<p>Haystack- why won’t not taking the tests work out in the end? good question. I think because everyone is taking the tests and where she goes to school, not taking them would be “awkward” (the word of the year). She wants to go to college (I think) and in order to go to college, you have to take these tests…so I’m told. Would it be great, to write a college essay to all these schools (name any of them) and say “take me, without the tests”. What a fresh idea. Any schools out there?</p>
<p>There are a number of schools that are test optional including some good ones like Bates College and Bowdoin College.</p>
<p>Also, lots of schools only require the SAT or ACT with no subject tests.</p>
<p>Here is the list of schools.</p>
<p>[SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest)</p>
<p>Drmom - Nope. She doesn’t “have” to take the tests. There are test optional schools.
[SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest)</p>
<p>Xposted with Haystack. Great minds eh? :D</p>
<p>RobD- she attends a large public HS, her GPA (at the moment) is 3.8 unweighted and a 4.18 weighted (or something like that-our scale goes to a 4.5 I think). She took the SAT’s once, CR 670, W 710 M 710. She wants to take them again, but her anxiety and stress is just keeping her from studying and even committing to a test date. I think the scores are just fine, but many people around here are saying “get over a 700 in everything”. Of course, this includes the SAT II’s which she tried to take last weekend, but didnt study for and was so stressed…so, we’ll see how those turned out (she did Math I and American History). She wants to go to small LAC’s but does not want to go too far from home, and also not where ‘everyone else’ from her school is looking…Her GPA is going to go down a bit by the end of the year because she overbooked herself in classes (all honors/AP/no study hall/not even a lunch period!—all against our advice…but the school allows it) and she has outside activites (as many kids do) that eats up lots of her time and she won’t let some go because she says she needs it. anyway, I am running out of steam/patience and ideas as to how to make all this seem “fun”…</p>
<p>DD received her goal score on the Illinois ACT, but the state didn’t allow for writing. She will take one more time in June and then she is done. Worst case she will combine one of her older tests with her application.</p>
<p>Now just 3 more AP test and summer starts for her.</p>
<p>Welcome, Drmom, our school goes right to the end of June, too. In some ways I’m glad for a little more time!</p>
<p>I’ve just started a huge project at work with a bit of a time crunch, so although I have taken short breaks on CC I haven’t posted much. My thoughts are with all those taking AP/IB tests!</p>
<p>I’ll look into the Test Optional schools. I know Bowdoin is supposed to be beautiful. the trick is getting up to visit them, right? I hear you have to visit the LAC’s to show them you are interested…
thanks Rienazz and Haystack. great minds do think alike!</p>
<p>I would recommend you look at the Colleges That Change Lives website. Your D could get in any of those schools with no more testing. Also, look at Bates and Colby as they should be within reach as is.</p>
<p>Is the Colleges that Change Lives website an actual separate website or is it something on CC?</p>
<p>Colleges That Change Lives is a non-profit organization that grew out of a book of the same name by Loren Pope.</p>
<p>[Colleges</a> That Change Lives | Changing Lives, One Student at a Time](<a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/]Colleges”>http://www.ctcl.org/)</p>
<p>Mom24boys-thank you! I’ll take a look. It would be nice to have some “target” schools that may take the pressure off her.</p>
<p>If your daughter is worried about prestige and howthey look to friends, look at the higher ranked CTCL schools.</p>
<p>Whitman, Centre, Denison, ???, not sure of how most ‘rank’ as per US News.</p>
<p>DRmom123-A while back, I saw the lights dimming very low in my child’s eyes, one that loves learning more than anything. I was so stressed out and my heart was so heavy. She picked too many hard classes, got sick and was spiraling out of control, as was I. I really thought I needed a therapist! Not kidding! I had to have my husband step in and help her keep calm, she tries to make me feel better instead of taking care of herself when I am stressed out for her. He bought a white board with days of the week and put class names and activities down the side and filled in the whole week of commitments. They broke it down class by class and the stress decreased. We also made her go to her tennis for stress release. She is in the trenches right now with the whole junior class!</p>
<p>Any questions you have some of these awesome posters are amazing sources and you would not be the only one with a glass of wine next to the monitor when things are hairy! (:</p>
