I haven’t been on CC in awhile because our whole family has been soaking up the time with D19 home! Now that she’s going back to school, D21 is starting to focus on the college process again.
@inthegarden Thanks for your recommendation that we look into St. John’s. So many things about it look right for D21. 7:1 student to faculty ratio is the lowest I’ve seen, and she would love the traditions and Annapolis. Plus, she’s a sailor, and their team looks like the perfect blend of competition and fun. I even think she would prefer New Mexico to studying abroad.
I will definitely have her research St. John’s. I’m not sure she would be willing to consider a college which is 1/4 the size of her high school though. She already feels like it’s hard to date at her high school because it’s hard to find the right match, and if you do, there’s a lot of gossip and people remember forever who went out with whom.
I’m also not sure the curriculum would be the right thing for D21. She loves Latin for the history and mythology, but she doesn’t love learning the vocab and grammar (that’s a grind for her). Looks like St. John’s requires both Greek and French which would be a (possibly unwanted) challenge. Also, I think she would benefit from more choice in her classes. For example, everyone takes two years of music, but D21 would prefer to take drawing/painting over singing. Not sure she would love philosophy either . . . too abstract. Anyway, very interesting suggestion and looking into it will help D figure out what she wants.
@burghdad Best of luck to your D on her February ACT! For now, D21 just wants to work on improving her SAT math score, but if that doesn’t work out, she’ll be ready to try pivoting to the ACT.
@burghdad put it in my head to look at Lafayette for D21, and she liked what she found in research, so we are headed there on Monday. It’s close enough for a day trip but we’ll go the night before to get a feel for Easton. D21 thoroughly enjoys college visits, and so does S24, so it should be a good time. They are like Siskel & Ebert, although they tend to err on the positive side, luckily.
I have been enjoying hearing everybody’s plans about college visits and testing. My kid has a pretty full schedule and has not had the time to think about Spring Break visits. I think I like those campus tours more than my kids do! College counseling is about to begin at her school and the juniors just signed up for Naviance accounts. Also on the upside, she met her target scores and is done with standardized testing!
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If I waited for my kid to think about visits, we’d be taking none - lol. We’ve had to take the approach of telling him what the plan is rather than asking him what he wants the plan to be. Frustrating for sure, but at least it gets the ball rolling. Given the wealth (sarcasm) of information he’s shared so far, hopefully we’re choosing wisely
@eb23282 I get it. We scheduled a few out of town visits, but I’m concerned that we have no idea if my daughter will end up with an ACT score that aligns with what the schools consider competitive. I hope this investment to tour doesn’t turn out to be a waste of time and money. So much pressure!
@eb23282 I hear you! However, in our case we’d have to book air travel to visit colleges that might be of interest and without a clear path ahead, it seems like a waste of time and money. She also has visited numerous campuses for summer programs or because she was dragged along with an older sibling, everything from large state publics, to elite privates, LACs, tech schools, small town, suburban, urban, you name it. She has a pretty clear idea of what she doesn’t want, and that’s a start.
@H0llyw00d, yeah that’s hard. But I didn’t want to leave it too late, either, or there’s little time to look. So I started as soon as last spring and this past fall (three schools each trip) and did a mix of what I figured would be a mix of safety/match/reasonable reaches based on Ds grades. That way I wouldn’t be setting up too much of a message of pressure (from me). Unfortunately, D didn’t happen to like the two schools that I determined to be safeties, though I didn’t call them that.
Don’t know if the unstated pressure of preferring the reaches was good for her emotionally, but I think it has motivated her to prep a little more than she would have done without going on the visits and seeing concretely the reality of going to college. But I’d rather she feel that little bit of internal pressure than to have terrible regrets later about “what could have been” if she had worked just a little harder. I wouldn’t worry about that if she wanted a larger school because there’s always going to be a big range of students and so the opportunity to find like-minded others. It’s harder in a small school with a smaller range.
Fortunately for us, scores have gone up a bit so the good solid school she liked well enough to be happy with (that I thought last year might be a match or low reach) I think will be solid match or even high safety. I would be shocked if she didn’t get in, actually. And the reachier ones may be high match/low reach. It’s anybody’s guess, though! I think a good mix of schools while visiting covers your bases without sending too strong a message of parental expectations. Easier to do when you’re within reasonable driving distance!
