Where does court battle re: test blind stand and which way do you think it will go? We’re OOS and my daughter is going to apply to UCLA and Berkeley. We were assuming that all UC schools were test blind due to the injunction - she would submit her ACT score otherwise. It looks like Berkeley will be test blind either way based on their website. Do you think there’s hope that UCLA could end up being TO?
Sorry, I missed your question. No, you won’t see a school test day date on the CB site. I assume registration is performed by the school, at sign up, or as they sit for the test today in our case.
It’s getting real late in the “ballgame.“ Yes, there’s a solid chance that UCLA remains TO. But stay tuned.
Our school day SAT is 10/27, but College Board is showing them registered for today, 10/14. Our testing coordinator had to send out an email telling parents/students to ignore that and it is indeed 10/27 lol.
Shocker this morning.
S had a one on one mtg (held during his ROTC class) with an AO who is the rep for his high school. He is home quarantining (long story) so he was juggling both at same time.
S took advantage of the mtg (almost like an informal interview really) and talked about himself when she inquired, etc.
At one point his ROTC Major called him and S had to quickly apologize to AO and tell her he would be just a minute. She was cool about it. When he returned to her she admitted she listened in on their exchange, hopes that was okay to do, and that she in fact loved listening in. It led to more interesting discussion, etc.
Then …I hear S tell her that he’s completed his app but hasn’t submitted it yet. She said, “oh, you’re applying early?” And he replied, “Absolutely. ___ is my first choice and it’s the place I want to be”.
I could hear her exclaim.
So…when he gets off the phone later, I asked him if he realized he just told her he is ED’ing to the school and he said, “Yes. Of course. That is where I want to be and I wasn’t going to let that opportunity with the person who said she will be reading my app slip away.”
All this while he was beaming.
Had a meeting with private school GC yesterday. S took the in-school 10/6 ACT and his account does not reflect that sitting. GC will find out about scoring / linking to existing account and I’ll post here. ACT test site gave the schools until 10/9 to mail back (received by 10/13) so don’t know how long it will take to turn around a score or how we will find out. We are holding EA apps up so really want to know when the score will be available. Thank goodness he didn’t have to do the essay portion.
Somehow I didn’t realize that GC submits the HS transcript to CA, but we are responsible for his online language course and community college transcripts getting to the schools (even though they appear on the HS transcript), so we need to get on that right away for EA schools. Just sharing in case this information helps someone else.
She already did his counselor letter and did not include some information I was expecting so that was disappointing. However, she was extremely happy with his personal statement.
Again with the virus on the rise in the US and our area beginning to slowly reopen my brain is mulling over the situation. Our approach right now is to apply to as many schools as we can get S to do supp essays for basically with his tough schedule and to just boot the decision-making until spring. We will try to travel by April to see schools in one other area of the country where he is applying. So geographically we are limiting to the West and one virus-conservative area away from home. But I’m feeling the need to add more private schools to the list for multiple reasons and H is not sure. I question if this is the right approach or just making him over-apply. This is hard.
There was a stay on the ruling on 9/24 so UCLA might look at SAT/ACT if they are sent.
In our county, because of Covid, our situation was TnG (touch and go) and thus there was likely no pre-registration done by our school. They had informed everyone (seniors and their parents) that the school reserved the right to cancel the test on or before last Friday 10/9, if any new guidance to the contrary was announced by the county health official.
Honestly, at this point, taking the test seems so anti-climatic after six cancellations. And D21’s favorite school is test blind this year. 
My D thought the SAT went well today (but then, she thought the September test was OK, so who knows). During a break today, two of her friends that are strong in math told her they lost a lot of points in the the September test compared to the December test…one girl went down 70 points in math that day! So maybe it was just that test. My daughter’s meager 20-point gain doesn’t seem so bad now. Hope springs eternal…more scores coming Friday and around November 4. My D’s ED school only requires the CA and her essays due Nov 1, so it’s OK if updated test scores and recs arrive a little later.
Our D’s CB account had her April in-school test date listed since at least March. Sometime in August, they rescheduled the test to September. I checked her account again, even well after the test date, and it still said she was registered for April. Then, this week, the notice changed to say that she can expect scores for the September sitting this week. I wouldn’t worry too much about what is posted on the site. They’re clearly not keeping up!
I am new to this forum and have been lurking for a week or so. Very interesting conversations going on, even though most of them make my head spin! I am a little confused on what I someone mentioned on here regarding ED applicants and full pay students. Do schools look at financial records for ED applicants and give a priority to those that can full pay? Is that why the CSS profile and Fafsa have to be in for the school by the ED deadline if you are applying ED? That sounds discriminatory to me so I must be misunderstanding. My D21 has applied ED to Boston University. We are 100% not in the full pay category. So I am wondering if that will limit her chances of getting in ED.
It’s actually not clear to me that BU is need blind anymore, I can’t find that statement anywhere on their website.
Need blind schools don’t take level of need into account during the admissions process, while need aware schools do take an applicant’s level of need into account when making admissions decisions.
