@mamaedefamilia that would be awesome but I don’t think there’s a chance D21 will hit her target score considering she thought math was a bomb. Math is usually pretty good for her so, no matter what this score is, she’s taking the Dec test. Best case scenario is that math is the only section she will need to improve but I’m not holding my breath. I’m glad she started early. Lots of time for retakes. 
@homerdog - C11 seems to be the most popular form in October (if reddit has anything to say about it!) D took form C21.
She just texted me that her ACT account switched to "tested’ from “registered” which should mean she’ll get her scores at midnight.
It’s one of those things that you can’t change, so it doesn’t make any sense to be anxious about it, but I have a few butterflies on her behalf.
@3kids2dogs right. What’s done is done! I’m not telling D that the scores come out at midnight. She was hoping they came out after she left for school tomorrow and I could just check and text the results to her. I think she doesn’t want to be around me when she gets them. Lol. I keep saying no worries and plenty more time. I really hope she can keep from talking about it at school. She’s practicing saying that her score was “fine” and she’s taking it again in Dec if anyone asks! She wants to go through this process and keep things to herself so this will be her first challenge…keeping her score to herself. So many kids discuss it at school. Totally not loving that.
@mamaedefamilia that has already started for us, unfortunately. D21 is one of the few at her high school who can’t afford to be full pay. A friend recently told her Rowan (her in state safety) is a school for dumb people. Her friend happens to have an ex there, so I know that’s where the comment came from. Except it is my and my husband’s alma mater, S17 is a junior there…she’s no longer invited over. Lol. Just kidding - but it is upsetting to have these kids poo poo schools that are perfectly good schools.
@NJWrestlingmom I hear you. My daughter has some friends who are seniors and some don’t seem to understand the idea that affordability comes first. A few have made insensitive comments to classmates that are working within budget constraints.
And Rowan is a great school with a lot to offer! There are so many varied public options available in NJ.
Re: affordability. When you come down to that May 1 decision point, you will also be asking yourself, “Yes, we can swing it…but is it worth the extra money?” S19 was accepted into several schools, our two largest in-state highly-rated publics and 3 privates. He was awarded state merit scholarships that just about covered tuition at the publics, but we were full pay at the privates. One of the privates (Wake Forest) was particularly attractive to him, and we (okay, my husband) had said we would let him decide. We could afford it, but I mentally debated, “Really? Is there $250K more value there?”
S19 also came down to that question and chose one of the in-state publics, where he is very happily pursing Finance in their Honors program. Our high school posted acceptances on a bulletin board, so everyone knew where he “could have gone.” Several parents at graduation criticized our decision to let him “just” go to the public.
Long story to say - you all have some smart, talented kids (I read the stats), and there are many, many colleges where they will thrive. Don’t let what others are doing sway you from the real goal - a rich educational experience.
@SammoJ Shame on those parents who of other kids who criticized your son going to a state school. Scr#w them…
I struggled with the “could we afford to send D18 to the 70K private school”…sure I guess we could have but would it really be worth twice the price tag. There is also the issue of graduate school for many of our kids and the ridiculous price tags for that as well.
I am now trying to steer D21 into similar types of situation. She wants a school with undergraduate size of between 5K and about 30K. She wants some type of health science major. I am trying to get her to basically only looks at schools where merit money is a possibility. Lots of great schools meet that criteria.
D got her ACT score today. She had a score in her head where she said - if I get this score, I won’t retake the test.
Well, much to her surprise, she got that score! She thought she’d get there by her third test, not her first.
She had it so ingrained in her head that she was going to take it again in February that now she’s second guessing whether or not to retake it (she does NOT have a perfect score) even though she’s at her goal.
It doesn’t matter to me if she takes it again or not. I’m going to let her work through whether it’s worth it. She didn’t take the writing section, so I told her she could always retake it with writing in case she needs that for any of her applications. We’ll see what she decides.
ACT did not go D21’s way. Reading score was the only one in the range of what she’s been getting on practice tests. The rest were 4-5 points lower. I feel bad for her but she needs to figure out how to just put it behind her. I’m working on finding her a tutor. She doesn’t like the idea but I think she needs to switch gears and try something different. I don’t know that going back and just doing more practice tests is going to make a difference since I think part of her problem might be time management and confidence. I want to find someone (other than me) who can prep her. She’s just too emotional with me when we talk about it now after this score.
I’ve talked to a tutor who tutors via Skype. She seems great. I liked what she had to say. I’m talking to another today who is local and charges an arm and a leg but I know people who have used her and say she’s amazing. At $300/hour, she’d better be. I have a lot of questions for her as to how she would approach D21’s situation considering she’s done so much prep already. She would need to use those hours pretty effectively for me to be convinced it’s worth it. With the next test being just four weeks away, I don’t know if D can really regroup psychologically in time so I don’t know if she should just prep herself for the next month, take Dec test, and then we can look at tutoring for the Feb test…or if we should call in the tutor now and hopefully nip the discouragement in the bud asap.
Of course she had friends who hardly studied and got 34+. She knows some kids don’t have to study. It’s still a bummer. She did not share her scores with her friends so I think that’s good. And one of her best friends just told her that she’s happy with her score and changed the subject. I’m glad they didn’t get into details. It’s was sensitive of that friend to just answer and then move away from any more conversation. Meanwhile, in one of her classes, some girl she’s known since kindergarten was like “ugh, I got another 35 and I don’t know if that’s good enough for Cornell ED.” Bleh.
$300 an hour??? YIKES!!! I’ve never seen that high!! Where are you? Even here in the land of the overpriced everything, $150/hour is about as high as I’ve seen!!
