@1Lotus , @Aguadecoco, and @RockyPA - maybe Rice is concerned about their yield and want to maximize applications?!
Nope, thatâs not the issue.
I seriously doubt any other kids are applying to any of those schools, I think there have been a couple apps to Tulane and Northeastern in however many years Naviance goes back, and none to Macalester or CWRU. Iâm not positive and not looking it up, but that seems right.
We have a handful of kids apply to tippy top schools every year, like Stanford/Duke/MIT/Ivies. Thatâs pretty much it. I think only a couple apps to NESCAC schools total over all the years of our Naviance data. Mostly kids apply to in state schools, primarily state schools. There are a handful at colleges in surrounding states. But truly the only selective schools are your tippy top big Uâs.
That is probably why she is unfamiliar with EA, the few schools she sees with it are SCEA or some version of that. That âsecond cutâ of schools, for lack of a better description, are usually the ones with EA, and we just donât have kids apply there. It is Harvard level or the basically open admit schools for the most part.
I do feel that kids like mine are getting a disservice here. Mine are actually fine, because I am obsessive and have taken on college admissions as my hobby the last few years. But they have plenty of classmates who could really use the help. We have decent success with the tippy tops, I canât imagine that wouldnât translate to success on that next tier. I realize that many of these kids are content to stay close to home, and thatâs fine. But many dismiss out of hand private schools because they are too expensive. I was cautioned about letting S talk to Ivy coaches because they donât give athletic scholarships, by someone (a HS coach) who was clueless about their generous financial aid. D SHOULD be worried that 20 other kids applied to Tulane and Northeastern and the NESCACs, but she doesnât have to because Iâm guessing not a single kid did. No one would know what I was talking about if I said NESCAC, and few have heard of Northeastern. If they know Tulane itâs for baseball.
Sorry, Iâm venting a bit. I do really like my town and my kidsâ school. But there are days I question whether I should move, for reasons beyond the college admissions. This is one of those days. I just donât know how much longer I can take some of the people in this community. I thought when I moved into this house I would leave feet first. But I am definitely developing a love/hate relationship with the town, and this part of the country in general. If all of my family wasnât here and if my job was a bit more portable, we would be gone.
I have very similar mixed sentiments about my town, @dadof4kids. But I am of an age where Iâm starting to feel it would be hard to put down roots elsewhere. Plus, all the family memories in this house. I think my best bet (if this pandemic doesnât continue for years and years) may be to stay put, but travel often. Or buy a piece of land and a tiny house, lol, for a second home.
Tough day yesterday. D improved math scores but not nearly as much as either of us expected, given practice test scores and the months of prepping. She cried on and off all morning during her classes (camera off) and said she is exhausted by all this. Taking a day off to be outside today on a glorious fall day. I donât think she would be in any frame of mind to write an essay anyway, feeling like this.Maybe tomorrow. Told her to think about doing just ED2 and her EA school (with a deadline of Nov 15 and not the one with the Nov 1 deadline) if this all becomes too much⊠not worth the stress. Scores still pending from a test she took last SaturdayâŠwho knows, maybe there will be improvement. She did feel physically much better the day of the second test (but felt the second test was harder). Not going to try to read the tea leaves. She has one more October test scheduled but may not goâŠwill leave her to make that call entirely.
I have more and more sympathy now for students in those countries (China, India, etc) where a single test score can determine a studentâs fate, especially in places where only a tiny handful of universities can vault a student toward a comfortable future. I think in some of these places, the test score, not the GPA, is everything. Have to remind myself how lucky we are (so far) to have so many great schools and many paths to a career.
Hugs to your D @inthegarden
The math curve on that Sept SAT was another doozy. Seems odd because the other website that is more popular with the kids has a ton of comments about the Sept non Calc section being particularly hard. Yet, the curve didnât reflect that.
D also did not hit the score she was going for. EW and Math were the same score and just ok. Not quite to the middle SAT scores for most of her schools. Ok for her safeties. She will get two more sets of scores next week. Neither of us are feeling particularly stressed about it. We will just see what they are and then make the decision about going TO.
She has four apps to send on 11/1 and one essay left to write. Itâs not the easiest essay to write since we didnât visit and itâs one of those âwhy usâ essaysâŠand itâs 500 words which is pretty long. I always feel like those are so hard to write even after going to virtual info sessions and student panels. Of course, she will also scour the website and find good reasons she likes the school but itâs just not that personal if you havenât been on campus.
