True if you have a high score makes sense to submit. Also I have recently found that some colleges share the SAT score for the admitted students and a different data for enrolled students. the ranges for the enrolled students is actually lower than the admitted range especially if you take out the Top 20 colleges. So something to keep in mind.
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Interesting conversation happened on drive home from school today. D24 said, āMama, a lot of my classmates are saying that they want to go to college in California.ā So, of course, I asked her what she thought about that. Here are some snippets from her:
- āAre they crazy? Do they know how expensive it is to live there?ā
- āI told them how much it costs to even eat at McDonalds in CA and they all said, āOh, it wonāt matter. Weāll be poor college students anyway.āā
- āBut Mama, it DOES matter? I mean, how do they even know if they can afford to attend?ā
- āI tried telling them how much gas costs there and they didnāt care.ā
Inside my head, I thought, āSo she isnāt ENTIRELY tuning DH and I out!ā Haha!
Later on, the conversation transitioned to NAU. I have a couple of coworkers who have kids attending NAUā¦theyāve asked me why D24 isnāt going to be applying there. So I asked D24 that question (btw, we have not done a campus tour there & have no plans to). These were some of her thoughts on it:
- āElevation is too high. I was out of breath when we were there last summer.ā
- āThereās nothing nearby.ā
- āThereās too many trees.ā
- āToo boring. Thereās nothing to do.ā
- āThereās no airport nearby.ā
- āI donāt want to have to drive in the snow.ā
I know that a lot of kids DO like NAU. But for my kiddo, itās a no go. Even D26 had a very visceral, negative reactionā¦she was like, āEw! NO! I donāt even ever want to go back there just to see it.ā
Do you know if (within the A-G requirements for the UCās) the F part, Visual and Performing Arts needs to be completed before the UC Apps are due. My son took one half of his performing arts component in freshman year and dropped it because of school & club soccer commitments. He plans to take the 2nd part in the last semester of senior year and I donāt think the transcript that will be sent in November will show that he will complete that requirement in the final semester of senior year.
The A-G courses can be āin progressā senior year. There are some requirements that the two VAPA courses be in the same discipline (dance, music, theater, visual arts, interdisciplinary arts).
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/guide/a-g-subject-requirements/f-visual-performing-arts/
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As noted by @lkg4answers, the VPA requirement needs to be in-progress. UCās do not require a transcript until the applicant is accepted and plans to enroll, so self-reporting the class in-progress is sufficient.
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Question I think you might know the answer to (and I ought to know the answer, as one of my older kids applied, but I forgot!), re: Cal Poly, are high school courses taken in middle school included in Cal Polyās GPA calculation or no?
A-G courses in Middle school are not included in the CSU/Cal Poly SLO GPA calculation however Math and Foreign language courses will be considered for HS course rigor.
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why are kids bothered by āthe too many treesā? my son said that when we visited one campus and my friendās daughter said the same thing about another campus.
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Glad she knows what she wants and good to think about finances also as sometimes that can be a one of the main deciding factors.
For us in school there is no talk among juniors yet about colleges per S24.
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Has anyone tried the live (not pre-recorded) SAT Tutoring Bootcamp run by schoolhouse.world and Khan Academy? I just got an email from the college board asking if my D24 kid wants to participate/sign up for a research study by getting tutoring through this free bootcamp. Iāll ask her, but she has so little free time as it is, I donāt want her to add to her schedule even if it is only for four weeks. On the other hand, if previous participants have found it very helpful then maybe it is worth a try. She will take the SAT for the first time in December. Thanks!
I got the same email
me too, and my S already took the SAT and is done.
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I believe itās a new pilot study to see if it is helpful. My son received an invite to be a tutor for the boot camp and wanted to participate but didnāt have the time.
So first quarter not even over yet here in the northeast and it is time to start thinking about summer! Applications for most of the summer music programs have opened and S is thinking about applying to several and hopefully attending two different ones and (OMG) working on college apps along with regular work. Canāt believe we are here already!
I know time flies. This year has been hard and S24 is having a bit of hard time with the academics and having to work harder and on top of this he has decided to play a second sport and with that he has no time and is exhausted by the end of each day. I tried to convince him not do the sport but he says its a stress reliever for him but takes away 2.5 hours each day.
We have not yet started to look at summer stuff but need to look into it. May be during Thanksgiving break.
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D24 is taking the SAT for the 1st time tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed. Need to probably have her try the ACT, too.
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Good luck! S24 is taking the ACT in December 
Good Luck to your D24!!
good luck!
SAT all done. She didnāt finish until 12:40, said that it felt easier overall than the PSAT. She also said that she thought it was good practice to take the PSAT 3 times before taking the SAT and that she felt well prepared for it. Also said the there were a couple of tricky math problems, but she didnāt think the math section was too bad. Last section were the experimental questions.
Was going to sign her up for ACT in December but she has a choir thing going on that day so canāt do it in Dec. so she will take it on whenever the next ACT date is.
Iād say that at the school where she took the test, there were at max 50 students who took it today at that testing location. Probably more like 40-45 students total. Compared to when I took the SAT many moons agoā¦there were hordes of us taking it.
Iād say that the test optional thing for college admissions has had a very real effect.
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