@bingewatcher congrats to your daughter, that’s spectacular!
@BingeWatcher congrats to your D. That is great.
Took S21 to the NACAC College Fair today. We’re in the Dallas area. Overall it went well, we had some interesting observations and interactions:
Most disappointing Advisors/Booth- UT Austin. I felt talked down to, and the admissions rep was extremely condescending—take away—if you’re not in the top 6% of your class…keep moving. I know this is just a generalization, as we do have friends whose non top 10% kiddos got freshman admission through holistic review, but overall just didn’t get the warm fuzzies from the UT Folks. He’ll probably still apply, but I don’t anticipate tears or hurt emotions if admission isn’t received.
Pleasantly surprised by the San Antonio schools—UTSA & Trinity. Two very different schools, but the admissions advisors for each were great ambassadors for their campuses and made The Boy feel wanted, he actually engaged in asking questions himself lol.
To round in state options, Texas A&M is still our front runner.
Out of state—he took a liking to OSU lol (OU wasn’t there but is a consideration as well). They had admissions reps specifically from the business school which where his interests lie, (Econ is a possible choice of major)so that was nice.
American University in DC is really peaking his interests and is now in the running. We had a nice long talk with the AU admissions rep for our region. S21 likes the internship and career opportunities of course, being DC and all.
We’re hitting the home stretch now with the last 9 week grading period underway, trying to keep a solid 1Q rank (he’s not in top 10% but that’s okay, he’s still doing really well! This summer will be all about SAT/ACT prep, prep, prep! with a couple of weeks of summer enrichment camps (if he gets in lol, waiting to hear back). He’s also trying out for a leadership position in marching band, if he gets section leader than this summer will be quite busy for sure because he also enrolled in AP Psych through our districts summer virtual learning academy to add a little oomph to his gpa.
11th grade is almost upon us…how did we get here so fast!
@Momof3B I’ve been lurking here (have an S21) and on the UT admissions site/thread. It is interesting that you were somewhat put off by UT at the college fair. Reading that thread and hearing stories from other parents, DS and I have been more and more unsettled by their approach. I’m also very disturbed by the way they manipulate their admissions stats…not all of those 6% get spots at the Austin campus. They are accepted but directed to satellite locations in hopes of moving to the main campus junior or senior year. I feel this practice is dishonest and sneaky.
Of course, A&M does this to an extent also…but it seems UT is much more underhanded and snooty about it. I don’t know…DS is trying to get through sophomore year before he really starts looking at colleges in earnest…but we both have had our opinions re UT diminish significantly of late.
Updated class rank was just released and S21 had moved up from 295/1146 to 254/1146. Firmly in 1Q now! So proud of him, he’s really hitting his stride now.
1146…wow that is a huge school!
Got D21 registered in her first dual enrollment class. She’ll take Intro to Literature next fall through one of our local community colleges (instead of taking AP English Lit). We still have to register her for Spanish, but we can’t do that until late summer because she will go through our public state university for that and she can’t register until all the university students have registered. Also, she needs her AP Spanish test score (which she won’t get until July) so the college can place her in the appropriate level. Am hoping the scheduling all works out. Make me nervous not being 100% certain she’ll have the Spanish class she needs (what if there is no room after the full time students register)? Arg.
@JanieWalker Public universities typically offer many sections of Spanish classes as it’s a popular foreign language for knocking out a language distribution requirement. Should she place in the upper division (300/400 level), demand will be lower so there is likely to be space for a different reason. If it were Japanese or Arabic, I might worry. Spanish, not so much.
@mamaedefamilia she has a pretty good chance of getting a 4 or a 5 on her exam, so that should take her out of the introductory levels and maybe into the 300+ levels. Really really hope there is room for her. She is above the levels offered at our local community colleges so she can’t go that route. She could do another online AP course (AP Spanish Lit), but I really really really really want her in a classroom for Spanish for the next two years (she wants that too).
There are many other colleges in our state and in the surrounding states, so I guess I should stop kvetching and come up with a solid back-up plan.
@JanieWalker It’s impressive that she is so advanced in foreign language and has the enthusiasm to keep pursuing it! She sounds like a very well-rounded student.
