Where to begin?

Parents Forum
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<p>I'm new here. I've been reading through many posts over the past month or so. </p>

<p>Our daughter is a jr., and we've started to think about colleges. It's really a bit overwhelming, and the more research we do, the more questions we have. </p>

<p>Her advisor is of little assistance in providing help. The school also did a very poor job of advertising the college admissions night seminar so we missed that. (The first I heard of it was on the school's website the night it was held. I typically check the site about once a week, but did it too late that week.) </p>

<p>I'll start with a couple of basic questions and maybe some of you can offer some additional advice or information that you didn't know when you began. </p>

<p>When should she take the SAT? We're thinking about March given her extracurricular schedule. </p>

<p>Does everyone need to take SAT subject tests? How did your student decide which tests to take? Right now I'm thinking about May for this as she will be preparing for the AP US History test at that time anyway. Also may encourage the Spanish test then. I think she can retake the SAT in June or next fall. Should she take a Math or Science test? She has pre-calc/trig this year and physics (honors, not AP)</p>

<p>Last year she took the PSAT as a sophomore. Because we considered it a practice test for her, I don't even recall her score. We looked at it, said okay, and moved on. She did just take it again of course. After she took it last fall, she began getting the "brochures" from some pretty good schools: Fordham, NYU, Vanderbilt, Loyola, Univ of Chicago, etc. Do these schools send these out to all sophs that take the PSAT figuring they must have something good going on if they are testing as sophs or do they selectively send these out? I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out if these are realistic options or just more junk mail. </p>

<p>The current "plan" is to create a list this year, visit a few places over the summer, a few more in the fall, and then do the applications. I know many schools don't have programs in the summer, but that is really when our schedules make it easiest. Is it important to visit during the school year in terms of eventual acceptance? I know that's important in terms of really seeing the classes, the students, etc. </p>

<p>Finally, what kind of schools should we be looking at in terms of selectivity?<br>
( I know she can definitely get into the Big Ten school in our home town. In terms of midwestern public universities, this is her only choice.) </p>

<p>Some info on her: She is a jr. at a public HS in the midwest. It's fairly competitive and well regarded given that we live in the hometown of a Big Ten University. (Imagine all the faculty kids and living in a place where education is the primary means of financial support for a large percentage of the population.) </p>

<p>She took all the honors courses possible as a freshman and sophomore and received straight A's (maybe an A- in one or two.) Since I don't have her transcript I can't post her unweighted GPA. She is on track for all A's again. This year she will complete 2 AP courses as well as a Spanish class that's the equivalent of 1st year college Spanish. She's also doing another honors class. She'll sign up for 2 or 3 AP classes next year and the second year college Spanish course. </p>

<p>Her school does not give out rankings, but I know she is at least in the top 8% of her class. </p>

<p>Are her extracurriculars weak? </p>

<p>She will be a 4 year varsity swimmer. She swims club all year when she's not swimming during the HS season. (In the summer that means 4 hours of practice daily, 2 hours during the school year for club, and 2-4 during the high school season.) Currently she's not interested in college swimming, but who knows? </p>

<p>4 years in orchestra---leadership position this year. She's second chair this year. </p>

<p>Spanish Club and school volunteer for freshman orientation. </p>

<p>About 50 hours volunteering at our church during her freshman and sophomore years. </p>

<p>I know without SAT scores it's kind of tricky, but we would really like to start thinking about this seriously. Any thoughts, suggestions, advice, things you wish you knew when you started? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Welcome! Lots of questions...so I'll take a stab. </p>

<p>Kids take the SATs at all different times. You want to leave time for her to take them twice. Other than that, anytime in the spring of junior year and fall of senior year is fine.</p>

<p>SAT IIs are trickier. If she is going to be applying to very selective schools she should probably take them. If she is going into something math, science, engineering related etc. she'll want to take math and science ones. But really, without a list of schools it's impossible to know if she even needs them!</p>

<p>To find compatible schools she can do a search on collegeboard.com. I'd also recommend that you spend $15 and subscribe to the US News premium college web site on line. Rather than stabbing the in the dark with chances you can look up on there for each college what range of test scores, GPAs, and how they weight things like extra-curriculars. Lots of kids post "chances" on here, but really, you should check it out based on true data.</p>

<p>I'd also recommend that if finances are at all a concern that you go to finaid.com and spend a little time reading up on the subject there. Be sure to fill out the FAFSA calculator to get an idea if you'll qualify for need based aid. If finances are important there are lots of strategies involved with that, and may have to be covered in a different posting on here. For us, we didn't qualify for need based aid, but $45K/year was out of the question, so "shopping" for colleges involved a lot of research on where my kids might qualify for merit money.</p>

<p>It is impossible to predict her chances at schools based on mailings. Everyone gets a ton of mail. Again, get a feel for her chances based on data given out by the schools.</p>

<p>I would definitely try to visit some schools THIS SPRING. You want to go when they are in session - not over the summer. Again, there are lots of strategies for visiting schools, but #1 is going when they are in session.</p>

