<p>To be honest, the artsy crowd may just be a problem. She only visited once, saw TWO emo/goths, and immediately assumed that the whole place would be overflowing with them. (My H and younger D were with her on the tour and said that she was completely out of her mind and that there was a pretty wide mix of kids there.) OTOH, M’ville is too small (spent an overnight there and attended some classes), Albany too much of a party school for her (I agree there - H made her apply because his boss went there and kept telling H how “hard” it was to get in - D not thrilled at all), Purchase too “artsy” (likes the language program but is afraid that the school will be overrun by the kids who are in drama and music depts). BU gave us very little FA, so that seems to be out, sadly. That leaves UMass, which was essentially foisted upon her by her GC. D resents GC and insists that UMass is “too big”, even though it’s roughly the same size as BU. Of course, she’s never even stepped foot on campus, so we’re headed there next week - nothing like a nice visit to New England in the spring, and the worst that can happen is that she’ll confirm her suspicions and turn it down.</p>
<p>D just got her rejections on Thursday and is still in the grieving process. She said that she knows that Bard is probably the right place for her, but she resents not having any clear choices. Whatever that means. Am hoping she’ll regain her equilibrium soon - stop emoting and start thinking.</p>
<p>Academically I loved Bard and would choose it in a heartbeat if you don’t mind the rural location. We visited on a Friday morning and all the artsy types must have been sleeping in - the kids we saw at the libary and cafeteria looked extremely normal. More longish hair than average perhaps, but not one goth anywhere. I really like the way they do academics there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. mathmom. She loves the academics. She’s the type of kid who thrives in small classes and loves talking shop with her teachers. She also wants to design her program - for example, hates chem, loves physics, insane about Latin, interested in taking a dance course or two if it’s offered to non-majors. Politically, she leans to the left, which I understand is a virtual prerequisite. <g> It’s her outside tastes that made her afraid that she wouldn’t fit in. She’s a bit of a fashionista and has a secret fancy for trash TV reality shows. Completely insane reasons, I know, but she does worry about stuff like that.</g></p>
<p>I’m glad this thread is going strong as I will be using it for support as the months continue.</p>
<p>My son took the ACT this morning…simply because he did much, much better on math than CR on the SAT (760/590) and we had heard that the ACT might be better for kids like him. (He also took the SATs again but we are waiting on that score.) But he took the ACT cold, with no prep, and ended up not getting to finish the last paragraph on his essay. Anyone know how much that matters? He also asked me why he even had to take the writing part of the ACT since he has his SAT writing score…and I didn’t really know the answer to that other than I supposed that the school will either look at one test or the other?</p>
<p>I forget if I already updated here, but Fang Jr was accepted early at what were going to be his safeties, Kalamazoo and Beloit. When it came time to apply to apply to matches and reaches, he decided he preferred Kalamazoo to any other school, so why waste time applying to matches and reaches he didn’t want to go to? He will be at Kalamazoo this fall. Both parents are delighted that he found a school so perfect for him- low key, but with demanding academics in a supportive, collaborative atmosphere.</p>
<p>Tranquil, my son’s girlfriend is at Bard. She was a top student in high school and Bard was her safety school. It was tough for her that it was her only acceptance. But now she loves, loves, loves it there. She has reapplied to some schools as a transfer student, and I think she will have a good chance of getting in as she has good reason for wanting the transfer and top grades at Bard. She wants a big city for resources and a research university for the work she is doing. But she now has mixed feelings about possibly leaving as she has gotten so much from Bard, knows it well and is thriving there. She feels that even if she stays there for the rest of her undergraduate years, she will be more than ready to go into serious graduate work at a top university. I have no doubt she will.</p>
