@Pickmen when did your daughter take SAT? If CB is selling it shouldn’t we be getting scores then?
I’m tempted to contact our school to confirm that D3 is on their list but wondering if it’s necessary. Do we know whether anyone’s been hosed in the past? Our school doesn’t tend to make any announcements till all results from the current round are finalized in the fall.
@snicks1234 and @Pickmen D3 has received her share of mail and e-mail from the top colleges but we haven’t gotten any phone calls yet and actually that sounds a bit surprising (btw, if she checked a box that means she DID want materials received, just so you know). We get calls now and then but none of them from colleges - those have only called when someone has actually applied and/or been accepted. So if someone is representing they are from a college I’d be a bit suspicious (for instance, they say “SAT” when she hasn’t taken the SAT, that sort of thing). There are a lot of scams out there.
@suzyQ7 Thanks good tip. @snicks1234 Thanks for confirm on 209. As for SAT, D took it on October about same time as PSAT. She should make commended (just) but did better on the SAT, especially the CR section, so I’m not sure exactly how good a predictor PSAT is of the SAT. Also, I figure CB is selling her scores to schools but not sure how they are getting our phone #. I guess it’s not that hard if we have a listed phone but it’s sort of invasive. Off topic, but being on this thread the last several months, I notice quite a few of the posters here homeschool and their kids seem to do very well. I do not know if this is the norm with homeschooling but it’s been an eye opener to me. I knew one person whose son was homeschooled and he got a 2400 on the SAT. Went to Northeastern on a full ride. Not sure if he was NM but I think some schools will give full tuition for SAT scores too. I’m beginning to suspect homeschoolers probably score higher in general vs the schooled population. It would make an interesting study.
S has been getting phone calls from colleges too. He took the SAT last May, so I don’t think that is it. I think it’s the PSAT or maybe his ACT scores. I wasn’t answering the calls (caller ID), but then I got curious and started answering them. So far most schools that have called are not schools S is at all interested in (private LACs).
@pickme. youre welcome.
Mamelot,thanks for info.I believe if you get an email and go to the personalized page they always have set up,they already have all info on your child except phone number.So yeah,could be a scam.
@Pickmen It depends. Some parents do it right and I’ve seen some kids who can’t read and write well.Depends on the parents,childs abilities,etc.Some parents use online schools,which the education system still considers homeschooling.My son is pretty self motivated and responsible as far as his school work,but his mother gets a lot of the credit for that.
MN dad checking in. Love the conversation here! My son scored 218. I heard two scored higher, and two maybe slightly lower. Our school had zero semifinalists last year. Mid size school, about 160 kids in the class. Anyway, makes me wonder if he’ll make the cut? He would make it based on the three main prediction sites. But from what I’ve seen (eg TX and commended), the predictions may be too low?
@FHOapple Yay - another MN parent!!! Welcome and thanks for sharing! You’d think 218 would be safe . . . but everything’s up in the air this year. Given the clumping around 216 - 218 I think 215-217 is the most likely range (see below). 219 just seems too high to me. However, anyway you look at it your son is probably quite close to the cut-off.
One thing going for MN is that if ordering is generally preserved then there should be a number of states ahead of MN. If you look at the Test Master’s TX data you see a dip at 220-222 and then another spike at 224 then it drops again. I’m thinking the max cut-off won’t be higher than 223. So that means a whole bunch of states between MN and 223. To me something 219 or higher seems out-of-place just using that logic.
Far more interesting to look at is the clumping of 216-218: there have to be quite a few “midrange” states in there and that’s where I’m thinking we’ll find MN. In particular I’m interested in predictions for IL because MN always tracks one behind. This year IL may be bumped up a bit due to the switching from ACT to SAT for the grad standard (meaning a whole bunch of new PSAT testers and potentially higher resulting cut-offs). Others have reported that there hasn’t been much press in IL about this switch so you may not see that effect. Regardless, it’s probably safe to assume that MN will remain one (maybe two?) behind IL. Given that IL is predicted to be around 218-219, that means MN is around 216-217. If most of the cut-offs can be expected to be odd numbers due to clumping at the evens, then 215-217 seems more reasonable than 217-219. We’re just not a “break-away” state like some other states have been with cut-offs in the past. Of course, it’s a brand new test that relied more on the Common Core and obviously some states are going to increase (or decrease) just on that difference alone. I have not factored that in.
Art from Compass is supposed to update his predictions so it will be helpful to take a close look at that. @thshadow did a great job with some analysis earlier based on the concordance tables using 209 as the starting point. Interesting thing is that 209 this year concords to last year’s commended 202. Will other cut-offs concord in the same way? Will that concordance be preserved even for the very highest states or will it trail off a bit? All that remains to be seen.
@mamelot thanks for heads-up. She was pretty clear she did not want to be contacted so she must have not checked it. My bad. I think we are getting the mail/calls from her SAT results, which is weird, because her scores were decent but not exceptional. Some state schools and LACs. Nothing special.
I really wish we had some good analysis of the NJ numbers (like we did for Testmasters in Texas) since NJ is usually the highest cutoff.
@suzyQ7 Yes that would be helpful. NJ being at the top is a harder curve to visualize. Or at least some kind of anecdotal data like what’s been reported for IL and GA. The low end of the range now has clarity. Getting some definitive feel for the other end helps everyone, not just the states at or near that range.
Thanks mamelot! I hope you’re right! It would provide some nice options for college. It’s good to hear predictions are being updated used to concorded 209 as a base. I’ll anxiously await for those updated predictions!
Has anyone in FL heard if their schools announced the commended students?
If anyone wants to hear anecdotal info for a NJ school, here goes! Unfortunately it ain’t pretty though.
My daughter attends a well regarded mid sized public school. Average SAT score is about 1775. We typically produce 2-3 NMSF and another 20-25 commended. Apparently this year on the PSAT 10 kids scored above 220. 5 scored at 224 and 2 scored greater than 224. I am afraid this suggests a higher cutoff than has been estimated.
@MomNJof2 Wow! Unless some other schools under-performed, it does not look good for the NJ cut-off. That is what worries me about Testmaster’s Texas prediction. Even though they had 10,000 data points, those data points are concentrated in 1 particular area and does not take into account the possibility that some areas out-performed Houston and their historical averages, which I think is a distinct possibility.
Agreed
One thing about the email from the GC was slightly curious though. I asked how many kids scored at 224 and how many above (my daughter got 224 so that’s what I was the most interested in). She gave me that info and also volunteered the statistic about the number over 220. I don’t know if this implies that there was any indication that the cutoff could be 221? Maybe that’s just wishful thinking LOL.
So three were 221-223; five at 224, and two at 225-228?
I don’t know - that DOES look like the TX curve. There was a spike at 224, as I mentioned earlier.
@MomNJof2, do you know offhand how many testers there were? And can the GC provide you the number of testers between 209 and 220? If you can get that info. you might be able to figure out whether the school was an overperformer or whether it’s on-track for 20-25 commendeds and 2-3 NMSF’s.