<p>Bump…mom2collegekids are you still there???</p>
<p>I think your guidance counselor should help with this too. He or she could call admissions more easily than your son and explain the case and get counsel.</p>
<p>I was thinking that for some of the schools where this would need to be disclosed, your son could include a heartfelt letter/essay owning up to the stupidity he exhibited at the age of 16, what he has done to make matters right since then, and how he has learned and grown from the experience…ie., guaranteeing that he won’t be a binge-drinking college freshman when he comes to campus.</p>
<p>If backed up by a letter from the GC, attesting to his good citizenship since that incident, it might not have an overly negative impact on his applications.</p>
<p>one other thing–if you do decide to contact schools by email, do so anonymously and create a new email for the inquiry that will not be used on college applications–just in case the school captures emails to the admissions office. That way the inquiry will not be automatically linked to your son’s application.</p>
<p>I agree, your guidance counselor should be able to help you. Most kids can get a couple point improvement on their ACT when they take it again. Ideally you’d want him to be around 20-21 which is the national average. The guidance office will be very familiar with the state schools as well as what that ACT score will mean. In our state we do have one directional college that takes kids with low ACT scores (18-19) with a special freshman program to help them. Perhaps your state has something like this. Again, your guidance office is going to be the biggest help. You can probably call and make an appointment with his counselor to get ideas on how to help your son.</p>
<p>Thank you! I have contacted his GC and she is going to contact a few schools for us and see how they feel we need to handle the criminal record, she has some contacts at those schools that would be honest and tell her what we need to do to answer it correctly on the application - we know we have to disclose it!!</p>
<p>I am praying the ACT score will come up to at least the national average. Then maybe the GPA and all of the college classes he already has will come into play.</p>
<p>OP - how did your S feel that he did on the ACT yesterday?</p>
<p>I would not worry so much about the criminal record thing. You’d be surprised what people have in their backgrounds. Schools are used to seeing this kind of thing. </p>
<p>His standardized test scores are far more of a concern. Have you ever considered whether he might have a reading disorder (dyslexia or something)?</p>
<p>Sylvan-</p>
<p>He thought the test yesterday was way harder than the practice tests he took. Said he felt the math was good, but all other tests were just so-so. Had a lot of other kids there comment they thought it was very hard too. Much harder than past tests. We are worried that due to this he may not have raised his score much if any.</p>
<p>Retention of what he reads has been a problem through the years. Reading things out loud helps alot, but of course you cant do that on the ACT. He has a great GPA of 4.03 so he has found ways to make it work, but these tests are just awful.</p>
<p>The misdemeanor at age 16 is not going to hurt him with the state schools. He probably should write an additional essay about it- not with excuses, but simply saying how he disappointed his family, his school and, most of all, himself, by his poor judgment. What did he learn from it? Keep it fairly short- no whining.
Try the SAT. Scores need to come up.</p>
<p>He has already taken the SAT once with a combined score of 1320 (includes writing). Now that was with no studying. That is why he has tried the ACT twice. We do not have the money for a tutor, but did use the red book to prep for the last ACT (yesterday). He was so discouraged when he saw how different the test was from the prep book tests. </p>
<p>Reading has been his problem subject and the fact he does not do well with standardized tests like this does not help. We may have to play up all of the college classes he has taken and the fact he works 30 hours a week and see where we can get him in. </p>
<p>Not everyone is a great test taker when it comes to these types of tests. I just hate to see him so discouraged.</p>
<p>If reading is that much of a problem, I don’t know how he is able to handle college level classes. Reading is an extremely important skill.</p>
<p>luvthat48, what will his 2 year degree be in, and what types of classes has he taken at the community college? What is his GPA there? </p>
<p>We’re troubled by the test scores, and testing issues can often be overcome with the right strategies, if that is where the problems lie.</p>
<p>My S is in an early college high school. So he does not have a GPA for just the college classes, it is one combined GPA for both high school & college classes. He has one report card and it shows both sets of grades. </p>
<p>I am not saying he can’t read!! He can, he has found strategies that help him with comprehension. The main one is to read aloud. He is a auditory learner and he has problems focusing when sight reading only. He also uses the active reading strategy where he makes notes in the margins as he reads. That helps some and he used that on the ACT yesterday. He also has issues with speed makes silly errors when trying to push himself to go faster. </p>
<p>His 2 year degree will just be an AA degree in general studies. He has taken lots of math, english, science classes. Plus things like first aid, music, psychology…just mainly pre-req stuff. This way he can move right into a program for his desired major. Our state public universities have an agreement with his CC to accept the majority of his credits - just about all of them will transfer.</p>
<p>Is there any way luvSon could request accommodation to take the SAT or the ACT in a private room? Does he have anything from a school Services for Students with Disabilities Coordinator that indicates he could qualify to get accommodations? You could experiment to see if this might help by letting him take a practice exam where he reads the questions/passages aloud to himself.</p>
<p>D also took the exam yesterday, and she has been practicing by taking tests on the ACT website, which grades them for you. It cost maybe $20 for 6 months access and you get several practice exams.</p>