<p>Should D send her 27 ACT score to Dickinson College? She has a 4.49 weighted GPA in challenging Honors and AP courses. Her UW GPA is 3.5 or higher. Her extracurriculars are pretty weak, but focused. She has a strong essay and excellent teacher recs. Dickinson's ACT range is 27-30. Send or opt out?</p>
<p>I would tend to weigh in on the “opt out” side. Did she take the ACT more than once? If not I would encourage her to take it again in December as scores often rise for the second sitting. Does she have strong AP scores that she can submit? If she does I would submit them officially through College Board or have her school fax Dickinson an official transcript with AP scores included if possible. That way they have documentation beyond self reporting on the common app.</p>
<p>I would have her take the SAT. My daughter did not do very well on the ACT (25) but did a composite score of nearly 2100 on the SAT. She only take the ACT because her original SAT score was only 1950 (ACT 25 I think?)…either way, your daughter needs to test again I think. BTW, Dickinson is also on my D’s list…good luck!</p>
<p>One vote for opt out, which is what my gut tells me makes the most sense.</p>
<p>lr4550 - Unfortunately D went down a point on the ACT she took last month. Found out the score late yesterday. Her SAT is worse. She has one AP from last year. It is a 3 in English, so that is no help. D is taking a 200 level French college course online through University of Wisconsin, but she does not have any grades yet.</p>
<p>D has always been an inferior test taker. She excels in small discussion based classes as opposed to lecture style. Her high school teaches by the Harkness method. </p>
<p>^^Yes opt out in my opinion. Unless the second ACT had subscores that are higher? If Dickinson superscores ACT then it might be worth reporting both only if she would get a higher superscore (but so few colleges superscore the ACT and I don’t know if Dickinson is one of them).</p>
<p>If your D is interested in Dickinson I would recommend also looking at another mid-Atlantic LAC called Washington College if you haven’t heard of it. Located in Chestertown, MD on the Eastern shore. WC has a well known writing program and is really a gem of LAC that has 50% ACT range 25-29 so your D would be right in there. And, they are also test optional so she wouldn’t need to submit if she didn’t want to. They have a modern language department (with French) to boot. So if Dickinson doesn’t work out, or if you want a similar LAC type environment that may or may not be as much of a reach as Dickinson check out Washington College!</p>
<p>I say opt out of the score. My D went to Dickinson. Be sure your D shows interest (go to any events they have near your hometown, signs up for emails on the admissions website, emails the admissions officer for your area if she has any questions, etc.)</p>
<p>NEPatsGirl and lr4550: Thanks for the feedback! Think we will opt out. And D will definitely show Dickinson the love. Demonstrated interest and applying EA should help her chances.</p>
<p>I will look into Wasington College. Sounds like a good fit. </p>
<p>Intparent: Did your D like Dickinson?</p>
<p>Second ACT is no help. Sub scores either went down or stayed the same. I did see that Dickinso’s top scholarships are for ACTs 31 or higher. There are other scholarships that do not specify a score so D could be in the running for those…I guess. It is definitely a reach academically and financially.</p>
<p>D has 4 colleges that are matches and a couple of financial safeties. And she is applying to Skidmore, which is another reach. </p>
<p>Washington College…sorry about the typo!</p>
<p>@Mominsc, with a 4.49 GPA, I don’t necessarily think Skidmore is a reach. Her test scores may be slightly lower than average, but still within range. Skidmore considers the high school transcript above all else.</p>
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<p>Yes, it was perfect for her. She graduated a couple of years ago. She had a great experience there – interesting classes, close relationships with professors, good friends, got to work in the Writing Center as a tutor, studied off campus for both semesters junior year at 2 different programs (one an internship with the Dept of State, the other in a foreign country that doesn’t get many study abroad students but she had an interest in due to studying the language before coming to Dickinson). She was able to get interesting summer internships, too. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and got a very good job in the city she wanted to live in after graduation. She has been promoted twice since starting her job, now manages a department of about 20 people. So… yes, she liked Dickinson. :)</p>
