S22 said the PSAT was “fine,” so I don’t know whether he found the math or verbal more challenging. He didn’t end up taking any practice tests or preparing at all. We went over how hard it is to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship and he decided it was ridiculous to think he would, and his school has emphasized that the PSAT itself is purely for practice, so that’s how he approached it.
We don’t have a prospective college list at all yet. I don’t think he wants anything super-small or super-rural, but aside from that it’s pretty wide open. I suppose we’ll get some ideas together by spring.
S22 is interested in computer science. We’ve locked into two smaller schools for him, neither has low admit rates, both are within his range academically. We’re still a ways out, things can change. But doing Early Action for both is currently in the plans.
@NancyTN - I finally remembered to call this week and was told the same thing about 5-7 days. But I got an email the following day and the refund posted that day too. So much faster than they said and no phone call at all.
S22 went to 2 virtual college visits at his school this week - U of Michigan and Purdue. He didn’t come home super excited about either, but at least had some things to tell me about them. Unfortunately he was the only one in the Purdue meeting, so it was a little awkward feeling for him. He wasn’t really ready for a one-on-one Zoom!
@Luanne my D22 signed up for informative session virtual visit with Purdue and then we going to the actual in-person campus tour (unless canceled) in November. If you have feedback from your son - can you please share? We will report back too she is interested in cybersecurity so will be mostly asking about their Polytechnic department.
@sfSTEM We have a few questions we wrote down for cases like this to have on hand. I also saw sample of questions somewhere on college board. For us we are asking: can you double major (how easy it is to do so), what is the ratio girls vs boys (what opportunities they have for girls to collaborate together); and a couple more. Usually enough to show we are interested and don’t feel awkward
We started visiting colleges to get some feel and to maybe re energize our D. She is ok with virtual learning but getting less motivated to put in effort. Visited so far (in person) U of A Huntsville, Georgia Tech, Florida Tech. She was really impressed with Georgia Tech campus. Looking forward to Purdue visit. She also had virtual session with Stevens Institute of Tech and WPI. She seems more excited after WPI session, but maybe because I was there to point out some good parts:)
Our schools list is all done. So we just going to update it based on all visits and her final results after this school year. PSAT in Jan and ACT some time after that (her school will be doing them so hopefully no cancellations on these). You can tell I am a planner
Hi all, have not been here since before the PSAT. I’m a senior photographer so have been in the midst of busy season. Sort of grateful that this is a quiet board so far.
I’m guessing that a lot of you are like me and just not feeling it with the college prep at the moment. I hardly feel like D22 even has school. The homeschooling has been going okay. She definitely misses school, but the local schools remain virtual, so she is not missing much. As of last week, she is doing two classes via the local school, German and band. The school has been doing a modified block schedule thanks to Covid. Music and foreign language are certainly not best taught intermittently, but it is what it is.
PSAT happened on October 14th. The neighborhood school is doing January, but told me they would not accommodate homeschoolers. So we went to a private school. I did not have high hopes for a qualifying score, but low hopes, I guess. Her sister was NMS. However, D22 reports a misbubbling error, sooooo…again, it is what it is. Moving on!
SAT still on here for the 7th. She’s supposed to be prepping! Thanks to the person who posted the link for checking for closed test centers. Hers appears to still be open.
I really wish we could visit colleges, as I think she could use the inspiration. Not at all practical to even try from here though. Been trying to get her excited about virtual open houses. Honestly though, those even bore me, and I love college tours.
X-Country season came and went. Most of it cancelled but she had four races. Ski season is now delayed until at least January.
@DreamerMom We talked about some questions too. He asked Purdue about co-op/internships and reports they have a good amount. Lol. Not a lot of info coming from him! I’ll bug him for more later. I did see Purdue is doing visits, so maybe we will try to do one. It’s a bit of a drive for us (300 miles), but nothing nearby is offering in-person at all.
