@infinitewaves. That would be something to put in the supplemental section of the Common App - 6 for 6 cancellations - who could possibly fault him for going TO? Good for you for supporting his decision to call it a day.
@burghdad Thank you for the background with your older D. I think Clemson is a solid choice for D21. And, that is good to know about the Honors College. I did not have a good Honors College experience and our D21 sponge has apparently remembered every word Iāve said since she was two. Trying to walk back some of the biases H and I have inadvertently planted. Will likely still give UNC-Chapel Hill a go just to say no regrets.
For those thinking about getting some visits into campuses before students arrive, H took D21 to visit 6 campuses in 3 days. It helped for her to see the surrounding area and get a feel for campus itself. Most of the visits had phone apps to help with self guided tours. She took two off the list, conceded she should look at one she didnāt think would interest her, and became excited about two. Of course she fell in love with Duke, but that is a non-starter for both selectivity and price tag. There is always graduate school, right??
Found out today two boys in D21ās class has tested COVID+. School is supposed to start a week from today and one is on the football team. The school year may blow up before it gets off the ground.
LMU love continuing over here. Just watched another student panel. D now says she just has to convince my H that sheās not just interested because campus overlooks the beach. Lol.
There could be merit there for her. I told her to start with thatā¦
Ughā¦S17 officially starting senior year all online, Iām guessing D21 and NJ schools arenāt far behind. Crappy starts to senior year!!!
Iām feeling a bit blah todayā¦I think I canāt watch the news anymore!! Will life ever get back to normal??? ?
@NJWrestlingmom So sorry to hear about your S17ās online start. Sometimes itās hard to stay positive with a new round of disappointments to contend with especially as related to your children.
PS Yes, skip the news, if even every other day. We skipped it today and it helps to put head in sand if even for a day.
D21 submitted one application today. May the games begin! She felt happy getting one completely done.
I proofread everything and then kept going back and checking and rechecking and rechecking and rechecking - I think at one point she was ready to throw something at me.
Watching her hit the āsubmitā button was surreal.
@herewego2020 absolutely apply to UNC and any other lottery type picks as you never know when something your kid has on her resume moves an AO to advocate for her admission. Just need to have safeties they are comfortable with attending in case they donāt win the lottery.
To further elaborate on Clemson Honorsā¦They are in a dorm that opened in 2016ā¦in a great part of campus about 2 blocks from the stadium. Many of the honors classes are held in the first floor of the dorm. Also has a main cafeteria and some other eating options as part of the dorm. Priority for class selection. Only negative is the $500 fee per semester to be in the honors college.
@burghdad That sounds fabulous. I now want to go to Clemson and be in the honors college. Lol.
@NJWrestlingmom Sorry for your S21 starting remote. I think we are all collectively holding our breath to see what the Fall will look like for our seniors. I am flattened by it all some days, too.
D has also signed up for several interviews in the coming weeks, and I found this link helpful. My guess and hope is that the interviews will be more conversational.
Our school board quietly announced that we wonāt return to school until after the first quarter of school. I watched the work session and it was on a slide that staff wouldnāt return in full until October. We will then try to have our 3 weekly cohorts rotate in. A little over half of our county students chose to go 100% online in the first semester. Next we get to sit through a stressful parking pass lottery broadcast live on FB tomorrow, so that we can see if we get a parking pass. School has no idea when we will have our schedules- maybe first day of school??? I am actually ok with being online to start, instead of a 5:50am wake up, we can get up at 7:50am- so much better! D and her friends are perfectly happy not to go to school- most went 100% virtual.
So I am at the point where I donāt think D should take the SAT in August even if it happens. She was trying it to see if her math score would be better, since her ACT math was low. She hasnāt been prepping because she has been working on Summer Assignments and essays/college apps. She hasnāt done any math since April- what are the chances she would do well on it??? She isnāt going into a Stem major. Why stress her out?
Thoughts?
Any recommendations around the ACT free score reporting? We didnāt report scores anywhere on his first test earlier this year. Ended up with a 32, but only a 25 on the English section. Taking again in October really focussing on bumping up the English score. All of the schools S21 is interested allow self reporting of scores, except Vassar. When signing up for the October test we opted to send the score to them, but is that a mistake? Should we wait for the result then choose which score to send?
