<p>Hi everybody-- I’ve been away at a wedding and am back with a bit of a wider focus. D’s cousin was back from Italy with her husband and two lovely children, on leave from her wonderful job in Rome. She started with 2 years of community college, graduated from FSU, notorious party school, though she wasn’t a partier-- and I don’t know anyone who has a happier, more fulfilled life. I really believe our kids have the one essential ingredient for success-- parents who truly care. </p>
<p>Mspearl, JenPam-- we’re in the math boat too-- D’s CR score is almost perfect, Math 200 points below. She is dysgraphic-- all kinds of visual information is scrambled for her, geometry literally nauseating. She has managed B or B+ in math and science classes by dint of extreme effort and endless hours after school. I don’t think she’s going to try the SAT again–it really does give a true representation of her abilities as it is. Her GC will explain it honestly and we’ll see what happens. I worry too about her admissions chances-- anyone who interviewed her would accept her I think, but the numbers only tell one part of the story.</p>
<p>IJustDrive - My junior son has a lot of finals and end of year projects too, he’s just not stressing over it. As in this morning he couldn’t remember if he had a final in AP Stats today or if they’d already taken it, thought about it, and remembered that yes, they’d already taken it. He did work hours on a calculus project last night, going way above and beyond. I think 13 schools at this point in the game sounds great - I’m sure some will get booted from the final list.</p>
<p>Thanks MiOKC – I just don’t see how it gets any smaller. And I was surprised at one of the school that went away this weekend. The only way some get booted is after EA school(s) come back with decisions and Dad applies pressure. </p>
<p>To make things more complicated, my ILs are appearing this weekend (why?) in the middle of finals. And are leaving as the year winds down, but before any decompression can happen. Talk about kids at their worst. And my cleaner just quit. Sigh.</p>
<p>Oh, so much resonates in the above posts I won’t even try to pick 'em off one by one. DS is in a bit of panic mode with major final projects in every class on Thursday. Friday morning he’s off to quiz bowl national tournament in Atlanta (who schedules these things?!?), back on Sunday, and Tuesday he has his only two finals. That afternoon we get in the car for Toronto, where he’s catching the first of many flights to get him to the Arctic for his service project. And boom, he’s a senior - but I think he’ll be too busy to even notice!</p>
<p>And oh yeah, we get SATs back on Thursday too. DS is the opposite of some of yours - tests better than his grades would indicate, although his grades have trended up since 9th grade. An imbalance either way is tricky for admissions, I think.</p>
<p>Right now DS has 25 schools on his “official” list, but I looked at it yesterday and tried to figure out which ones he’s really probably going to apply to. There are 14 - seems like too many, but he’s looking for big merit aid, so I’m nervous about cutting any.</p>
<p>We are also having difficulty getting our daughter’s list of schools below 20. There are 3 reasons for this:</p>
<p>1) She is applying to a number of extremely competitive colleges.
2) We need financial aid and so we need to be able to compare actual financial aid offers.
3) She will be submitting a music supplement and it is difficult to predict where it might have the most impact.</p>
<p>So, it looks like she will be applying to a lot of schools (but hopefully less than 20).</p>
<p>The arctic, PghMom? Wow - that’s cool! My older S applied to 14 schools. I know some people roll their eyes at that, but hey - he really wanted to go out of state and really needed money to do it. My 2012 isn’t quite so picky about going out of state (although he’d prefer it), he’s got the stats for some automatic big scholarships (so we have a true financial saftey), and he wants to be able to take some grad courses as an undergrad (which rules out a lot of the really cool smaller schools that he might apply to otherwise). Because of all this, I don’t think his list will be as long. </p>
<p>It’s really not that much more work to apply to 14 schools instead of 6 - just more money in app fees and a few more “why this school” essays. And you have to juggle the FAFSA a little bit because you can only submit to 10 school at a time. It wasn’t hard - just had to copy the FASFA and then add your other schools. And then when you correct your estimated numbers once your taxes are done, you have to make sure to update both versions.</p>
<p>On Thursday we will be receiving daughters SAT Subject Test scores (US History and Literature) and are hoping that she scored well enough so that she can be completely finished with SAT testing. But, we are not sure exactly how high the scores need to be. She is considering some colleges that are extremely competitive (Ivy level) and we want to make sure that low scores on these tests will not hurt her admissions chances.</p>
<p>My thinking is as follows: Any score 750 or above is good enough. Any score below 700 is probably too low and the test should be repeated. The grey area for me is between 700 and 750 and I am not sure if scores between 700 and 750 are high enough. Anyone care to share their opinion?</p>
<p>If it helps at all, here are the percentile ranks for the various Subject Tests. It definitely looks like it varies with the test, although US History and Literature look like they’re about even.</p>
