On the whole SAT prep question, I think that really depends on the student’s learning style. The first big issue is just getting used to the format and timing of the test so that you’re not wasting any precious time. My older D was motivated and self disciplined (not taking credit; that was just her nature). She did fine on her own with some test prep books that I got from Amazon based on recommendations in the CC test prep subforums. Younger D is less motivated and a LOT less disciplined. But both would resist my attempting to tutor them. Anybody but mom. For younger D I will definitely use a tutor.
Don’t know if Asians are considered for minority fly-in programs. In our experience they are not for the full pay Asians but Asians with a hook like first gen. IMHO, any Asian is still ORM,in the eyes of LAC and research universities. For the medical condition, I think it’s more of a hook if it has occurred proximal to the application or if it has had longstanding challenges.
In terms of the tutor, I too think its always a good idea to give kids a different perspective outside their family and their space. That said, my Pomona student and her father have always loved doing puzzles and math challenges/problems together and talking Math. If that’s you, it could be a match made in heaven.
Sure are at many top LACs. Specifically included in the list of ethnic/racial groups they want to fly in - at the school’s expense (and the admit rate from attendees at these weekends is much higher than for the general pool in every case I’ve looked at).
It would be hard to get a clearer signal than that as to who a school considers an racial/ethnic group they’d like more students from.
Of course many schools also want first-gen or low income to apply to these so if you are first gen/low income AND Asian then that can help, just as it would be for other under-represented groups. But they are mostly quite clear about who they want to bring to campus for these things:
…and some clearly are NOT recruiting Asian students to their URM events:
Clearly, UPenn and WashU don’t have any trouble attracting qualified Asian applicants. They may be interested for this type of recruiting event if they are also first gen or low income.
Yeh, I know what they write and what they practice. When talking about minorities in the fly-ins, it is PC to include Asians, but living in an Asian community, my experience is that our students don’t get flown in or invited much to the DIVOH run weekends. You have to have other hooks if you are Asian, low income, first gen etc. But again I’m just sharing my experience as someone coming from an Asian community. Non-Asians can disagree freely.
@momof2eagles Her GC (actually more of a college admissions consultant she’s working with) was the one who recommended testing out of the foreign language requirement to free up extra room in her schedule to take more electives. Last year she took Personal Finance and got her PE/Health stuff out of the way. I asked 2 colleges (Oberlin and Columbia, IIRC) about it. Oberlin said that they really just want to see demonstrated ability in a language other than English, so AP Japanese was good enough for them. Columbia gave me a more wishy washy answer about looking at the whole candidate.
No one gets invited to DIVOH weekends, you have to apply. Seems plenty of colleges don’t feel the need to include them, some do.
My younger brother was recruited to a LAC in the midwest where he was below the 25/75 test score range, and he attended. So maybe I do have a little experience here.
so yeh. I’m familiar with the DIVOH weekends. You fill out a form online and report your SATs, and send in a transcript, then you have to get invited once you’ve applied. They ask about your family income in addition to an essay about how race has affected you and a little bit about what you contribute to your communities. You’re screened. They invite you.
@OHMomof2 - What is ziggi? I did a Google search, and it showed the Xiggi method. Is that what you’re referring to? I’ll look into that!
@preppedparent - My daughter and I study together a lot and have fun doing it, so I think it might be a similar vibe as your daughter and husband working together. Good to know that this has worked for someone else.
The thing I can’t help with is actual test taking strategies. I’ll look into Xiggi and some other things.
In terms of the racial question, I suspect Japanese Americans probably are over represented. My guess is that when they say under represented Asian Americans, they might mean Hmong, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai, etc. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if that’s not the case.
There are no under-represented Asians or Asian-Americans in the college admissions process.
My point is, and was, that the OP’s child may be seen by many LACs as an interesting and diverse student.
That’s it.
Yes, Xiggi (a regular poster on CC up until a year or two ago): http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/360031/file-2191783928-pdf/Documents/Xiggi_Advice.pdf
That was one source of info for us. I gathered more and made a sort of summary that I printed out that we went over together. Note Xiggi didn’t redo his notes for the new SAT, and my kids mostly prepped for the ACT since they did better on those from the start, but you’ll find the same themes over and over if you look around and read - ways to increase retention and speed, to eliminate answers so guesses are more educated, etc. Being very familiar with the test format helps a lot.
A parent group I was part of joked about eating sushi (lean protein is brain food!!) and getting lots of sleep the night before and stuff like that…but all those things do help.
agree with @preppedparent that in most cases Asians are not considered diverse when applying to colleges/universities unless they are first generation colleges students or low income. In most cases being Asian is considered an ORM not URM in the college admission process.
However, LAC according to @OHMomof2 appears different I still question whether they would have the same “hooks” as being AA, latino or native american has in the college admission process especially at the top LAC.
As far as language, if the language you have placed out of is the language that a parent speaks at home, I would be careful. If you are getting “wishy washy” answers there is probably a reason.
Your statement is demonstrably false, @preppedparent (look how many schools actively recruit non-American Asian students, for starters) but there is a forum for that discussion and it isn’t this one. I check in on it, in fact the list of diversity events is copied from a post I made there, so feel free to stop in and discuss 
Looking at this list of the top 100 LACs, you can see quite a few have very few Asian students. Most colleges would like to be more diverse, in every respect. Not all can afford to be as socio-economically diverse as they’d like, but most all strive to be racially diverse.
http://www.bestcolleges.com/wp-content/uploads/top-100-colleges.jpg
If you google “Asians liberal arts colleges” or similar you will find some informative articles.
Let’s not hijack this thread and just agree to disagree.Back to OP, it’s possible to get into an elite LAC, but in all cases, LACS are trying to build a community of diverse interests and talents. Because there are such few seats per school, they only need “1 of each.” She should find a way to set herself apart from the pack and have a deep passion that she can demonstrate.
" Looking at this list of the top 100 LACs, you can see quite a few have very few Asian students. "
@OhMom2 i was responding to the fact that OP wanted a top LAC . I am sure when you start getting below 20 in the rankings for LAC and looking at 100 LAC that it would be true that they have few asian students . I still question at the top LAC whether being Asian without being first generation or low income would be a “hook”.
@dla26 signing off on this thread. Sounds like you got a lot of good info and advice. Good luck to your D in the college search.
Thanks, @momof2eagles! Yes, tons of great food for thought! I’m learning a lot!
She is definitely well qualified. I would use Grinnell and Kenyon as her safety schools though as they will probably give you great aid and it looks to me like she would get in to both. Also, the free application fees help. 
I seriously, seriously doubt Grinnell or Kenyon are safeties for the student in the OP.
@doschicos I’m going to have to disagree about at least Grinnell. I’m going there this fall and my stats were not nearly as impressive. I had a 31 on my ACT, 1800 on the old SAT, 1340 on the new, three APs that were two fours and one three and an average of 96/100 weighted and 92/100 unweighted. I was ranked 8/72 kids in my class, I come from NY (Grinnell has plenty of NY applicants), and am a white female.