My daughter’s interested in the University of South Carolina, which finally went test optional, but their language says there will be some extra submissions available this year for admission if you go T/O. It will be interesting to see if other schools change their application requirements/suggestions (like Tulane with its admissions interview) in light of temporary T/O and if kids who submit scores will be encouraged to also submit these materials or if it is an either/or situation. I agree with whomever said this is a race to nowhere Welcome to Stressville, population: the class of 2021
"Because the COVID-19 pandemic has limited opportunities to take the SAT and ACT, students applying for freshman admission will not be required to submit standardized test scores for the spring, summer or fall 2021 terms. Students who apply without SAT or ACT scores may provide supplemental materials for use in the university’s holistic review process. The test-optional policy applies to students applying for general university and South Carolina Honors College admission, as well as merit scholarships.
Full policy details are forthcoming and will be available when the fall 2021 freshman application opens on August 1"
Looks like free app waivers are becoming a thing. D21 has been doing virtual events with Davidson and Richmond and, in the last two days, received emails saying they put a fee waiver in her portal. Nice!
That seems to be the popular decision for smaller college who have waited to make their call on this. Grinnell, who did decide on a plan earlier this month involving rotating cohorts each month, just threw their hands up and announced virtually no one on campus either. I think they are just having some internationals who didn’t leave in the spring.
I keep thinking about Colby and Bates having all kids back. Wow I’m rooting for them but their plans don’t match any of the other NESCACs except Tufts (which also seems a little crazy) and just don’t see how it’s going to work. I’m so curious how any of these small schools will make decisions about class moving remote or kids being sent home. What are the virus thresholds that change their policies?
I feel the same way about our high school. Looks like we might be in school two days a week and three days off. When we start seeing virus cases, do classes all become remote? How many? One? Gosh I hope not. Twenty? One hundred?
Update on our school plan. About 1/2 of our county- 79,000 kids jumped to virtual only. That was a bit of a shock and it really puts into question how they will staff all of it.
Our school had 845 kids go virtual out of 2,300- only 159 Seniors. Our school was 8 classes yearlong A/B days. We’ve now gone to 4x4 block. That’s a huge mess because we are IB- but there are only 160 kids in that program, so I guess they just have to suffer.
For the kids choosing to go to school in person, the original plan was to split into 3 groups and be 1 week in school, 2 weeks remote. Since we are spiking in cases, we will now all start remote, but Sept. 8 the county will start in person daily of preK and special ed. I guess the theory is they are the highest need. No in school start date for the rest of us.
The school board and staff didn’t outright say it, but I got the impression that we don’t have the PPE or cleaning supplies needed, or enough teachers or bus drivers to actually open school. Our teachers will have free childcare for K-6 children.
One of our APs has been giving daily FB live updates. He is awesome! But he said a sobering truth- if you are sending your kid to school for the social aspect, that is not happening. There will be few kids in the class to talk with, maybe 1 kid at your table for lunch- if we can eat in a cafeteria, and one way halls single file.
S21 still adding - and subtracting colleges from his list (it’s still too long). Tulane is being dropped as not a great fit. We were talking about a road trip to see a few schools, but i’m pretty virus paranoid and I think we’re going to wait. On a brighter note, he gets to meet the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court (virtually) through his summer law program, so he’s pretty happy about that.
Not sure if it’s any worth, AP (collegeboard) has updated the award earned by a student under AP scores page. We can mention in award section of common app, just thought of sharing with you all. S21 earned ‘AP scholar with honor’
I’m not sure if anyone has asked these questions in the 343 pages of posts, so please forgive me if this has already been discussed.
For those of you who have children in a fall sport or club that has leadership positions such as Captain, but those sports are being canceled, have you thought about a way that your child can indicate their plans to pursue a leadership position? Or is it really just a missed opportunity because the leadership position is no longer available?
Assuming there will be no opportunities to take the ACT in the fall, what are your thoughts about submitting an ACT score that is at the bottom of the middle 50%? My daughter took it in February just to see how she would do. The score does not reflect her maximum potential, but it does make the middle 50.
In case it helps anyone, CB must have recently added more “available” sites for the August SAT. I changed my son’s location to our town from the closest one that I had to choose from at the time when I rescheduled his June test. The area where it’s located has a slightly better change of good numbers by the test date than the first location in a different county.
So our HS school just announced plans for the fall. 4 options.
Regular live in school. (huge caveat because the PA governor is requiring masks at all times if you can't social distance and because in cafeteria they can't social distance at this time although you can elect for that it will not be available until that restriction is removed and you will have to chose one of the other options.
Hybrid-two days live in school either Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday and the other 3 days online.
@homerdog Thanks for the tip on the application waivers! I am going to use it to “inspire” D to engage more in some virtual events, especially for schools where she hasn’t visited. She got an application waiver offer from Dickinson recently (we visited in person last fall), but no others that I know of. Then again, I only know about that one because they emailed us both.
Welcome to Stressville, population: the class of 2021