<p>Math Level II: score of 800 puts you in the 89th percentile???!??</p>
<p>Would someone explain this to me please? I mean, literally, can someone explain the math behind this (I’m obviously not taking the Math SATII :-)</p>
<p>DS is taking Lit and Math I in June; those percentiles look a little more sane…</p>
<p>Mutti – The percentile is low for an 800 on the Math II because the test is easy for a lot of the kids who take it. The problems just aren’t very difficult, or in the alternative, the problems are very straightforward. The curve is skewed because the test is required for the most respected programs in math and science-related areas. So the bottom third or so of the normal curve would be absent.</p>
<p>I agree that scores of 750-800 are about the same, and scores under 700 would be too low. After that, I think I’d consider what the rest of the record looks like. Can you make the argument that this test isn’t a good measure of the kids ability? (A “5” on the AP exam would go pretty far toward that, as would awards or honors in the area.) Can you use a different test, and not send this score? That’s the thought process I’d go through.</p>
<p>I think the percentile may have to do with the curve on the test. Math II allows you to get 800 with upto 8 questions omitted out of 50. So when someone gets your report, they can see that you got 48/50 for your 800 vs 42/50.</p>
<p>pamayawaa- About a friendly Texas school…I know Texas A&M is big, but it’s probably got the friendliest campus anywhere. My DD 2010 is a freshman and I went there, so naturally I am biased…but DD raves about inclusive it feels to be there, even though it’s big in size. So make sure you try to get her to visit. She may be surprised by it! </p>
<p>One more thing, A&M does offer matching for NMSF so get your full ride offers in hand and turn them in to the scholarship office to see what they can do. That is our plan for my DD 2012 who will be NMSF.</p>
<p>It’s great if our kids get high scores, and by all means help them get one. But, we parents should not overestimate the importance of test scores. Each kid is unique with his/her strengths. Highlight that for the schools that fit him/her well. If I were an adcom I’d admit a published author (e.g.) with <700 over someone with 800 and nothing else to show.</p>
<p>To all above who posted about applying to 14plus schools, thanks so much it makes me feel good knowing we aren’t the only ones. We have it narrowed to 20 right now, but hope to have it down to 12-14 before applying. We are hopeful to have many options.</p>
<p>Like some of the others who have posted above, while my daughter has been perfect or near perfect on the reading and writing portions of the SAT, she has struggled with the math portion. She first studied for and took the December 2011 SAT and would have been done but for her math score, which was about 200 points lower than her two other scores. She took the SAT again in March and was able to increase her math score by 110 points. Her math score is still a little low, as compared with her other scores, but we have decided that it is good enough and that she is done with the SAT I. </p>
<p>To improve her math score my daughter followed the advice of xiggi and silverturtle, who have threads in the SAT preparation section of CC. Generally speaking this involved taking the practice tests in a the blue book and then carefully reviewing each of the problems she got wrong to determine how to do them correctly. In my opinion the level of math questions on the SAT is not high and the questions are often times answered incorrectly because they are tricky in that they ask questions in a way that students are not familiar with. As a result, I think the best preparation is to practice taking the tests released by the college board. Although we bought another study guide or two, daughter ended up not using them and she also did not take any review courses.</p>
<p>For number of schools, we are currently at 14, but DS has already fallen in love with one and will be crushed if he doesn’t get the aid to go there. His stats are in the 75% so I don’t doubt his acceptance, and the auto merit aid is generous, but we will need a higher than average package to swing it, so we are casting our net wide. He has the stats for his in-state public merit aid, and he would be happy there (eventually), but for now every school on the list is compared to “the one”.
Oh that we could win the lottery.</p>
<p>As for test prep, once again DS has put little effort into it, and I fear that the June test will not result in significant improvements. He is fine in math, but struggles with the CR portion, and will not put in the work of flachcards. This summer may require a tutor if we don’t see marked improvment.</p>
<p>How is a subject score of less than 700 any different than getting a 700 or less in a SAT I area? They all have their uses of determining proficiency based on the different schools one applies to.<br>
A lot fewer people take the subject tests in sciences and Math II and so the curves are a bit generous. It means you have reached a certain level of proficiency to even get to 600 or more in a subject test and only elite programs require you to score a 750 or more for admission requirement (I was told the combined medical program at Northwestern needs over 750 in both Math II and Chemistry). However, I have been told that some colleges use SAT II score of 680 for waiving a class in that subject. I am not sure which college but if you did 4 years of language, scored 680 or take the prescreen test, you can waive out of language requirement.</p>