<p>thatsmyboy: My DD took both ACT and SAT but only submitted ACT to all her schools. So none of them ever knew she took the SAT. It did not matter one iota. Go with whichever one works better for your DS.</p>
<p>@thatsmyboy: I sent you a PM with a question about Muhlenberg.</p>
<p>exciting news, my son received a trustee scholarship to uvm!</p>
<p>Srandrew: Congratulations!</p>
<p>srandrew - Looks like we are on the same path. My S also received trustee scholarship for UVM! Every little bit helps! S was also admitted to Quinnipiac this week with a very nice scholarship as well! Glad he will have some choices.</p>
<p>Thanks all! We are so happy my son will be going to Muhlenberg! We had looked at Muhlenberg initially when doing the college search for D1. She ended up applying ED to Franklin & Marshall, where she is now and loving it. (She also had a much higher GPA than my son.) But from the start we felt Muhlenberg would be an ideal choice for him - just didn’t think he’d get in!
pamom59: no, we are not from PA, NJ or NY although I know Muhlenberg draws the majority of its students from those states. We’re in CT which isn’t much different. : ) My son wanted a small school, and liked the emphasis on both sports and performing arts, as he loves both, and the fact that the greek life and party scene exist there but aren’t as intense as at some other PA LACs. But clearly the biggest factor for him was the “vibe” there. It is such a warm, friendly, supportive place, and that sold him.</p>
<p>thatsmyboy: my D1 took both the SAT and ACT (twice each). Her ACT scores were significantly better than her SATs, and so she only reported the highest of the ACT scores. I don’t think the schools care which one you use, and you don’t need to report both unless you want to.</p>
<p>More on ACT: DD actually reported two sets of ACT scores, as per her GC, because on one set she did better on two sections and, of course, on the other set, she did better on the other two sections. I don’t know how to make that “roll eyes” symbol, but I did a lot of that when she was doing all that testing!!!</p>
<p>mom2009: our minds think alike – accepted to quinnipiac also! awaiting 1 this week and 1 next week, but uvm is still his first choice. congrats to your son; great news!</p>
<p>thanks LINYMOM and DMMLE for your thoughts about just taking ACT.</p>
<p>S2 is looking (so far) at Quinnipiac, Hofstra and UVM… he liked Muhlenberg and may apply there too next year.
My older S had such a specialized major that I knew nearly every program in the country with his major. S2 is open to going anywhere and his major ( bio or pre-vet ) is so much more readily available I feel like overwhelmed at the number of schools to look into.</p>
<p>In response to RVM’s comment:</p>
<ol>
<li>Start taking the ACT early in your kid’s Junior year and take it OFTEN! Many schools use a “superscore” which takes the highest score in each category. Our kids did better each time they took it, confidence comes with practicing a little every day (30 minutes) and focusing on one subject each day. Most problems kids have is getting the section completed in the time allotted and practicing with a kitchen/cell phone timer each day teaches them to speed up the process.</li>
</ol>
<p>Congrats to Mom2009 and srandrew…!!</p>
<p>Glad to see UVM is upping their merit awards…COA is so high for a public; this will hopefully raise their profile…great school…</p>
<p>Somebody needs to update the list when they have time…I’m on iPad and still trying to figure out how to copy/ paste a large database</p>
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<p>Great advice. I was surprised to see how many schools “superscore”. My S took it twice only. Actually did better across the board the first time, likely because it was June junior year (just finished school and most subjects) rather than fall senior year when he was still kind of in a summer frame of mind.</p>
<p>I have a D-frosh and I’ll suggest she start next year.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>By the way, hi. I’ve been lurking.
