<p>Regarding sibling scores - my S2 (freshmen in high school) is intelligent but not quite as motivated as S1. When he saw S1’s composite score of 33 he responded with “now I have something to shoot for”. Hopefully that competitiveness will help him start to push himself a little more. He has always been a straight “A” student without studying but had a little wake up call the first semester of high school where it looks like he will end up just missing a A in Honors English. He dug himself a hole early in the semester but did bring the grade up to just missing the A. It’s probably the best thing that could have happened to him ~ he now realizes he has to study to earn an A.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all of your sons and daughters on their outstanding ACT scores. I still can’t believe S1 scored so well especially after his random bubbling of the last 7 science questions. He is taking SAT in January and ACT again in February (already registered so he figured what the heck). Hopefully that will be the end of his standardized test days until he applies to grad school or takes the CPA.</p>
<p>Bengalmom, My SIL went to the University of Georgia and she has never had trouble getting a well-paying job, even with all the mergers in the retail pharm industry. </p>
<p>ag54, S2 is behind a high-performing sib and it is SO gratifying when they accomplsih something that is truly all their own and no sib’s prior glory can taint it.</p>
<p>My nieces and nephews are in different school systems around the country, so the lack of info out there is pretty widespread. Even S2’s GF and other friends are unaware of some of the things they need to do, and they are in a full IB program at a top-ranked school. I was the lucky beneficiary of info from parents whose kids were a year or two ahead of S1, and we have tried to pass it on to the next crop of students. </p>
<p>The premise among counselors and parents seems to be that if the kids are going to state schools, they don’t need to jump through all these hoops. But, as I told my oldest niece, it’s the kids who are savvy about what tests to take and know how to present themselves, etc. that who will benefit from the goodies that are available at state schools. Putting together a good application is not just for Ivy wannabes. My nieces are both in Georgia and the pressure to take the HOPE money is overwhelming – so I see my job as helping to boost their confidence and finding them the best fit and placement possible. I didn’t have anyone to mentor me when I was in HS, and I am disturbed at the lack of confidence I’m seeing in them about their futures.</p>
<p>In the interest of decreasing parental (and consequently children’s) anxieties, I would like to propose that we all try to avoid posting our kids’ exact scores here, at least during this interim period when some of our kids have not yet completed taking (and retaking) all their exams. I mean we could always say something like “S got an awesome score”, or “D wasn’t too happy with her score and will retake”, to convey what they mean for our kids. Later, when our kids are working on their applications in the fall, we may need (or want) to post exact stats to provide a more complete picture of our kids to each other. </p>
<p>This is just a suggestion. What do you all think?</p>
<p>Now you are giving me cover for not posting my son’s scores. He, personally, thinks that his scores are but one small and rather unimportant aspect of who he is.</p>
<p>CountingDown, thanks for the recommendation of Univ. of Georgia, I will pass it on.</p>
<p>GCs at our public HS have relatively little experience with any OOS schools, public or private because <em>extremely</em> few students go out of state. I have learned the details of applying to selective college as best I can, through college application books, internet research, and of course, CC. We have never asked S’s (and D’s) GC for college help, except for the letter of recommendation. D never even heard about SAT IIs from the high school. I am glad I have had the time and interest to fill in the gaps.</p>
<p>As a senior in high school, I’m sort of disgusted by this thread (although I only read the first few pages) – where the parents are more worried than the kids about SAT scores. If my parents were pushing me to study for SAT’s or AP’s, I wouldn’t have done as well. Hate me or disregard my post, but I’ve SEEN this with my own peers, and I KNOW that those who take prep courses over the summer instead of having a VACATION filled with fun and/or a job/internship (new experiences!!), do WORSE when it comes down to success in school and even on tests. </p>
<p>yes, I really am happy for her and it is within all the mean ranges and near the top of some of some of the schools she is interested in. We have lost access to the school guest naviance account, but when we get her own account or when I get the guest access back, we will also see that she is in very good shape for many of these schools.</p>
<p>She asked what kids on here had gotten, she saw some of the posts in the act threads where kids were also killed by the science. </p>
<p>And I am happy for everyone here and would never wish less for others! Happy homework finishing everyone!</p>
<p>For pharmacy- kids from this area go to URI (Rhode Island) which has a very good rep.</p>
<p>rb3, Trust me, neither of my kids have (and won’t be) taking test prep courses. S2 wants to get a job, do weightlifting for football, hang out w/his girlfriend, start on college essays and get his IB Extended Essay finished. His goal is to be done with standardized testing (except for senior year IB and AP exams) by June.</p>
