<p>Thanks a lot folks. Appreciate the comments. She is planning on trying to improve her SAT in Oct and is taking her ACT for the first time in the next 2 weeks.</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement. I think she is a real math/science kid but just hasnt taken the right science at the right time and wastn told to take it right after the classes…so, she’s left with math…we’ll see how it goes! 500’s in the humanities, but 700 in math…there’s gotta be a school that understands that…(her grades are fine…it’s the testing…)</p>
<p>Hi Everyone-</p>
<p>Hope you are all enjoying a restful Memorial Day weekend. Ds is pretty much studying with some time out for basketball, as he has 2.5 weeks to go, with full semester exams in all classes. </p>
<p>Sorry for the long post ahead of time, but I was looking for some advice from fellow parents concerning his schedule. DS is very much a language arts kid, excels in his English and history classes, and does well in science and math due to hard work, but it doesn’t come as easily to him and he does not like those subjects at all. He doesn’t know what he wants to major in, but has shown interest in business, political science, English, economics (I don’t think he knows how much math is involved in econ yet). </p>
<p>Anyway, his first choice school, and one that he may consider applying ED to is Claremont McKenna. It seems like a school that was made especially for him, except that the darned admission rate was 12.5% this past year. He also has a nice list of other schools that are less difficult to get into, so this is his one super reach. He has a high GPA, and his one ACT test is within their 50%, probably around the 40%. He has also been involved in quite a few leadership activities, which is important for that school.</p>
<p>For AP’s, so far he has taken Euro, APush, Comp, Calc AB (highest level at his school), and finished Japanese 5 (same level as AP Japanese), and next year he is signed up to take AP lit, AP Gov, AP Statistics, and AP Physics, along with Honors econ (no AP offered), Christian Leadership (tons of work) and his one year art requirement (so glad he saved this for Senior year). He absolutely does not want to take an AP science class, and has no interest in any of the AP subjects offered (Bio, Chem, Physics B), and is dreading it, but is afraid that it will negatively impact his application to CMC. I would prefer that he take astronomy, an area of science he actually has had an interest in (he read a Neal Degrasse Tyson book a few years ago), and the class is quite a bit easier. In the past he took Honors physical science, honors biology and honors chemistry, and received A’s in all.</p>
<p>He will be student body president next year, which is a very busy, time-consuming position, plus he plays basketball year-round. </p>
<p>Are any of you wrestling with this? Has the arms race gotten so bad that students who apply to the top 10 or 20 LAC’S or universities are expected to take AP classes in every academic area even if they have no interest in that area? I have heard so many different answers about this, and I know that nobody really knows, but I am just wondering if some of you out there are dealing with this, and what your advice may be. </p>
<p>I hesitate to put this on other forums, as I find some of the advice there to be really harsh, but you guys are in the trenches, also, and this seems like such a great group. As to DS, I think he could handle it, but it would be similar to this year, jumping through so many difficult hoops, staying up so late every night, etc. I don’t want him to have a miserable senior year; changing this class may take a little of the load off, but we are so confused as to how much of a difference this would actually make.</p>
<p>wrldtravlr–none of the colleges expect AP classes for each and every class a student takes. His schedule is plenty rigorous for admissions everywhere. There is also the concern about GPA, although that won’t make a difference next year as applications are due in before any real marking periods. Keep in mind that there are kids that take no AP classes because their schools don’t offer them yet they get into top schools too. He will be just fine-or as fine as all the other applicants. Concentrate on something that will make him stand out besides GPA, test scores and “normal” EC’s like a WOW essay, etc.</p>
<p>wrldtravlr: let him take the class he wants. My feeling (and I know it’s not universally shared here on CC!) is that if by not taking AP Physics (or insert any other 1 particular class here) because he’s dreading it, and that’s what keeps him from getting in, then it really isn’t the right place for him anyway. </p>
<p>Now if you were saying he wanted to go to MIT for Brain & Cognitive Science and had only taken honors science classes when AP sciences were available, that would be a different story.</p>
<p>In a less stressful decision, a night out with friends led D to decide to change her senior math from AP Stat to honors calculus (this is karma’s way of saying hahahaha you said your kids don’t take calc in HS!) It’s less an issue of subject than with instructor and she’d like to avoid another year of unnecessary drama. Now to email the GC to make sure we can make it happen…</p>
