<p>YDS: WOW!!! Great score (hopefully) for the BC Cal AP!! Will knock on wood for you ;)</p>
<p>Thanks, MD. I’m very superstitious! His brother made a 5 on the AP after making a B in the class, so ds2 is hoping for the same result.</p>
<p>Hi, I started reading this thread a few days ago, and thought it would be a good one to join, as DS is trying to stay afloat in the crazy end-of-junior-year. He just took AP Calc AB, and didn’t sound very happy afterward, though that may just be from having to do 3.5 hours of calc. Symbolic reasoning is definitely not his strength, and he seems to have inherited from me the slow seepage of anything mathematical as soon as it is learned, so studying for a years worth of calc is a challenge. He has APUSH on Friday and then AP Comp next Wednesday, which are more his strengths, so it shouldn’t be as bad. I think the difficult thing for us, and other school districts that start and end late, is that they have to cram all of the AP info into a much shorter time than other school districts. They are still getting lectures in APUSH, no time for in-class review. I am not sure why College Board doesn’t have 2 sets of tests, one in May, one in June; it would seem more fair. </p>
<p>DS had some ‘prama’ also, but it all worked out, and he is now attending 3 different proms with 2 different girls 3 Saturdays in a row. He made plans with a girl attending another high school who is more of a friend (I think, boys don’t go into much detail about this sort of thing) to go to each other’s prom, and then the “Senior Girl Of His Dreams” broke up with her boyfriend, and hinted through friends that she would like to go to the prom with DS <em>DS making Edvard Munch The Scream face</em>. Somehow they worked it out and are going to the prom “kind of with each other” at a different high school than either attend, but both have friends at, this Saturday. I don’t know how they accomplished this or how he found the executive function skills to pull this off when he can’t even remember to bring his lunch to school half the time, but I guess motivation helps. I wanted to add that JC Penney has very cheap tuxes, $65 if I remember correctly, if anyone is still looking, much better than renting for 3 proms.</p>
<p>We visited a bunch of schools in Southern California Spring Break; Occidental, USC, Loyola Marymount, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, and Chapman. Let me know if you want more info on them from our perspective. </p>
<p>Anyway, glad to find fellow 2013 travelers!</p>
<p>wrldt, I am impressed with your ds. I love this line: " I don’t know how … he found the executive function skills to pull this off when he can’t even remember to bring his lunch to school half the time." 
Hoping he does better than he thinks on the test!</p>
<p>MDMOM: S3 has a first round match today. I think it could go either way. Track Division 3 SS prelims are at held S3’s school. I don’t think any guys from our team made it to CIF, but 2 or 3 girls did. We have a speedster in the 100 and 200, so it will be interesting to see if she advances.</p>
<p>YDS - try this site for FA policies. It’s a tad outdated but a starting point. [Project</a> on Student Debt: Financial Aid Pledges](<a href=“http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php]Project”>http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php)</p>
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<p>The big schools and the highly competitive schools don’t care about “demonstrated interest”. They have applications such that they are either unable (due to volume) or have no need (because most of their applicants are very interested) to care about this detail. The schools that might care are those that are small to middle-sized and competitive, but to a lesser degree. These schools will try to offer their spots to applicants whom they judge to be more motivated to attend, both improving their yields and their school climates. To assist in this judgment they will track the contacts of applicants (visits, emails, etc.) and give slight preferences to applicants who have shown a history of interest in the school over those who have not. For example, of the schools I mentioned, Kalamazoo and Valpo probably give some consideration of interest to decide close cases among their applicants. Simply making a registered visit will mean something to them. (Thus, when you do visit such schools it is well to make sure they have a record of it either by preregistration or signing in on arrival.)</p>
<p>I don’t know if sending in test scores early is regarded as demonstrated interest (of course any applicant will eventually have to send in scores) but you can be sure that some admissions management company has done data mining to determine if it is indeed correlated with higher yield. However I doubt NU, UM, and MSU will care when he sent his ACT as long as it is timely (but will care about what he sent!)</p>
<p>Frankly his scores are strong enough that he is in a “slot” in which the schools for which demonstrated interest might matter are those for which his admission will be more certain regardless of his demonstrated interest and the schools for which admission is more questionable will be those who don’t care about demonstrated interest. I won’t claim this is universally true but I would suggest not fretting too much about this factor.</p>