I strongly believe in not-too-big 4 year liberal arts colleges. Pick a school of a size you like, the geography you like (urban, rural, etc), apply to a good range of difficulty, and visit them and pick the one which your kid vibes with the most. (Assuming visiting is possible next year!)
My daughter is a sophomore at a small liberal arts college and she’s loving a wide variety of classes and won’t decide on a major until end of sophomore year.
No SATs yet, no PSATs yet - also still in virtual school and no sports yet. So everything feels a bit in limbo. Hoping for SAT in Dec, and still pretending we can visit some schools this spring.
D’s end of first semester is Friday and she has a slew of tests and assessments due this week. In person school has gone so well that the administration is relaxing some of the rules that prevented clubs and extracurriculars from meeting face to face, and is also allowing grades to mix (formerly all in person classes and activities were confined to grade cohorts). They still will have no cafeteria, be socially distanced and masked, and we have lengthy questionnaire every morning on wellness. Perhaps it is the new normal, but it gives room for sports, drama, music, to start again. Fingers crossed.
S22’s school has opened up more too, with all students returning to campus 2 weeks ago. All going well so far. His HS theatre troupe is even putting on an in person play, The Tempest, in mid -November. It’s a small cast and the huge auditorium will easily accommodate all who want to go even at 25% capacity. Got yet another hurricane coming through tomorrow, so he might have school cancelled either tomorrow afternoon or Thursday.
@vistajay@songbirdmama@OrangeFish Thank you for your comments and suggestions. We may have a lean, finally. D22 thinks he may want to major in statistics. He’s been into sports and political stats, so not exactly a surprise.
We are thinking of coming up with two lists - (a) We are still going to be with COVID in Fall 22 list, and (b) Things are pretty much back to normal list. The first one is a list of colleges within a 5-hour driving distance, and the second one obviously doesn’t have that constraint.
Having looked at supplemental essays for various schools, I don’t think D22 could be convinced to write more than a handful. We’ll probably shoot for a single digit number of applications, with a mix of EA and RD apps. My wife works for a TE institution, so that may also be part of the mix.
Hybrid school is going well so far, but it’s touch and go. A group of athletes got quarantined for attending a party without distancing or masks. The lack of physical company of friends is a tough on teenagers.
@GoodGrief16, I hear you on the lack of enthusiasm for the college process. When my D18 was a junior, we had already been to look at a couple of schools by this point – just to get excited about the process. For S22, I can’t fathom that we will visit anywhere before spring break, if that. I am sort of sad about it.
As we start to put a list of schools together, I would love to see if anyone has school suggestions for us. My son is an average excellent student (good rigor/one B, all the rest As or A-/expecting testing ~1500), especially interested in history/political science/languages (some relevant decent ECs). He is interested in a career in the foreign service. The reach schools are easy to find. I would love to hear suggestions of safety schools where he would be a candidate for merit money (we will not qualify for need based aid). Here are some desires:
Highly intellectual, even nerdy environment
Not a heavy drinking/party/Greek scene
Balanced politically (not overwhelmingly liberal or conservative)
Supportive, with professors/staff really interested in knowing students
Large liberal arts size or small university would be ideal size (ie: not super big or super small)
Financially stable -- ie: will still be around for his children to attend
Oh, that seems really promising! D22 actually just decided to drop band this week because Zoom band is just not working well and spring does not look likely as far as that class going in-person.
Fabulous!! I thought theatre would be one of the last things to come back. The arts are really hurting right now.
@13street , you are wise to consider the essays! So time consuming and they do burn the kids out. Sometimes there is crossover in topics, which helps. I encourage people to start as soon as questions are released over the summer because senior fall is so intense.
@christinelin University of Texas Dallas comes to mind. It’s got the merit money, and the nerd factor. Might be larger than you are thinking? We had a few kids from our far north location go there for the academics. Grinnell College in Iowa offered my average-excellent daughter a fair amount of merit money. Maybe University of Puget Sound. I know they have competitive merit.
