@DreamerMom Congrats to your D on her ACT score! I was wondering how your D has figured out she wants to major in Cybersecurity. Has she had any experience in the field? My son started learning about cybersecurity for a Business Professionals of America competition and is intrigued to learn more about it.
In other news, our high school will give the SAT in about 3 weeks - part of the state assessment of all juniors. I am not sure if they will make the kids take the essay part. I am hoping not since the College board is discontinuing it in June, and no colleges will be requiring it. My S is hoping to improve his score, but he has had zero prep for the essay. Am I silly to worry that if the schoolās SAT test has the essay and he does terribly, that it could look bad? The rational part of my brain says not to worry and just have him focus on the main parts, but then there is the worrying parent brainā¦
Thank you! She had a few summer camps related to it (first one accidentally and the rest deliberately:)). And now she is participating in Cyber competitions we found online, as well as Sci Olympiad for Code busters events at her high school.
Hey there! I know this thread is for parents, but I thought I could help out with this so Iāll chime in! Iām a dual US/UK citizen who applied to schools in both countries this year. Ended up committing to Cambridge in the UK but plowed through the whole Ivy application process too. Iāve grown up here and have a lot of insight into certain universities (I hope!). Please feel free to reach out if youād like advice on good fits for your son based on what heās looking for!
Our school is also hosting the SAT as a state test and they told us that to include the essay we would have to do a separate sign up (we didnāt, of course).
For your peace of mind, have your S22 sign into his College Board account - that school based SAT should show up in there and it should say whether he is signed up for essay or not. (he even might be able to change it if he is!). You could always ask your high school counselor, too, but I would start with the CB account.
If your state is making him do the essay, I really wouldnāt worry. I donāt know if there are any schools left that look at it and when they say they donāt, my understanding is that they really donāt look at it at all.
My D takes Latin as her language. Has had 2 years in middle school (which equates with a full year at HS level) and three years in high school placing her at the completion of Latin 4. She is pretty much burned out with Latin and is rethinking the decision to go for a 5th year. Her alternative would be to tak an additional math class (statistics) or additional advanced science elective (already taking calc and AT chemistry next fall). Thoughts on whether this would be frowned upon? Her target is not T20 ivy schools, but smaller liberal arts colleges and she will likely major in chemistry (not premed - interested in research). Thanks for your perspectives.
This is an interesting point about Latin. S22ās younger sister is an 8th grader who has been taking Latin for several years. Her future high school also offers Latin, but sheās not sure she wants to go that in-depth into it. The fact your D is burned out provides an input on that. Was there something specific about Latin that she ended up not enjoying?
I think you will find on CC many people say completing level 4 is enough. But my advice for you is to find out by specific school because I think it does vary. I would ask her counselor what colleges expect from her high school on this and I would check the common data set for the schools that your daughter may be interested in. (just Google search name of the school with ācommon data setā.
Language requirements certainly vary, but Iām unaware of any school that requires or even recommends five years of a language. Even four years is quite rare - many are two, some are three. Given that high school is four years, this should not be surprising
If a student wants to explore something other than a fifth year language, Iād say that as long as itās not elementary Basketweaving it would be a perfectly fine decision.
We have the same thing here for the SAT in school in April. We just got the overall schedule for that testing week and the SAT is 8:30-1pm, which seems like it must include the essay. S22 will be bummed! His plan was to do a quick review over spring break, but just of the main 4 sections. He has a good score, but can improve a little and it goes into the class rankings, so higher is good for that. I donāt think Iāll have him study for the essay though. I might have him look at what it includes in general, just to not be surprised that day.
It could also be that they are doing the experimental section 5. My daughters test started at 8 and she wasnāt out until 12:45 due to the additional section.
Not exactly sure, but think it is the new teacher who is unable to make it come alive as the former teacher did. She has always loved Latin class and talked about being a classics major. She liked reading the poetry but they are working through the Illiad this year and she is just bored to tears. This is surprising to me because I would think Illiad more interesting than Cicero, so I chalk it up to the new teacher. They do have a one year introduction to Greek just for seniors she will investigate.
Thanks @smiles2122 I should have thought of looking on his CB account! Yup, there it is, with essay unfortunately, and no way of opting out. I am guessing our state is requiring it, but I may ask the counselor if there is any way to skip it. I appreciate your suggestion not to worry:) And Big win tonight for Blue -off to the Sweet Sixteen!
How is everyone handling college visits? We are vaxxed due to jobs and my D22 is an intern at a cancer research center, so she was able to get one too. Weād like to hit NYC/NE and CA for college visits right after school lets out, but itās been hard to find info on visiting in person. (She already did the virtual tours.) Any help would be appreciated.
-A mom in flyover country
@catmom1 We are going to FL this weekend to tour 3 schools. They are all having in person tours. We are not high risk and will test before and after our trip. I think by May/June a lot more campuses in New England will be offering tours. We wanted to go now so we could see at least a few colleges with kids on campus. CA seems a lot slower to open up so not sure if they will have in person tours this summer.
Bummer - I feel for him having to do it, particularly when it is being eliminated (I assume because no one uses it). If he canāt get out of it, I would just have him look up some basic tips online and then try to not worry about it.
And yes, go blue! Canāt believe we are last big 10 team remaining so early, so random.
Those are definitely some of the toughest places for visits! The Parents 2021 thread is very active and they have discussed visits to all those regions, if you can manage to sort through it. One big takeaway on there is the advice to just call the schools directly that you want to visit and ask them for the scoop on the restrictions. They are changing as we speak in many places - and apparently interpreting the NY regs requires a law degree so it will be easier to just talk to the school.
@catmom1 Weāll likely visit only in the summer. S22ās HS opens in early September, and weāre thinking we may be able to catch some colleges right after they open for Fall 2021.
None of the schools in which S22 is interested are likely to be open for visitors during his April break. By that time, hopefully weāll also know where he could expect a more normal college experience.
