<p>Sam I’m praying with you. S is way too laid back about it. He told me he’s predicting an 1130 m/v total and he’s completely relaxed about that. But then he is already signed up to repeat in June.</p>
<p>I just saw the movie “Race to Nowhere” that was mentioned way back on this thread somewhere. There was a separate thread about it too at some point. It would have been inappropriate for our public school district to sponsor a screening - wrong message - but our Jewish day school sponsored it which was perfect. I thought that it was a very interesting film, and the panel included a private college consultant, who kept emphasizing that fit is important, that many colleges are de-emphasizing standardized test scores, and that only 7% of colleges take less than 50% of applicants.
That being said, good luck to all the test takers this weekend! Kindergarten pencils and artist erasers were key for my kids! (and for me, actually - I thought of this idea way back when I took the SAT - and found that I could work faster)</p>
<p>[New</a> Hillel Affiliates: From Ski to Shining Sea](<a href=“http://www.hillel.org/about/news/2011/feb/28feb11_Soref.htm]New”>http://www.hillel.org/about/news/2011/feb/28feb11_Soref.htm)</p>
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<p>Nice to see there is now a Hillel starting at Salisbury University.</p>
<p>Parent ready for tomorrow. Bought fresh bagels for breakfast and will make eggs. For the test breaks, two bottles of vitamin water (power-c for the first part of the morning and revive for the latter) Also purchased Special K protein bars and peppermints. My S would eat these protein bars before his tae kwon do tourneys and he swears by them.</p>
<p>Now this afternoon, S will need to pack the essentials.</p>
<p>We have tae kwon do testing this eve which is good to take our minds off of the test and certainly keep me from nagging my son about extra studying, which we know at this point is mute.</p>
<p>Nice sunny day tomorrow and have I mentioned it is S’s 17th birthday!!!</p>
<p>Wow Sam, I wish I read your post before I shopped. So how’s this for a regional diet…you got bagels, I went to a restaurant and got refried beans and fresh tortillas. I plan to grate in some cheese in the morning and pack some bean and cheese tacos and apple juice for him to have on the drive to the test center. I also bought and eraser as per Levirm. I just planned on plain water during the test. The snack he requested and now I’m embarassed to say I went along with was gummy candy. Although we do have protein shakes that he can take with him. He came home from school today and is sleeping right now, I hope its more a sign that he is board, because I told him he needs to stay home tonight and not a sign that he is ill.</p>
<p>Good luck I hope your son has a wonderful birthday!</p>
<p>Samtalya and Spectrum: It sounds like you guys are well prepared. Good luck to all our SAT takers.</p>
<p>Good luck to your S too. I think we all can’t wait for it to be over.</p>
<p>Rockville Mom: I enjoy reading this post, no matter where I’m searching on CC, I come back to this thread “like home base” to see what is happening. Just noticed that over a quarter million views have occurred here since you formed this thread. Congrats on your intution that this would be a good discussion. Hard to believe that your S2 is starting up this process, just when you settled S1 into Wake. My D really enjoyed her visit to Wake a few weeks ago. Would be interested in any guidance parents have re: Wake Forest vs. Washington + Lee vs. URichmond vs. Davidson. Seems she will be deciding between those 4 schools. How do the academics compare, but most importantly how does the culture compare and how comfortable will a conservative Jewish kid be who wants some sense of community/Hillel and a possiblity of teaching religious school in community if it was nearby. Thanks</p>
<p>Anyone get good news from UDel yesterday? (I got one PM from a poster here)</p>
<p>creativecrew - glad you enjoy the thread and consider it “home base” - I am very honored. As I have mentioned before - it has exceeded my wildest expectations.</p>
<p>I am going to PM you re your question about Wake and the others.</p>
<p>My D appears to have gotten into UDel. I was holding off saying anything publically because it wasn’t an e-mail or letter, but rather a kind of backhanded way it shows on the UDel website. (Lots of discussion about it on the UDel Thread). You log onto My Blue Hen, and along the side at the bottom it says term admitted for, or what financial aid you got (we didn’t apply for any) and if you click onto one of the choices to schedule a visit it says congratulations. </p>
<p>Tuesday is supposed to be the day for Elon decisions, so soon the agonizing over decisions will be over and it will be time, finally, for my D to decide between the choices she has. She already has a lot more choices and a lot more really good choices, than she thought she would have when we began this, so she is happy. </p>
<p>I got a lot of good information and support here from you all about where and how to apply and so I’m not even going to wait til Tuesday to say “Thank you” to all.</p>