D21 is taking the SAT her 2nd time on Dec 7. She’s really just focusing on bringing up math. She has been against tutoring until falling in love with Syracuse U last weekend and realizing she’s going to need a ton of money to make it happen! I think at this point it’s too late for Dec, so she’s self-studying for that and if math isn’t where she wants it, we’ll sign up for March and look into some tutoring leading up to that test.
@homerdog I’m sorry your D didn’t do as well as she hoped.
Question for planning college visits. Is there a way to see what schools are on a certain route. For instance, we want to go look at SUNY Bing, and then go to SUNY Poly, they are about 2 hours apart. If we want to make a weekend of it and try and find a 3rd school to see what is the best way to go about that?
@NJWrestlingmom We are outside Chicago. Yes that price is insane. From what I understand, D may only need two or three hours of time with her. I’m talking to her today and I’m very curious what her plan would be. That’s great that your D is motivated and I love schools that superscore! Hope she can bring up the math. That SAT math curve can be insane.
You could try the college search on collegeboard. Type in the zip code of each school you are visiting and then look for schools within 50 or 100 miles of that zip code. There is a map view so you can make sure you aren’t headed in the wrong direction.
Our remote tutor (He’s based on east coast) charges $300/hour as well. Anthony James Green got up to $1,500/hour but I don’t think he does one on one tutoring anymore. Makes $300 seem like a good deal ?
@3kids2dogs Thank you!
@Mwfan1921 how many hours did your D19 use the tutor? I’d love to know that before I talk to this tutor today.
@homerdog I had to chuckle at your daughter’s friend saying "I don’t know if the 35ACT will get me into Cornell ED. "
As I am sure you know from your son’s experience… sadly for the Ivies and other top schools a 35ACT (or even a 36 for that matter) does nothing more than give you a chance at a lottery ticket admission.
I am sure with a little work your D21 will get her scores where they need to be. My D18 went from a 32ACT to a 35ACT. Of course that 35ACT didn’t stop her from getting rejected at UVA, UNC, Brown and Princeton and waitlisted at Vandy…lol
My D21 has not taken anything other PSAT 10 and PSAT 11. Waiting on the PSAT 11 scores. She will take SAT December 5 and ACT in February. Based on how she feels about the tests we will then have her take one or the other again in the spring.
I am not sure how many hours she used…estimating 60 or so. Definitely on the heavy side…she needs the structure and someone motivating her for that type of stuff, no way she would ever pick up a book and review on her own, or do online lessons like at Khan.
Good luck with the tutor search. It can be difficult to find a good fit.
$300/hour is very steep - maybe it’s $300/hr of in person time and she does a lot of analysis of the particular student’s situation outside of the session?
I’d ask for references of clients who were in your daughter’s shoes last year (extensive self prep and already knowledgeable of the content, etc) and then call them before I’d sign on the dotted line!
The local tutors around here seem more like a paid version of motivation and accountability. They present material, the kids do homework, they get together and do it again over the course of many weeks. I interviewed a couple in the summer and they were mostly about preparation and content acquisition - they didn’t seem to be “masters” of the test. It seems like your D has already done that on her own, so you definitely need to find a tutor that can teach her things she doesn’t know.
Best of luck getting those ACT score improvements and finding a tutor who is a good match…$300 an hour does sound crazy! My S21 would never study well for these tests on his own. I tutor professionally for the GMAT (MBA program entrance exam), so I’ve been able to be an SAT tutor for my own kids (there’s a decent amount of overlap in the structure of the tests and even some of the content, so my experience with the GMAT stuff has been helpful). My son also sat with his math teacher at school to work on SAT problems outside of class regularly this summer…two sessions a week for 7 or 8 weeks. Without this structure, it just wouldn’t have worked out for him. My D23 is different and will self study with some guidance from me (especially on time management which is, indeed, such a big piece)! S21 will take SAT a second time in March…fingers crossed that’s the last time, but there’s certainly a chance he’ll have to take again next August.
@CTMom21 and @inthegarden we saw both Denison and College of Wooster this past weekend. Both remain on our son’s list. We saw Denison first…it was a Saturday, so things were quiet, and all we did was an info session, tour, and meal in the dining hall. We walked around a bit on our own as well and explored Granville, too. This was our first college visit for any of our kids so we had nothing to compare things to, but S21 and husband and I all liked it quite a bit. Then we went to Wooster the following day where we were able to get a much fuller experience because it was a 1.5 day Open House so they had a lot planned. Sessions and panel discussions we sat in on really resonated with us. Of particular note for us was the fact that S21, who is somewhat quiet and quirky, went to dinner with other prospective students and a current student and told us he’d probably come back to the hotel with us after dinner rather than stay for activities on campus. But then he texted us to say he was staying for activities, and he spent another 3 hours on campus that night and had a fun time. We felt this a good indication of the potential fit for him. S21 sat in on 2 classes as well (his first, so nothing to compare to yet, but he enjoyed them). Food at Denison seemed better, but it was a snapshot experience. I think there is an extra spring in his step now as the visits were exciting and motivating for him.
We also stopped briefly at Kenyon on the drive from Denison to Wooster…had it in mind for D23 who was not on the trip but wondered what the “isolation” we always hear about would feel like. The campus was gorgeous (we just walked around ourselves for 30 minutes), but we came in through cornfields and a lot of dead things on the rollercoaster-feeling road. ? The town was tiny. We’ll see…it wouldn’t bother S21 a bit (but Kenyon isn’t a fit for him), but D23 is more likely to find the isolation an issue. That’s a question for a few years in the future, though!