<p>You don’t mention what your daughter’s GPA or class rank is, but if they are higher than her test scores, you might want to check out schools that are test optional. Is her sport something that has a future ie Olympics or professional career? It seems odd to shoot for academically tough schools with a kid who doesn’t appear (from your post) to be interested.</p>
<p>This school is HER top choice, and it is very selective. It is not that she is not interested in college, it is that she is completely obsessed with her sport. But she has 2 irons in the fire. She definitely has Olympics as goal in (her) mind, but would never tell anyone that except her coach, but everyone in her sport assumes it. Personally, I think it is bad luck to talk about that stuff (competition goals).</p>
<p>One of my friends had a highly recruited athlete son who was recruited by Stanford. They told him that he had to get his SATs up to a certain number, no if, ands or buts. Parents hired a private SAT tutor who focused on those spots where he was having troubles and his next scores were much better.</p>
<p>With someone who has such little time to spare as your D, I’d go the private tutor route and focus on problem spots–whether math, reading, whatever. If she doesn’t want to lower her training time, I think you have to go with the applications she comes up with in the time she chooses to spend on them. </p>
<p>Athlete applications, even to selective schools, are a different kettle of fish from other applications. Still, a safety school with a good enough sport program for your D is just as vital as a safety school is to any other applicant.</p>
<p>Here is a link (hopefully) to the list of colleges that do not require standardized testing</p>
<p>[Optional</a> List | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]Optional”>ACT/SAT Optional List for Fall 2025 - Fairtest)</p>
<p>If the sport is skiing, Middlebury, Colby and Bates are on the list. Also, continuing with the probably incorrect assumption that the sport is skiing, there is a poster named Suzyvt that posts alot on the musical theater forums. She had a daughter at Brown who was on the ski team and would be a very helpful person to speak to. (disregard if I’m incorrect on the sport) ;)</p>
<p>My D would die if she thought i were blogging re her, but this thread has actually brought me around more to her point of view. I think the private tutor is a good idea.<br>
I came from a very academically oriented background, and my children are all good athletes, but this one turned out world-class and it is a whole different world.</p>
<p>^It’s a tough thing, monetarily and psychologically, for a parent to have a kid who is world class or a genius. No doubt about it!! </p>
<p>Not that I have one, mind you, but I can see the issues. I can still remember Midori the violinist saying how her mother would always tell her to STOP practicing so much–but she didn’t listen to her mother. You want your kids to be able to reach their highest level, but you also want them to have a “normal” life full of happiness. But often the kids are driven internally to be so focused on themselves and their goals.</p>
<p>The English portion of the ACT is one of the easiest areas to improve on. Basically all the grammar rules that so many schools don’t teach any more!We had D2 work with a private tutor one hr. per week for three weeks. We were very pleased to see it paid off with a 35 in that area. It is not hard to bring that score up.</p>
<p>You may also want to post in the athletic recruit forum found here:<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/</a></p>
<p>2924SW just dropping back in because I spelled the name of the poster incorrectly - it’s soozievt. She’s been around CC for years and has a lot of great advice. Good luck to you and your daughter.</p>
<p>People have asked us, or insinuated, occasionally (those who do not know our kid) that we "push’ our kid in sport. Hah! You could never do it and succeed, even if you wanted to. I always believed in sound body sound mind. That’s why I drove to practice. But-- Being driven like this is a different level, and comes from deep inside the kid and has to KEEP coming from inside (as she says— which is why we are forbidden from discussing past achievements.) I just read “The Talent Code” (examines elements common to high achieving athletes, musicians etc,) and it is interesting how much applies to our D. </p>
<p>Compared to normal teenage life, D’s is very focused. No free time. Surprisingly, it is in some ways easier to raise a kid who is completely engrossed with something (doesn’t matter what it is I think) than one who is not. It has required a lot of facilitation on her parents’ part for her to achieve, but it is her journey. Hopefully, what she has learned----striving for excellence, time management (yes–fitting in SATs), focusing, will carry over into the rest of her life one day.
This blog has helped me refocus and just vent (or “fuss” as my husband would say). Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>Reply to North Minn—My D had “whole language”. What a joke. I have to admit she doesn’t get existential writer’s cramp, but she never learned grammar. I don’t know about you, but I was diagramming sentences in 7th grade. She was just writing, writing, writing. Her stories are great—but she still needs to learn writing conventions.</p>
<p>I hear you! Our school district also had “whole language” instruction. Needless to say it no longer exists here. 
