Parents of the HS Class of 2022

My D also had no in-person school for over a year although she was allowed to play two team sports during that time. Didn’t make a lot of sense to me but it definitely helped her mental health.

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As AP scores are getting into the meatier ones, the percentage of 4/5 or 3/4/5 appears to be down from last year. Not surprising, I suppose.

And yes, I do wonder that if 800 students were caught, how many weren’t? Though I suspect Art is easier to cheat on than most tests. And not really that impactful in college admissions, IMO.

And I had lost track of time over the summer - scores are out in less than a week, for the first two waves of testing.

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In the counselor section on the common app, they will report this info along with the school profile.

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Yes, per @ECmotherx2 the school report will explain the Covid situation at your school. If you are curious about how your school might do that, look at their school report from this past year (class of '21). Ours had a whole section about how our school handled Covid so the next one will likely be similar.

The Parent of HS Class of 2021 had long debates about the Covid section on the Common App and for that class the school shut downs were even more recent. My read was that the overwhelming majority of people, podcasts, interviews, etc said not to use that section unless there was an extreme extenuating circumstance (loss of loved one, parental loss of employment, need to pitch in for child care, etc). My D21 didn’t touch that section. And some even believed it could make your student appear entitled and lacking perspective if they are naming minor impacts. From what I am hearing now, schools are ready to hear more about how resiliant and productive our students were during that time or not hear about it at all (my S22 will choose the latter).

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S22 hasn’t cracked open a college app yet. My inclination would be to avoid talking COVID impact. Sure, it had some negative impact. But nothing materially different from what most kids experienced. Probably even less than what most public school kids faced here in California.

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First I might have missed it… are you in Texas? If so, does your D22’s school rank?

UTD does offer good merit for National Merit Finalists… so if shes NMF that is a good focus.

UTA, do you mean UT Arlington or UT Austin?

Is anyone else worried that the college application process will be more stressful for you than you child? Not that I’m a worrier or anything. lol

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Yes, it is already evident enough in our family. My child is taking very chill approach and I am running laps around her with the whole “college applications” thing…

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It was the first time around. For my second time through the process, with a better prepared child, I’m fairly relaxed about the grind.

Looks like we are going to have a very different process… since S22 decided he might want to play his sport in college.

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What division would he be recruited by?

I’m picking S22 up from camp tomorrow and am excited to hear how he liked it and the college dorm experience!

He hasn’t really started much for applications but did create an account on Common App and get some info in. I’m going to push him to get more done by August.

I’ve arrived in Terre Haute to pick up S22 tomorrow. Currently at Sonka which apparently is a Rose-Hulman favorite bar.

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I nearly went there but am at Mr Mogger instead.

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Yes! So stressful. So much so I just read your post to my son so he realizes I am not the only one stressing. This is my 2nd kid and he is the complete opposite of my daughter who was completely on top of things. We are still doing the common app (he decided the essay wasn’t strong enough so he wrote another one)- but that led to a 10+ day setback on starting the UC apps.

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My S22 hasn’t even cracked the Common App and doesn’t want to discuss where to apply. He is back from camp tomorrow and I can find out his June 5 SAT result. That’s his first standardized test except PSATs. We leave his college mail at his place at dinner table. He gets mail from Chicago so that’s encouraging. Haha.

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I am not sure how he could find his dinner with all the UChicago mail in the way. :joy:

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There was a lot of debate on this topic last year as to who should answer the question. If you google it you will find many answers. We were essentially told not to write anything unless you were drastically affected in some manner, whether it was missing a year of a sport, an activity, financial situation at home, etc. When push came to shove and my son reviewed all that impacted him during the time, yes, he missed his sports season and some other things, but relative to other people, the impact on him with covid was nothing what other people went through so he chose not to write about it. We were also told that many readers don’t want to read more than they need to, although not sure that raelly means anything. Bottom line, if you think there’s something to add that really impacted you re Covid, write it (ie not being able to take the SAT/ACT, not having any in person classes for over a year, etc) then write it, otherwise you can incorporate it into your main common app or supplemental essays.

When we asked our counselors about putting this in our son’s applications last year they said no, because the colleges know which schools were open and not and hybrid/in person, etc. The school report/counselor letter would also be providing that info.

My son has been looking at the distributions, but I thought he told me the comparisons between 4/5 and 3/4/5 which he also said were down were actually between 2019 and this year since last those tests were the same format and last year was an anomaly in not being the same test. I haven’t looked at the info since we realized the tests he took won’t have the distributions released until after he receives his scores next week. But when discussing some that were released, we were surprised at how some decreased but so many factors could be at hand, such as not finishing material (the APUSH distribution and explanation he mentioned to me was fascinating - how well kids did on certain Units vs others), kids being remote/hybrid vs in person, kids opting out altogether, etc.