BU does meet full need of all domestic applicants, but that need is according to their calculations.
Have you run their net price calculator to get a cost estimate? Note the NPC may not be accurate if parents are divorced, own a business, or own real estate beyond a primary home. https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu
Yes, we have run the NPC for BU and it’s why I agreed to let her apply ED. We are not divorced, do not own real estate beyond our primary home but my husband is a professional photographer in addition to being a high school teacher. The income from the photography business was included when I ran the NPC. I only work part time and do not make a lot. We have been extremely blessed to not have a mortgage and have been really smart with our money. If the NPC is correct, and she is accepted, she would not be paying much more to attend BU then she would to attend University of DE, which would be in state tuition. I just hope not being a full pay student doesn’t hurt her chances to be accepted ED.
Also, she has done a lot of the virtual sessions which should show demonstrated interest. But we actually were able to go to Boston in September. Delaware was put on the list of lower risk states so we jumped on it and went to visit. We didn’t interact with any students or faculty, and adhered to all safety protocols. We used their interactive map to do a walking tour, which was very helpful. It was great to observe from a distance how they were handling the COVID-19 situation and I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t comfortable with her applying early decision without actually visiting the campus. And the school wasn’t on her radar sophomore year when we did the first round of tours. Because it wasn’t an official visit, it won’t count as demonstrated interest like it would in normal circumstances. Is that something she should try to find a way to add to her application? She has submitted her application but hasn’t received the information to set up her portal yet. And it wasn’t something that occurred to me before she had hit the submit button.
@MommaLue Ditto to this. Our GC provides a lot of info on how exactly to handle LORs and transcripts. LORs are requested through Naviance and there’s a separate school form to request transcripts. We are warned to NOT add our recommenders in the Common App because it will lock up the user’s account since our school isn’t configured to do LORs that way.
And, students can either select which LORs go to which school or just globally have all LORs go to all schools (S21 did that). Every school will get the counselor letter and school report.
I’m pleased to see that S21 is finally making progress – he’s filled out all of the Common App and had me proof it last night. I suggested a couple edits/adds to his activity list so he has to do those edits and then he can get it submitted to UDel. One of the UVA supplements is written and now he’s trying to figure out the 2nd one but is a bit stumped on that. He’s aiming to get it in for EA so he’s got 2 weeks to figure it out! And, started filling out JMU’s separate app; that one has more time - Nov 15 for EA.
Tonight we watched an info session for VT about their CMDA major and he really liked that. VT requires that you apply by major but he’d been feeling confused about what to pick – Statistics major vs. CMDA and this made up his mind to go with CMDA (although he may then double-major with stats).
Confused by @tellis6653 comment about having to do financial aid paper work before ED can be processed. We were going to waiver the FAFSA (it is required in our state to graduate) and had no plans to fill out CSS. We are full pay. I was not aware it was required for ED. Is it per school or across the board?
All they were saying is that if an ED applicant is applying for FA, the FA forms (both FAFSA and CSS Profile) must be filed by the same day as the ED deadline (Nov 1). If the applicant isn’t applying for FA, no need to file either FAFSA (unless you want to take the direct student loan) or CSS Profile.
Anyone else thinking this year will be very long?? Spring seems like forever away…no end to Covid in sight…no applications submitted yet by D21, but all 10 are in progress…
Just thinking this will be a long long journey before we know where she is going. Which is ok! We want to enjoy her etc, but a busy senior in a pandemic is not always ready to hang out for quality family time. Her To Do list is crazy and there isn’t much we can do to help. Sigh.
I’m very much looking forward to the day when the last application goes in and the app process is over.
I’m not trying to rush time, but am definitely looking forward to spring when this process is done and decisions are made!
It feels like S21 is finally making some progress. He’s been working hard on the CA and should finish his personal statement this week. I still don’t love it, but its well-written and he feels it represents him. He’s started a few supplements for his 11/1 EA apps and finished the questionnaire he had to complete for his guidance counselor. I’m halfway through the parent version, but its a struggle. (WHY is there such thing as a “parent brag sheet?”) Lastly, he went up over 100 points on his SAT, which puts him well above the 50%ile for a number of the schools on his list. That’s a huge relief!
Speaking of schools, is anyone else’s kid still adding schools to their “maybe I’ll apply” list? It seems like anytime S21 talks to his friends about college, he comes home considering another school he wasn’t previously interested in.
He’s 99% sure that he won’t apply ED anywhere. He had an absolute favorite school this summer that we would have happily let him apply ED. A few other schools have recently crept up into his top three favorites so he’s leaning toward taking his chances with EA and RD apps.
For any others interested in southern LAC’s I just finished reading a great closed thread on CC from 2015 with many first hand reviews of schools that don’t tend to have a lot of play on these pages. The below link will get you there. Got some great info on a couple of schools on my daughters radar as well as some new ones to check out. There is a follow up thread titled southern LAC’s revisited from 2018 that was also interesting although not quite as robust.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18336738#Comment_18336738