<p>Welcome tsubram, your daughter sounds wonderful! If she can get the SAT up a bit, or do well on the ACT, she is definitely in range. I’ve been told that 2100 is the “magic number” that puts you where you need to be, but there are definitely kids with your DD’s scores who get in, so don’t write it off, but know that these schools are basically lottery schools with such low admissions rates. As others have said, if that’s what she wants, go for it, just have some other back up schools that are safer bets.</p>
<p>drmom, I’d check with some of the schools that D is interested in - I’ve seen that some schools want specific tests, or specific categories of tests. DD is adamant that she doesn’t want to take SAT2s because math is the only subject she feels confident about. This is going to affect her list of schools a bit, but she says that’s fine. I wish she’d keep her options open a bit. We still have until October I guess, so she may change her mind over the summer.</p>
<p>wrldtravlr, we’ve been told by adcoms that they don’t expect every kid to take APs for every class. Didn’t you say your son is taking AP Physics? I think that would be a great question for your S to email his admissions counselor about, to get a dialogue going. It sounds to me like your S has a challenging schedule ahead.</p>
<p>I don’t know, I’m probably not the best parent to answer this - with DS, I felt like if he didn’t do everything perfectly, there were plenty of kids out there who did. But I realized in the end, that he had to be who he was, and that by doing so, he ended up where he was supposed to. DD is such a different kid, and I know that with her, she is going to be fine, so I actually discouraged her from taking too difficult a schedule, knowing that she would be miserable. I have a similar worry though, because she doesn’t want to take another year of a foreign language, and I think she should. I don’t know what the better approach is, or if there is one.</p>
<p>wrldtravlr, if this were mine, I wouldn’t let him take AP Physics.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the quick responses…you guys are wonderful and have validated what I have been thinking; I just really needed to hear it again instead of neurotically spinning about it. Unfortunately, when he asked his guidance counselor about taking astronomy vs. AP physics, he said, what if you take astronomy instead of AP physics, and don’t get into CMC, will you always regret it? Pretty heavy for a junior. So DS signed up for AP Physics against my advice.</p>
<p>I like what all of you have said in so many words; if it makes a difference, it isn’t where he should be, anyway, and he should just be himself. This will be my new mantra while drinking margaritas! Out of the 15 or so different schools we have visited in the past 3 years, I thought 2 or 3 of the less selective schools would be a great fit, also. Luckily, the most selective schools did not seem like good fits at all, except for CMC.</p>
<p>anniezz- how is your daughter’s recovery from the concussion?</p>
<p>Wrldtravlr, she’s fine, thanks. We think she may not have really had one, or if she did, it was mild. The trainer did the impact test friday and it was fine. They’ll do an endurance test tomorrow and if that is ok, she’ll be clear to play.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC</p>
<p>wrldtravelr, in the 2011-12 Common Data Set, CMC’s ED admission rate was 33%, so if you can swing it financially, then it’s the way to go. </p>
<p>tsu, I wouldn’t say that the 2080 is “nowhere close” for an Ivy, but, obviously, it would be better if she could get that score up. What is the CR/M/W breakdown?</p>
<p>Hello, everyone! I haven’t been able to check in since Wednesday! A very busy few days and it took a long time to catch up - I’m afraid that I just skimmed some posts, sorry!</p>
<p>Anniezz, I was so sorry to hear about your D. I’m glad that the impact test shows that she’s fine. I hope that she is cleared to play.</p>
<p>perrazziman, so frustrating about the AP Chem test and the formulae, I hope that his mark will not be to badly affected.</p>
<p>Megpmom, I hope that your son did well and you both had a great time in Chicago!</p>
<p>Welcome to Professionalmom, Tootiredtocare, and tsubram!</p>
<p>terinzak, so sorry to hear your son’s best friend is moving away. </p>
<p>D’13 raised her SAT score in all areas but she would like to take it again. With performances for the musical during the two weeks prior to the test and late into the night before she feels she can do better. Congratulations to all who did well, or are just happy it’s over! She will be doing the Chem SATII next week.</p>
<p>S’12 had his graduation ceremony on Wednesday and looked very debonair until he put on the black gown! I was very sorry for the girls because even those with the trimmest figures looked as if they were wearing sacks! Oh well! At our hs we don’t rank, we do come up with ‘valedictorians’ for the grad ceremony, though. Those who want to can enter a speech competition and the seniors vote on the best speeches. All the seniors can then contribute words that MUST be used in the speech. It made for an interesting speech on the night! We had to hurry home right afterwards, however, because we had to catch the 7am ferry the next morning. </p>