<p>Bengalmom, my nieces and nephews didn’t know about SAT-IIs, either. PSAT registration info was released at the last minute, if at all.</p>
<p>rb3, what you might not understand is that I’ve spent more time talking to people on cc about scores than I have talking with my son about them. The main conversation we’ve had about scores is that they are in his hands and that he needs good scores if he wants to go to a LAC so that he can earn a scholarship. My son hasn’t taken any prep courses, spending his summers working, volunteering, playing video games, at camp, whatever. </p>
<p>I don’t disregard your post at all, but if you’ve only read the first few of 109 pages, then I think you’ve gotten a very small picture of what happens on this thread.</p>
<p>And FWIW, my son likes that I come on here and have access to so many smart people who can help us with any number of things, from his Eagle project to movie recommendations.</p>
<p>just read the few recent replies about posting or not their kids’ scores. I think people should feel free to do whichever, not to have pressure to post if they choose not to, that is perfectly fine. And I hope my comments don’t cause people to feel bad about posting excellent scores, it is their right and I am happy to see how well others’ kids have done. I have posted my D’s scores, I am not ashamed of them, and if I have feelings related to any of these, that is my issue to deal with. I think it is useful if people wish to share as they talk about college choices etc to get the deeper picture with the stats/ecs/etc shared. </p>
<p>I also am happy for this community in which discuss this phase in their lives, I don’t dwell on them as much with her, as youdon’tsay said, i want to keep her perspective where it should be and have my own skewed obsession shared here under anonymity!</p>
<p>So really either way I think people should do what they want. We all know cc is skewed massively from the world as a whole and in most cases from the world of our own communities.</p>
<p>Bengalmom,
I don’t see a compelling reason to go the private school route for pharmacy; the state schools seem to do a good job of it, and the internships are often paid. My SIL was able to graduate without loans and go easily and directly to a job w/very nice salary. She supervises pharmacy student interns and they are uniformly from state schools.</p>
<p>Perhaps the only exception would be if someone wanted to go into PhD research, and even then, I’d save the big name school for graduate work.</p>
<p>Agree w/youdon’tsay. CC helps me filter out what’s admission hysteria from really solid advice, and lets me be a better sounding board for my kids. They have even expressed appreciation on occasion for some of the suggestions and golden nuggets I’ve gleaned here.</p>
<p>S2 will make his own college list and write his own essays. I’m just trying to anticipate roadblocks. :)</p>
<p>rb3, I can’t speak for the rest of the parents, but by “talking” about college prep here, I don’t have to be in my son’s face with it IRL. I can just leave him alone. </p>
<p>Or, like today, stuff I learned on CC helped me help him. Together we came to the conclusion that he will drop out of the Jan SAT subject tests. He merely tolerates math and did mediocre on the practice tests. So, he’s off the hook for Math I and II on the 24th. Over and done. No pushing or stress here. </p>
<p>Stop jumping to conclusions, kid. Please. We’re not a bunch of whip-cracking helicopters around here.</p>
<p>I don’t care if people don’t want to post scores, but I’m always interested. I don’t remember any of them for very long, but exact scores sometimes can help put things in context. I think I’ve done a mix of both, depending on the circumstances. (Speaking as a Mom of a kid whose youngest had two scores in the 500s as a sophomore, but was in commended range as a junior.)</p>
<p>The vision of a squadron of whip-cracking helicopters will just bring nightmares to these kids who have to return to school tomorrow. My school board friend (whose twins are now in grad school) cracked me up when she asked if my S is getting grumpy because it’s back to school tomorrow, since hers reacted that way. (Wonder what they think now that they are at Stanford.)</p>
<p>My S put the finishing touches on his big APUSH research paper this morning*, complete with endnotes & bibliography. Did I mention he’s a really really great kid? :)</p>
<p>wow mommusic that is great! I will through in one gloat about my D. Even though she was just finishing her APUSH today (and didn’t do the extra credit to my sadness) she finished a physics lab and passed it in before break, even though it was posponed until after break with all the snow days etc.</p>
<p>She emailed her crew coach and found out there is no conflict for the day of the Apr ACT. She still was thinking she would like to take in Feb also, but I nixed that since the closest sites are an hour away. She can use that time studying for Apr or most likely sleeping in. Apr and possibly June should be enough. I am going to mail that answer request thing tomorrow and see how long it takes to get that back.</p>
<p>For the last few days my D has been working hard on the 5 essays she has to turn in for her application to the TASP summer program. I was fully expecting her to put them off until the last few days before the Jan 23rd deadline, but she has surprised me. It will have been worth the trouble even if (as is most likely) she doesn’t get accepted to TASP- she should be able to recycle the essays for college apps in the fall.</p>
). People can always PM if they really want to know/tell a score.</p>