Hi all ā poking my head in from our mountain house rental w/ iffy wifi! Got Sās July ACT score yesterday and it could have been better but could have been worse. He got a 31 composite ā his target was 32. Continued his streak of better English and Reading than Math and Science, even though heās pre-engineering. But the scores are fairly balanced and his got a 30 on Math which heās heard is a cut-off for some engineering programs.
As Iāve shared b4, heās not a natural test taker (and has some test anxiety), but then I noticed on the score report that a 31 is 97th percentile in our state and 95th in the country, so he was cheered by that. Iām hoping his good APs (5, 5, 4, 4, 3) and 4.0 + rigor and decent (not stellar) ECs will get him across the finish line some places since most of his list is not tippy top.
My fav comment by him was, āWell, thatās not a bad score in the era of COVID.ā Thereās prolly truth in that ā this was onāy his 2nd test. Weāll have to decide where heāll submit it ā we discussed that he probably will to the publics but not to Case and Rice. Probably will to WPI?
@NateandAllisMom ā WPI is high on my Sās list! He loves their global focus.
He started the common app yesterday afternoon and is figuring out which activities to list and which order.
Last thing ā my S is fluent in Spanish b/c he did dual language from K-8. He was asked yesterday to be a math tutor for a student who speaks Spanish as their first language. Since school is all online theyāll have a weekly Zoom session. Heās excited about that.
Iāll catch up on everybody later!
I would not send scores without seeing them first.
I have previously shared that S21 has a lopsided score, higher ERW and he decided he was happy with his score as is and no more testing. I donāt know if that is the right move, but he felt the stress of trying to test again was not worth it.
@AlmostThere2018 WPI is a really interesting school. My S prefers not to take any more religion or language, etc. wants to get right into the practical major stuff. He was really intrigued. Part of me feels like itās a very small pond socially but he might find his people there.
We did the virtual tour of UMass A yesterday and I think itās a great option for S, though he leans smaller. If he could get an ACT, he might have a good shot at the honors college. He is limited in the APs at his small high school and it seems like that might be a negative the way they recalculate their GPA. Itās a real toss up for submitting his one SAT to that school but since he had a lopsided lower math score, probably better not to submit since heās applying CS.
Just announced SAT cancelled here in all of the high schools for either all of Fall or at least until October. Common knowledge though SAT site has not caught up. We have ACT scheduled at a public charter school in another county. Fingers crossed.
Iāve always been scared to automatically send scores somewhere selective. If itās bad, I would rather bury it. Regardless of what they may say, if they see a unrepresentatively poor score on a botched test they canāt unsee it. I sent her 4 free reports to the State U where she is an auto-admit, the local directional because they require it to sign up for some classes even though she probably wonāt, and 2 in state schools where she would still be admitted even if she dropped 10 points from her practice scores.
@NateandAllisMom where do you live? All tests cancelled through Oct! Ugh.
Just found out last night while out on a dog walk that the school D is ātakingā (haha) the Sept ACT is all remote to start. Need to find out for how long but thatās obviously not a good sign.
@homerdog Iām in Southern California. In my city there are not many cases but in all of California itās 100% online per the Governor. Schools have not really said they are not allowed to have students on campus in pods but IMHO publics have enough problems to deal with and arenāt motivated to make it happen. At least they did announce this in advance at their zoom meetings.
After I wrote this post, I got a late September seat at a newly added location (I think) about an hour away in our County. Easily could be canceled, SAT is not the preferred test, and after school starts but I think any chance to improve SAT is worth it. Iāll have him do apps and finish essays first as his CC class wraps up and then I guess heāll start prep.
What Iām thinking is that Iād really like to submit his EA apps soon and then supplement with a good test score so I really donāt like that they donāt have more options on the CA. Obviously lots of people in our position really trying hard to get a test.
Oops correction - itās actually most of California - depends on your countyās #s but the standard is tough. All the large cities and many smaller cities on the mandatory online list.
Remember that, if youāre using the common app, they canāt apply without a score and then change it and send a score later. D21 has some apps ready to go but we apparently need to decide on whether sheās going to send a score first.
Has anything changed about when the last day to take the SAT is in order to apply ED? BTW Iām convinced that people who send scores straight to schools blindly are the same people who love surprises! 