Good luck to your D, @homerdog!
There are a lot of great scores on this thread! Congrats to all, and best of luck to those waiting for more scores!
Like @inthegarden , @InfiniteWaves and Iām sure many others, I have a humanities kidāonly sheās very lopsided. She loves history (especially colonial American), English, and creative writing (especially one act plays). She takes Latin and is currently obsessed with the Iliad. Sheās in honors or AP for those classes, and for a social science research class. But she takes the regular class (regents since we are in NY) for math and science.
Maybe you guys could help us figure out whether to focus on the ACT or SAT. Our D19 is a good math student and since our high school gave us a free SAT prep online, she just focused on that. She was one and done. D21 probably has dyscalculia (the math version of dyslexia) and also has a fair amount of test anxiety. She hasnāt done any prep yet and is in Algebra II/Trig this year. Thereās a tutoring center in our town where you can take practice tests under testing conditions, so D21 did one of each. Her practice ACT was a 28 with 21 Math, 35 Reading, 28 English, 26 Science. Her practice SAT was 1330, with 580 Math, 750 English.
Iām thinking maybe she should focus on the SAT so she doesnāt have to deal with the science section and the extra time pressure. What do you all think? Iām not sure how to compare just her math scores. She says both tests were equally awful 
. We havenāt visited many schools yet, but so far her favorites are Skidmore, William & Mary, and Bryn Mawr. We think a good safety might be SUNY New PaltzāD21 liked the town/surrounding area, but hasnāt seen the college. Iām not sure her top choices are in reach unless her score goes up significantly and/or she applies ED.
Thanks for any ideas. I know from D19 that discussing the process here on CC gives me an outlet and keeps me from transmitting my impatience/anxiety to my kid!
@homerdog fingers crossed for you Dās ACT score.
D has enjoyed chilling and spending time with her boyfriend and his family.
D is working on 3 D modeling lately for the NASA High school Aerospace scholars program. The program has been more time intensive that either of us realized She is on the 2nd of 4 months of it, she is however learning a ton.
She plans on applying for a Research and engineering apprenticeship in the electrical engineering department at our local state school. IT is sponsored
by the US Army. It is for next summer (she finds out in May, they take 3 kids)and it pays a stipend of 1500.00.
Good luck to your D @homerdog
Took some time to make our tour reservations for our Spring Break trip today. One week, six schools - 5 tours (one revisit on a Sunday, no tours available). Itās going to be BUSY!
@3SailAway, I donāt have a strong opinion of the tests for your daughter, as we have been trying to figure this out, too. Your daughterās math score is higher on the SAT but it looks like her overall composites (28 and 1330) are exactly the same! The ACT science section is mainly reading and interpreting graphs and charts, etc. so if she gets used to that she may raise that 26 a good bit higher. There are fewer math questions overall on the ACT so if she can learn to deal with the speed she may do better on that overall.
One thing that might help you figure it out is a questionnaire I found on PrepScholarās website that helps you determine which test might be better. (We donāt subscribe to PrepScholarā¦ I just bumped into their website one day and started reading.) It goes into more detail about the characteristics of each testās math section than I have seen anywhere else.
Do you think your daughter would like a very tiny college with seminar/tutorial-style classes? When you said your daughter takes Latin and is obsessed by the Iliad (and I saw that very high reading score) the thought of āSt Johnās College in Annapolisā jumped out at me. Itās not a school for just anybody, but itās a GREAT school for the right student and I think itās highly regarded for law/grad school admissions. Everyone majors in the same thing, a āGreat Booksā of Western Civilization curriculum, all classes are seminar-style, professors are regarded as mentors/co-learners, and students learn Greek and Latin and read original texts. The college is in the middle of historic Annapolis, which she might like for itās colonial history. I believe there are around 700 students. Admissions is very holisticā¦I think theyād be happy to work with the discalculia, everything else being fine, if sheās enthused about the school. Itās test-optional, but honestly, I think theyād understand about the discordant scores since she does well in math classes and her reading score is so high. They also have a campus in New Mexico and students can go there for a year (kind of like a year abroad) for a change of environment. Iād be thrilled to have a son or daughter there (heck, Iād like to go there) but I think itās too small for my D.
LOL. S21 would disown me if I tried that 
Our plan is 2 in Feb, 1 in March and 2 in April. Still leaves him some personal time over his breaks to be with friends and whatnot.
I am furious. No ACT score yet. We wanted her score to start with a tutor this coming week. Or maybe to decide to switch to SAT. We canāt do any of that without knowing where she stands. Apparently this could go on for weeks.
@homerdog In our experience the actual scores are typically very close, unfortunately usually just a bit lower, than practice tests. I would not wait for the actuals to start as it will probably not reveal that much more. KhanAcademy is a great resource and free so perhaps just have her focus on spending 45 minutes most every day of Christmas break taking tests? Good luck!!
