<p>Keil:</p>
<p>Outstanding scores - and no I would not suggest you retake. </p>
<p>As the non Animal House fans, Faber College is indeed the college and it is Dean Wormer who is the dean of the college </p>
<p>Greg Marmalard: But Delta’s already on probation.
Dean Vernon Wormer: They are? Well, as of this moment, they’re on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION!</p>
<p>I love animal house! Maybe Liz Lemon can talk about how it doesn’t reflect current day Dartmouth, or maybe she will think it does! 
</p>
<p>My admission panel report coming soon, I think 60 seconds after this post.</p>
<h2>College Admissions panel at our school last night not a complete set of notes but things I thought interesting enough to write down</h2>
<p>Representatives from Providence College, Wheaton College, George Washington University, Tufts University (sadly I was hoping the guy was “Dan” who posts on CC but his name was Matt) They were all our regional representatives who read for our school/region with the exception of the Providence rep who grew up in our area.</p>
<p>Question on what to consider when picking courses for next year.
P: they want to see four years of all core courses</p>
<p>Recent FA changes
T: tries to be need blind (nb) but not published commitment. “They are getting there.” This year ED was nb and first round of RD readings was nb but final committee decisions were need aware.
GW: has put significantly more money into merit scholarships. Need aware at end and also has gapped.</p>
<p>essays:
GW: don’t write at then end “… and this is why I really want to go to Georgetown” 
T: answer to yourself first why you want to go to college, then why to this college
W: this guy took the turn to tell the story about not writing the essay about your grandmother because they are not admitting her.</p>
<p>athletics:
Two D1 schools P and DW said their apps are read first (I assume by athletic office) before reaching their desks
All said if you are not recruited it is a great ec</p>
<p>choice of major:
GW: easier to get into engr these days than international stuff
P: Bio is the only major with additional prereqs</p>
<p>admissions details
W: apps were down this year
GW: first cut is “does this student meet the profile” which is data driven. After that pretty objective pass the numbers don’t play much of a factor. Student with good enough SATs and good GPA won’t suffer as long as SAT got them past first cut</p>
<p>demonstrated interest:
GS: very important, show it in any and all ways you can
P: not a factor. They try to reach out to 1st gen who may not know the games to play</p>
<p>SATs:
P and W are test optional, including for merit at P
GW: see above to get past the first cut, as well as GPA and rank
T: they are important</p>
<p>interviews:
P: non evaluative interviews if requested
W: he dissed his own Conn Coll interview which he said was a grill session, says W interviews are laid back (he was a year or two out of school)
GW: best way to show interest</p>
<p>what is the most important thing you want to share about your school:
W: connections curriculum, interdisciplinary
GW: location, he listed all the govt buildings adjacent to campus
T: international community, draws students from all over the world
P: balance between academics and social. Smallest Big East school</p>
<p>GW guy said best question he got in an interview was to name seven things you like about the school. He said most people can rattle off a prepared one or two, but asking for seven makes them think. W guy also said he was asked by student why student should come to this school.</p>
<p>All of the reps said they knew our school very well (independent day school) and kids from our school do well there, and know the rigor of the curriculum (which does not have a lot of APs) so it sounded like they might be willing to take that context into admissions decision. Many said they do not compare schools but do compare students within a school, including past applicants.</p>
<p>Keilexandra, congratulations! Was this your first time? Of course you don’t need to retake but I am going to be the voice of dissent here and will recommend that you <em>consider</em> taking the test again in the fall to boost your Math. Your subscore breakdown (two 800s and one 710) is perfect for a retake. A lot depends on whether your 710 is the result of effort and preparation or whether you got these scores without much prep. The math section lends itself very well to prep and SAT math is really in a class of its own for which it helps to look at prep books (like Gruber). The reason I say this is that if I remember correctly you may be looking for merit scholarships and some of those are driven by pure numbers. A 2360 might look better than a 2310 to them. Also, some schools don’t look at the writing subscore, which would work to your disadvantage.</p>
<p>My D had a similar situation after taking the SAT-1 last May, when she got 700CR, 780M, 770W. Since the only subscore she wanted to improve was CR, she didn’t really have to do any prep this time, her reading comprehension just improved with time as she continued to read more. Today she found out that she got a 790 in CR, giving her a superscore of 2340. She is very happy with this score, though she is aware that even a 2400 doesn’t really mean all that much at the super-reach schools she is aspiring to.</p>
<p>I should also note that the Wheaton in my report is the Wheaton in MA not the one in IL</p>
<p>Great scores vp and I agree with the merit angle suggestion to K. </p>
<p>Nothing to be lost with a retake, but you might want to send the scores now to any “we hate score choice and want all your scores” schools before a retake if there is a possibility of the 800s slipping. How do you stand with SAT IIs what have you taken and what do you plan to take?</p>
<p>I would also like to mention the discussion from last score release time, that of course people shouldn’t feel compelled to share their kids’ scores but they are nice to hear both for to give congratulations and encouragement. We all know that cc-land is not real life even though the parent area is closer.</p>
<p>^^ Thanks jackief for that admissions panel report, there were some helpful insights into the process there.</p>
<p>About posting scores, I remember that discussion too. I debated with myself today whether to post my D’s actual scores, but felt that it might be relevant in the context of K’s dilemma. I also feel that we are a supportive group on this thread and we are all trying to “love the kid on the couch”. </p>
<p>About the 800’s slipping, I actually think she should intentionally leave her CR and W sections blank if she does a retake and get 200’s. Then in the ‘essay’ portion, (which is available for adcoms to see), she could write in: “I am only taking this SAT for the math section. For reading and writing please see my March 2009 scores.”</p>
<p>My Jr. S received the following scores:
m- 720 r-710 w-780
His ECs I think are great (officer in 2 clubs, fall spring sports, newspaper, volunteer work, etc etc (basically no sleep)
3 APs jr year, 4 sr year
4.0++ GPA (don’t know exactly, but straight A/A+)
SAT II bio - 730; chem 790 and taking Math II and US this spring</p>
<p>This was 2nd take on SAT with more or less same scores. He seems to feel Dartmouth, Cornell or out of reach because of SAT scores. Reading some of the HS threads I’m starting to agree. My rational self says that the SATs are 1 statistic of a much larger profile and that the admittance team realizes that 720 means 1-2 wrong. His essays will be strong (excellent life-experience to write about)…should I encourage? discourage? HELP!!</p>
<p>I would encourage. I think those are great scores and I don’t agree at all with your son that Dartmouth and Cornell are out of reach. Check the mid-50 percentiles for the target schools and your school’s track record if Naviance is available.</p>
<p>thank you vicarious! My goal in this process is to remain calm and rational. Today I am not doing so well. I too think that his scores are great. I perhaps made a mistake reading those other threads…800, 800, 800 etc.
