<p>Oh Yeah… almost forgot, Brown is his dream school too. NO GRADES!!!</p>
<p>Lol, 5Boys, the next two years are going to be a wild ride.</p>
<p>DD won’t be signing up for courses until closer to summer, but I think she’s looking at something like this:</p>
<p>Honors Physics
Honors Precalculus
Indian Literature/Irish Literature
Indian History/Engineering
AP Latin 4
Art Portfolio</p>
<p>No AP sciences are offered until senior year, and the English and History departments don’t choose to offer AP’s. DD wanted to take Marine Biology, but it conflicted with the Indian Lit/History semester, which she’s really jazzed about.</p>
<p>Lots of interesting courses in there, which can’t hurt the old grades.</p>
<p>For all with subability test taker/high GPA kids, are there any test optional schools that are in the top 50 or so? From what I could tell from the test optional school’s threads, most of them are second/third tier schools. I don’t know that a high IQ/gifted student would be happy with the student body at one of those schools. It may be difficult for them to find “their people” there and thus a bad fit.</p>
<p>I don’t know how accurate this [url=<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional][b]list[/b][/url”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest]list[/url</a>] is, but though you’re right that most of the schools are not as highly ranked, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Bard, Mt. Holyoke, and a few others stuck out when I glanced at the list.</p>
<p>I think you’re dealing primarily with LAC’s, but highly regarded ones with great student bodies never-the-less.</p>
<p>Given our kids are only sophomores and if you are aiming for selective schools, don’t spend much time on test optional schools now. Our kids still have two years to improve their test scores! All 2400 kids started somewhere much lower, right?</p>
<p>seiclan, one test-optional that my D will consider is Franklin & Marshall (LAC #43). I believe Dickinson is also test-optional (LAC #46). </p>
<p>Wake Forest (Univ # 28) made headlines when it announced its test-optional policy.</p>
<p>And, for the record, I plan to make this the the last time I refer to USNews rankings. I’m one of those moms who preaches fit over rank. These schools just happen to be on my radar because they made it to '10 Son’s short list. :)</p>
<p>What my DS needs are grade optional schools, where you submit your SAT scores but you don’t have to submit grades:-)) LOL!!!</p>
<p>Angry Dad… My S is just beginning to think about his schedule for next year, we are going to a scheduling meeting on Monday night. It looks like he is going with something like this:</p>
<p>AP Bio
Ap Psych
Honors English( no Ap’s in English till Senior year, but this class is weighted)
either Ap LAtin IV or regular Latin IV… worried about him taking AP because he has had to work pretty hard to get a B and I don’t want to overload him with AP’s quite yet. Although will talk to the teacher about the different work load between the two.
Alg 2
Anatomy/Philsiology
Global issues</p>
<p>So Far this year he has managed to get mostly B’s and B+ and he is working on getting his Chem grade up this semester. His first quarter grades are always good but has a hard time holding on to them till the end of the semester. He is just so NOT detail oriented, so it always keeps him from that A. Thank God for his great test taking skills.</p>
<p>5boys, I think we have the same kid, high test scores, all Bs.
It’s amazing to me that D works as a Math tutor; goes to Math competitions; loves Math and still can’t get an A.</p>
<p>FWIW, Smith is also SAT optional.</p>
<p>Pullinghair… gotta love that screen name!!! It definitely describes what I’m doing every time the report cards come rolling in:-)) Yeah, My S almost 700 on the SAT verbal in 8th grade( Johns Hopkins CTY) and has yet to get an A in English… sound of me PULLING HAIR OUT.</p>
<p>5boys, do you really have 5 boys? If so, that’s so cool. And, which one is class of '12?</p>
<p>I am hoping maybe the first report card was a “test drive”. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>LOL 5boys! That’s what I kept saying all last year about D1 (class of 09)! Now with D2 we seem to have 2 pieces of the package - good grades and test scores, but unlike her sister, she has limited ECs (unless colleges start counting “hours spent on Facebook” :eek:)</p>
<p>re: test-optional - Pitzer is another good option.</p>
<p>Yes, I do unbelievably have 5 boys… my screen name is usually “stillalivewithfive”, and I wholeheartedly believe that!! My 2012 S is # 4 down the line. I also have a 27 year old who is out of college and loving working at Sony as a game designer… sometimes all those long hours in front of a computer with me nagging behind him about how he has NO life, actually pay off.I almost fell over when he told me what his salary is now with his new promotion… FYI, you get royalties on games that you help produce. My #2 S is still in college for computer engineering, #3 becoming a paramedic/fireman and #5 is in 8th grade. I LOVE all of my boys and they are all totally different in every way, except they all share brilliance mixed with slight to extreme ADHD.</p>
<p>PRJ… If you don’t mind me asking how was the college search process with your 09 D and where did she end up? It might give me hope:-))</p>
<p>5boys, I’m happy to answer and will try to keep it short. Given her lackluster grades (GPA = 3.7) and great test scores (NMSF), I had to let go of the schools that I had always thought would be perfect for her (Northwestern, Wash U, some of the most selective LACs) and instead she focused on schools that were less reachy - Pitzer, Tulane, Macalester, Clark, IU-Bloomington, American and Brandeis. She fell in love with Brandeis, was accepted ED, and is a very happy first-year student.</p>
<p>PRJ - Great when it all works out! I assume the 3.7 was weighted, because otherwise that looks far from lackluster! Even weighted it is only lackluster for those schools you mentioned she had to forego.</p>
<p>On the face of it, no, 3.7 doesn’t sound “lackluster.” But in her case, a 3.7 barely put her into the top 25% of her class, not the top 10% that selective colleges like to see. And the 3.7 started out much closer to a 4.0 her freshman year and then slid downward, due pretty much to lack of effort (like the time she “forgot” to study for an APUSH test). Not the demonstrated effort and upward grade trend colleges are looking for :(</p>
<p>But yes, it all turned out just fine and I am sleeping much better these days ;)</p>
<p>PRJ… Thanks for the positive info and congrats to you and your D for getting through it and that she is happy and you are still smiling. My S is still only a Soph, so don’t know how it will all play out in the end. His school is a top 50 private prep school and it looks a little more encouraging on it’s Naviance than I thought. Even if he ends up, like your D, with about 3.7-3.9W GPA I think he would still be competitive for some top LAC’s, although he likes and is looking at a wide range of selectivity. I was happy to see the results of Mac, because that school is on his radar. I feel like I’m about to embark on an arduous climb. I hope my S is as successful as your D. My S also has many amazing EC’s, so I guess it all will depend on how much effort he is willing to put in these next 2 years. I’m taking him to visit a few colleges up to the PNW this April hoping this will spark some kind of reason for him to study
more:-)) Here’s hoping!!!</p>
<p>Yesterday my D 2012 started receiving emails from schools. They all said it was based upon her psat scores. Are anyone else’s sons/daughters receiving emails? I didn’t realize that they gave out that information on the test.</p>
<p>Started yesterday for us, too. :-)</p>