<p>sbj I just reread your post and my response and wanted to say that when I said “holy cow” I misread your average school scores as 2250-2300, which impressed the heck out of me.</p>
<p>1250-1300 out of 2400 isn’t far below the national average, according to CB. Which surprised me enough to remind me I probably hang out on CC too much :D</p>
<p>Lat- congrats to your son. What a wonderful accomplishment! ^ I am also guilty of hanging out on CC way too much LOL.</p>
<p>OHMom,</p>
<p>Too funny! Yep, it’s easy to get a skewed view of life from CC, isn’t it?</p>
<p>The local high school is broken up into 4 different “schools” and two of the four are 12th and 13th lowest score in our very large country. I actually think it’s helpful for admissions to see this info; thus, I included it in my oldest son’s School Profile and will include it in my 2015 son’s School Profile, as well. (We’re homeschoolers as a reminder)</p>
<p>Lat, yay! That’s very exciting!</p>
<p>I wonder how different the NM Scholars cutoffs would look if they distributed the awards by congressional district rather than by state?</p>
<p>Hmmm. I think I’ll post this as it’s own thread in the Parents’ Forum…</p>
<p>@realchk - generally speaking, I think using the BB for PSAT is fine. They are slightly different tests though - slightly different format, slightly different content/scope. You can easily google to better understand the exact differences. </p>
<p>There are PSAT prep books out there. Maybe not as many as SAT books but it’s not hard to find one. Are you looking for a particular book?</p>
<p>Consumer Reports did a study of test prep sites
<a href=“http://consumersunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/satprep.pdf[/url]”>http://consumersunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/satprep.pdf</a></p>
<p>They put this free site <a href=“https://www.number2.com/[/url]”>https://www.number2.com/</a> at the head of the class. </p>
<p>If you google something like “official released PSAT tests” and wade through a few pages you will find the College Board prep book for the PSAT, some old official tests, and some unofficial tests. </p>
<p>Dropped my kid off a little while ago for his lab experience. I took pity on him having to walk a mile in this heat–although he’ll have to walk home. He took a laptop because he said some of the other lab workers said there’s a lot of “waiting time.” So first lesson, there’s a lot of tedium in science. I told him to work on PSAT prep, and other academic stuff–not just surf sports and gamer sites. Hah! Another lesson, there are several young people already in the lab, although he’s the youngest. I pointed out–speaking from graduate school experience–that professors like to have several slaves–uh, research assistants. The professor gets the glory, the assistants get reflected glory, projects for theses, and/or a sustenance wage. Less cynically put: he’ll learn that science is a social activity, and, I trust, in this instance, about nanotechnology, too.</p>
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<p>It appears they do take a state’s population into some account as this annual report shows more kids from California (2000+) than from Alaska (39). </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf</a></p>
<p>Of course the whole thing is based on a test taken early junior year, which is maybe a little absurd…is it better to make NMSF or score 2300+ as a senior? To let those go and earn a 4.0 and pursue serious ECs? Age old questions :)</p>
<p>Definitely awarding by population concentration (which is what Congressional districts would give you) would be a more fair way of distributing NMS awards. It would be harder to administer, since there would be more issues of which district a kid would count in (because school and home addresses may be in different districts) which is the same problem with the boarding school kids, and they are counted differently.</p>
<p>This seems to be our summer for college visiting, and I think D is getting a good sense of the options out there, but perhaps not what she wants so much. I think we’re both sort of waiting to see what happens with fall testing and Junior year grades. But by the end of the summer, D will have been on 18 or 19 college campuses (but only officially visited 16 of them).</p>
<p>My daughter has been to a lot of campuses because she came with us during visits for her sister. That is when she concluded that she won’t go to school " in a one horse town." She saw 8 schools in April and immediately removed 3 from the list after visiting. We will start the process again at the end of the summer right before school starts, and then continue during February break. Maybe we will finish up next summer. I don’t think she will want to visit schools during April since it will be close to AP testing.
LAT- how many hours a week is your son working in the lab? Will he continue during the school year?