March SAT registered! Our HS is offering it for juniors and seniors on Wednesday March 25, I like that it’s on a school day… my son has testing anxiety as it is, hopefully being on his “home turf” and not stressing about an early Saturday schedule will help him. Hopefully it will make him feel more comfortable fingers crossed he knows the material, just needs for confidence in himself!
We’re looking to improve his score by 200pts from the Nov SAT that he took after minimal prep to establish a baseline, since then he’s been prepping hard…45 minutes of Khan Academy & Prep Books daily…he’ll start doing weekly or biweekly practice tests from now to March.
I really hope he can be done with testing after this!
@inthegarden I have a son in college, and my daughter came along for the ride on college tours, so she has an excellent idea of what she is looking for. However, the option of attending a private or out of state university is going to be contingent upon scholarships. Our upcoming college tours are the schools we never got to with my son.
She’s been very competitive with my son, wanting to beat all of his scores. With that in mind, I was hoping she would be a little more motivated than she has been, and that I’d have to be a bit less annoying. She has room for improvement, especially on her ACT, so I’ve been quite irritating. Besides having some time consuming extracurricular activities, she’s distracted by her boyfriend, who is a senior (and he is a great kid and already accepted into college). The proof of how much she is doing will be evident after her next ACT. If she doesn’t do well, I’m not sure if it will be a rude awakening or make her want to throw in the towel.
@Momof3B, crossing my fingers for him! Hope that doing it in school helps it feel more like a regular school day. He may do great! My D jumped almost that much after one month of prepping regularly but often just twenty minutes per day. After that, I became a believer in prep. They’ve already learned most of the material in school (the math, anyway, the ERW may be more intuitive) and the prepping helps them access it again. At some point there may be dimenishing returns for any given student for excessive prep and testing though. By March my D may already be near the top of what could reasonably accomplish without undue effort. So much also depends on luck and their state of health that day and the curve of the test.
Yeah, “done” is a great concept. I won’t push for ever-higher scores. Mine will be done (as far as I’m concerned) if there’s a modest jump of 40-60 points in math to superscore. It’s her ERW that will get her get her a second look in admissions…it will be enough to get math scores to the point that they won’t be a detriment.
Yeah, @H0llyw00d, those rude awakening events are a fine-tuned thing. My kid is conscientious but not a fighter who morphs into a champion when faced with excessive stress. Performs better with encouraging news than bad news!
@eb23282 Oh it’s not that bad! S19 wrote something like 10-12 essays plus his common app essay in the summer. Once school started, there was so little time. D21 will most likely have a very part time job, take some ballet and contemporary dance classes, and write her essays. Plenty of time to play. Not all essay writing! I just hope she’s not still studying for standardized tests but I suppose that could also be a possibility.
Lunch or dinner at Kindred in Davidson!! It’s been named the best restaurant in the state – but is not too fancy. It’s literally across the street from campus next to the book store! Also, Toastery (sp?) for breakfast/brunch – also on Main St.
I’ll be lucky to get a good draft of the common app out of D this summer. I don’t think writing about herself will come easily.
Hope to take a trip in June. All August is full-time band camp that goes into the evening, some days 9-9. D is already saying how she can’t wait til July so she can do nothing (but there’s always summer homework). Then applications happening during marching band season. Tires me just to think about it. Really, I’d be all for a Gap year if there’s an acceptance in hand.
@homerdog Your S19 must have been much more motivated than mine! I intended summer break before senior year to be for essays…the only one that was written was a short one for Clemson (since the appplication portal opened Aug 1). Pulled teeth to get common app essay done by Sept 1, and the many supplemental essays? Usually done 1-2 days before whatever deadline. 18 essays total, plus a couple of short answer items. First semester senior year was a nightmare, especially since on top of apps he had senior thesis and 3 APs.
Since S21 is even more a master of last minute work, I expect the same. Especially since the summer is already filling up with Boys State, a weeklong camping thing, and part time job. However, S21 watched how S19 spent so much effort applying to several very seletive colleges “just because,” and has no interest in doing that, so fewer essays.