Well, D22 is still on for Nov 7 SAT. I keep expecting to hear the test center is closed.
@christinelin has he looked at Davidson? Also wondering about Sewanee (I don’t know that much about it, but have some adult acquaintances who loved their time there).
My D22 is still super focused on going to the UK for school. She is narrowing in on a few. Strathclyde is still at the top of the list and she is investigating the University of Glasgow and maybe Stirling. She likes the idea of Scotland. She also has UEA on her list and maybe Goldsmiths or Royal Holloway and Aberystwyth as a safety. We will have to narrow that down to the 5 for UCAS, but she has some time. She is scheduled to take the PSAT in January. I think she may have fallen off on her prep for it, so hope she will pick it back up. We have not signed up for the SAT yet. Everybody in NC public schools has to do the ACT junior year, so that will be coming up in the Spring too — I think in Feb.
@GoodGrief16 - Love those ideas. I have seen a bit about UT Dallas, but your mention makes me think I should look deeper. And Grinnell is definitely on the list. @Sweetgum - I have both of those on my maybe list. The UK is actually on our list also (as is the European continent – DS is fluent in German). Do you have any good resources you recommend for looking at those schools?
His school is back to fully remote this week (had been hybrid). Hoping this doesn’t last long term, but my guess is that this is the norm through the winter. Feeling grateful that DS seems to do fine with remote. Hoping other kids can hang in there as well. It isn’t easy.
DS is registered for a language test with listening on Nov. 7. So far still happening. I hope it goes through. These aren’t offered often!
The main thing, though, is to do a deep dive in to the specific UK uni websites themselves. You apply directly into your Course (of study) aka major. In England and Wales the Courses are 3 years sometimes with an optional 4th year as placement or study abroad (this is taken in the 3rd year and then you come back and finish in your 4th year). In Scotland university is 4 years, sometimes also with a year abroad or placement. There are different entry requirements for each Course (of study). UK unis are all about the tests (SAT and/or ACT) and AP tests, or IB for entry requirements. It has been really interesting learning about the differences in the UK and Scottish universities vs US schools. There are NO Gen Ed requirements in UK schools. You are expected to get all that in high school. You apply straight into your Course. They do not care much at all about extra-curricular activities unless it is directly related to what your Course of study will be, so volunteering at the animal shelter could be good if you are applying to study veterinary medicine and irrelevant if you are going into computer science, unless you reprogrammed their computers. I kinda like it better really.
The other resources I won’t link because I am always a little hazy on what is allowed and what isn’t, but you can google them. We found Study Across the Pond, which is a free service that will pair up American students with an advisor who can help them navigate the UCAS (UK Common App equivalent). They only work with 40 of the 106ish UK unis, though, and not Oxbridge, but there are some good ones. The UCAS website itself is very helpful too. I also like The Complete University Guide for the League Tables, The Uni Guide for their vibe rating, and What Uni for their reviews. The Student Room is a big UK site a bit like CC.
There are other posters here who know more about going to uni in the UK than I do, but I hope this gives you some starting points. This has just kind of been a nice distraction for 2020 for me and my D22. I can do a dive into one of the university websites and take a mini vacation to the UK.
@Sweetgum This is super helpful! Thanks so much. The going straight into the major piece was on our radar and is a positive for my DS, as is the focus on metrics.
Does anyone have a sense of how a non-Oxbridge school will be viewed in the U.S. in terms of hiring, etc.
@christinelin there’s a thread about that now in the UK forum. My kid wants to study English and Creative Writing, so university prestige is not a big deal.
Personally, I attended the University of St. Andrews on a Fulbright and received my M.Litt. there. People in the U.S. know very little about non-Oxbridge universities. Whenever I talk about it, I end up having to do a lot of explanation (and I try not to explain the grading system).
she is interested in cybersecurity so will be mostly asking about their Polytechnic department.
