<p>Walker: You have me DYING over here in the OC…LMAO!!!</p>
<p>I have a stupid question, prompted by the pouting over not having Naviance & having to make do with Cappex. Do high schools get notified directly by colleges to their students application results? i.e. does Princeton High school get a list from each college saying Susie Smith: accepted; Bobby Jones: waitlisted; Alice Walker: rejected</p>
<p>or are results self reported to the high school GC’s by the students? If so, couldn’t Naviance be inconclusive as well since students might only report their acceptances either because of ego or lack of follow up?</p>
<p>RobD - no, the acceptances are self-reported.</p>
<p>We also do not have Naviance.</p>
<p>In addition to Cappex, we are also looking at Parchment. It is self reported, not sure how reliable, but any data point is helpful to us at this stage. </p>
<p>SHOWING INTEREST
I was also told. if you are happy with your standardized scores, sending them now before the “app season” shows interest. For many schools, this helps to create a file for the student. Depending on school/scores, it can also generate some of those “priority apps” with limited essays/no fees.</p>
<p>Re: Cappex and Parchment - is it possible to use it without registering?</p>
<p>I saw Kelowna’s request for help in compiling a list for her S and I think she is getting some good responses. However, for those kids with less compelling stats, does one start by limiting the match list to being within the middle 50% stats (test scores) and define safety as being well into the 75%? If we do this, most of the schools D has on her list become iffy matches (she is nearer the bottom of the stats). I guess I would prefer more refined quantiles to decide if her choices are really matches or reachy matches. Do you know what I mean?</p>
<p>Is there a way to search by SAT scores on a website that don’t include the writing sections (many schools seem to disregard this score or place it at a lower level)? BTW we are an IB/AP school and seem to have a well populated naviancestats for the top 20 unis and public/private schools in VA, PA and NC so pm me if you want me to look up some stats…</p>
<p>fineartsmajormom: i thought navience has an option to select 1600 Scale too.
Is that you were asking?</p>
<p>Walker - hahahaha! Love it. I have a dental appointment on Thursday and I’m hoping I will still have all my teeth. :(</p>
<p>Thanks for the Lafayette suggestions - she went, she visited, she didn’t like how small it was. Sigh. </p>
<p>We have naviance, so if anyone wants me to look up a school, I can give you an idea. We are a middle of the road, good but not spectacular HS. It might give you an idea. </p>
<p>MomofNEA- SUNYs are our safties too. I really like Binghamton for my DD. If she doesn’t get merit aid or we don’t qualify for financial aid with 2 in college, she will go there! </p>
<p>Fineartsmom - you’ve looked at the common data set, right? Google common data {insert college name here} and look at C8, C9 and C10, I believe. Very eye opening and that should tell you where your DD fits in to a particular school. Also, there are two kinds of safties: academic and financial. No school is a safety if you can’t afford to pay for it! So, “saftey” means a school you are in the top 75%, with a high admit rate and you can afford. The best way to get merit aid is to pick schools that your scores put you in the top 75% across the board and even higher. So a kid with 600s across the board can still get merit aid, but at less competative schools, like the CTCL schools or schools in the 100s in the rankings.</p>
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<p>I’ve always tended to be quite conservative on what I call a match and what I call a safety, mostly to guard against unrealistic expectations that could easily be dashed come decision time. I’d never count a school a safety for either of my Ds unless her test scores were 75th percentile or higher, unweighted GPA above the school’s average GPA, and the school has a 40%-plus admit rate. If test scores and unweighted GPA are above average for the school, I’d count it as a match if the admit rate is above 40%, and a high match if the admit rate is in the 25-40% range; if admit rate is below 25% I tend to count it as a low reach or reach regardless of where test scores and GPA fall, because at that level of selectivity the selection process becomes really quirky and unpredictable.</p>
<p>So, for example, I’m counting Mt. Holyoke as a safety for my 31 ACT, 3.8 UW D2 because the school’s middle 50% ACT is 27-31 (average 29), average GPA is 3.7, and RD admit rate is 52.6%. On the other hand, I’d count Oberlin a match for ED (middle 50% ACT 28-32, with an average ACT of 30; average GPA 3.6; ED admit rate 61.1%) and a “high match” for RD (because despite the same stats, the RD admit rate is only 32.7%). </p>
<p>My latest thinking on this: one thing all these schools are concerned about (whether or not they admit it) is their US News ranking. If you examine how the US News ranking is actually constructed, it appears that only average SAT/ACT scores (not middle 50%) and class rank (percent of entering class in HS top 10%) matter to the ranking. So as long as you’re above their average test scores, and in the top 10% of your HS class (if it ranks), you help them; if not, you hurt them. On the other hand, even higher lest scores and GPAs can help them in other ways–it affects their published middle 50%, thus bragging rights and perceived selectivity. So if you’re above 75% in everything, you’re golden. If you’re above their average, you help them. If you’re middle 50% but below average, you probably hurt them a little, and that’s got to hurt your chances—depending, of course, on how selective they can afford to be, which is reflected in their admit rate. Of course someone needs to be in the bottom half of the class, but I’ve always just assumed a lot of those slots are filled by recruited athletes, URMs, and others who help them in other ways (not that all athletes and URMs are in the bottom half, just that it’s much easier to get one of those bottom-half slots if you’re “hooked” than if you’re not). And besides, I’m not sure aiming for the bottom half of the class is where you want to be, anyway.</p>