<p>ReadytoRoll, D just took the ACT this morning as well. She did a couple of hours of prep at home last weekend, that’s it. She is taking a Kaplan SAT prep class, she’s not sure it’s going to help much though. PSAT’s were iffy at best, all scores in the 50’s (including 50 in Math, ouch). We thought the ACT might go better, but she said it was harder than she expected, she didn’t finish the math or science. We’ll see how it all turns out.</p>
<p>Why, oh why, does every kid in the class of 2010 at our hs want to go to Northeastern? That’s D’s clear first choice right now, but everyone we’ve talked to is big on it as well. NEU won’t take 3 dozen kids from our hs… her grades are fine for NEU, her EC’s are outstanding, but with 30,000 applicants if she doesn’t get these test scores up she won’t make it past the first cut… sigh.</p>
<p>ReadyToRoll: My son took the ACT cold the first time too and like yours, didn’t finish the essay. He got a good score, much better than he did with his SAT (there are tables somewhere that show the equivalencies of the two tests). If you take the writing section of the ACT, you don’t have to submit subject tests to schools that accept the ACT. That way, if one does poorly on the SAT and well on the ACT with writing, only the ACT score can be sent to the school (if you send even one SAT II score, all the SAT scores go with it, although that policy may have changed). The second time my son took the ACT, he did MUCH better than the first (finished the essay), so I recommend some kind of prep and definitely take the writing section. It expands your options.</p>
<p>Lafalum84: The same was true for our son’s HS wrt NEU. My advice - have your daughter apply Early Action. It’s non-binding and will give her a leg up on the competition. Kids with better stats than my son didn’t get in Regular Decision. Also, show interest in the school. Visit, call, respond. Since they don’t do interviews, they’re looking for anything that will differentiate the candidates.</p>
<p>I’m afraid this will be my son’s last test. He took the SATs twice (we are still awaiting the March score) and the ACTs once, and that is all he wants to do. Frankly, I’m not sure how much of a benefit it would be for him to go up further, since his grades don’t match his SAT scores. </p>
<p>Once all the scores come in, we will have to compare and see what is best to send!</p>
<p>SueD, my D has heard the same about NEU - Early Action is the way to go. She has already visited and toured once. Perhaps we should contact the school via website and ask for material to be mailed?</p>
<p>Lafalum84: Asking for school info certainly couldn’t hurt, although NEU is rather prolific on it’s mailing. Once we were on their list, we got something from them at least once a month.</p>
<p>RTR: I sympathize with your son. My son felt the same after his first ACT - no more testing. But the landscape changed once he started visiting schools and applications were looming. He was suddenly more amenable to the idea of another test. He took his second ACT in October, just squeaking under the wire for EA/ED deadlines. His higher score definitely helped with his ED school.</p>
Because the vast majority of colleges that require SAT II’s will waive that requirement if the student submits ACT + writing, and your son doesn’t want to take SAT II’s.</p>
<p>Thanks for “bumping up” this topic.
It’s great to hear the follow up of how our talented B+ students are fairing.</p>
<p>My S (3.3/SAT1710) applied to a LOT of schools (not knowing how he would be perceived) - 13 to be exact.
Amazingly, he was accepted to 10! and almost half with a nice little merit award (!huh?).
Right now he is going to choose from U of Redlands (CA), Willamette U, Lawrence U, or Southwestern U. He’ll visit the latter two for the first time in mid-April.</p>
<p>One of my goals on the visit will be to speak with the academic support people and make sure he knows how to access them from day 1.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone – hope all goes well next year.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, I’ve been meaning to ask and there’s no particular reason I chose this thread, but: in considering colleges, did you subject your son to a comfy chair? Inquiring minds and all that…</p>
<p>NEU interested people should read the NEU threads</p>
<p>I believe posters who say you must pick a major and not choose undeclared when you apply. There were, it seems, many qualified applicants who were waitlisted and chose undeclared.</p>
<p>I poked him with a soft cushion, but he was made of stronger stuff, so I had to bring on the comfy chair. Then he chose Kalamazoo, perhaps because it was very far away from his mad parents.</p>
<p>Chelsea0011, thanks for the heads up. I’ll be checking out the NEU threads. I had also heard that about NEU, that it’s better to go in with a major. Luckily D thinks she knows what she wants to do (at least this week, ha ha…)</p>