Mine is taking it with essay because we have no clue about where she will end up applying. Better to get it out of the way than have to retake it later just because a random reach school recommends or requires it.
Hm we did ACT without essay. Dās current list doesnāt have a school that needs it. S19 didnāt do the essay on the SAT for his search. I guess I should do a very deep dive into it and see if there are ANY schools she would consider that would need it. It seems like itās mostly public schools that still need it (although I know thatās not 100% true).
For those with kids who took the PSAT yesterday on October 30th: What did they think about it?
Almost no one still recommends the essay. The UCs require it. My kids are not taking it.
What a joke. ACT and SAT should just drop the essay already.
The UCās are considering dropping the ACT/SAT requirement all together, but unfortunately that would NOT affect our 2021ās here in CA.
I wish the UC system would have dropped the essay. As Iāve mentioned, D21 did well on the August SAT but had a discordant essay score, to the extent that she has to do the whole thing again. She has the mandatory in-school SAT in the spring but Iām not sure that includes the essay (guessing not) so that means she will likely have to take the SAT a third time at some point, with the essay. Kid has her heart set on UCLA.
I had no comments about the PSAT except it was āfineā. LOL.
@mm5678 we are in Illinois and the kids have to take the mandatory SAT in the spring. It includes the essay.
Thanks @homerdog ! Iāve told my daughter she needs to ask about the essay at school. Iām trying to not helicopter and remind her too much. 
@mm5678 I think, if the test is required by the state, the kids take the whole test including the essay because for some kids itās the only test they will take.
Thanks to this discussion our son will not be taking the essay portion of the SAT on the December test. Somehow we missed that it was even an option and that few schools require it. The essay would easily be his weakest area so this was nice to find out!
It varies by state. Our state requires it, but without essay. There was an option to add the essay for a slight fee (waived if you were on free/reduced lunch).
Hi folks, good luck to those taking the SAT tomorrow (mine is not ā her next date will be in March). We just hired Ivy Bound Test prep at my exās suggestion, and D21 will start her tutoring sessions in a couple of weeks. An 80-100 point increase would be ideal, but weāll see. Her current score is fine for 3/4 of the colleges on her list, but to be in the running for an Ivy (sheās interested in two), her SAT score needs to be higher.
As for the essay - mineās not taking the essay. She has several Gold Keys with the Scholastic Writing Awards and she published a piece of writing in a major regional magazine last June, and she did well in AP English Language. If a college insists on the SAT essay in spite of the above, then thatās overkill and she wonāt bother applying. Iām pretty sure none of the colleges on her (too long right now) list require it anyway.
Trying to figure out whether or not she should drop AP Physics 1 right now and take it next year instead. Sheās had AP Bio and AP Chem, and right now she is also taking AP Environmental Science. She has a full course load with three college courses and the three AP classes. She is struggling with AP Physics and has a low B. It is not too late to drop the course and not have it show up on her transcript. Sheād try again next year, maybe as dual credit instead of online AP (though the online provider is excellent and has a good reputation with college admissions folks). That would leave her with five courses each semester instead of six, but three of those courses are college courses, so maybe thatās enough rigor and dropping the class wonāt hurtā¦? Itās fine if she gets a B in the course, but itās a low B and itās not okay (for the colleges sheās aiming for) if she gets a C. Trying to figure it out.
Good luck to those taking the SATās tomorrow, D21 is taking them again in December, hopefully she will find some time to do some prep. Her schedule is so busy and she gets so much homework that study time is limited. She may end up studying over the summer and taking them in August. She took them in Oct for the first time and did very well, without any prep (purposely did that) but would like to bring her score up, like @JanieWalker D her score is good for most of the schools she is looking at.
Her big thing right now she is trying to figure out, and hopefully you have some advice on this, is about Honor Society. Our school you can only apply as a Junior or Senior. She just doesnāt know if having it on her resume outweighs all the hours she has to do to get in. She is finding it hard to find time to get what she needs to do done. She is also class Secretary of her class and on Student Council, and on dance team. The in school requirements for all (except dance) are the same, she is having trouble doing the same activity for 3 ECās and her dance and working time.
So that was a long winded way of saying, how important is it to have Honor Society on your resume. She is also as of now in the top 10% of her class and closer to top 5% which is where she is now aiming for. Any advice is appreciated, she is an only child so our first experience with college admissions.
Based on nothing but my opinion, I donāt think Honor Society is anything special as compared to any other EC. Our Honor Society invites go out after mid-year grades junior year. D has already said sheās not interested. Too many requirements that require a lot of time and sheās already busy enough with her current schedule.
Question, why would you not be on the safe side and take the essay with the ACT/SAT? Some kids might change their mind about what colleges they want to apply to by fall of senior year, some scholarships require essays (e.g. for NMF) and other colleges might ārecommendā essays. I just donāt see any real downside to taking the additional essay. Please enlighten me.
Thank you @NJWrestlingmom your train if thought is what we are thinking also.
D21 got her invitation to apply to NHS last week too. Anyone over a 3.5 weighted GPA gets invited. Thatās like 30% of the class. Itās just nothing special. And the candidates have to write essays, gets recs, and (get this) do 25 hours of community service between 11/1-1/15. Has to be during those dates. AND there have to be six different places that you volunteer. So now the rush is on for kids to find places to volunteer and grab those spots before someone else does. There are up to 250 juniors who have been invited to apply. Once into NHS, there are other volunteering musts in order to graduate with that distinction. Some of S19ās friends got in initially but then bagged it senior year because they were too busy and they really didnāt care about wearing the separate medal at the graduation ceremony.
The only reason to do it is (1) if you feel like you need to show community service and havenāt done any yet or (2) you are lacking in ECs in general or (3) would like to run for the exec board of NHS to show some leadership but of course thereās no guarantee you would win one of those spots.
S19 didnāt do it. D21 wonāt either. I think AOs know that NHS is different at every school and, in our case, she has the grades and the ECs to be in NHS but just isnāt willing to jump through the hoops.
@socaldad2002 I think that among the top 50 , Duke recommends the essay and the UCs require the essay. Thatās it, no one else. There is little chance UCs or Duke will be on their lists. NMF, while not impossible, isnāt likely either. So, the essay wonāt be necessary. If the unlikely occurs, they would retake next Aug (which they will probably be doing anyway), with essay.
If you take with essay, the essay score gets reported (either via official report or in the Common App). I see no need to chance a poor essay score even though colleges donāt seem to care about it.
Thanks for the response. Donāt kids apply to some colleges that are not in the top 50, for example they might need some match and safety colleges too? Examples, Oregon State, College of Wooster, Lehigh, Ohio University, Rutgers, etc.