<p>Thanks, bclintonk. I hadn’t seen that before. </p>
<p>Yes, you’re right. An ACT 28 does put him smack in the middle of the 1150 - 1370 range. I guess I just <em>feel</em> better about the 28 because it appears to be a better number for some of his high matches. </p>
<p>(And, I hate to say it, but I think the 1370 was a fluke. Out of 5 practices, it was the only one above 1300.)</p>
<p>^^ SLUMOM,</p>
<p>The College Board doesn’t do the mailings; that’s done by marketing firms hired by the colleges. I don’t have inside information but it’s always been my assumption that the College Board doesn’t give the individual student’s actual PSAT score to the college, but instead the colleges purchase lists of names & addresses of students scoring above a certain cut-off, or possibly within a band defined by both upper and lower bounds. As a result, I don’t think the information held by the colleges will have any bearing on college admissions, on way or the other. The colleges simply want to market themselves to next year’s (or the year after’s) prospective applicants so as to increase the size of their applicant pool and thereby to become more selective. Bottom line, it doesn’t mean a thing, other than that the college wants your kid to be among the 29,000 or so who apply.</p>
<p>A new twist on my endless complaining about how difficult it is to visit schools in New England because we live in Texas! </p>
<p>We got a brochure in the mail from George Washington and they are hosting a “prospective student reception” for students and parents in Houston, which is only four hours from here. The catch is that it is on a Thursday night at 7 PM, so S would at least miss his morning classes and perhaps the whole day on Friday.</p>
<p>Would you drive four hours and have your kid miss school for one of these receptions? Or is it more the kind of thing that if you’re within an hour it’s worth it?</p>
<p>Edited to add: S takes ACT on Saturday morning. So it would be up to Houston Thursday night, home on Friday and then ACT on Saturday. Do they do these things in the Fall too?</p>
<p>Yes, college road shows also happen in the fall. If you go to the web sites of the colleges you’re interested in, you can probably discern if they have a fall schedule. Caveat: With the endowment hits thanks to the economy tanking, there may also be some trimming of these road shows, I expect. Somewhere (probably on CC) I’d read that some of the most prestigious schools are cutting back.</p>
<p>Compared to two years ago, I’m seeing more invitations for college presentations jointly sponsored by several colleges rather than the individual dog-and-pony shows. The schools have to find some sort of way to get their faces out there while realizing that it’s a lot more difficult for peple to come visit them in this economy.</p>
<p>Keilexandra - good luck to you with TASP. I really wanted my D to apply, but she wasn’t interested as she wants to work this summer.</p>
<p>There was a big college show in NYC yesterday, but unfortunately D didn’t want to attend. She really was too busy as she has a lot going on this week - but it would have been nice to attend.</p>
<p>jackief - my neighbor’s D attends UVM and loves it.</p>
<p>My D and I visited Clemson University on Sat. If anyone would like a run down, let me know. D is going to apply there. We had a very nice visit despite heavy rain and soaking wet feet!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am confused. If she is solidly mid range for a school, why is that a “reach” rather than a “match” and I would think in the top quartile would be a safety? What am I missing?</p>
<p>^^Possibly because some people define all schools that select only x% of applicants are reach or uber reach, even if their stat profile looks more like a fit.</p>
<p>^^ Maybe she’s looking at the top-tier schools with crazy acceptance rates?</p>
<p>That makes sense for the “reaches” but what about matches where your stats are above the 75%ile?</p>
<p>^^ I had once read a pretty nice explanation here on CC for why you need to be above the mid-range to feel that you are a match. It goes something like this:</p>
<p>The published %iles for mid-range SATs are for the freshman class, not for the admitted applicants. Now for most colleges, the people who decline their offer of admission are those who got into a more competitive college, hence are more likely to be among the people at the upper end of that range. In addition, there are hooked applicants that tend as a whole to be in the lower end of the range. So if you factor all this in, what you realize is that realistically, an unhooked applicant needs to be near or above the 75th percentile (of the freshman class) to consider himself or herself a “match” at a particular college.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If a college only accepts 10-20% of their applicants, then I assume that a lot of the students who get rejected or wait listed will also have stats above the 75%. That’s why I do not consider those schools “matches.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/510992-safety-match-reach-high-reach.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/510992-safety-match-reach-high-reach.html</a></p>
<p>it’s a lot of reading but this thread gave me the best perspective on determining safety-match-reach, especially for high-stat kids who would seem to be a match anywhere.</p>
<p>We are one year from the time that our children will hear from all their colleges. Good luck to all, one year in advance!</p>
<p>I am very curious to know how your children are reacting to the news of the acceptances and rejections for this year’s senior class. My D is reacting in two ways- on the one hand she is thrilled when someone she knows gets into a really good school. It makes her feel better about her own chances. On the other hand, it also increases her anxiety about the whole process to know that she and her peers will be up next.</p>
<p>Vicarious- same here. D is happy for some friends, and a bit freaked that a couple didn’t get into places we all thought they would. </p>
<p>I was not happy to see how many of the colleges on D’s long list had more applicants and much lower acceptance rates this year. Scary.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, IloveLA, but now I’m even more confused. Seems from some of the posts over there that the only real safety is a school to which your child has already been accepted (or community college ;)).</p>
<p>vp - my D’s been really quiet about this year’s spring decisions. Her friends did much better in the ED rounds this year than last year’s kids did, but I haven’t heard much about recent decisions. I think my D just has so much of her own stuff going on now, that she might not be paying attention to what’s going on around her.</p>
<p>The “safety-match-reach” thing is confusing. But I guess it’s better to err on the side of caution now and try to be in the 75% area to avoid disappointment one year from now.</p>
<p>LOL. Well a school where your kid gets accepted early and you like pretty well is a great safety. It means you don’t have to apply to any schools you like less than it. I can’t tell you how nice it was when mathson had an acceptance (RPI) before Thanksgiving. Especially when there was a slew of rejections in March. He basically applied to 2 safeties and 6 reaches. I don’t really think it’s that critical to differentiate between matches and reaches. The critical thing is to have a safety or two that your child likes.</p>