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Scores can be sent when testing occurs in order to take advantage of the “free” sends that these tests offer. It is my experience that schools have no trouble keeping track of scores juniors send them even if they come months before applying. (I don’t know this to be true for sophomores or freshmen). However, when it is fairly likely that the scores of subsequent testings will also need to be sent to the same schools, the cost savings could be negligible. It is also perfectly acceptable to wait until target schools are known before sending scores, although this can mean some additional cost. The only “must” is to get the scores to the school in the time frames they specify.</p>
<p>Jazzii - You can register now but don’t input anything until the 2012-2013 application is up unless it’s just for practice. Nothing in this current one will be saved when they uplaod the new one.</p>
<p>reeinaz - thanks for finding this. I saw this a while back and couldn’t find it again.</p>
<p>AP Calculus test today. S came home and when I asked how the test went he said that he would be taking Calculus in college.</p>
<p>We are right in the thick of tests and performances. D13 just found out she has an audition tomorrow so she is drinking Throat Coat & getting ready. All in the middle of projects & AP tests! She decided to wait to take the SAT again until we see the May scores. Does anyone know if there is a master list of schools that require SAT II s? We seem to be running out of time and this whole college journey is just starting!</p>
<p>socialdramamama, we just checked admissions for each of the colleges that S12 and D13 were interested in for the requirements. For S12 they were recommended for two, not necessary for two and required for all the others. For D13 it will be fairly similar.</p>
<p>Btw, what is Throat Coat?</p>
<p>mommaof5–are you familiar with how the Ivy’s base their tuition rates? They sound like a great option for you–but as lottery schools, hard to know if he will get in or not.</p>
<p>TX5: Jrs school is Div3 so it looks like we will be visiting your school on Sat 
We have about 35+/- athletes competing on Sat, which will make for a long day.
Good luck and keep us posted on how the Tennis Match went :)</p>
<p>I agree…what is “Throat Coat”??</p>
<p>My DD13a thought the AP Calc MC was on the hard side but said she beasted the open response. She thinks she got a 4or 5 depending on the curve. I sure hope so. On to APUSH… DD13b had a practice test today and got a 5 so I think we are in good shape!</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone on Friday!</p>
<p>You guys are awesome! I have gotten more real answers here than anywhere else I have looked.</p>
<p>RobD: Great info, it looks like the two NM schools he was most interested in are guarantee schools, so good not to waste the opportunity on them.</p>
<p>Descartesz: I am already suggesting to S the schools you mentioned.</p>
<p>SteveMa: S got a letter from Yale stating that they give full tuition to families who earn $65,000 or less. We are not in that category. Besides that I don’t know much about their tuition except the sticker price on USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>earthmother65: thanks for the tip on acronym definitions, I was so confused by DD/DS :)</p>
<p>Walker - S said Calculus open response was easy but the multiple choice was really hard.</p>
<p>S13 thought Calc BC wasn’t too bad, but was surprised how many questions were on series. I have no recollection of what that means. Smile and nod ;)</p>
<p>He’s taking Stats as his math next year. That I know how to do. I’ll be helpful again after several years.</p>
<p>mommaof5: I’ve taken a quick look at the MI PSAT data. Looks like the cutoff was 210 for this years graduating class & 209 in the 3 years before that. The “209” years had a national 99% of 212; the “210” year had a national 99% of 214. This years 99% is 211, which leads to the widespread belief that state cutoffs will drop, especially since we now know that the commended score is 200 for the graduating class of 2013. I took a look at the CR, M & W scores for the MI PSATs and the # of kids in the two top tiers (75-80 & 70-74) have dropped in all three categories from the October 2010 test to the October 2011 test. Which bolsters the argument that the MI state cutoff should drop. If your S has a 210+, I’d feel pretty good about NMSF; I’d be almost calm with a 209. Caveat: I am just a mom with no inside information 
I just like to crunch #'s. Good luck to your S.</p>
<p>Glad to hear so many of your kids think they did well on the AP Calc test. DS is praying for a divine intervention of a 4. He said today that it was a good thing he didn’t want to be a civil engineer, because if it took calculus knowledge to build a bridge there would be blood on his hands when it collapsed. He is taking stats next year, also; hope it is easier for him compared to calc, as it was for me. </p>
<p>Wishing your S’s and D’s good thoughts for the rest of the AP/IB tests.</p>