<p>I know many schools claim that they don’t consider the writing score - but I always have this little nagging voice that says "They are getting the score, it is right there in the file, how can they completely ignore it? </p>
<p>Like with the girl that QM just mentioned - score says 1020… but the admin also sees that 700 - and even if they are trying to ignore it, it seems to me that it might be a little bump in the right direction. I know if I were an adcom, I’d be looking at her essays a little closer to evaluate her writing skills. </p>
<p>A long winded way of asking - do they really ignore writing - somehow blocking it out of their system? Or does it show up in the file and act as a little alarm bell either positive or negative?</p>
<p>When we were visiting Lafayette College, the Dean who spoke at our info session said they are looking at the writing section. I don’t believe I’ve read that on their website, but he said they’ve been reviewing their data, and the writing scores seem to reflect how well the students perform, and that they will likely start counting it in the near future. That definitely works to my D’s benefit, so I don’t have a problem with it. He also said that they’re more comfortable using the SAT score, but that they will accept the ACT and use a conversion chart to compare it to the SAT. Oh, and he also said that the transcript is the most important item in the application package, and either he or the guy at Lehigh said that if the transcript doesn’t show a rigorous courseload with grades they consider acceptable, they might not look any further.</p>
<p>scualum - like you, I have trouble believing that they ignore the writing scores, but the dean at Lafayette is the only one who I’ve heard say it.</p>
<p>LIMOM - Thanks for the info from Laf! We were planning to go to Junior Day yesterday but skipped it in favor of a track meet. (Good thing, too. D & S PR’d in all their events. And S pole vaulted at varsity height. Yippee! That elusive letter is finally within reach. )</p>
<p>Anywho…do you have anything else to share about Laf? We’ve rescheduled for this coming Saturday, May 2. (No need to answer here if you’re planning an official report in the visit section.)</p>
<p>DougBetsy, PM me if you need any more Laf info. I was just on campus Thursday, in the middle of D’s Tour de Colleges, and took S out to dinner. </p>
<p>Anyone else wondering about Lafayette can PM me as well. DH and I are alum, and S is a sophomore. Also, Justin (Candyman) in the Lafayette forum is an apparently inexhaustible font of information! I think he is graduating this year, though - a loss for anyone on CC in the future who is looking for current Lafayette info.</p>
<p>General info - Laf has gone ahead with part of their latest improvement campaign, despite the economy. There will be 8 more professors on campus next semester, the beginning of an effort to lower their student/faculty ratio from 11:1 to 9:1. (I kind of have to laugh, my D likes big schools and her top choices are all from 14:1 to 17:1. I can’t honestly see that 9:1 is that much of a difference over 11:1, but I guess that’s what I’m paying $49k/year for.) Not much other earth-shattering news, as far as I know. I think any new building plans have been slowed down, but not shelved entirely. They are trying to improve the area at the foot of the hill, when I was there this week they were in the middle of re-landscaping what had been a dirt parking lot, they put up a brick wall and some bushes - can’t tell yet if it’s going to be a park or a parking lot.</p>
<p>jackief, I am so sorry to hear about your cousin.</p>
<p>I too love to judge debate and speech. I’ve only gotten to judge debate once (as a sub) but I was in awe of the sheer amount of information those kids had packed into their heads and the depth of reasearch at their fingertips in the files. I would love to do it again, hopefully it will work out next fall.</p>
<p>I’m afraid I might get some rotten tomatoes thrown at me…but when do the essay prompts come out? (I’m ducking!)</p>
<p>So, Lafalum, while we were at Lafayette, we decided to drive around the entire outside of the campus, and I noticed a staircase that goes the entire way up on side of the hill - I was just wondering, have you ever climbed that staircase, and where on campus does it go?</p>
<p>Oh yes, I have climbed that staircase! It is not for the faint of heart! Its the shortest route from the campus to downtown. It comes out at the top between two dorms, Ruef and Keefe halls, behind South College. There’s a Civil War statue at the top of it, which looks down on the town of Easton. My son says he pities the Art majors, who have to use that staircase frequently to get to the Visual Arts building at the foot of the stairs (across the street at the base of the hill).</p>
<p>I think it’s a good thing that Lafayette has that CLIFF separating it from downtown Easton and Rte 22. The college is right in Easton, yet buffered from the sketchier areas of Easton and the highway by the cliff on 2 sides, and by the fieldhouse and football stadium on the third. The fourth side, along McCartney St, opens easily into the College Hill neighborhood for easy access to pizzarias and WaWa convenience store.</p>
<p>The admin officer at one of the uber reaches that S is considering said it’s highly likely their supplemental essay prompts will be the same for 2010 … so, oh horror, we downloaded it to take a casual look. What can I say? My S has major ECs in the fall and this place is the top of his list for EA so …</p>
<p>In two hours, we head downtown for the Harvard - Stanford - Penn - Duke - Georgetown college fair. I wonder what other kids we’ll see from our HS.</p>
<p>S gave me more info about his senior calculus team partner. Although denied from Stanford, she did get the nod from USC, Georgetown, Yale and Harvard. And yes, she’s said no to Harvard and is going to be a Yale Bulldog, in electrical engineering.</p>
<p>The reason we took that ride around the campus was that I had heard that part of Easton wasn’t that nice, and I wanted to see if that part was adjacent to campus. It was fine. Interesting that students have to use that staircase - WOW! It’s really something! We ate lunch at one of those pizza restaurants, and the food was really good.</p>
<p>On the subject of essays: My Stanford-going friend says that he loved writing the Stanford supplemental essays. And he’s a physics geek majoring in Computer Engineering, although he enjoys Dostoyevsky (which I now know how to spell only because I critiqued his research paper on CRIME AND PUNISHMENT). Stanford traditionally shuns applicants from our school, so I think the adcoms must have really liked his “personality” (early write, too).</p>
<p>As for me, I’m looking forward to Pomona’s supplemental essay–one of the two options is to write about what you do just for fun, and I can’t wait to expound on the intellectual pleasures of a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon).</p>
<p>Arrgh! Now we’ll be late to the College Fair because S is really rather clueless about the region’s geography and drive times, and managed to plop himself and friends a rather hefty drive time distance from our house, and then the fair. To do what? Attend some Magic Card festival. </p>
<p>Forget Stanford, Harvard et al. Let him apply to Compton Community College.</p>
<p>I think of all of the Ivies, MIT and the like as uber-reaches. Do others think as well or do you feel more confident in your child’s chances? </p>
<p>As you all know, we’re in Texas but I’m from the Northeast. Part of me would very much like to introduce the idea of Princeton to my son, who would most likely be applying as a Religious Studies major. But another part of me thinks that when 93 of every 100 kids who apply are not accepted, is it wise to steer a kid who does not have a 4.0 and whose EC list looks very thin compared to what I see on the Princeton boards?</p>
<p>I don’t know. More will be revealed, I suppose. </p>
<p>It sounds like Lafayette has the fittest visual art students in the nation! The campus sounds lovely, I’d like to see that cliff and staircase someday.</p>
<p>IMHO, any college that only shows the love to 7 out of 100 (or anywhere near that) is an uber reach. We don’t have a problem with S having a couple of these places on his list, as long as he’s realistic and has plenty of other more realistic options on his list.</p>
<p>By his realism about the situation, I mean on both the intellectual and emotional level since S has taken a class in probability and game theory!</p>
<p>Agree with you - D can, and will, apply to some of the uber-reach schools, but she absolutely has to apply to other schools with less competitive stats as well.</p>
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