We aren’t Jewish but my S is an agnostic B student :)</p>
<p>Welcome ohiobassmom</p>
<p>.21. Not sure if this was already mentioned, but every year, more and more schools are super scoring the ACT…check your list directly with the schools before deciding when your student is done</p>
<p>When D1 took SAT/ACT not one of her schools superscored</p>
<p>When D 2 (class of 2015 college) took ACT, almost all of her list did…</p>
<p>Can I see a show of hands? How many of your kids will actually study for SAT/ACT for 30 min/day? I’m sure that TOTALLY helps, but after ECs and homework, DS is in no mood - and he is the motivated one. (Won’t even talk about DD’s “practicing” for SAT and ACT.) Granted, DS does work at it some days, but not 30 minutes a day. No way. Should I be even tougher? Are your kids doing all this practicing for these tests?</p>
<p>Off to a meeting - will check on results tonight :)</p>
<p>Congrats mom2009 and srandrew!</p>
<p>regarding studying for SAT/ACT. D did some prep work for the SAT. Then I decided she might do better on an ACT. She did a few practice ACT’s at home the week before the ACT, then took it, did better than the SAT and said she was done.</p>
<p>With D2 I am going to figure out which test is the right one before any effort is put into it. If we had figured out it was the ACT for D1 first, I think she wouldn’t have been burnt out on testing and would have taken it again.</p>
<p>I have another one to add to our list.</p>
<h1>22) Make sure it’s their voice that comes through in the essay. It’s fine to have other people look it over to make sure it reads well and is grammatically correct and without typos. But it has to be their essay and don’t let anyone polish it too much.</h1>
<p>Also, one other thing I have to say in looking back, is for years the one comment people have always made to be about D1 is that she is the “complete package”. I think that helped her in the admissions process. Her gpa and scores were not perfect, very good, but not perfect. She does have her passions that she was able to demonstrate in her application, but there were also a lot of other things that just show she is a well rounded person with lots of interests. She comes across as very mature, so she interviews well. She hasn’t set the world on fire with her leadership abilities, hasn’t started any not for profits, hasn’t solved any of the worlds great problems. Just a very well rounded kid with a few passions who has worked hard and was able to put it across in her applications. I have really been thinking about this over the past week as I wondered “why her” when I look at the stats of kids who got rejected.</p>
<p>Linymom: I understand that doing 30 minutes a day sounds like a lot, but we did it with all three kids (with lots of grumbling) and it works. Basically, they would stop anything they were doing at 10:00 PM (homework, computer…anything) and they went to the basement. Using practice books, they took one subject exam each time for 30 minutes with a timer. This is less daunting than sitting there for hours taking one entire test at a time. </p>
<p>Some days were skipped, but the kids saw the results in how much faster they got through the topics after a few weeks. This concept loosely based on the Kumon Math program that has young children do practice math problems everyday for 20 minutes. We did it when the kids were little and amazingly they had perfect scores in the allotted time by the end of the week. The same concept applies to music, where kids have to practice scales everyday, or when our kids played tennis and did 30 minutes of drills before they even got to play a game. Drilling and practicing works, but no one said it was fun.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to add any more stress to kids who are already overloaded with work, but this system worked for our family and may not work for yours. We all try whatever methods work best for our kids.</p>
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<p>LOL…my S didn’t study for ACT or SAT at all. Other than an hour workshop his school did in junior year. No practice tests, nothing. But his scores are higher than his GPA would suggest already…if he scored any higher he’d look like a smart slacker (more than he already does). So we didn’t worry about it too much. </p>
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<p>This was really hard for me but I did finally get it. The one he submitted is definitely in his voice and in part that’s because he fought for his choice of wording when I challenged him. For better or for worse, it is HIS essay. I had to learn to back off and let him have it.</p>
<p>I think there is a major randomness factor with standardized tests, so that the more times you can get your child to actually sit through the test, the better. I would rather put my cajoling into having them take the test more than once or twice rather than expecting them to practice all of the time.</p>
<p>D1 went from a 670 to a 780 and back down to a 680 on the writing section. This is with absolutely no additional prep other than a Kaplan course that she took before the first test.</p>
<p>D2 had a 660, 670 and finally a 720 on the reading section, again with absolutely no additional prep other than a Princeton Review class she took before her first sitting.</p>
<p>D2 also went from a 25 (she was sick) to a 35 and back to a 31 on the English section of the ACT.</p>
<p>With score choice, we were able to send the test scores that showed her off the best.</p>