<p>Nice thing about this stage is there’s still time to edge those test scores up a bit in the fall, which might lead to recalculating reaches, matches, and safeties.</p>
<p>D has been watching back-to-back SpongeBob episodes since we got back from the gym this morning, and S13 has been alternating between video games and Facebook. He actually watched some TV yesterday its nice to see him vegetating for a bit. </p>
<p>Speaking of teeth :D, I still need to make an appointment for S13 to get his wisdom teeth out this summer. </p>
<p>Essays A few of the rolling admission schools dont have admissions essays, but the honors college apps for those schools do. S13 told me this year that one of his friends had a prompt that said explain unicorns. Im pretty sure he said U of M. Im so glad that he has this summer program where there is a class dedicated to admissions essays Im sure they wont let them choose clichéd topics. He has a couple ideas, plus he has all the stuff he did this year for summer apps. He has the diversity one down! As tough as admissions are right now, I think these kids have to take advantage of every opportunity to show a different side of them that would help them stand out from the pack. Even if a school is a common app school, I would plan on doing the supplemental essay even if its optional. I pretty much expect that he’ll be writing essays all fall/winter long.</p>
<p>Megp wow, now thats a unique topic! Was she successful with her apps? I dont know about Mt. Vernon, but Johns Hopkins is in a pretty scary looking neighborhood. Lots of kids seem to love it though.</p>
<p>Tx5athome thats terrible but true! Lol</p>
<p>Anniezz I had to look up Earlham (Ive only heard of it since being on CC) I didnt realize how close to the OH border it is. I look forward to hearing about your trip youll probably be visiting all the LACs in OH Ive never been to.</p>
<p>Dadotwoboys If the financials work for you, your S should apply to all the lottery schools hes interested in, IMO. Clark Scholars is tougher to get into than any of those schools Im betting whatever they saw in him, at least a couple of those top schools will see as well. Plus, hell have Clark on his resume!</p>
<p>bclintonk, thanks for sharing your strategy. With S’12 H and I didn’t really consider the impact on the college of his SAT scores and GPA, we just checked to make sure that they were reasonable. I hope that we can put all that we’ve learned to good use with D’13!</p>
<p>@bclintonk:</p>
<p>I would be a little hesitant describing an elite school (acceptance rates below 30%?) as a match/ safety, even if the applicant’s SAT and GPA/ class rank was close to the top 25% at those schools.</p>
<p>I agree with perazziman. Sad story at our HS this year. Everyone scratching their heads asking how this happened. Salitorian, top scores, top everything, applied only to “matches” that were really lottery schools and one, hometown saftey. Yep, he’s going to the saftey. He will be fine, but this is a kid who should have cast a bit of a wider net and certainly reached farther down than top 15 in the rankings.</p>
<p>Started looking more closely at different options today. I am finding that a lot of “very selective” schools have very restricted admissions. Lots of SCEA and ED.
I think we will avoid those. I will definitely encourage him to apply early to all EA schools on his list, but there are not that many.</p>
<p>Geogirl - similar story here. This kid was not salutatorian but definitely top student. HUGE learning experience for my S (close friend with the mentioned student.)</p>
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<p>I think that makes a lot of sense. thanks</p>
<p>Walker - LMAO!!! You are too funny. </p>
<p>To answer the ‘list’ question someone posed, Step-D has 16-17 on the list right now, and of those has visited 5 on the ‘official’ tour and 1 on a drive by. After this summer, she will have stepped foot on all of their campuses (only one without a tour.) She has taken 2 off of the list that she felt weren’t for her (Hofstra and Loyola Marymount) so we are making progress! lol </p>
<p>I’ve seen parents/kids do things both ways (visit before applying or visit after.) Since we don’t anticipate having the time to visit after acceptances come in, we are taking advantage of the time we do have with her this summer (especially since we live in different states!) Also, with as competitive as admission is getting (even top students are getting waitlisted by what should be their safeties!) H and I felt that allowing Step-D to have a ‘personal experience’ of each campus, in order to convey that in her essays to these places was very important. We want these adcoms to know that she was THERE and she knows what she means when she writes “I would love to attend the University of X”
Some of you may remember that about 3 weeks ago I shared that H and I have paid an outrageous sum of money to have Step-D tutored for the ACT. So far the results…she did worse on the latest practice test than she did on the actual test in April!!! banging…head…slowly…on…desk… Somebody better open up that closet, basement, backyard or whatever because I am SURE I need a DRINK!!!</p>
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<p>Laurendog - LMAO!!! YOU are too funny!</p>
<p>^^^^^^^ Lol thanks Vitrac. I try to see the funny…otherwise I’d have to lose it and be committed to a mental institution. ;)</p>
<p>laurendog, how frustrating! But perhaps the practice test was like the Barron’s tests for the SAT and was harder than the actual test. I actually preferred it when my kids did a Barron’s test (I think that Princeton is harder, too) before the SAT because it kept them from becoming complacent. The actual would seem a pleasant surprise in comparison (well, perhaps not all 3 hours of it!). I’m feeling pretty frazzled right now, though and I’ll join you in that drink!</p>
<p>How can this be??? Yesterday we were 97 and today we’re at 47??? Only in Utah!!!</p>