<p>Wow, I completely forgot about the application essays and then forgot that not all students present their own work in those essays.</p>
<p>About the writing portion on the ACT / SAT. The Emory adcom said they look at everything including the essays and a low score would send up a red flag if a student had great essays on the application. He also said that one way they figure out if a student wrote his own essay is to compare the actual essays on the application to the activites, etc sections on the app. where the student had to write a sentence or two. There was a parent in the meeting who specifically asked how they would know if a student wrote his own essays.</p>
<p>Reeinaz_-We have looked at Stetson but D was not really interested, other than having Pet dorms she didn’t have a favorable opinion. In some ways it is very comparable to Rollins College but the campus lacks charm that Rollins has and their open house was not as well organized as Rollins. I also think right now Stetson is very focused on their new football program so it seemed at the open house they were busy wooing the soon to be players.</p>
<p>Also I saw you mentioned your S’s writing score, D did not do so well either, her technical writing skills are awesome but getting info on paper is hard for her, she needs to learn the art of BS. D got a 34 reading, 33 English but a 29 English/Writing.</p>
<p>Momofboston- Thanks I will look at both, we are of the opinion that attending a school were D will be among the top is just fine, no problem with attending a safety. While D really likes a few of the schools on her list when you ask her she will say the bottom line, financially speaking, is what matters. So she is very open to suggestions.</p>
<p>MommyDearest- I am glad someone understands the rank thing; D was supposed to be class of ’14 and gave up likely VAL to be in the class of ’13. When the switch was made in Jan, she was 2.5 credits behind most JRS and went from #1 to #7, now she will only be 1 credit behind and only took one UW class this semester so it will be interesting. Not sure where she will be, but even if by next Dec she is #1 she won’t have the title of VAL.
We have considered U of Hawaii as we have spent considerable time there as a family and I lived there for a short time during HS, but it is so costly to fly there now and the travel time makes it unappealing. It would eliminate the ability to come home for a long weekend if she so desired.</p>
<p>BerneseMtn- I will look into UCSD, thanks for the tip.</p>
<p>Classring- D decided she did not want one because the one she did want was almost 1K and she did not think it was worth it. I felt bad and looked at surprising her but when I priced it the way I would order it was almost the same price and so I decided D was right.</p>
<p>Letter jacket- D has her Academic letter and we were going to purchase her a jacket but they just aren’t common here, plus you’re lucky if you can where it an entire month in Fl….she opted against it too. D does where my little brothers (’92) letter jacket in the winter….he was a XXL offensive/defensive line football player, she is an XS, it is a very funny sight!</p>
<p>Senior pictures- D will do the cap and gown photos this summer through her school and I have bought 3 different photo sessions with local photographers through groupon. One is studio and the others are on location, all include photo rights and I think I have spent a $150 total. I expect to spend less than $100 on prints, way cheaper than calling and booking a “senior” portrait session.</p>
<p>Yearbook- I am so looking forward to putting together her senior pages in the back of her yr book :)</p>
<p>Busy AM!!!</p>
<p>TX5: Congrats on the Tennis results and good luck to your S on the Election!!</p>
<p>Marching Bands: Is USC not an option? I know that they are the most “recorded” band in the history of the NCAA. I saw them preform with Fleetwood Mac and they were AMAZING!!</p>
<p>Back to Jackets: Advice, once you pay the large portion for the initial jacket, find a local tailor or dry cleaner to add on the rest of your patches. (Which is what I have done since I can barely sew on a button.)</p>
<p>U of Miami comes up quite a bit on this thread. Has anyone toured the school? What were your thoughts? Not sure is sending my child to live in South Beach for 4 years is a good plan or not. But I know my H would sure be happy about it ;)</p>
<p>Oh!! Almost forgot…ACT+Writing: Jr rec’d this in the mail on Monday. The comments were pretty funny I must say and described his writing style to a T!!!</p>
<p>Yds, yeah, sadly I think that’s true about essays. :(</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC</p>
<p>I really don’t think it happens THAT often, but if I were an adcom and saw a great essay with a disproportionately low writing score, it would just make me go, Hmmmmmmmm.</p>
<p>MDMom1314- We toured Miami last Fall, D- really liked it and so did I. The downside is you can not have a car as a Freshman, we live within 4hrs and so that kinda stinks. They do have zip car service but D will only be 17 her fr. yr.so she can’t use it. Their Academics are pretty strong.</p>
<p>LOVING all the great questions, info and advice the past few weeks!</p>
<p>ACT essay… Is there any way to see the scored essay online? If not, do you later get the scored essay in the mail? Didn’t realize seeing the comments was a possibility.</p>
<p>Longx3: Thanks for the info the “The U” as my S calls it. We are already going to South Beach in July before our family trip to Jamaica, so we may need to save a day for a tour :)</p>
<p>MumTo3: Jr was able to see his full essay score on line. And then rec’d his full report on Monday in the mail with the scores and comments.</p>
<p>Been following the thread for a couple of days without input as I am home with a nasty sinus infection. So there is too much to catch up with other than to say congrats to those who have had good things happen and good luck to the tennis players (did I see baseball too?).</p>
<p>No class ring or jacket here. Turns out S13 didn’t even bother showing us information for either when it came home. Besides, as Longsx3 points out, he has little use for it here in FL. </p>