<p>I think her ECs look great!</p>

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<p>Welcome. Weenie has good advice.</p>

<p>She should at least take the ACT once, especially as she is in ACT country.</p>

<p>Pay no attention to the mailings, at least until you have real scores in hand.</p>

<p>I'm a proponent of visiting, unless the child is very anti-visit, some are, or the family situation, location or finances precludes visiting. There are few people in the US who live in such an isolated location that they cannot easily and cheaply visit at least one or 2 colleges. I do not think that it is absolutely necessary to visit all the schools that you want to apply to - I feel that its more important to visit a large school and a LAC, because many kids will like one and not the other - that narrows down the list fast. the trick is to convince the child to evaluate the schools generically. Just because you're visiting the big state school in your town doesn't mean you are going to force her to live at home and go to school there, you're looking at atmosphere in a big general way.
My persona; experience of 2, is that this approach works better with girls than boys.</p>

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<p>Welcome. Some generous posters have contributed to a sticky thread at the top of the parent cafe. There you will find many of your answers , and answers to some questions you will have soon.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/400041-revolving-thread-topics-linking-old-new.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/400041-revolving-thread-topics-linking-old-new.html&lt;/a>
SAT/ACT Process</p>

<p>Xiggi's SAT prep advice</p>

<p>Xiggi and top SAT tutors discuss test prep strategies</p>

<p>SAT Strategy for admissions to colleges</p>

<p>A Retake on How Many Times to Take the SAT or ACT</p>

<p>New SAT scores vs PSAT scores?</p>

<p>1st-try "New SAT 1" score vs 2nd-try "New SAT 1" score?</p>

<p>Good luck, and remember to have some fun. My D and I really enjoyed the process.</p>

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<p>"Does everyone need to take SAT subject tests? How did your student decide which tests to take? Right now I'm thinking about May for this as she will be preparing for the AP US History test at that time anyway. Also may encourage the Spanish test then. I think she can retake the SAT in June or next fall. Should she take a Math or Science test? She has pre-calc/trig this year and physics (honors, not AP)"
I concur that she take the SAT for the first time in March, the Spanish and US History subject tests in May, and maybe English Lit/ Lang in June. If she is taking an AP math course this year then have her take the Math II subject test in June . If not then she could wait until Nov, so she gets more math under her belt. She can take the SAT again in Oct is she wants to try for better scores, or take or repeat another subject test instead.
Her EC's are just fine, but nothing that truly sets her apart from thousands of other hard working smart scholar athletes. What is she passionate about?
If she has any other outside interests besides music and swimming [ and I don't know in all honesty how she could find the time for another notable EC], that might help set her apart, then you might want to encourage that she write about in her essays.</p>

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<p>I have to agree--visit some schools this year if you can. We had a vac week in Feb and one in April--then did more in the summer. Don't you have any time this year?</p>

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<p>March is a good time to take the SAT1. If she's taking APUSH I highly recommend taking the Subject test in May or June while the material is still fresh. If she's in Trig or PreCalc she should take Math2 also in May or June.</p>

<p>If you can use spring or Feb. break to visit a few schools. Try to get small, large, urban, rural and suburban if you can. That will give you some idea about what kind of campus appeals even if you don't have exact schools nailed down yet.</p>

<p>Her ECs seem fine. Her PSATs will probably be a fairly good predictor of SAT scores unless she does a lot of studying so you might want to dig them out. They'll give you a better idea of what schools you are aiming at.</p>

<p>Mailings mean very little.</p>

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<p>All great info for this mom (I'm taking notes myself!).</p>

<p>One thing--my son's a jr. also, and we are visiting local (w/in 45 mins) colleges now (sometimes w/a friend or two in tow). It's not a bad time! School is in session and from what I hear, things get busy in the spring for juniors w/SAT II subject tests, AP tests, the SAT, etc. (at least that's what my son will be doing -- taking the SAT subjects at the end of the honors classes & AP classes).</p>

<p>Son also insisted on signing up for Dec SAT. He'll do some prep, but that will leave time for a re-take should he decide to in the summer, etc.</p>

<p>My plan re: visiting colleges is to do it when there is a 'lull' test-wise and academic-wise. Then again, my son doesn't have tons of extra-curriculars (except for some pt-time work & music stuff).</p>

<p>Good luck! :-)</p>

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<p>rrah - Welcome to CC! The search process will appear daunting for awhile, but in a few months you'll be the one providing insight on this topic.</p>

<p>There is wonderful advice above. Getting SAT 1 and ACT scores before summer is really important, because they will give you an idea of where your D will be competitive from an applications standpoint. If you're not familiar with the Xiggi Method, please take some time to read about it here on CC. It really works. I also concur about visiting a few colleges this spring. You don't say where in Indiana you are, but there is an amazing variety of schools right on I-70 --- Indiana State, Rose-Hulman, Depauw, and Earlham provide a nice mix of schools.</p>

<p>Oh, and I wouldn't put any stock in those college brochures. It's flattering to get mailings from top flight colleges, but receiving brochures doesn't mean the college has a special interest in your child --- unfortunately.</p>

