lol, I sure as hell hope so! Otherwise I’ve wasted a ridiculous amount of money!
In re: high school counselors, truancy officers and the BFA rat race - we got the truancy letter, too. I panicked and called the school and ultimately met with the principal and my S counselor in an effort to educate them on the process he was going through. We were lucky in that he wasn’t the only BFA hopeful his year AND both the principal and counselor were willing to learn about the process. That said, the truancy letters are sent automatically; the school is just “following orders” or so we were told. It worked out fine for my S but we worked hard to keep the school informed of the planned absences. His counselor did come around to agreeing on the number of schools given the limited number of spots.
A 1800 SAT is closer to a 27 ACT per a quick internet search. And if these are public schools, probably not as difficult to have a top ten class rank as some privates. (Don’t flame me).
I think many states have rules for automatically contacting truancy after “x” absences. In my state I am pretty certain it is 12. I have found, as a parent and a teacher- that schools are much more willing to be flexible for students who have a history of good attendance. My D had never missed more than 3-4 days of school in a year, so needing to be gone more than that as a senior wasn’t an issue. It’s the kids who have had “lots” of absences every year (especially late arrivals- fyi- schools really hate it when it seems obvious that a parent has called off a kid who wants to sleep in) where there start to be questions. While I would NEVER say a kid should go to class sick, I have known lots of kids with “senioritis” who seem to miss a lot of school, and then have problems getting release time for college stuff.
@transmom I won’t flame you, but please feel free to elaborate on your comment #1982
Here’s your friendly flame, @tramsmom. Not a great generalization to make. At least in our city. Selective publics (including PA schools) have much higher academic entrance requirements and admissions test scores than most privates. It’s hard to make comparisons since they do not rank students at all (not even unofficially) and grades are expressed as percentages of 100, not on a 4 point scale. But there’s really no need to measure the two against one another. I know we’re all a little tense but my mother always told me, sternly, “Comparisons are odious.”
Also would direct anyone with this bias to a book published last year called “The Public School Advantage” based on analysis of humongous nationwide datasets. Public schools outperform private schools. Yup.
I think class ranks are idiotic, period, and that was the basis of my comment. How can one compare a school filled with genius vs. a school of dunderheads. The top ten percent of one school (be it Public or Private) may well-constitute the bottom ten percent of another (be it public or private). There’s the whole problem of transferring between schools, kids who are homeschooled coming into a school midway, its just an idiotic concept. I’ve never heard a good argument for it. Never. Yet Colleges continue to use this as a meaningful measure of some sort of accomplishment for things like admittance, scholarships, honors college, etc.
There’s my explanation. And @vocal1046 I did say “SOME” privates. Just as you did. If you read carefully. (Insert emoticon pointing to the post with one hand and hugging you with the other). And dare I say, while you find comparisons odious, I find your comment: “Public schools outperform private schools” to be just such a comparison. I did not find that comparison in my post, as I was very careful to say only that SOME privates outperform SOME publics. Since ONLY public schools were represented in the sample population, I made reference to SOME private schools that may outperform them.
Re: Boys have it easier…
IMHO, yes and no. Yes from the sheer number of applicants. I’ve never yet seen an audition, from school shows, to college, to professional, where females didn’t outnumber males, often up to a 70/30 ratio. BUT - it is my observation that boys are less likely to apply for MT on a lark, without much basis for thinking this may be a good option for them. Thus many of the boys who are on the college audition circuit are just as likely to be experienced and well-trained as the well-prepared girls. And, as someone else said recently on one of the threads - the girls are well used to the fact that they can expect major competition at every audition they face - for the boys, sometimes much less so.
“it is my observation that boys are less likely to apply for MT on a lark, without much basis for thinking this may be a good option for them.” -@MT4Life
Gee, that sounds a lot like you are saying girls are, on the whole, less serious, more frivolous, and dare I say, more likely to be spontaneously irresponsible about their futures than boys?
OK @tramsmom. That’s the title of the book. “The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools Nationwide” My punctuation didn’t make that clear.
So colleges use SAT/ACT scores and grades as admissions measures. The common app does ask for rank (if any). My only experience is with several test-entrance publics that do not rank. I guess they agree with you that the practice is idiotic.
Your post was not framed as a criticism of standardized measures in general. What you said above (that you were concerned was a bit incendiary) was that it’s “not as difficult” to be among the top ten at public schools than at “some privates”. Sure. And it’s probably not as difficult to score in the top of the scale in private schools as in some publics.
If the point was not to communicate that high achievement in public school is of less value than high achievement in private school, then I can’t understand your post.
But it looks like people want to switch to a “boys have it easier than girls” squabble. Come on, y’all. Everybody has it hard, excruciatingly hard. The eye of this needle is nearly impossible to thread. Still, the kids try and they are all to be commended regardless of gender or prior schooling or how many left feet they may have.