<p>NHS - it doesn’t seem that hard to get into at S13s HS. He got in as a sophomore and I I couldn’t even guess how many kids are members by now - hundreds. Beta is tougher and they run the tutoring program. The subject honor societies open avenues to competitions and other activities - which is more fun (and gives more to write about on college apps). Another one requires 6 semesters of 4.0 UW GPA - that’s harder to do. But the top honor society is one unique to the school. It works on a point system (grades, leadership, school competitions, plays/music participation, etc.) and very few kids get in. My understanding is that it is pointed out in college LORs from GC as the highest honor a student at this HS can receive.</p>
<p>People we encounter here seem pretty aware of how difficult it is to get into a top 25 school (they seem less aware of the cost and financial issues). Several kids from S13s HS are going to top schools, but I think few here would look sideways if S13 went to one of the state schools (particularly UF, where it has become increasingly difficult to get in).</p>
<p>OK - that took too much out of me and took too long to write. Sorry If I rambled.</p>
<p>MDMOM1314, are you referring to the writing score related to the April 14th sitting? Did you have to pay something to get that?</p>
<p>Longsx, I would really like my D to investigate Miami. We are visiting Tulane the last week of May. Let’s see how that goes.</p>
<p>Donivrian–Did you get your question answered about letters? Here, students get a letter (the first letter of their school’s name) the first time they are on a sports team; that is why some people say that they “lettered in volleyball” or whatever sport it is. They also get a little symbol of that sport (say, a volleyball) to stick onto the letter. I think that ours are like tie-tacks. My daughter had 11. If you don’t have a letter jacket or a letter sweater, you can frame it if you want. My D propped hers on a shelf on her desk.</p>
<p>BerneseMtn–yes, people are talking about the ACT writing score from April 14. My son’s was available on April 30, at the same time he got his multiple choice scores. I am almost sure it costs more to take the ACT with writing than without writing.</p>
<p>I think what she was asking about, which I wondered too, was that MDMOM was able to read the comments on the essay and received teh written report.</p>
<p>Schokolade, that is fast! I know about paying for writing, I was wondering about the commentary about the writing that came in the mail to MDMom posting above. Anyway, the tests are coming so fast here that I don’t know if D could process any feedback at this point. </p>
<p>Oh, yes, and I forgot to explain the letters. At our school, you might get a smaller letter for Frosh/soph or JV, then only get the larger letter for Varsity. The academic letter is for two semesters with a weighted 4.0, then you get little bars for each semester with 4.0 following that. It is like a small piece of carpet cut into the shape of the first letter of the name of your high school, with a little bit of felt on the back. It is sort of raised, so it adds a three-d dimension to the letter jacket.</p>
<p>Bern–I’m sorry–I didn’t understand your question the first time. </p>
<p>My son received comments with his score. We didn’t pay extra to get the comments. This is what his comments were:
</p>
<p>I went back and read what MCMOM wrote; I think she must have received something more in-depth.</p>
<p>schokolade: Thanks for the explanation on letters. I didn’t know what you guys were talking about it. Not heard of it at all in my S’s school. Or it may be that my S could be completely oblivious to such things going on around him.
Since none of us has gone to school here in US, we too don’t know much of the traditions here.</p>
<p>I would have been living in a complete lala land if I didn’t see cc…
Thanks BerneseMtn: i just saw your post appearing as I type. This thread is too fast to catch up…</p>
<p>My S also needs to learn the Art of BS as someone put it! His essays are grammatically correct, just lackluster. </p>
<p>Longsx3 Travel costs from here are outrageous, so wed never consider it, but I wasnt sure where youre located. </p>
<p>MumTo3 You dont see the actual essay, just the score with a few comments. I mistakenly thought that they sent a copy of the actual essay with the $18 test booklet, but they just sent the book and a printout of the correct answer and Ss answer for the multiple choice. </p>
<p>DONIVRIAN Are you in the U.S.? LOL Think of movies/shows at high schools where all the football players are wearing the same jacket or google letterman jacket. If the student earns a varsity letter they literally give them a big wool/felt letter to be stitched on the jacket its usually the first letter of the school name like a big M for McKinley on Glee. Since there wouldnt be enough room on the jacket if you got letters for all four years, or for multiple sports, then the school gives a pin or patch for subsequent letters.</p>
<p>Regarding the ACT essay, I had skimmed the comments we saw online, thinking they were canned comments related to his score, similar to what we see on standardized state testing here. Now that I look more closely, they must be individualized.</p>
<p>My son’s said: “Your essay showed recognition of the complexity of the issue by partially evaluating its implications. Your essay was well organized, making it easy to understand logical relationships among ideas.”</p>
<p>Maybe each of the two scorers gives one sentence of feedback? And the first sentence seems specific to his essay, as my son said he ran out of time to fully expand on the ideas he had started.</p>
<p>MommyDearest13: lol!!! I feel like a complete idiot now…and I did google the letter jacket after I posted the question here…and now I know every thing about them!!
My S plays varsity Volleyball for last three years…I have never heard of this from him at all…Just surpirsed now! As we moved to this new town when my S got to 9th grade, we didn’t have a whole lot of aquintance/friends here. But now I know a whole bunch of parents my S is friends with. But it took almost two years to get familiar with the place and people.</p>