Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 1)

But one can’t say “tests are happening” in certain areas. Sure, some July ACTs happened in the Chicago area but no one knew ahead of time which locations would be cancelled. Sometimes kids weren’t told in time to find another seat. And some kids showed up to a note on the door of the school that said it was cancelled but a test ten minutes away happened at another school. So I don’t think it’s regional like that.

Sorry - should have specified that I was referring to driving distance. If the overall feeling come May 2021 is “ok with flying” then she’ll stick with her current faves. These are “location safeties”. I’m going to look into Michigan State and Miami OH. Thanks! ETA: I forgot, she’s been to Michigan State and thought it was “ugly”. Sigh.

Wisconsin would be full price and so I’m trying to see what else is out there (it’s a great school, but the price is a bit “ouch” when compared to her current list) I should also say that Tulane is on her list but if they come back wanting $60K, it will quickly be off the list.

@3kids2dogs , I see that you have UA Tuscaloosa on your list. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you/she not include UAB? My H thinks that our daughter should include it as one of her safety schools, let’s just say she is not too enthusiastic about it.

Much thanks to everyone for sharing there thoughts and insights! So appreciated!

Okay, I was trying not to share his stats. But I should provide the info when asking for advice, right? And it will probably help others in the same situation.

S21 has a weighted 4.2. He is 12th in his class. Captain of the XC team, Track, NHS, Secretary of the Art Club, Spanish Club, tons of volunteer hours.

He’s Honors/AP/DE humanities and “regular” math/science. Although I think at his small, Catholic high school “regular” might be one up from the same track at our public high school.

Anyway, he’s been a consistently solid student all four years who intentionally played to his strengths in order to keep a strong GPA.

So, he’s competitive for Pitt. He’s interested in English/writing/art. We don’t think that whatever his math SAT score might be will likely “add” to his app. :smiley:

Have I just answered my own question about him going TO?

And believe me, I hear you on PSU @AlwaysMoving LOL!

@TXStuMom no reason for not including UAB - we just have a lot of personal connections with UA Tuscaloosa (her cousin graduated May 2020 and showed us around; a friend’s dad got his PhD there many years ago, so everyone in the family is big supporter, etc) and the campus is amazing.

@InfiniteWaves I don’t have any insight to Pitt in particular. But one missing piece from above is his class size. Is he 12/15 or 12/1500? Makes a big difference. :smiley:

@dadof4kids So true. He’s 12 of 120.

The other thing is that Pitt is rolling admissions. It’s one of those super popular “earlier the better” in-state schools with a SRAR and no LOR. So, he could apply this weekend TO. Or, if the August SAT happens, he could apply after the scores are released late Sept. Or, if the August SAT is cancelled and the September test happens, He could apply after those scores are released.

Ugh.

I hear what you are saying. I guess in our state, even though 1/2 of the centers shut down for both June and July, there were ones open if you were motivated enough to seek them out. I only know of one that had the note on the door. And when you look at the # of kids from our state who apply to colleges out of our region (which has few selective schools) we are one of the lowest states in the country. So I’m guessing in my situation the handful of kids who are applying to selective colleges were able to find a way to test. D21 had to leave the house at 5:00 a.m. to make it to an open test center, but she was able to do so. Her competition did the same.

If we lived in Chicagoland? That’s a bit more gray I think. Lots of kids will still have tests, but lots of them probably at a minimum are not taking as many swings at the plate as they would in a normal year. Some may be unlucky enough to sign up for the wrong center a couple of times and legitimately have no test.

Maybe this is a bit of the reverse of the normal situation, where the kids like your D and girls from the NY suburbs are assumed and expected to have done things that aren’t necessarily expected or required of a girl from a rural school in Wyoming. If she helps her dad on the farm and maybe does a couple of sports in school that is ok for EC’s, whereas that probably wouldn’t be enough for the UMC suburban girl.

This year, the UMC suburban girls are struggling to find ANY test center that will be reliably open. Whereas the girl from Wyoming can go to her HS and take it, same as always. So they may question her a bit more for applying TO, whereas the girls who normally they expect to have perfect apps have a legitimate excuse to not test this year.

But as always, I could be wrong. In general, I think it definitely helps. The million dollar question is whether it’s absence hurts. Honestly it probably varies school to school, and possibly even reader to reader.