There is hope! Tutors are very inexpensive around here. We used a teacher from a prestigious Catholic HS and she was only $25 per hour so that $75 was well spent considering D2’s ACT score. We are excited to follow her around the country this fall watching her play.</p>
<p>Thank You! You must be very proud of her, and it must be exciting watching her play. In HER game!</p>
<p>2924SW, has your D considered NOT competing for a D1 team and instead training with a club to achieve her goal of competing at Worlds or Olympics? Our local swimming star, Megan Quann, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, went to a small local college while training with her regular club.</p>
<p>(Boy, I’m glad that our athletes were not that competitive… :))</p>
<p>BTW, this is not a blog, it is a message board, so technically, you are not blogging about your D ;)</p>
<p>No one seems to have talked about the relative importance of the sport for the college. while they will really bend often for a top revenue sports star–the kind that make proud alum write checks, there are few womens sports that meet that description at most colleges. </p>
<p>At schools like ivies, adcom have no problem refusing athletes coaches want for sports that are not a priority and most kids on those teams tend to have at least close to average stats.</p>
<p>Perhaps your DD can talk to kids at ivies in her sport and get the low down?</p>
<p>I’m curious, what are her peers doing?</p>
<p>Peers are doing same thing----trying to get practice in and get their college stuff done too. Most want to go to college, do NCAA track, some don’t.</p>
<p>Re hmom5 comment—have talked to kids at Ivies, D’s older friends at Ivies are underground source of info about what is required that makes her think her scores are Ok, but this is rumor upon rumor.
To BBurner–OK, message Board, not blog. I’m not very up to speed about internet stuff. Thx for update.</p>
<p>OP, I have the same issues as you, just substitute the word music for sports and our daughters would be twins. I, too, am wondering how she will get it all done this fall. She also flat out refused to retake the SATs. Her SAT IIs were a mixed bag, one good and one ok. She received 4s and 5 on her APs and her grades are very good, not stellar. She is looking at a couple conservatories where her stats won’t matter just the audition. But, she is also looking at Rice, McGill, USC and BU. All reaches for her stats I think. When we were trying to choose her schedule we went around and around about her classes. How many APs (all the rest are honors). Truthfully, the most important thing is the audition. She wants to be able to practice 3 hours a day. She wants to run cross country. She wants to take 2 APs not three. She wants to see her friends sometimes. I want her to do those applications! I wanted her to take three APs (lost that round). </p>
<p>When she gets back from her summer music festival she will have a ton of work to do and cross country will have started. She has 4 books to read for AP english and 3 papers, 2 books and 1 paper for Religion, 1 book and a 10 page research paper for AP Euro. And, she has to get those applications mostly done…all in 2 weeks.</p>
<p>I think your D should talk seriously to the coach at the favorite school. Ask him these hard questions. If he says likely…find out when you will know for sure. My D did that at the conservatories. We received positive, but not definite feedback. So, she started working on a back up plan. I still think she needs a better safety, but at least we are moving that way.</p>
<p>The other serious thing to think about and ask the coach is…if I get into this school, will I be able to do the academics. My older S was recruited to play soccer into a school where his grades and test scores were at the bottom. He struggled with the time commitment for the sport and the need to study. Sports require a huge huge time commitment. It will eat into her academic time.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Another vote for the private tutor for the SATs… the big prep classes are great when you are first getting started - but both of my kids found that having a 1 on 1 session was so much more effective when trying to bump scores in the specific area.</p>
<p>Op- I think you’ve done what you can right now given her constraints.</p>
<p>Going forward- I think you insist on a safety (academic and financial) that she can get into RIGHT NOW with the current grades and scores that you can afford. This is the school that will allow you to sleep at night if she has an injury over the next few months- she can get in, she’d be happy there, you can afford it even if she isn’t on the team or playing her sport. That’s the application I’d be bugging her to finish in the next few weeks.</p>
<p>Once that’s in, your D is going to get input from coaches and adcoms and the older kids in her sport that she knows and she’ll either act on the input or not. Bottom line- if her scores are too low for where she’s hoping to go, she won’t get in. Just like 10’s of thousands of kids across America every April who get disappointed. Or maybe her scores are borderline and her application screams “indifferent” since she spent no time on her essay. Or maybe it’s borderline and the coach has pull and she gets in anyway.</p>
<p>You just can’t game the system with a stubborn kid. I’m sure this isn’t reassuring to you-- but at some point, she needs to own the process. Truth is- higher scores benefit everyone, not just elite athletes- but we’ve all commiserated here about kids who could have done better but chose not to prep, or not to re-take, or not to take seriously, or whatever. So go grind your teeth… but make sure she’s identified a safety she can get into without her sport that you can pay for… and then go enjoy her senior year.</p>