<p>Thanks our2girls and SteveMA! I will have definitely have to take a look at my applications, then. </p>
<p>Just wanted to say an overall thanks as well since this forum has helped me a lot through this process! I’m hoping to apply to my schools soon and I’m always excited to see so much UA support on here as the honors college is one of my favorite options at the moment!</p>
<p>Kelly - check with your counselor at school to see if you qualify for official fee waivers. The Common App will let you submit the application by selecting the other fee waiver option but there’s no guarantee the school will evaluate the application if no fee waiver actually comes.</p>
<p>I only had my dd take the SAT once. She scored a 1070 on the Math/Reading and a 1550 overall.</p>
<p>Not great, but 100 points increase wouldn’t really up her chances for much scholarship money at the privates she’s applying to and her GPA isn’t high enough to get merit at the state schools. So we left well enough alone.</p>
<p>sometimes, with all this testing, you really wonder what and who benefits!</p>
<p>Hi all! I haven’t posted in a while but I’ve been lurking. I went on my first OOS college visit, and now I have a top school. Which is making me insanely stressed, because it’s MIT. I’m applying EA and I’m seriously freaking out about the whole thing, cause I really feel like it’s the perfect fit but it has a ridiculous acceptance rate… </p>
<p>Anywho, congrats on all the ACT scores! I never did end up taking the ACT since my high school has us start taking the PSAT as freshman, so by the time I was a junior I had a lot of experience with the SAT and felt like I would have to “start over” learning to take the ACT.</p>
<p>Oh, and I got my Bama honors acceptance in the mail the other day. 
I took off my state school (UT Austin) cause even though I qualify to be automatically admitted, it has two essays that I really can’t reuse for any other apps, and it isn’t a commonapp school so it’s just a big hassle to fill out. On top of the fact that it’s too hot and big. So my list is shrinking a little, but I still need to do more visits.</p>
<p>Yesterday I lied to my parents. I told them the Senior Parent Recommendation brag sheet thing was due Wednesday, when really it doesn’t have a due date. But the counselor wants it a month before her rec is due, and I’ve been nagging them for weeks… Am I a terrible person? :p</p>
<p>False due date is a smart move Napalm2013 - street smarts should be part of the MIT entrance exam :)</p>
<p>Well, ACT scores from September were supposed to be posted today but apparently DD’s test/testing center scores are not ready yet…so now it’s more waiting to see which scores (Sep or last Feb or both) to send. We did not use any of the free reports because we wanted to see the scores first. And she also took the SAT last April and we didn’t know if we were going with SAT or ACT at that point…I just hate waiting! Ugh.</p>
<p>Napalm, I am ROFL! You know when you are a 'rent you are going to be like all of us on this list. You will get that brag sheet done the year before it’s due! Way to go, I love your MO.</p>
<p>Kelly1234: To qualify for official fee waivers you have to be eligible for the free lunch program at your school. Check with your school GC.</p>
<p>Napalm - my s feels the same way that you do about the ApplyTexas app. When my d applied 3 years ago, there was no essay, so it was a slam dunk. S saw the 2 essays and said “no way” - even though he’s an auto admit. He says he’d rather take a gap year than go to school in state!</p>
<p>Attended the senior parent dinner tonight. Dinner was good, some of the info was helpful. Mostly dates - graduation date and time, prom date, senior events, deadlines, etc. Very little about applying to college, but they did introduce our new (first) college counselor. We are all very excited because our school is 60% first gen so most of the kids need a lot of help applying to college. Won a nice sweatshirt for S in the raffle and signed up to host part of the senior progressive dinner. So all in all, not a bad evening.</p>
<p>Hip, hip, hooray for all the ACT score increases! </p>
<p>Welcome, Kelly1234! I think SteveMA is the only one that isnt paying a lot . . . when I hear her talk I think her kids must be applying in a parallel universe because we arent seeing any of these schools with free apps, will take scores off the transcript, etc. I take that back, the Case and Pitt apps were free, and S13 has been offered fee waivers for a bunch of schools he isnt applying to! Have you been sent any of those in the mail/email? </p>
<p>Napalm if youre applying EA, then it is just about a month before its due, so you werent lying. ;)</p>
<p>S13 hit the submit button on MITs Part 1. As soon as I made the payment, a checklist of all the stuff that still needs to be done popped up. We could immediately see checkmarks by ACT scores, SAT II scores, transcript/GC evaluation, and 1 LOR. 1 LOR is MIA and S13 is still waiting to hear back from his interviewer. I wish all colleges app sites were so easy to follow . . . then again, it is MIT!</p>
<p>MommyDearest13–if you saw my inbox you would see about 1284 schools that “waive the app fee” if you apply online :D. I seriously got 14 emails yesterday with these schools that waive the fee because DD is a “gold scholar” or a “platinum scholar” or a "special scholar’ or whatever the heck each school calls it–thank you honey SO much for putting MY email address down on your PSAT…then add in the 14 that DS got…PLEASE MAKE IT STOP…</p>
<p>I was checking our kids grades online today and D had an 89 overall in English. A little shocked, I pulled up her itemized assignment grades. A, A, A, A, F. What??? She’s never ever had an F before. So when I asked her about it tonight, she says it was a stupid assignment and she didn’t want to do it. LOL. This cracked me up. Miss Perfectionist never operates this way. Could it be Senioritis?</p>
<p>Question about LORs. Our school now has an online questionnaire/form that students are supposed to complete before teachers do LORs. It has all kinds of questions - “a project/assignment I’m especially proud of is… I think my strengths are… etc.”
