Typically it is pretty straightforward to change majors within the college of A&S - say from English to Sociology (random example). And it is even pretty easy to switch majors between colleges - if they are not impacted majors (like Business, Engineering, CS etc). For example, this year S22 switched from undecided CAS to major in Psychology which is in a different college. It was no problem. The ease of changing majors is school dependent, however, so it is best to check out the process at any given school. Mostly it impacts majors like business, engineering & CS (and nursing). As up to 50% of kids end up changing majors schools can’t make change too difficult.
4 Likes
Harvey Mudd would be excellent if it was closer or cheaper. We will be full pay, unfortunately, and the added cost of airfare, hotel and rental car, storage, etc., is something we are trying to avoid.
I will be signing off soon as my youngest is done with her decision. I have gained a ton of info on CC. One thing I would like to pass on. That is to be very up front about the budget for college with your student. I have seen plenty of times here and other places that at this time of year when it was time to make an official decision that finances became a major issue.
Some on this board will say never let a kid apply to a school that is or might be over budget. I am not 100% in that camp. The reason I am not is because we were a merit$ hunting family. Some schools have ranges on their websites. Getting into the high part of the range might be within budget. D23 applied to the school D19 currently attends. It would only workout if she got in the high part of the range. If she got in the low part it would be too expensive. Ironically D23 hit the high part and could have gone there.
I was always up front with the kids. I said to them you can apply anywhere but if the cost doesn’t fall within budget it will be off the table. But I also said if you really want it go out and find some scholarships yourself. Having those discussions early in the process help not having major issues at this time of year.
9 Likes
Does anyone have an ACT/SAT conversion table? I think my D’s scores are very similar and we’re trying to determine which score to submit. Thanks.
1 Like
ACT/SAT Concordance - Scores - The ACT Test | ACT You can go here and get the conversion.
If you want the table you can find here:
1 Like
Thanks. Is the ACT range to SAT equivalent based on .25 increments?
Example:
35 = 1530
35.25 = 1540
35.5 = 1550
35.75 = 1560
Is this correct?
1 Like
I will be frequenting this site a lot less after May 1. I have some advise, please have a few solid safeties on the list – financial AND academic. These should ideally be auto admit/auto merit schools based on scores and GPA.
If you are not full pay and your kid chooses not to ED, I can assure you that you will be glad when it is all over.
Also, scores and GPA mean a lot less than you have been led to believe at highly rejective schools.
8 Likes
That is what it looks like. But they don’t mention it specifically in the table.
2 Likes
Good luck to your child.
I am already stressed when I think about the next year waiting for results. We plan to apply to one or 2 auto admit school as soon as possible.
2 Likes
Naviance: How reliable is the data? Our school shows unweighted GPA scores from the last 5 years without a breakdown of the years. Are we to assume that the higher GPA scores are more recent?
We found Naviance to not be reliable because there was no breakout of major or hooks.
3 Likes
Were there other sources you used to access this data?
We started with the common data set of each school on our D’s list and then some schools had the break down of admissions stats by major and division on their websites.
1 Like
Anyone else looking at schools next week? We fly down to ATL tomorrow- driving to Auburn and S24 is touring Auburn Monday, then U Alabama Tuesday. Wednesday we drive back to ATL and spend Wednesday with friends and family, then Clemson on Thursday, flying home on Friday. I am totally excited to see these schools- S24 is particularly excited to see what Bama is all about. I am excited for gorgeous weather, yummy food and getting out of Dodge for a while.
6 Likes
DS24 took his first tour of a selective school with the major he is most interested in a week ago and had an official visit at another selective LAC with his current favorite major at the end of this week. He loved both of them. He’s going to need to rank them to decide if he’s going to apply ED or not, but he needs a bit more time for that decision. He’s going on another official visit next week and has two more tours set up in May. That will be the end of the campus tours for him. After that, only official visits if they are offered and interviews where they are required or recommended.
He came home from his first official visit excited about calculus and history (two of the classes that he got to sit in on), and I’m just happy that he enjoyed a couple of real college classes!
5 Likes
Naviance data is useful to a point. It’s still helpful to see how kids are a particular school are trending in GPA and scores, even if it is true that the data doesn’t show the hooks, major, recency, etc.
We found it useful to study the scattergrams by eliminating most of the data at a time, so there was less noise. For example, have it remove everything except ED or RD acceptances (no deferrals, waitlists, denials, etc.), one at a time. If some people got in who weren’t right in the same stat ranges as the vast majority of the acceptances, it was pretty easy to identify those as hook outliers. FWIW, those were relatively rare in the 20-30 schools we studied.
2 Likes
@citivas , how do you remove ED data from naviance search?
Beneath the scattergram is a legend of all the different icon types. If you click on those it toggles whether they are active in the graph or not.
2 Likes
We’ve got SCOIR instead of Naviance (which the school had previously) and I have found it somewhat helpful. It’s most helpful for schools where there is a lot of data and you can narrow it down to show just the last 2 years (default is 5 years).
1 Like
Our school is switching to that too.