Iâd like her to hit send by 10/25 on the EA apps. Everything else is in - transcript, school profile, recommendations. She will then print out all of her RD supplements for us to proofread one more time and then get those apps in too.
And then we wait!
@homerdog, I have been thinking it may have been the curve and that maybe she got a little complacent with the easier questions and made silly mistakes. She did say she had time to recheck everythingâŠIDK.
If she doesnât score better on the next one, Iâll accept that and not have her pursue Nov/Dec tests, just not worth it. But itâs weird, as Khan has been feeding her harder and harder problems and she has been getting a greater percentage correct in Khanâs mini-quizzes (on individual concepts), even as they get harder. Oddly, she got every single question correct in Data Analysis and Problem-solving (a huge improvement since the last test) yet got the same percentile as before in Passport to Advance Math and actually scored worse ( by 4%) In Heart of Algebra. Had she improved even a little in the advanced math section I would think she just got rusty in basic Algebra with Khanâs methodology.
I guess weâll know better in a week if itâs about her skills or about this particular test/curve. OK, guess I AM trying to read the tea leaves. Would love to hear about otherâs experiences. @homerdog, thatâs helpful information about studentsâ test chatter. I guess you went through this frustrating ordeal last fall with your D and are at the point to let it goâŠsince this is just my Dâs second test sheâs still in the stress and turmoil stage of grief, lol. I think if she had been able to test In March I might have said, OK, thatâs a nice little bumpâŠshe can be done, and select schools accordingly. Itâs just that she has worked so much harder since March (and scored higher than this on every single practice test) that the news was rough. And this late in the game, her school list is done. Now that D has a dream school (nothing else comes close in her mind) the stakes are higher. Iâm finding out first-hand why dream schools are ill-advised but thereâs no going back now!
@inthegarden Iâm so sorry about how your D was feeling, and hope sheâs feeling better today. I think kids are already in such a stressful place these days, with the college admissions process out of hand to begin with, and a pandemic affecting school, socializing, health, etc, that I think testing, and writing apps, at least for some, is the tipping point. If our D hadnât gotten her test done before the pandemic, I think the stress of taking it wouldnât have been worth it for us. Even writing the apps is becoming too much. I remind her that there are so many great schools, she could just pick a few likelyâs and be done with it.
Regarding our Sâs visits to schools, Iâm not sure they were worth the time and money. Each place heâs seen was âgood.â H says, howâs he supposed to know? So, what was the point? This was even with having kids give him tours at some schools. The main thing he noticed is Penn doesnât have much green space. So, I guess no lying around on the grass there. Maybe heâll have more opinions once theyâre back.
Iâm ready for this to be over. Even though I got anxious for a few days about how it seems so many at their school are applying ED, Iâm now in my why does it matter where you go to undergrad mood. Shouldnât we save the money for grad school? Itâs like Iâm two different people!
@inthegarden D21 did great on the advanced topics in math. She clearly made mistakes on the easy stuff. So frustrating.
I think we can look at testing in the rear view mirror a bit easier because, according to our Naviance, no one with Dâs weighted GPA has been rejected at the majority of her schools. She has three that are harder to get into and, even with those, kids with her GPA are either waitlisted or accepted. Now, I donât know how going TO will affect her app but everything else on her application matches the apps of those kids. So, I guess it makes us a little less nervous. She doesnât need to get into allâŠjust a few so she can choose!
That all being said, I do throw around the idea that, if she gets an EW or Math score thatâs really good, then she might take Nov test and do some studying for the other section and give it one last go. When she took the ACT, she had some wild swings in scores. She got a 26 for Reading on one test and then 33 on the next. Same thing happened with English but on the opposite test. So, I guess itâs still possible that one of the two SAT scores still outstanding could be good enough to be sent. We will know by next Friday!
@dadof4kids LUCKY!
Our GC will not allow a student who is doing ED at a school to apply EA as you can only have 1 ED application out at a time and that includes EA submissions. D is applying ED to JHU and has to apply by Dec 1 to USC due to their deadline for scholarships, otherwise, no other EA schools. Oh well. She would have already applied to all her UCs due to their application window so she is good either way.
^Why do they do that? I think thatâs a terrible and completely unnecessary restriction. (Fortunately we donât have to worry about that. High schoolâs college counselors recommend applying unrestricted EA to every college that offers it.)
That guidance counselorâs position makes no sense at all.