<p>We got up at roughly 4:30 Thursday morning, hurried over to the school with the van that we had rented the day before at 5:30 and headed off to the ferry loaded with teens and baggage. The coach had to wait for the final person who was nearly 20 minutes late. The Provincials for the tennis team went quite well - we placed 6th, the best in the school’s history - but we would have done better if they hadn’t scheduled the grad banquet right in the middle of the tournament! We lost all but three of our seniors (and one went back Thursday evening) which meant that we really didn’t have the depth necessary and one girl too few. We had to default 2 games against every school that we played from Friday on so I think that we did pretty well considering. Tennis wasn’t the only sport affected, I gather that Track and Field suffered as well as their meet was scheduled for the same period. Obviously no one on the grad council plays those sports! We spent a lot of time in malls when we weren’t playing tennis and certainly all the adults were very tired of Metrotown Mall by the time the tournament was over! To be fair, I think that the girls spent more time in the Apple Store uploading funny pictures to their facebook pages than shopping!</p>
<p>Those darn scores!!welcome newbies…I think the score stuff is a bit obsessive this time of year because almost everyone’s kid is taking the ACT or SAT in June…a few lucky ones are one and done, but most kids see improvement after each test, even if it is just a little. My D is downstairs right now on this holiday weekend with a tutor reviewing a practice SAT she took at home yesterday. The results of tutoring for D have been nothing short of miraculous…particularly in Math. D has always been in honors math but she is a linear thinker and not good at seeing the “tricks” on the SAT. She did very well on a practice ACT math but hated the science section so she decided to stick with the SAT. </p>
<p>She is finishing up honors Precalc but even as a good math student she did mediocre on the PSAt and somewhat improved on her first SAT. Although she has solid scores on her first SAT she is aiming high (not IVY but our best in-state schools are very difficult to get into with scores below 2000) so she is putting a lot of pressure on herself to improve. The tutor has been great because they go over missed questions together and she is really seeing the “tricks” which seems to be the difference between a 600 and a 700+. While I am impressed with my D’s dedication, frankly her improvement is a real condemnation of the meaning of this silly test.</p>
<p>I also believe that they generally end up where they should be and there are lots of good choices for college. However, having scores that they feel is similar to their academic peers is helpful for the ego even if we tell them and they tell themselves it is just a silly test. But, it isn’t so silly, sadly. A higher score can make the difference between state flagship and OOS LAC or second tier in-state. We don’t talk about it but I see the push for a few extra points a pretty good financial investment. I am sure she will be fine wherever she lands but there is no harm in pushing for an improvement on the tests as long as she knows to stop when she has done her best and then focus on the things she has more control over…essays and grades.</p>
<p>fineartsmajormom, it’s interesting that it does come down to the ‘tricks’, isn’t it! In my D’s case, I do think that sleep deprivation was an issue, though. Initially, the musical was scheduled to finish the week before so although her study time might not have increased dramatically she would have got her usual 9 hours of sleep the night before rather than just 7! We did find with my S’12 that the Subject tests were more straightforward and probably measured the knowledge better than the reasoning test. Is you D planning to take any? I do think that the tutor is a good idea, especially when going over the missed questions. D’13 has found her older brother a valuable resource for explanations so we haven’t had to get one. She will certainly miss him next year. We don’t do any kind of SAT courses/review in our public schools here (or ACT, for that matter), so there is a bit of a learning curve.</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay: M=720, W=670, CR=640</p>
<p>anniezz: thanks for your note. Yes, we just talked and I told my D. the same. She is as usual stating sigh!! what is new, study more I guess. Sort of feel for her and other kids who are just banging their heads to get SAT/ACT scores, school finals, etc. out of the way. In my D. case it does not end there as she is immediately starting her NIH SIP internship on June 11th. So, got to get her packing for it. I guess it is the necessary evil of parenting and sometime in the future, I will have fond memories of all this stuff. BTW, anyone has kids going for internships in this forum this summer?</p>
<p>We are thrilled with my daughter’s ACT score. Her GPA is good - she takes honors and AP classes and earning mostly As. As of now - she’s interested in pre-health/medical/biology type majors. I have seen several posts about some southern schools offering very good scholarships (Alabama, Auburn, etc).<br>
We are in the mid-west. She really like Rhodes in Memphis, and also liked Vanderbilt (although not as much as Rhodes). She initially wanted a small LAC in a bigger town, but now I think in addition to the smaller schools, she is also open to some larger ones like U of I Chicago, Loyola, Tulane…
She’s also mentioned she would like to apply to a school or two in England. Other than distance - are there academic reasons why that would not be a good idea? Or is it a good idea for someone who wants a good education and wanderlust?