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<p>mhc - congratulation - so happy for you and your D. I have enjoyed following your progress. I would love to see an update from you next week after the Elon decision (if you are willing) with where she was accepted and your quick take on the pros and cons of each - as I think your list overlaps quite a bit with S2’s and many others on this thread as well.</p>
<p>Will you be doing more visits - going to any accepted student day programs?</p>
<p>MCH: Congrats to your daughter on the Delaware acceptance. I loved Delaware when we visited, and it seems like a great choice for a Jewish kid. It’s great that your daughter has more choices than she expected and is happy with her results. </p>
<p>Creativecrew: Your daughter has some great choices. My daughters chose not to seriously consider southern schools, so I can’t offer much guidance on the Hillel situations at each school. I saw Richmond last weekend, and the campus is gorgeous. One of my daughter’s friends will attend Wake next year. She spoke to some Jewish students and feels comfortable with the choice.</p>
<p>Thanks RVM and momjr, we will definitely be visiting schools for accepted students days, and will report back here. Which and how many schools depends on D. We will decide next week after hearing from Elon (although currently deferred, we are not going to wait for Tulane on 4/1, as it seems unlikely).</p>
<p>Congrats mhc and keep us posted on Elon. We should be hearing many reports on visits soom.</p>
<p>S reported that the SAT was OK. He thought he did really well on Reading and Grammar, but Math he thinks he only went up a little which won’t be enough. The essay question had to do with reality TV. He doesn’t watch any, but he felt free to comment on his mom wasting time watching too much!! Now we wait until March 31 to get the results. Tomorrow we begin our push to train for ACT on April 9.</p>
<p>Spectrum, what did you S think?</p>
<p>This was the first time around for him and he was exhausted. He said that when he got to the last section he couldn’t even read any more. Words were going in but not registering for him. He said that was the writing section. I was glad about that. He also thought the first math section was hard but after that he thought it was okay. No telling, based on the outcome and how the ACT goes we may think about more serious review. Happily his first 9 week grades are looking good so he is still very likely to be top 10%. He went into the test seeming really stress free but came out saying he wonders how he is going to be able to survive college. Just taking the test was a blow to his confidence. But then we picked up S1 at the airport, went out to dinner and he is now out with three camp friends one visiting spring break from out of town, so all is good again :). He seemed to like the essay topic.</p>
<p>glad to hear everyone survived the SAT’s…congrats mhc, your daughter has some really good choices.
creativecrew: from what I’ve heard, Washington and Lee has a pretty conservative Christian vibe.</p>
<p>My Jewish B student son is still waiting to hear from UC Davis (a really long shot; I’m thinking this will not happen) and from UC Santa Cruz ( who knows?!) BTW, we live in California. He would like to have some Jewish life available to him especially if he is away at school over the high holidays and/or Pesach. He’s a bit artsy, a bit of a hipster, and is gay.</p>
<p>So far, though, he has been accepted by-- east to west: SUNY Purchase, which he has visited and likes a lot. He is interested in their Arts Management program. Adelphi – no longer interested and can’t fathom why he wanted to apply; De Paul --not so much. Northern Arizona University --too remote; not happening. California Lutheran University – almost in our backyard, so no. UC Merced – he didn’t actually intend to apply, but they emailed to offer him the application free of charge since he had applied to other UCs. He took this as a bad omen about UCSC or UCD. Applied anyway and was accepted. I don’t know if there are any Jewish kids there, but it’s really in the middle of nowhere, so no deal. San Francisco State, Sonoma State, accepted to both but doesn’t love the CSUs. They were safeties. He has been accepted to Seattle University. Mad expensive–too much for us to afford. He has been accepted by Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington and if he doesn’t get UCSC or Davis (unlikely), he’s now thinking Purchase or Western Washington. There is supposedly a Hillel at WWU, but although it seems like his kind of town and a really great school, I don’t get the sense that there’s much if any Jewish life there.</p>
<p>Sorry for the blurt, but I’d love any responses, reactions, thoughts… Thanks!</p>
<p>Purchase has a great program, is a beautiful campus, and is very welcoming to artsy/hipster/gay students. It is a very big trip, though, from California. Is he specific to Arts management? There are nice programs that are similar (I think) at Columbia College in Chicago.</p>
<p>Thanks, college4three. We have family in Connecticut, so that’s a draw, plus he likes the proximity of Purchase to the city but is glad not to be IN it, since he is interested in getting good grades without too much distraction. It is far away from home, though. He’d not 100% sold on Arts Management, but is intrigued by it. (BTW, he didn’t apply to Columbia College in Chicago, but we did look at it. ) So, in short, feet planted firmly in midair.</p>