Regarding mid-points, if we are from a northeast suburb I’ve heard that he needs to be at the upper end of the range…again, feeding my insanity. (I’m hoping the range is truly a range for all concerned).</p>
<p>You can tell him what I told my D this morning: “Your scores will not get you in to these colleges but they won’t keep you out of them either”.</p>
<p>So many Animal House fans! Of course, Dean Wormer.</p>
<p>DB, sorry about the test scores. Did ds leave the test feeling tired or anything? I think the difference for my ds between taking it as a practice vs the real thing was that he never did an essay and the experimental section is missing. Maybe he just wasn’t prepared for the length of the test? Regardless, I wouldn’t cancel a visit based just on the one SAT.</p>
<p>I’m glad people post scores. I sometimes feel like everyone on here has superkids so to see scores that are in his range is comforting. Something I’ve noticed: Why do scores seem to be clustered in the 2100 range and 2300 range, but seldom in the 2200s?</p>
<p>ETA: Posted before I saw the 2200-range score above. :)</p>
<p>My oldest had a 2260. (Writing did him in every time. )</p>
<p>MGS, those scores are fine for the schools he’s looking at as long as his grades (and course load) are strong enough.</p>
<p>vp - your point about Keilexandra retaking for scholarships does make sense - and I like your suggestion about using the essay that way. I’m tempted to suggest that my D do something like that - only she needs to improve her CR rather than her math. </p>
<p>MGS - my D did an overnight at Cornell back in February, and she was surprised to hear that many, if not most, of the students she spoke to had lower SAT scores than her own (2230) which are similar to your son’s - so there is hope. </p>
<p>Jackief - thanks for posting that info from the Admissions Panel at your D’s h.s. Now you have me wondering whether either Dan or Matt was the guy that did our Tufts info session. I missed his name because we arrived a few minutes into the session. I can’t remember which area he was the AO for - but I know it wasn’t for LI - I would have remembered that. :)</p>
<p>Hey, we’re in the low range. 610 in Verbal – which is what you get if the only books you’ve read in 16 years are the Twilight series. But D got a whopping 740 in Math, so I’m hoping some schools like a girl with high math scores. Writing I guess isn’t that important, but she got a 690, for a total 2040. If she hadn’t blown her essay, she’d have cracked 700 which would have been nice.</p>
<p>See, there are some “real people” on CC.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/413821-sat-score-frequencies-freshman-class-sizes.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/413821-sat-score-frequencies-freshman-class-sizes.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks tokenadult for that link to put scores in perspective. </p>
<p>In your table(s), could you please remind me, is that composite single sitting score or superscore?</p>
<p>It’s what is reported in the SAT national report, which College Board says is the highest single-sitting score obtained by each student in that high school graduating class.</p>
<p>So perhaps that is the source of apparent discrepancy between what we hear and read on CC and what collegeboard reports? </p>
<p>My D would be 2280 on that chart but when colleges look at her (if you believe that they superscore) then she would be 2340. The 2340 would probably be how she would report her scores on a ‘chances’ or ‘decisions’ thread too.</p>
<p>I have a question. Do you think there is much value at attending a “Junior visit day” as opposed to a regular tour/info session day? D might be able to get out of a sports commitment on a Sat to attend a visit day. She would also have time to talk to a coach afterward 
but not attend a class. Other option is to visit on a no school Monday. This is a school with high demonstrated interest which requires an overnight stay. There is another school in the area which we could tour on our own (of course we wouldn’t contact any of our HS current students there! That would be too awkward!) but probably not hit any formal admissions stuff either way.</p>
<p>The visit day would include the normal tour/info session and also a panel. Lunch is also listed as part of it but I don’t know if they would interact at lunch. The only visit day we have attended so far was at a school D didn’t like, but I thought the workshops were valuable.</p>
<p>The good news for the morning is that DS’s SAT score started with a “2” and is already in the zone of at least some of the schools on his radar (in particular USC, which would be tuition free for him thanks to DH.) As expected due to the CR, the SAT score doesn’t match up nearly so well with the W and UW GPA, his ECs and his LOR from the AP Calc teacher so, at his own choosing, he will retake it again in May, the weekend before APs start in earnest.</p>
<p>This is a piece to the puzzle he can work on and now the path seems to be clearer as we get ready for our trip to NorCal schools later this week.</p>