@mamaedefamilia thanks - I got my kids started on foreign language early, in the elementary school years very casually, and then both were ready for high school level during their middle school years (D23 is taking Mandarin) through various online but interactive providers. D21 has always been good at Spanish and she really enjoys speaking it. I anticipate she’ll want to keep going with it during college too (though probably not as a major). It’s time she get thrown into a classroom though. Would have gotten her in one earlier if there wasn’t a minimum age requirement at our local community and state colleges and if our local high school would have let her take classes there as a middle school student.
@BingeWatcher I know right!!! We’re in the Dallas area, our district has 5 high schools and the class sizes are huge! It really makes it hard for these kids to crack that top 10% in these competive school districts.
@JanieWalker That’s great that she is so dedicated to pursuing Spanish. Does she do any community service where she can use it? My friend’s girls go to a Spanish immersion HS and have been a really valuable part of our church’s monthly community assistance program where they help with translation. My kids take French, which wouldn’t have been my 1st choice for them. Spanish is so much more useful in the US.
After much nagging I was able to get daughter to sign up for the SAT Math2 Subject Test in May. She also has the PSAT10 next Thursday. She got a 34/35 on PreACT test the school administered recently.
She will be taking the regular PSAT in October. I will probably have her take ACT in December 2019, the SAT in March of 2020 and then retake either the SAT or ACT in June 2020 depending on which test she feels more comfortable with. Will also need to add 2 more subject tests in May of 2020 depending how her AP classes go.
Although test scores alone don’t mean admittance to schools, there are ranges of scores that are basically a prerequisite to schoosl so it can help to narrow down the search once you know what the test scores are.
Going on family vacation this summer to San Diego and Seattle so we are going to take a look at University of San Diego and University of Washington. Too very different schools, campuses and vibes just to giver her taste of smaller private school vs. big state school.
@JESmom - thanks, she just kind of took to it. She does a ton of community service in ways that are related to one of her more prominent ECs and her academic interests, but that doesn’t involve Spanish. She is interested more and more in Environmental Science (or some kind of related earth/climate science) though, so her Spanish may come in handy with study abroad/internships/working in various locations for ES (should she continue with that interest).
@burghdad D21 is doing the SAT2 math 2 in June. Good luck to your daughter! I agree with you about having some solid SAT2 scores to complement (or replace, if needed) AP scores.
If SAT2 would help competitive scholarships and make up for lack of any leadership, D would take them, but I don’t know if they would help.
@homerdog Congratulations to your son! Those are some great acceptances there. Wish him the best
DS plans to take three SAT subject tests this year as he thinks he can do well on them as he is currently studying the material. Is there any need for so many? He wants to take World History, Chemistry and Physics. He has Math 2 already.
He says he can do these 3 and hopefully be done with them for good. Pick and choose which ones to submit when the time comes. He does not intend to apply to Georgetown which I think is the only place that requires 3.
@yearstogo - I don’t think there is a need for so many per se, but submitting three or four excellent SAT2 scores can’t hurt an application, even if the college is test optional. The only thing I might double check on is if he can submit only one or two scores from the same test day. I know you can pick and choose what to submit from different test dates, just not sure about picking and choosing between scores made on the same day.
Is he taking AP courses? If so, he might want to wait/spread them out and take the corresponding SAT2 in June after the May AP exam. D21 took the chemistry SAT2 right after the AP exam last year and didn’t have to study too much for it, since she had already studied so much for the chem AP exam.
He is taking AP WH and AP Chem this semester. He took AP Physics 1 last year but this year did the online Phys Woot course through AoPS. He says ideally he would like one science and WH for the SAT Subj tests but he is not sure which one he has a better chance at getting a high score, so that is why he wants to take Chem and Phys this year. He was hoping that he could list Math 2 and his best science score for some colleges and maybe Math 2 and World History for others. You raise a good point as we both thought he could just show the ones he wanted to show, I will try to check to see if it depends on the dates you took the exams.
Your recommendation is what he was planning to do. Take the APs in May and the subject tests in June. He does not have a lot going on after the AP exams so he figured he could prep for a few weeks and hopefully get some very good results. Luckily he is good in math so the Math 2 subject test was not hard for him.
Thanks