We bought the ACT red book with actual tests and DS took one of each section and did well. We were concerned timing might be an issue but he had plenty of time. He did real well on the SAT but has to confirm his PSAT score so he will try the ACT in April. Based on the practice he did this week he can just spend a bit of time on science and reading.
@yearstogo sheās done all of that. Twelve actual practice tests. Tons of work in books like the Metzler books. Her practice tests before this last test were solid at least in certain sections and we need to see the test score. Thereās a possibility she would switch to SAT but again I donāt want her doing a ton of work on that until we know these scores.
She canāt study any more for the ACT because she wonāt know which sections sheās done with until she gets this score.
@eb23282 - 
My D LOVES to travel and loves fast paced travel too. This kind of trip (planes, trains and automobiles type) is right up her alley. Sheās super excited for it. Iām going to end up exhausted. Sheāll end up energized.
Iām glad that the last two schools have meaning for me (second to last is Tulane which I canāt wait to see again - havenāt been there in probably 10 years and last is Alabama, where we will meet up with her cousin/my niece who is graduating from there in May) otherwise Iām sure I wouldnāt remember anything about them.
@homerdog I would be furious too. What the heck? I know itās the holidays but come on - itās a scantron. Send it through the machine and upload the scores. I wish that you could keep a copy of your answers and they would upload a key on a certain date with the scale so you could score it yourself and just wait on the official scores.
@3kids2dogs my daughter would visit every school in the world if I let her, I think! She loves it! Such the opposite of her brother! She wants to try to see 6 schools over break, plus visit family who can get us a tour of the FBI! Iāll be exhausted, but she loves it!
@homerdog It will probably be sooner than later. I think they give themselves a big cushion so that people will be happy when the scores come out earlier than February! We had to wait 2-3 days for Dās SAT scores. It felt like forever. Hang in there!
I was planning on 4 school visits during spring break and then we found out that the band spring trip is indeed during Spring Break this year because our school calendar now has us ending before Memorial Dayā¦in the past years the trip was in May as we ended school in June. Well, Itās a no brainer that Orlando & Star Wars Galaxyās Edge (Band is going to Disney!!) will win out over college visits lol, so weāre having to replan our strategy. Juniors & Seniors get 2 excused absences for college visits so weāll probably now do our visits in February and April and miss a day of school on each trip. They are all in-state and the road trips wonāt be all that bad.
@mamaedefamilia thanks 
Next release date is Wed. Itās just frustrating because they canāt tell you anything. Maybe itās flagged because she went up so much. lol. I said that to her and she said yeah no. Ha!
I think this sums it up perfectly. S and all his guy friends could care less about the school search. But the girls are a totally different story.
So true, @eb23282 S17 even refused to get out of the car at some schools (Scranton). Hated Rowan, where heās currently a junior and never comes home! LOL He hated the entire process.
Hope D21 loves college as much as she loves the search!
@Momof3B - I didnāt even think about it, but Dās band was gone over Spring Break last year and will do it again next year. The band goes away every other year, so she just fell in the āgoodā cycle to be free for this trip in junior year.
@3kids2dogs same with usā¦every other year is the big out of state tripā¦Even years big trip/Odd years localā¦freshman year it was Chicago which S21 really enjoyed. It will be the same for freshman twinsā¦theyāll be juniors for the next out of state band trip too.
At the start of the year I was really hoping to utilize spring trip for the college trips since two of the instate schools heās considering have spring break a week after oursā¦heād be able to experience campus in sessionā¦but oh well, weāll make do with their Saturday preview days in Feb/April.
And I got talked into being one of the chaperones for the band trip so there is that lol.
They will have so many other senior year activities and traditions happening that Iām glad that an out of state trip wonāt be piled on for himā¦plus, his graduation present will be a trip to Dubai (heās been wanting to go for ages so weāre making a family trip out of it)ā¦summer is out of the question lol so weāre thinking Spring Break of Senior year is a good time. We did Hong Kong + Macau spring break of 2018 and Turkey Spring Break of 2015. I kind of like the March travelā¦itās easy to tack on a couple of extra days and itās still shoulder/low season most places abroad.
@homerdog I know itās frustrating not having the score yet but have you thought about not taking the February test and maybe take it over the summer. This will give her plenty of time to study effectively for it and/or switch to SAT.
I know you/she would like to be done with testing but there really is no rush.
My D20 took the ACT twice in the fall of Junior year and decided to wait and take it a third time in August (summer) as a rising Senior and got the score she wanted. We were hoping she would be done earlier but things donāt always go as planned.
@3SailAway my D18 humanities oriented student said the science is really just a lot of reading graphs and was not hard. I also understand that time is a factor with ACT. She scored 1390 on SAT and then took the ACT got a 32 retook it and got a 35. I would recommend just having your daughter do some ACT practice tests and see how she likes it.
D21 took SAT in December and is signed up to take ACT in February. We will see which one she liked/scored better and have her take one of them again in the spring.