Same - my son found the Math to be hard, he said he definitely had one wrong and that he thought NMF was not on the cards. He was disappointed but we’ll see where this plane lands
may not be so, the curves allow at least one or two wrong for each section, and that is here in NJ where the selection index this year was a 223. If the test was hard the curve maybe better
1 Like
@sbinaz , don’t worry too much about the price tag as most of these programs are competitive and once if the student is accepted to this, they give huge merit scholarship to these kids. I will update you soon with more colleges. My daughter’s friend got more than 50% scholarship.
1 Like
My son realized he got one wrong on the math as they were finishing up but didn’t have time to go back and fix it. Said it was a little trickier than he’d anticipated. Doubt he’ll get NMF just because it is so competitive in MA - I think you need close to a perfect score.
3 Likes
Agreed, the same, but not counting it out until we see the score! optimism!!
2 Likes
It is my alma mater as well!
1 Like
I’ve gotten SO much flack over the years from people who only think of UCSB as a party school. 
Registration for 2023 SAT dates is now open.
4 Likes
We are here near UCSB. Our growing airport is much more pleasant and has flights to several hubs. Many times the price savings is not worth driving to LA. The housing is definitely an issue - many community college kids pay to live in the UC area and they overenrolled last year but corrected that.
It’s a hard time to apply OOS to UCs. They have competing policies - to take the top 9% of CA students vs. lifting people out of poverty. The latter has been emphasized at the expense of the former at popular UCs and the push back has resulted in more funding to make room for CA residents at the expense of international and OOS applicants. However, UCLA, SD, and Berkeley are getting many of those foreign applicants, while Irvine, SC and SB probably are getting fewer. Also major definitely matters as many popular majors are impacted. The 6 most popular seem insanely competitive at top UCs and Cal Poly.
3 Likes
D24 took PSAT at school last week too, she was a ‘just under’ scorer last year and didn’t do prep so it was always going to be up in the air - she felt good about the reading and writing (her wheelhouse) and knows she missed at least one on math (couldn’t figure it out but then figured it out on the way home and was frustrated). We don’t live in a high index state but even so I imagine her chances are high for one of those ‘just missed out’ scores that will eat at you for a long time!
She did take the SAT as a warm up for it and a first official leap into the college process. Her score was not where she wanted but I think she has a decent shot at raising it to her goal over the next year, she was very congested for it and had to take time out to wipe her nose and her eyes because they were watering from her swallowing the need to cough so as to not distract anyone. I was just grateful I was able to get her a little healthier for PSAT - although the people in her room for that provided way more distractions than her cough would have (phone alarms going off, people asking to go to the bathroom, falling asleep on the desk and pushing the booklet to the floor!)…so we’ll be anxious when that score comes out!
Starting to also talk more about colleges. Given she is still committed to pre-med, I want to make sure she is at a school that has low amount of TA taught classes, not as many huge lectures, etc - I feel like there is a metric that tracks that but I don’t know what its called. Something like ‘undergraduate teaching rating’ maybe?? Anyone know? I remember it being discussed when D21 was looking and I regret not giving more credence to that.
4 Likes
Has anyone looked at the Fiske guide? I had no idea this existed and was so informative! Just bought the 2022 version on other’s recommendation on Amazon for under $5!!
4 Likes
We LOVE the Fiske guide- way more informative than any others we have looked at.
4 Likes
I bought 2023 version and have started looking at it. Love the book so far. Better than just looking at the college website to get a feel how students feel.
3 Likes
I am really excited to show it to S, it is a much better synopsis of so many things and will give him a better sense of what schools we still need to see. There are a few we are debating and I think this will help make the difference. The 2020 version is online but I prefer paper!
same here I prefer the paper version. Does the 2020 one has the SAT data. I don’t see this data in the new one (unless I missed it).
Probably better without the SAT data. Test optional has led to only high scoring kids submitting scores, which has led to a higher score range. And it’s going to keep pushing the score range higher each year. Not helpful.
It does but it is probably based on 2019 numbers which are much lower than the last few years. I ordered the cheaper 2022 version because I agree with @DadOfJerseyGirl . At this point SAT scores that are reported are so high and we know S’s anyway and he will submit everywhere.
1 Like
Once you zero in on schools you can also check out the school newspaper and Unigo (but take comments with a grain of salt).
2 Likes
In addition to Fiske (which I agree is helpful), I’ve found the Niche student reviews useful once you filter down to just the 3-star reviews. There’s not much to be learned from 5-star raves or 1-star rants, but the 3-star reviews tend to give a pretty even-handed look at pros and cons. If the same thing pops up a lot on these reviews, it’s a good sign that there’s a real issue there. Also note that if you try to filter down to specific topics like Student Life or Party Scene or whatever, all the results will suddenly be several years old - they apparently stopped supporting this functionality for new reviews long ago. I’d stick with just 3-star and keep an eye out for topics as you scroll.
8 Likes
True makes sense over last 2 years every ones 25% to 75% went up.