I agreeâŠmakes no sense to me since EA is not binding and any EAâs have to be pulled anyway if thereâs an ED acceptance. Do you think ED schools doing this fear people reneging on the ED if they get into an EA and get a better deal?
@evergreen5 I agree. While colleges like Stanford/etc. who has SCEA and place those restrictions, not sure why ED would matter. Because even on the JHU site it states you can apply to other schools under âNon-bindingâ early action program. Oh well. Most of the schools on her list only have SCEA or ED which stinks. Only SCU has an EA option and sheâs not really keen on that school due to the location. When we visited last year during a Saturday mid-morning early afternoon while school was in session, it was VERY VERY quiet and not too much going on. The location isnât the best either unless you have a car. She will apply RD there. More time to get those essays completed.
No email with a waiver and D will be applying to Rice. Ugh.
@EGHopeful Is this an experienced GC? If my kids were at that school, I would have challenged that. If EA = ED to them, can you only apply to one school EA as well? Regardless, itâs an unnecessary restriction and a big detriment to the students. Most EA schools take more kids in those rounds. So, the school is penalizing a student for EDing. For what purpose? I think there could be legal challenges here.
In our case itâs the extra unknowns that make it so difficult to know if our D is applying to the right range of schools.
Super-lopsided scores, no Naviance or way to track acceptances from our area, high GPA/rigor paired with an average school, may be ORM or a URM, depending on the school, a tad above the average composite for her dream school, but OOS. So thereâs a lot riding on giving at least one solid factor a boost. Getting the math score approaching the average of her match/reach schools wouldnât gain her an acceptance alone but we could feel it wouldnât drag her down, and would put her superscore near the 75% composite mark for her dream school, so, yeah, a lot riding on that.
I think In these past months, prepping was something she could do, when there was little else to do, even if she didnât enjoy it. It gave her a grit-your-teeth satisfaction of thinking she might as well work at something she doesnât like to improve the future when there was not much fun to be had in the present. On the other hand, trying to write an essay requires a state of introspection at a time when introspection feels scary and depressing. So she procrastinated about the essay, while focusing on the prep. So itâs a shock to get only a 20-point improvement for all those months of grinding away (and watching other kids around her acting as if thereâs no pandemic) and wondering what it was all for. I can remind her, from my adult standpoint, that she has improved a lot in math, whether or not that shows In her score, and she has stayed safe and kept other people safe, but thatâs hard to take in when youâre seventeen.
@inthegarden honestly, anything can happen on test day. Dâs math score was about 40 points less than she expected considering her latest practice tests. Thatâs why I threw her into three tests in one fell swoop. Some test sittings are easier than others for certain students. S19 has a friend who scored 700 and then 710 on her first two SATs, didnât study any more and got an 800. Each test has different questions of course and some kids have good days and bad days. Sometimes, they just need to get the right test. Maybe the next score will be the one!
@homerdog, thanks, I so hope youâre right. Even another 20-point boost would make a difference, I think!
What I think is weird is that, throughout all her school years D has tested within the highest level in math in our state testing, (sometimes higher than her language arts score) although not in the tippy-top stratospheric range. Once in high school she tested within the top 5th percentile or so in math for our state (and we have a pretty strong state). Even though all kids do not take college testing and that skews things and clearlysheâs not meant to be a future engineer or physicist but I think thereâs something about the SAT and ACT math tests that rattle her, whereas she finds the ERW section almost fun.
@EGHopeful - I am guessing your child is in a private school and this is not uncommon especially in the east coast. Many private schools only allow one ED or one EA application- not both and if you get in your EA, as a parent/student you are required to sign a document with the school counselor at the start of this process that you will attend (obviously same as ED).
A parent tried to sue a school last year about this policy and there was uproar within the parent community all defending the policy - as this policy does help with admissions and colleges know qualified students accepted in the EA round from those high schools will attend and not shop around - one more way to protect yield and increase the reputation of the high school for applicants.
In this case, the student was accepted to Georgetown in EA and the parent had the âwhat ifâ and my child should have the right to now aim âhigherâ and not be bound by an EA school. They were not successful, as the high school policy was clear and they signed the agreement.
I assume parents know all of this before they decide to send their kids to these high schools? That seems all kinds of crazy to me. Why would the high school get to decide where someone gets to apply? I guess itâs because these high schools have relationships with the colleges and the colleges expect these GCs to deliver students to them. The colleges know the yield they will get from this school. They know the EA admits have to enroll and I bet that gives the kids a bump and gets the college 100 percent yield from this high school. What a game.