OT and occurred to me especially after reading a thread about the importance of a prestigious college, but I have seen very few mentions of the service academies.
Having grown up in the DC area and having USNA about 45 minutes away, service academies are up there with the top 1% of local high school students. Maybe because there are many military leaders and retired leaders here is why it’s on our collective radar. One of D21’s good friends is going for a service academy.
Just curious. D21 would never be service academy material, just not her nature.
Parents and students do not have access to the profile at our school. I had S ask his counselor and she said no one ever asked her for it and that she would send it to him, but never did. I was curious about it after hearing there is such a thing on CC.
What? So strange! Some of that info is needed to fill out the common app. I think it’s also public record if you ask. Ours is right on our school website and any school around here it is on their website as well as a list of what schools recent graduates went to. Why would they not have that available? It only helps in the process for your student so they can know what options they have available to them and for future students or parents who may feel there are better opportunities to send their kids to a private school if warranted.
I’m reasonably confident that no one has asked for our profile between me asking for D21 this cycle and when I asked for S19.
It also has little useful info and looks like it was done 20 years ago, one b/w chart and the rest just typed. The only thing changed from 19 to 21 was the percentages going to 2 and 4 year schools, it moved a couple points.
I honestly wonder if our kids are cut a bit of extra slack when they see the school report. I’ve seen what most of them look like and it is nothing like ours. Ours screams “this kid was on her own figuring out how to apply to a selective college. “
I bet that’s what ours looks like. When I read about Naviance on here, I asked the school counselor if we had it and she never heard of it and had no idea what I was talking about.
@homerdog Yes, that was my understanding as well, but someone had said their daughter only ‘sent’ certain scores, so that’s why I asked. Probably meant ‘reported’. I’ve already sent two to college and that’s how I remembered it.
Yup, Duke said so at a reddit AMA. Also, both Harvard and Yale confirmed that they let 20% of '20 freshmen take gap year. Yale has said that they plan to admit the same number of '21, but who knows if they really will.
@srparent15 I’m surprised to hear that, because my eldest totally half-assed AP Stat (the class), didn’t prepare for anything, and got a 4! His institution have him credit, so he didn’t look back. I learned a long time ago to just roll with it with that one.
I’m with @Aguadecoco on this. I have never even heard of Naviance before joining CC. In fact, I had a meeting with one of our school bosses trustees last month and she had never heard of it either! And as far as school profile goes, again, I learned about that here on CC as well…didn’t know that was thing or where to even find it
Totally agree. My son had a similar experience- prepped for a date that was canceled and then took some months later but without additional intensive prep so coasted into his current score of 30. I think he could have prepped his way to a 32 but probably not beyond that. Still I recognize the ability to prep itself is an example of privilege. It would be nice if there was some objective test that correlated with “traditional academic performance” that could not be gamed by prepping. So everyone was on a level playing field. I do think an objective measure provides useful information to help discern academic fit because even GPA varies so widely.
I’ll chime in as well because these last few posts about unexpected AP scores is comforting to read. (I wonder how many more posts may address this as I’ve only read through post 718/764! This is an active thread today!)
My D got 5s-Eng Lit & USH, 4-French, and 3-Chem. Chem was her fave subject, highest grade and potential college major. She was so disappointed. However, after much discussion she decided to self-report all her AP scores since her chem teacher wrote one of her LORs.
After much reading on CC and other resources, I don’t believe AP scores carry as much weight as we thought back in July when she got her scores. So I feel a bit easier about her decision. However, who knows if that will be the case this crazy year. Thankfully she was able to get a strong SAT score in August so that also helped.
I first learned about the profile when S19 had a coach tell him that he wanted it. So I emailed the school GC, and low and behold, the document existed. I know it gets sent to lots of colleges who ask for it on the common app, but to my knowledge no one in our town has ever seen the document who doesn’t live in my house. I’m pretty sure that 95% of HS seniors and their parents are completely unaware that such a document exists.
Quick update – my S21 was deferred ED from Rice today. He’s disappointed, of course, but he’s still in the game. I hope they release some ED stats so we know how many were deferred. They indicated in the letter it’s a “tiny” number.
Also, fyi, he has 4.0 GPA and lots of rigor at a top public HS in our state, but applied TO. Diverse ECs and leadership (but no national awards or anything). Very good LORs (I think) and essays.
Awww that stinks @AlmostThere2018. Rice is getting more and more competitive.
We got a yes from UMASS Amherst today but no honors college. Still on pins and needles waiting to hear from UT Austin. D21 finally has somewhere she’s excited about though!
Hugs to your son, @AlmostThere2018, it sounds as if he has a really good chance for admittance to Rice RD if he hangs in there and keep showIng continued interest. keeping my fingers crossed for him (and you) !
