Older son at FSU has a vocal recital this weekend so we are visiting with S22. FSU is offering guided campus tours to admitted students beginning this weekend, and prospective applicants starting June 1, but we are getting a tour from older son’s GF. S22, wife and I are fully vaccinated. Even though it’s a short trip, I am really looking forward to it. FSU is not necessarily high on S22’s list (though his brother loves it), but it is a good opportunity to visit a campus and get S22 thinking again about what he wants in a college.
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Hurray to being able to attend recitals again!!!
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He only is allowed 3 guests, so with his teachers there may be 10 people or so in a 1000+ auditorium, but it’s a start! LOL.
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Our school had their musical two weeks ago, and we were hoping a success would open up the opportunity for Band to put their concerts on this Spring.
Most of the cast got sick (non-COVID) after Friday and they cancelled the rest of the shows so… 
I am so sorry to hear that! With the Covid precautions it is amazing that another virus snuck through!
Can your band put on outdoor concerts in the spring? I guess practicing is still hard…
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@AgeofAquarius you may consider SMU as well. They strongly encourage double majoring and have mech engineering and a relatively new and well supported cross-functional BS in Data Science . They have lots of merit aid.
S22 is also considering Purdue and U of Miami but I don’t know about the latter’s STEM offerings.
Anyone seen March SAT scores yet today? College Board site says my S22’s are pending.
S22’s score is in: 1400 (700/700). Very good for his first try! He doesn’t seem bowled over with pleasure but thinks it’s fine. Thinks he’ll try again in August, “because why not?” Why indeed. We’ll see if he gets a higher score later, but I think he’ll have some good options with this one if it comes to it.
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Congrats. My D got 1360. She was aiming for 1400 so is not thrilled, but for a first try and minimal prep, I think it was fine. Frankly, it’s probably good enough for 6/8 of the schools she is interested in! She is trying the ACT for the first time in April, and after that, will decide which to prep for over the summer.
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Scores come in throughout the day - some as early at 6am, some as late as 9pm.
Many scores have been posted on Reddit. Along with many “OMG, my scores aren’t available, what do I do??!!!” panics, as early as noon.
Fwiw, Azerbaijan and Pakistan appear to have test integrity issues, much like Saudi Arabia did last test. Many “we need to investigate, please allow three weeks” emails.
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We have a Wednesday-evening family check-in via FaceTime with our D19 who’s a Parsons sophomore in New York, and S22 mentioned in the last one that he ran out of time on the SAT reading section and just filled in B for the last five answers. He thinks the proctor might have eaten into test time a little bit when talking at the start. Maybe bodes well for the eventual retest.
One of the schools S22 is interested in for architecture is Pratt, and D19 lives a couple of blocks from that campus. DW and I are thinking about moving to Brooklyn when we move down after S22 graduates, so we might all end up sharing a borough.
D22 - 1450 SAT (700E/750M). Accepted to ND Leadership Seminar this summer. Waiting for MOSTEC result in a few weeks, but will prob stick with NDLS so they can work their internship without much interruption. Now they’re just focusing on school and kind of chilling out until the end of the semester.
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I think we’re just going to have to focus on test optional schools. D’s score was an 1150 after a tutor. Sigh. She’ll test again in May. Her math was much lower than all her practice tests. I’d be fine if she could crack 1200.
She is doing some 1:1 work with a different tutor for the ACT on 4/17 so we’ll give that a go. It’s so self defeating for her and I hate to see it.
She’s in the top decile of our large, top 50 in the state of PA high school (3.97 UW), good/decent ECs, good rigor (5 APs by graduation) but this test score. Gah. Anyone else in a similar boat?
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S22 got the same SAT score he got the first time, 1480. Very good of course and I told him he should be happy with that, but he is disappointed he did not improve. We informally toured FSU as long as we were there to visit my older son. Most buildings were inaccessible but he did get inside to see the freshmen honors dorm and the music school.
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@tumagmom - We are in the exact same boat. 4.0 UW core GPA, 4.4 weighted. APs, honors, and even a career certificate program for Early childhood education, but her March SAT score was terrible. None of the public four year schools in Florida are TO and we have Florida prepaid. I think Florida is probably the only dang state still requiring test scores of all the public universities. I never thought we’d be in the boat that our daughter, a 4.0 honors kid, couldn’t get into a decent four year public school in our own state. We will look at TO in other states and what sort of merit aid we can get, but sadly for our family finances definitely play a role. I know she could get into a great school OOS, and I wish I could give her the world. It’s sad for me and she feels so defeated. I’m keeping her positive though. We are staring SAT prep classes this week, and after the May score we will see if we should do a one on one tutor. She will also work daily in Khan academy. Her math really needs to improve. She will probably take the SAT one last time I’m August and then we will apply early to several schools to improve our chances. We may apply summer too, if it seems that helps.
If you don’t mind me asking, what sort of increase have you seen after tutoring? I want to be realistic.
I can so relate! Fortunately many of her top choices are test optional. That’s adds an additional layer of stress for you and her for sure! Good idea for the ACT. I’m cautiously optimistic about that.
D scored a 1080 on her soph psat, 1100 on junior psat and 1150 after tutoring on the SAT. I will say her practice tests were 1220 and 1200 so I do think she has the potential to do that. We will try again in May. So I’d say about +100
Keep in touch!! It’s nice to not feel alone with a bright, involved and very capable kiddo who tests poorly!
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My S22 got an 1140 on his sophomore PSAT and 1230 on his junior PSAT, both with no prep, as his school insists they’re strictly practice/diagnostic (and he didn’t think he had a chance at NMF, so wasn’t interested in studying to chase that). He did PrepScholar before the March SAT and his practice scores were kind of all over the place, not really a steady progression, but the 1400 he got was on the high end of his practice range. D19 had a more dramatic PrepScholar experience: She got a 1300 on her first real SAT after minimal prep, then did PrepScholar and got a 1490 on the next one. They had guaranteed a 160-point increase and I was skeptical, but it really worked for her. S22 found the tips and overall approach less useful, but still somewhat helpful.
I’ve got a junior kiddo and thus far it has been really tough to motivate him for the college search. He just took the SAT with a little bit of prep, but no results yet (given at his school on a weekday - not the official March sitting). I’m not anticipating a great score and am mentally prepared to have him prep over the summer. Anyone else have a kid who is struggling to stay motivated this year? With the hybrid schooling my son’s grades have slipped a bit (still all As and Bs) – the amount of online learning is terrible for him. Timing couldn’t have been worse.
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I think it’s hard for a lot of kids to stay motivated. Hybrid and distance learning just don’t feel the same as in person.
Agreed. It isn’t ideal to say the least. For kids like my son staying engaged while remote is extremely tough (not to mention the social isolation etc.)