<p>Good luck to you, and please continue to ask questions as they arise.</p>

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<p>rrah -- Welcome! I am fairly new myself, and this is a wonderful place to ask questions and get advice.
I would just like to re-emphasize one of weenie's points from above. If you are looking for merit money, your list will look very different than the list you might make if you qualified for need-based aid or didn't need any aid at all. Perhaps you already know this, but many parents don't. They think their excellent students will get "full rides" at Northwestern, the Ivies, and a slew of other schools that don't give any merit aid. At the top tier schools that give merit aid, full rides are very rare (think Wash U or Vanderbilt). So finances need to be part of the process from the get-go. If, indeed, you are in that wonderful middle place with so many of us, where you don't qualify for need-based aid but aren't a millionaire, rest assured there are many fine schools below the top fifty that would love to give students like your daughter a scholarship that would help her attend.</p>

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<p>Thank you all for you advice thus far. </p>

<p>I figured it's just marketing regarding the brochures, but it never hurts to ask. At the very least, it's opened up her eyes to the fact that she needs to start thinking about this seriously. </p>

<p>I'm looking really hard at our calendar in February. HS swimming is over by then, and it's not too close to AP test time. March might be an option, but I hate to give up our spring break trip. (It's likely to be the last one as an entire family. She wants to go to Spain in 2009.) Not many days off of school around here. </p>

<p>Great advice on when to take the subject tests. I forgot about the English. </p>

<p>She's finished Algebra 1 and 2, and Geometry. All were honors classes. She'll complete Pre-Calc/Trig by the end of the year (she's on trimesters), but it's not an AP class. Do you think the Math II would be appropriate? </p>

<p>New Hope--thanks for the suggestions. Rose-Hulman is probably not for her given she's more interested in liberal arts. Her younger brother though already has under consideration. It's a great school. One of my clients is a recent grad and is a fabulous young woman. The one decision she has made is school size. Her HS has about 1900 students. She knows she wants to go somewhere larger than that. I know Earlham is smaller, but it's always intrigued me. </p>

<p>Thank you especially for the financial advice regarding merit aid. Like many, we're really going to have to look for schools that offer some merit aid because she won't qualify for need based aid, but as someone said, we aren't millionaires. We have a reasonable figure in mind that we can afford and have saved, but beyond that???? Both husband and myself are IU grads, and we currently live in Bloomington. We know you can get a great education without going to a top 25 school and do well in life. </p>

<p>I loved the xiggi stuff, and, more importantly, daughter thought it sounded like a good method.</p>

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<p>Math II would be fine.</p>

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<p>We had fun family vacations doing college visits, but we only have one kid. Still you could maybe plan other fun activities for all family members and have only the prospective student or student and one parent visit the campus--other family members doing other stuff. I'm a big believer in early visits because we felt we could tell a lot about campus personality on visits. Other people feel differently and I don't think they're wrong--I think we're all different. PM me if you want our visiting experiences at 20 LACs around the country. But of course, everyone will experience these schools differently.</p>

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<p>I won't try to add to the advise already given, but have 2 observations based on our experience (daughter is a sophmore at Elon). First is that I think it is important to visit a college when school is in session if at all possible. We first visited Elon during their spring break and daughter didn't get a good feeling about it. That changed when we went back later. Second, my D was also a swimmer in High School and didn't want to swim in college, but her school has a club swim team and she loves doing that. They do travel to some away meets during the year, but it is really laid back and just right for her. Good luck in your search over the next year.</p>

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<p>I think visits are the very best thing, but am hoping they are more fun with my D than they were with my S. Does your D know yet if she'd prefer to stay in Indiana, in midwest, or somewhere else? Are DePauw and Valpo big enough for her size preference? They both give decent $. Butler does not (sigh, I'm an alum). Vanderbilt is also an easy drive down 65 for you. Although I know it's difficult to receive merit $ there, they are very generous with need based. Plus, they (meaning everyone with whom we came in contact) receive my vote for Friendliest School in USA.</p>

<p>I know it's very difficult to work in visits during the school year, but try when you can or when she will miss little school, i.e. early dismissal days, etc. Even if you must first visit in summer, she may be able to narrow down her desires to how big (2,000 and 20,000 are very different), urban, suburban, rural or bubble, how conservative, LAC/research, etc. Being able to do that is very helpful!</p>

<p>Try the ACT. It's score choice, it's not out of the norm for Indiana students, and almost all the schools do not require SAT II's if the ACT is submitted. A few do (check), but not very many.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>[url=<a href="http://admissionsadvice.com%5Dwww.admissionsadvice.com%5B/url"&gt;http://admissionsadvice.com]www.admissionsadvice.com[/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>

<p>It's published by a popular poster here named Carolyn.</p>

<p>My favorite is her article about building a college list "from the bottom up," but there are many gems here. She's very wise and provides links as well as her own advice. I think it hits right at the level you indicate you are right now. Good luck.</p>