(pollyanna emoticon)
Not only are there at least two females for each male auditioning, many schools (I did not say all) accept more boys than girls. So if someone is going to say it is crazy to point that out, well then, so be it. Yes, it is difficult for both, but we are talkin apples and oranges when we talk about boys and girls when it comes to chances of acceptance. Lets be real.
Calm down, no one has it easy here. This is hard for everyone except perhaps the 3-4 kids who, every year, get in everywhere. But it ends and most of the kids end up happy so hang in there.
Y’know. It’s hard for those kids too. This is a profoundly anxiety-provoking process even if you get the brass ring every time. In fact, the kid can feel really lousy about getting so much when others get none. How can they be open with their peers and share the journey? Those kids’ inner life is probably much like all the others.
SAT of 1800 and ACT of 26 are certainly above average. Same with a GPA of 3.5 (though GPA really needs to be examined within the context of courses taken). But generally speaking, these stats are not what many consider “high stats.” It is rather interesting that on the MT forum, people might consider these “high stats” and if you posted those stats on other forums on College Confidential, you would get a very different opinion of such stats.
As far as public vs. private (which is a very general comparison in the first place), I believe that the top 10% of students in most public schools would be on par with students who attend privates that have admissions criteria to be accepted/enrolled and so are selected upon entrance.
@soozievt For Ivy League and even a rung below, those are not good stats at all. But no one here is going to Harvard for MT. For the typical college-going grad, they are more than just above average, a SAT of 1800 putting one in the top 17 percent of females taking the test (according to college board). So I’d say by the standards we employ here, the scores reported by (cannot recall who now) are quite high indeed.
Just to get back to the class of 2019 venting: D got 3 big envelopes in the mail today. We were so excited!! Until she opened them. 2 were invitations to apply to the honors college to schools she’s been academically accepted to, 1 was from a unified walk in school reminding her to send in transcripts and test scores. Couldn’t these notices have come in small envelopes? Don’t these schools know what a big envelope is supposed to signify this time of year? Anyways, just laughing as I pour myself another glass of wine…
If a kid is interested in something like Northwestern for MT a 26 on the ACT isn’t going to get the job done. In fact, I know kids who were over 30 on the ACT who weren’t accepted there. And ACT scores (b/c they are standardized) often open doors to merit $ at lots of schools - which can make a huge difference when it comes to affording programs
The stats that I posted in #1977, according to the ACT and SAT websites:
Represent the top 17-20% of test scores (1800/26)
Represent the top 41% of GPA (3.5)
I used these scores because they are high enough to meet the 25-75% range for all but a very small slice of American four year colleges (I did a quick-and-dirty calc and less than 3-5% require higher stats). Scores in this middle of this range have generated scholarships ranging from $30,000 to more than $100,000 from several schools posted at the top of this forum for my d. Her academic scholarship total from schools listed at the top of this forum is several hundred thousand dollars.
I believe that these stats would quality for academic admission to all MT programs posted at the top of this forum with the possible exceptions of UCLA, Northwestern and maybe NYU (recognizing that Michigan and CMU apparently “flex” their typical admissions stats for high talent MT applicants).
For example, Penn State is ranked in the top 50 universities in the country by US News and these stats are well within their 25-75 range.
Those stats alone will not get you into Northwestern. They will get you quite a lot from many schools, and next to nothing from still more. Depends where you want to go. But you don’t need those stats for an acceptance to the vast majority of MT favorites.
The vast majority of BFA in MT programs are not located in very academically selective universities. So, yes, those stats being discussed earlier here could garner scholarships at many MT programs!
But generally speaking, those are not considered “high stats” when it comes to very academically selective schools. Someone posted about Ivy League schools, but even schools that are not Ivy, but quite academically selective, these would not be considered “high stats.” And to bring a MT school into the mix, here are the stats for admitted students to NYU:
Avg. GPA 3.7, mid GPA range: 3.5-3.9, 63% from top 10% of HS class, 96% from top 25%, 99% from top 50%. Mid SATs CR 630-720, M 630-740, W 640-730, CR/M 1260-1460, total 1900-2190, mid ACT 28-32.
As you can see, NYU, which is not one of the most academically selective colleges in the land (but with a 32% acceptance rate, is still pretty selective), a GPA of 3.5 is below their average for accepted students. A 26 on the ACT is below their 25th percentile of accepted students, and an 1800 SAT is below their 25%th percentile of accepted students. Getting into NYU with an 1800 SAT or a 26 on the ACT is possible, but the odds are much lower with such stats.
There are still many colleges quite a bit more selective than NYU. It’s just that this is the MT Forum and very few MT programs are very selective academically. Some are…such as NYU, U of Michigan, Northwestern, UCLA, and so on. On the MT forum, what is considered “High stats” just isn’t considered in the same way on other forums on CC. That’s all I am saying. The stats being discussed are certainly above average and very good and would be suitable for most (but not all) MT programs, and would secure academic scholarships at many of these not very selective academic schools that house fabulous MT programs.