I’ll refer back to that quote a used a page or 2 ago (I think on this thread, but I’m too lazy to look it up.

"What do you think is going to happen with –

Let me stop you right there. No one knows."

Yeah ugh. Just ugh every stupid day until this is over. I would be tempted to just send his app in. If they have rolling admissions, do we think it’s harder to get in the longer you wait? I guess that’s possible.

What’s his unweighted GPA? If 3.8 or above, I would apply early. Definite benefit to applying early at Pitt, both for acceptance and merit money. Although I am not sure how they will award merit money this year for TO accepted kids.

Maybe start the 2021-22 Pitt application thread and summon @ hailtopitt (put the @ and handle together) and ask your questions!

@dadof4kids i know that D’s August SAT is cancelled only because I called the school. No update from CB at all. And no seats available at other schools that are near enough. No way we are getting up at 5:00 to take a test. That’s much more Road to Nowhere than we are willing to do. I keep checking to see if other locations are added. None yet.

What’s the point of TO if we are supposed to keep hunting down tests? Do we think TO is just a bunch of baloney?

March 31 is in 245 days. Not to wish my life away, but I’m kind of looking forward to this process being over. Only 139 days to December 15. D is probably ED to a reach school so probably we won’t get to stop then, but it sure would be nice.

This is the workshop my S21 did – Writopia
https://www.writopialab.org/programs/what-we-do/college-essay
(for the dates, tuition, registration, click the city you want under “Holiday & Summer
Half-Day Workshops”. They are being done 100% online so you don’t need to live in one of those cities.

It was about 3 hrs per day for a week, live online with the teacher and a small group of kids. S21 thought it was really helpful.

@dadof4kids I hope your son continues to improve!

I don’t think so at all, i.e., not baloney. There is sufficient difficulty getting tests that TO must be very real this fall, as a practical matter. My concern would be for a subset of applicants, that scores may be a more important addition to their app due to their grades or merit-seeking needs. I’m thinking that, for some big chunk of applicants whose grades/rigor and scores would be relatively aligned, getting a score is less important. (But, obviously I know nothing about the TO process.)

Leave the house at 5:00. Up at 4:15 :smile:

I called around and couldn’t find an open center with seats available in June in time to test. For July I signed up for a center that had it in June, because I figured that was safe. They moved D 2 hours away, but we kept the seat because she had been prepping and everyone in our house just wants the testing to be over. I will probably sign her up this afternoon for another if ACT actually opens their website. But I will cancel the test if she gets the score she needed on the July test.

I think this year is a bit jacked up, no matter what you do. There are probably schools that kids will get into that they normally wouldn’t, and vice versa. I’m a bit of a pessimist, but I’m guessing overall the 2021’s get hurt more than helped. But for every loser there will be a winner somewhere. Those seats aren’t going to be empty.

S19’s very minor bright spot from COVID. Normally he would have to take Organic Chem for a grade. But his college made everything grade optional last semester. So that C- that should be on his transcript shows up as P. So a minor win at our house.

@3kids2dogs Drake is Des Moines? There is a “Drake Physics Prize” competition that you could look into if your D is interested in Physics. I’m not sure how strong they are in sciences, but the competition made me think that they might be.

@3kids2dogs How about Creighton? D has a good friend going. She was in top ten in her class in big suburban high school here. 36 ACT. Pre-med. Got a ton of money and will be in their honors program. She is so excited to go. Seven hour drive but at least it’s done in one day.

Another suggestion for a safety @3kids2dogs
University of Kentucky. It’s been a good fit for our oldest who is going into her senior year. Good merit money plus honors college = the reasons she ended up choosing it. Not sure if your kid is premed, but D 17 has gotten through all the premed prerequisites and had tons of opportunities for volunteering and research and small/honors classes. It’s nice with the med school being right there.

Think it’s a little over 5 hours from Chicago.

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ACT just announced its registration system is down until Monday morning. July scores not available either.

They said they’d send an email to Class of 2021 affected by cancellations for “accelerated registration.” I find that an odd word choice – what is accelerated vs. priority like SAT did?

The saga continues.

Aaaaaand ACT has delayed registration once again until Monday, August 3.

@NJWrestlingmom I have family in MA and their governor has announced 14-day quarantine beginning August 1. I have no idea how states can track that - highway tolls? Getting a hotel room would likely be impacted. Just FYI before you make a plan.