D hates doing these things and now I’m worried that this is going to slow down the LORs because she won’t do it. This is definitely something new - I don’t remember it being there a month ago. 
Anyone else have this? Is it standard for naviance?</p>
<p>annie, it’s definitely not a standard Naviance thing, but it’s one of those “brag sheet” type activities–either for the student or the parents. It’s actually a great idea and gives you more control of what might end up in the LOR. One of the best pieces of advice that I got that I hadn’t already done in my type A standard approach, was to have my kids write a letter to each teacher from whom they were requesting a LOR. We did this at the end of last year and sat down to brainstorm things that happened in class that would serve as great examples for the teacher to write about. I have to say that my sons didn’t love the idea. They thought it was too presumptuous, but when they gave the packet to the teachers this week along with the letter, the teachers were THRILLED that they had made the job of writing the letters so much easier! It’s one of the best things that we have done so far in this process!!!</p>
<p>My son’s school has Naviance, but they did not have this online form. For my son’s teacher, he had to fill out a paper form that the teacher made for him before starting LORs. I think it’s important to do since then the teacher can know more about the student outside of the classroom. It also seems to make the teacher’s work easier, since my son’s teacher wrote the letter and sent it in only about two weeks. Good luck with her applications. I hope she get into all the schools she wants to go to.</p>
<p>Anniezz-just had DD sit down and fill out the survey on naviance. She should start doing her supplements later in the week within her English class. I expect we will start submitting mid-oct.</p>
<p>My D is driving me nuts. I don’t know how we are going to make it through October! Common app is almost complete. Waiting for teacher recs and for D to type in essays. I gave her a deadline of October 1, but she is pretty blaise about the whole thing, Oct 1 is pretty optimistic. As soon as she gets the essays in she will start suppliments and sending apps. Almost all of her schools are free to apply if it is done online. Yay! I want them all complete by Nov 1. She is applying EA to any school that she can. Kind of bummed because Smith doesn’t offer EA, only ED. </p>
<p>Question on ED…On the net price calculator the financial aid package from Smith is very doable. It is D’s top choice, and although she is right in the middle of ACT scores, her GPA will not be as high as the average. Is there any disadvantage to applying ED, provided that the aid package is very similar to net price calculator? I have heard that the package may not be as good when applying ED because they know or your strong desire to attend, and that it may be better to hold out for RD. Any opinions?</p>
<p>Good news is that D is in at KU and U of Nebraska. Transcript is being sent this week to Truman State, she has already sent in the application. Hopefully, she will hear back soon on that.</p>
<p>We did have our first senior parent meeting at the high school and it was actually very helpful. I was surprised. We received info about submitting senior tributes for the yearbook, due by end of November! Wow! Things are going fast!</p>
<p>My D is so sick of essays she was nearly willing to throw in the towel and said “I think I’ll just go to UAH unless the Iowa State scholarship comes through. At least i know I’ll have a full ride at UAH!” LOL!! </p>
<p>Haystack: she actually saw the email notification IA State sent out and it really impressed her (and me too!). She said it really made her feel part of the school already and made her want to go to school there. LOL</p>
<p>I know that was fatigue speaking as she’s stressing about the GA Tech and MIT apps and she’s talked about going these schools (+caltech) since her sophomore year. Plus, her first attempt at the ACT was not where she wanted it (composite 30. M 34, E 31, S 27, and R 28 I think). </p>
<p>Question for the experienced posters: GA Tech super scores across tests. Does anyone know which ACT/SAT subtest conversion chart is moat reliable? I found 3-4 charts and they all had a different conversion for the ACT reading to SAT CR section. Thanks!</p>
<p>Well, my D’s ACT scores were a disaster. Sigh…her anxiety, ADD, visual issues, and math LD have such an effect on standardized testing. We’ve decided to let her take a shot at SAT now. I am submitting all materials for testing accommodations for both ACT/SAT. She was so upset. :(</p>
<p>Fortunately, she is that tech theatre kid, so for most of her schools, those test scores aren’t so important. She won’t get merit aid, but we never expected that, anyway. </p>
<p>On the bright side, the Common App for CMU was completed and finished. We are registered for the Sleeping Bag Weekend in early November. Airtran has a big sale going on right now, so I’ll get those tickets Friday. That leaves booking a hotel room and reserving a rental car. We are going in on a Saturday, so we’ll have time to visit Point Park, too. </p>
<p>Congrats to everyone who saw an increase in ACT scores!!</p>