<p>That is good to hear intparent. Dickinson is the only “match” school D applied to early action so we’re curious to see what their financial package will look like. We did fly to PA and toured the school campus and very much liked the aesthetics. Not too sure about the Carlisle area (except that my husband builds hotrods and restores classics for a living and says its the car mecca of the country). Were there good intern and/or research opportunities locally?</p>
<p>@lauriejgs, Good to know about Skidmore! Although I am concerned that my D will not be prepared for the cold in upstate NY. D is into French, fine art, study abroad, and small class sizes, so Skidmore seemed like a good fit. I am not sure what to make of Skidmore’s description as a “hipster school.” One review book wrote about “chain smoking” students, which D would hate! She would be happy on a totally smoke-free campus.</p>
<p>Ewww. I had no idea they allowed smoking on campus, this could be a deal-breaker for us. I did notice ashtrays at Vassar but read that they are enforcing a no-smoking policy sometime this year.</p>
<p>OK, here is the deal with smoking at Skidmore, because my D is not only applying ED but also spent last summer doing a program there: Yes, there are some smokers there. Perhaps slightly more than at some other LACs because of the artsiness of its student body. (For some reason, arty kids seem a little more likely to smoke–all you have to do is visit an art school for proof of this.) However, I wouldn’t say smokers are the majority. In fact, we were there a month ago and I don’t recall seeing anyone smoking while we walked around, and I would notice as I HATE cigarette smoke with a passion. </p>
<p>Do we wish no one smoked on campus? Yes. However, D really feels that Skidmore is the perfect school for her and we are not going to let this issue stand in her way. Now, if she ended up with a roommate who was covertly smoking inside the dorm, then that would be a whole separate problem that would need to be dealt with. But an occasional whiff of nicotine outside a building is something she can deal with.</p>
<p>According to the web site, the school is aiming to be smoke-free by the fall of 2017.</p>
<p>@lauriejgs, Thank you for setting the record straight about Skidmore! Hurray for their desire to be a smoke-free campus. </p>
<p>Yes, thank you. D is highly allergic to cigarette smoke (which prompted me to quit my 2 pack a day habit when she was a year old) and cannot be in any enclosed areas where there is smoke. Outside is fine, she can move away from it. I must say though I am VERY surprised that there is any smoking on any college campus. In MA, public smoking is becoming a thing of the past. </p>
<p>FYI, Sarah Lawrence College has gone smoke-free this year. At an admissions event, the speaker commented on how they now have a “support” group for student and faculty smokers on how to deal with this change.</p>
<p>Yes kudos to the campuses that have gone smoke free. My oldest D and I visited many (22+) colleges over this past year and smoke was hardly ever noticed at the vast majority of the schools. However we were blown away (no pun intended!) by the prevalence of smoking at Hampshire College. It was really too bad to see so many students smoking. When my D asked our tour guide to consider what, if anything, she would she change about Hampshire she mentioned the smoking issue. It was just so much more prevalent on that campus than any other we visited. Such a shame as it detracted from all of the other truly unique and admirable aspects of Hampshire! Maybe they can follow the footsteps of Sarah Lawrence some day…</p>
<p>Heads up on financial aid deadlines! This took me by surprise…If applying early action to Dickinson, the financial aid deadline for the CSS Profile is the same as the Early Action common app deadline, which is 12/1. Should apply first and then submit CSS, which is done through College Board’s website. CSS will be matched up with App by student’s SSN #. </p>
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<p>Your husband is absolutely right! You always need to book hotels early if you plan to visit and need one, because they have frequent car shows. </p>
<p>Regarding the local internship/research situation, she did have an internship at the Army War college one semester that she found through the career center at Dickinson (posted there). But the Writing Center was a big focus of her “work time” while at Dickinson. I think it improved her own writing, and played into her hiring post-graduation (was a strong component on her resume). They look for good writers in freshman seminars, I think, then ask them to take a second semester freshman class to train them as tutors (for credit). Then they help staff the writing center for the rest of their time at Dickinson. I really liked that Dickinson used students (but trained them) for their writing centers. I always asked about the Writing Centers at colleges when we visited for D2, and many are either staffed by adults, or it seems like the students might be tagged to work their because they are good writers, but don’t get very much training (not a whole semester like the Dickinson ones do).</p>