<p>wherenext: I think you have nailed it. She said tonight “I just hate school there is no fun in all this.” and yes, she did have a great time learning up until, maybe middle of last year. This year has just been too much. But, we have about 7 weeks more…I keep telling her that…but I hate to see her so unhappy; it also makes it hard to tell her why go to college, since she “hates” school now (I know, she will love college…she’s just not in a frame to listen now)
Haystack: I think at the moment, she is confusing “what my friends will think” with what is best for her;so you are right in suggesting we also look at the upper end schools on the CTCL list. I think/hope that if she just finds one or two that she can actually get into and “like a lot”…it would turn around a lot of her attitude. So far, she feels she is supposed to want the Ivies etc (funny, we looked at a couple and she said “I wish I liked them more…” she can’t really see herself going to them…but she holds them up as the “one to get”…which of course adds to her stress. (and mine) i think I’m looking for that wine now…</p>
<p>Drmom: a 690 CR and a 710 M both fall at the 94% of test takers. She’s done great! Maybe not Ivy league great, but if she doesn’t want to go far from home, that’s probably not an issue. She’s already taken the test, so you don’t have to worry about test optional schools, unless she’s really interested in those schools. Solid GPA. </p>
<p>So if she doesn’t want to take the test again, she in fine shape for a lot of schools. She doesn’t have to be on the hamster wheel just because everyone else is. Does she have any schools that she’s interested in?</p>
<p>Drmom: D1 was a National Merit Finalist and while she had a list of schools she was happy to apply to, about October of senior year she came home a little fretful. When could she take the SAT II’s next? I told her then asked why. She’d been getting some commentary from classmates about not applying “higher” and was considering applying to Yale. So we talked things through & she realized that if she applied to Yale and if she got in, that she’d still want to go to one of the lower ranked schools anyway. It was more of a “well, let me try & see.” So she dropped it, applied where she wanted & just finished her 2nd year still happy about where she chose. </p>
<p>Junior year is a gut buster. For pretty much all of our kiddos. D2 is past it, but we’re down to 2 weeks left. The end of the 3rd quarter/beginning of 4th is tough.</p>
<p>RobD- I think her scores and GPA is fine. Yes, she has thought she should go to an IVY school, but separate from her scores etc, she really has not found a school she just loves. She seemed to like Brown,Wesleyan and Haverford, which are both very difficult to get into. She needs to find some schools she can actually get into and also like! Of course, as a mom, I hate to see her disappointed. I think that’s where my own worries are coming from. I think she’d have a good chance at schools in the midwest, if she was willing to travel.</p>
<p>RobD–Yeah, it is not me who is putting the stress of what schools to apply to. I will be happy if she just finds one. Yes, this Junior year is awful. And the kids feed on each other’s anxiety. I think she just has to figure out a way to say “I am okay the way I am and I will be okay no matter what i do” but I can’t make her think that. I know she will be okay, and I will be okay…it’s the getting through it…that’s the thing.<br>
thanks for all the advice. I will sleep on it! she is a great kid with lots of wonderful things to give…just, after Junior year!</p>
<p>Hi Checking in! S3 has been working on the third production of the year for drama, it is a sketch comedy type show written by the kids themselves. Today he was very disappointed because they didn’t pick any of the his sketches and he only has parts in 5 of the 20 sketches that they are going to do. Evidently the three student “head writers” put themselves in all the sketches so a lot of the other kids are upset. This is my first time as a “drama mom” and I don’t care for the rejection part of it. The mama bear in me does not like to see her cub upset. So not only is he missing key studying time at practice, but also his sister’s college graduation. So pass the wine, I need a glass, or two…</p>
<p>Wow, y’all were rocking this evening! </p>
<p>Ds and I went to two different college receptions tonight, and I think we’re going to revamp his whole strategy. It’ll be more work on his part, but I think he’s going to like having lots of choices at the end (she says, optimistically).</p>
<p>Welcome, drmom. Did you say where you live, so we can find places close enough to you? I’m sorry she’s stressed. Is she getting exercise? How 'bout you? 
The key is to come here and stress so that you don’t do it in front of her. Easier said than done, I know.</p>
<p>Ds is “totally pumped” about BC Cal in the morning. He cracks me up. 
Good luck to all of tomorrow’s test-takers!</p>