LOL. That’s my ADD son in a nutshell. We always said if the assignment was to write a 2-page essay on the canals of Venice he would produce a beautiful 10-page essay on the mountains of the Alps. We sent him to a school that specializes in ADD and the first time he followed a rubric I actually cried tears of joy.
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Any thoughts on when to send SAT scores to colleges?
My daughter is getting EA apps in at: Santa Clara, U of Portland, Portland St, Univ of Washington, Seattle U, Western Washington, Laverne, Whittier, Pacific U (OR), Willamette, Oregon St and Gonzaga.
Her first attempt was 1080 and she is taking it again. She is thinking to not submit it anywhere at this point as her grades are stronger than her score (3.6+ UW, 3.8 W).
Thoughts?
On a separate note, a little concerned that she really wants to go to Univ of Washington partly because she wants to continue with her dance school. She is an ADHD kid like some of the poster’s children above. Just think a big school like that might be a bad idea. Not expecting anyone to comment, just sharing my thoughts in case anyone else is in a similar boat. My wife feels even more strongly than me and worry about some tension/argument.
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D23 had some similar SAT scores and she has gone test optional for all applications. Her GPA is below your daughter as well. None of the schools she was looking at required it. The only school where it was submitted was a school that offers auto-admit based on a calculation including the SAT score and she was above the threshold.
The advice we have been given was to only send it if the student is at least in the top half of the middle 50% of the scores. That was not the case for her at any of the schools she applied to and it hasn’t been a problem. She has already been accepted at 7/10 of the schools she applied to and likely won’t hear back from the other 3 until January.
I would not suggest submitting the score and instead focus on a well organized application and use the extra optional essay (i.e. covid, any additional information) to help her app shine. We sat in multiple on campus tours that strongly encouraged sending all optional essays even if it was not related to the question (covid); they also all said NOT to send scores unless they were at least within their middle 50% range or at the top of that range.
Hope that helps!
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It does. She is pretty much doing what you have suggested. The ones where she might be in that category are public schools which have little/no merit so probably not worth submitting anyways.
My son didn’t take the SAT or ACT. He has a 3.51 GPA and was already admitted to Oregon State, Western Washington, and Washington State. Sounds like your daughter won’t have issues getting in to most of her list by going test optional. UW is the harder one I think on that list, but that could depend on major. Gonzaga doesn’t make decisions until Feb but many of the rest of her list (that I know of anyway) do rolling admissions.
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My S20 isn’t ADHD, but I was concerned about him getting lost on a large public school campus. Not physically lost of course, but lost in the shuffle and not be proactive enough to get out of the sandtraps of education (like freshman/soph classes with 100 students, for one example.)
He ended up at a school similar to U of Portland/Seattle U/Gonzaga from your list. So far it’s been great. There hasn’t been a hand-holding experience, but there’s a personal touch present that I feel has made a difference. I can’t say he wouldn’t have received such a touch at one of the top two large-campus options on his list of finalists that accepted him, but I think it would have been a different experience.
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If her score is within the 50% tile at the college, I have found it does not hurt to send it. If it is below, apply the test-optional. I don’t think scores are needed at the Cali school.
D23 has the common app and her essay done and is ready to let it fly to a bunch of schools for Nov 1 early deadline. I will do my own due diligence but - we don’t need to submit the fafsa at the time she applies, right? (Because I haven’t done it yet.) I am about 99.9% sure we don’t qualify for any aid so I have been dragging my feet. We are older parents with an only child, two long careers, a few investment properties and solid savings. I don’t think anyone is going to say we quailfy for aid, I read that some state schools require you to send in the fafsa no matter what but the two state schools on her list aren’t due til January. I think her application looks FINE - and there actually is a little through line with her activiites and essay that shows why she wants to pursue her major and how she’s shown some interest in the field. The process, so far, has not been too stressful - I don’t know if that is because she is not applying to schools that are very selective/she’s not very competitive with the whole thing. My friends with older kids sound like they have had it way worse. Possibly being on this site has made things easier/less stressful.
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@JBSeattle I was reading through an interesting AMA on Reddit by a former AO. Basically, SAT scores now only matter if it is spectacular, like 1500. Otherwise, it is a brief stop, glance and corroboration of ability to perform. I would say that go TO if SAT is 1080. It is not a bad score but nothing that will add to the application to set it apart. Just my $0.02.
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Thanks. She has a slot to take it again but not sure it is even worth having her take it again.
Hm. That makes a lot of sense to me. My D24 has a 28 ACT and is 3.4/3.5 GPA land and wants to take it again to try to get to 30 range since that seems to be the range of a lot of scholarships but I think generally the 28 is going to be fine to get her into places. I guess it depends on merit hunting?
Things have been slow at our house despite EA deadlines approaching. D23 has a lot of other things to deal with besides college apps and I fear she is feeling a little paralyzed. I secretly have plans A, B, C, D . . etc lined up in my head. The goal is to keep as many options open for her for as long as possible as the year unfolds.
Our whole family is doing a week long college visit trip at the end of October to New England. It’s as much for inspiration for her as it is to visit particular schools. In other words - while this is an area of the country she is interested in, we are also going just for the general college exposure. We are also looking forward to some fun touring of historical sites as my hubby is a major history buff.
Currently the schools we are visiting are listed below - subject to change even during the trip if she develops preferences. Some of these will be just casual walk-throughs to see if there might be further interest. Some are Safeties and some might be reaches - not sure. She has a fairly unique profile and stats. She thinks she wants a large school but we are forcing her to look at smaller schools as well.
Endicott College
University of New Hampshire
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
University of Connecticut
Clark University
Maybes: University of Massachusetts Boston, Roger Williams University, University of Hartford
I’m planning on keeping several schools in my back pocket and see how things unfold.
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Correct. The FAFSA doesn’t have to be in when the college app is submitted. My son applied in September. We haven’t done the FAFSA yet. I need to get on that.
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Thank you for corroborating!
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You don’t have to file the FAFSA until about 2 before the end of the second semester of freshman year is all you want is a student loan or if you qualify for a Pell grant. However, you won’t get an SEOG or work study money until you file it, and those funds could run out.
Many schools also use the FAFSA for granting their own funds too, and those might have different deadlines or they may be ‘first come, first served.’
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If you can handle a bit of chaos, make sure you visit Salem during your Endicott visit. It is right next door to Beverly and October is prime month to do all the haunted happenings and Halloween fun in Salem.
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D23 officially sent in all her applications!! I am super proud of her hard work and now we settle down to wait for the results.
In other news, as soon as D23 and I had finished exchanging high-fives - S24 came into the room asking if I was now completely available for his college consultations/research/angst. I’m trying to look at the bright side of this and celebrate that he wants to talk about this…and not bemoan the hope I had of having at least a bit of a breather between the two. 
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Yep! We will actually be there ON Halloween! But will have moved up north by evening which I think is for the best as far as level of chaos haha.
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Except everything costs more in and around Salem for the last 2 weeks of October.
We have to do a burial at a cemetery in a town next to Salem (I was actually born in Salem) and we are delaying it for a week because of the extra expense of Halloween week. I’m sure it is fine for a one day visit, but hotels are sky high.
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