finances and the fact they’ve recently eliminated a few departments. McDaniel might be a good fit. Possibly a bit small for him but hopefully we’ll get a chance to visit. We have family in Frederick too. Do you have experience there?
@BktoNJ, not really, we went to McDaniel to tour last spring (we were touring Gettysburg and Dickinson at the same time). We weren’t seriously looking yet, but I wanted D (a sophmore at the time) to start thinking about what kind of college she might like in the future. I thought it had a pretty campus but D thought it was too small. I know a family whose daughter went there a few years ago and liked it. Recently our local paper ran an article about a local girl from our community attending there…she had won a prestigious summer cellular/RNA research opportunity at Yale, chosen out of many thousands of candidates! So, I was surprised and impressed at what was possible to achieve coming out of that little school.
And, yes, D didn’t like Muhlenburg, either. But she kept saying “but I feel really BAD for not liking it because everyone (i.e. the tour guide) is trying really hard!” She felt it was nice for the right person but just not for her. Another parent here on CC that I PMed before visiting said her daughter “knew” the moment she stepped foot on campus that it was “her” school (her other D went to Lafayette, and said both girls had exceptional experiences). So I don’t hesitate to recommend that people check it out.