For some reason she is completely “off” of Washington U or St. Louis U - probably because I’ve mentioned it more than once or twice (!)
My question is - do schools get notified of high ACT schools and then they pursue those students if they want, or is this something we talk to Financial Aid about after she submits her applications?<br>
The bottom line is if she is offered scholarships to schools that are a fairly good fit - that’s where she may need to go. With her career aspirations - she has a lot of school ahead of her - and if she can get her undergrad paid for with minimal debit - that would be the goal.
Any advice for the ‘next step’ as far as scholarship research goes based on her ACT score?</p>
<p>Hi everybody! DD is officially a senior & we are in summer mode. We are watching Duets again tonight. DDhas friends from the 4H singing group that auditioned. She is in the group but not old enough to audition. Jennifer Nettles was in the group whe</p>
<p>blueslipper, congrats to your daughter on her ACT! </p>
<p>Rhodes would be a great school for her with her interests. I’ve been really impressed with them, and students get lots of opportunities for internships in memphis. DD, unfortunately, is so far not interested.</p>
<p>For scholarships, there’s a good thread here about merit aid that should look at. Check out the scholarships etc. via the school’s financial aid offices - some will require an on-campus visit before applying, some after, some not at all. Often the deadlines for scholarships are earlier than the application deadlines.</p>
<p>If your D wants a health-related field, a UK education may not be the best fit because the requirements are very different. If she wants to pursue it, she’d need to do lots of research into how transferable her degree would be…</p>
<p>Welcome Blueslipper! A 33 is great. Most merit aid becomes available when your students test scores fall above the 75% for a given school’s enrolled students. For example, University of Alabama has an ACT middle range for composite score (25-75%) from 22-29. Your daughter’s 33 puts her well above the 75%; plus UA has very well defined out of state scholarships based on test scores & GPA. With her 33 & a gpa over 3.5 she qualifies for the Presidential scholarship which covers full tuition. Disclaimer: my D1 is at UA on the full National Merit Scholarship.</p>
<p>Compare that to Vanderbilt. Their 25-75% for ACT composite scores is 33-35. Your D falls on the low end of that, so merit aid might not be a possibility and with an admission rate of around 16% it’s a “lottery school.” However, they have a no loans need based policy so if admitted then all need based aid will be in the form of grants & work study. No loans.</p>
<p>I love Rhodes. Our HS sends a few top students there each year. D2 won’t look there 
Curmudgeon, a long time poster here on CC, had a D there and I believe she is now at Yale Medical School.</p>
<p>You also need to separate out need based aid from merit based aid. Have you run the FAFSA to see what your family’s income says your Expected Financial Contribution (EFC) should be? It’s usually either a shocking or hilarious number 
</p>
<p>Depending on whether or not she checked the box to be included in a student search service by the ACT, she may start getting mail because of her scores. Or she might not. There’s a lot of legwork you can do to help her find the merit money.</p>
<p>blueslipper–pop in on the pre-med boards here and look at the advice there from various med school review board members, etc. They all recommend going to the school where she is most likely to get the highest GPA. She was right on track with the smaller LAC. Not only is she looking at having great opportunities to shine, she is also looking at some serious Merit Aid for high GPA and high ACT. </p>
<p>Midwest I would consider Creighton and Truman. Both have extremely high placement rates into their own medical schools along with others around the nation as well. Most of the LAC in MN and WI would also be good options. A couple of those schools have close to 100% placement rates into med schools. This is a time where she wants to be a big fish in a small pond type deal. Focus on schools where her 33 will be at the top end of the acceptance pool.</p>
<p>Her main goal for UG should be to get out of UG debt free because med school is expensive.</p>
<p>I agree that England will not be the best option for a med school candidate. She can do a study abroad in England (or elsewhere) if she wants.</p>