<<In addition, our high school removed AP test takers from final requirements for that class.>>
See, that makes sense. I’m gonna inquire further on this two-finals situation.
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4’s and 5’s will give 6 credits at some colleges. S21 took 9 AP and wound up with 32 credits. Unless the school doesn’t accept credits, for many it is worth a shot of taking off some required classes.
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At our public HS, the AP tests are a requirement. However, they do not have finals in the class which my D thinks is a win/win. I will also add that our curriculum is very AP heavy and it’s not unusual for students in the top 10% to have 10+ APs on their transcript (Ap classes are a +1 on grade weighting). And for the most part, the teachers are getting them ready for the test. So far (knock on wood), my D has gotten 4’s/5’s on every AP exam - but in my opinion, it’s overwhelming and unfortunately necessary at our school in order to get that top “rigor” designation.
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SAME, at our private school, AND the AP scores are all on the transcript. So D will take her 4 senior AP tests and will add them to the 8 she already has! The school has a very high 4//5 pass rate for all AP tests, so the policy works well for most students.
There are also kids who get perfect or near perfect scores without paying for test prep, or taking it 5-6 times. There are also free study tools.
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For sure. My son’s good friend got a 36 early junior year. First sitting. My initial post was to give a first-hand account of how grade inflation can happen among schools with a high population of low-income kids. Then it became musings about how objective test scores really are. But I really don’t want to debate test scores. I don’t have a strong opinion or hill to die on…I am just hoping my own kid submitted scores to the right schools.
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Twin 2 got his merit scholarship from Southwestern University today…$31,000/yr—$124,000 for 8 semesters. He also received an invitation from them to interview for their specialized/selective scholarships on top of this one. We’ve already submitted FAFSA so we’ll see how they interpret that and if he gets any other aid.
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D23 received hers from Southwestern as well 
30k a year, 120k overall. Pleasantly surprised, we didn’t expect quite that much.
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We haven’t visited yet, we go Nov 14 for Pirate Day and his interview is Nov 18th. If he likes it this could be a strong contender!
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D23 is going to Baylor in December for a scholarship day and will now swing by Southwestern the day after for a closer look. We were there this summer but it was deserted and 105 degrees…not the best time to visit for a pnw girl. Hoping she’ll get a clearer impression this time around.
Congrats to your child!
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Yea, summer is definitely not the time to visit lol. We’re about 3 hours away, in the DFW metroplex. We’ve driven past plenty of times on the way to Austin, just never stopped to tour. I wanted him to see it while classes are in session.
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Congrats, @Momof3B and @Izzy74! My kid’s amount was $23k so not quite enough for us, but still nice to see. He’s also invited to the competitive scholarship thing but not sure he’ll follow through on it.
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Love seeing the acceptances!
So far we have NAU w/9k a year (tuition to $17k)
And
Jacksonville U w/36k a year (tuition to $7k).
Neither are top for his major. Both might end up a bit cheaper.
He has to get some more apps out but so far not a horrible start.
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Have you visited SMU? It is on S24 radar and I am curious about the campus, surrounding area, etc. We live on the East coast so a bit of a schlep unless he definitely wants to apply or gets admitted.
We live in Dallas, so yes, have visited SMU plenty of times and very familiar with it! Neither of my twins have applied there for a couple of reasons…1) It’s the most expensive out of all the private universities, and would be out of our budget even after merit aid. We could bypass housing and apply for a waiver to on campus living, but it would be a 30-35 minute drive daily across 2 highways and a toll road 2) It’s not a social/cultural fit. The vibe is decidedly wealthy and spoiled and very heavy on Greek life. My niece and my younger cousin both are SMU grads as well as my best friend’s son. They all 3 agree they could have and should have gone somewhere else for way less money and gotten the same degrees.
It’s a great school, with some very strong programs, I don’t want to knock it, but in my opinion, it’s for a certain type of student.
Beautiful campus though! It’s nestled in the most affluent part of Dallas, very idyllic…in fact, Highland Park/University Park is called “The Bubble” lol.
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Congrats @Momof3B and @Izzy74! Not sure if either or both of your kiddos applied to Trinity, but I believe Trinity’s merit will be close to (or maybe better than) Southwestern’s.
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Glad they have their priorities in order 
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Which is irrelevant to the fact that people spend over $1,000,000,000 annually on test prep resources.
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Thank you! Trinity is probably my daughter’s first choice. Fingers crossed that she gets in and with some decent merit, it’s her biggest reach school.
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Why don’t the colleges do away with Superscoring and Score Choice? Why don’t they ask applicants for all their scores and evaluate on that basis?
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