This testing can make anyone crazy…</p>
<p>I think after this summer the college visiting will be very, very minimal. This summer visits have been planned in advance, but not primarily to see colleges. We’ve combined them all with travels that we had already planned or otherwise needed to do for other reasons when we were in other parts of the country. Next summer she’ll do some interviewing at schools near my ILs, who we should visit, and some day trips from home. Of course, it all depends how next summer shapes up.</p>
<p>I like that the bulk of the visiting is this summer. It’s purely for information-gathering, not to impress, and it’s been very low-key. We are so ready to play admission-session BINGO though.</p>
<p>Hi Fellow 15’er Parents! </p>
<p>Just thought I would say hello. And thanks OHMom for all the great links to scholarships a couple of days ago. I am starting to get nervous, so looking for all the sources I can!</p>
<p>Hello RuralMama and welcome! I’m right with you, and those links are invaluable.</p>
<p>IJD - 18-19 campuses? (Campi?) WOW. We are leaving tomorrow for our first official college tour. We’ll do another one Saturday morning, and then we are going to relax and take a little vacation. We have our work cut out for us this year with visits.</p>
<p>Welcome RuralMama!! We also have our work cut out for us. I need to make sure that my daughter finds a school that is a good fit… Yesterday she told me that a fun Friday night would be going to dinner with friends and then going to the library. Needless to say a big party scene is not for her.</p>
<p>twogirls, I think that’s sweet.</p>
<p>Yeah, it does sound a little crazy in retrospect, but it’s just sort of worked out this way. That’s how the summer unfolded.</p>
<p>It is sweet… As long as she has a few friends with similar interests LOL. We will be heading to Pittsburgh at the end of the summer just to visit one school. Pittsburgh is supposed to be a nice city so it should be fun. We used to go away for a week every summer but that does not work anymore- my kids work until August 15, drivers ed ends on the 16, fall sports begin on the 19, and my older one goes back to school on the 23. February break will be hectic for us- 5 schools in a week. We have to time the visits so that we are back at the hotel each day at a reasonable hour so that she can get some work done. Last year during the February break my older daughter’s school had a siblings weekend. It worked out nicely because my younger one got to hang in the dorm for 2 nights and we were able to tie it into some college visits at the same time. I would like to make one more trip back to Boston next summer if we can- it’s " only" a 4 hour drive for us so it’s not horrible. I would like her to get one more visit in to Northeastern and BU. The only tour that we took of NE was really bad and it left her with no interest in the school. She liked BU… But she is not going unless they throw some money in her direction. I am grateful that she understands that it’s a state school for her unless she gets money from a non-state school.</p>
<p>Pitt is on D’s list as well. We visited last year when S2 was invited to Chancellor’s interview. I thought it was a really good school particularly for med school bound kids. They offered really generous merit $ even though we are OOS. D is thinking med school, just like S2, so we will take another look when time is right.</p>
<p>^ as you notice I am on this thread very often LOL. We have not seen the school yet. I am hoping that she likes it because its a great school and they offer nice merit aid to OOS kids, plus it’s great for pre-med/ science. It’s also big on sports ( my daughter wants at least some rah- rah) and being in a city there is always something to do. My daughter wants to be able to walk down the street and eat at a " cute" restaurant. So far she does not care whether her school is in the city or not, as long as there is some " rah-rah" and things to do that are not part of big party scene. We have Emory on the list as well- not sure about the " rah-rah" but we check it out in Feb.</p>
<p>I went to a parent info session for “Intro to the PSA, SAT, ACT and college admissions” by a local small company. Really interesting couple run the company. Used to work for one of the large company’s and decided to go out on their own. Both very passionate about the process. I thought I would share some of the info I took away:</p>
<p>Why prep for SAT/ACT?
<p>PSAT-<br>
Unless a students score when taking" cold" as a sophomore is 170+ the PSAT should be truly viewed as just a great opportunity for practice. He strongly recommended entering your students " Online Access code" at collegeboard.com to look at wrong answers. He has found when he goes back and looks at students freshman/sophomore/junior PSAT results they are consistently getting the same type of questions wrong. Focus on these areas and can see a big improvement on SAT score.</p>
<p>SAT 11 subject tests
Only required by 25 schools in the nation and recommended by another 25 ( d2 checked and she will not be applying to these schools, so this is now off her testing radar)
NEVER take a subject test cold
Treat with utmost respect if applying to Ivies or similar caliber schools</p>
<p>Optimal Prep
Start Vocab early
Use all time for test
Buy a copy of the test- SAT question and answer service ( you can review wrong answers)</p>
<p>Score Choice
He recommended not sending scores blindly to schools</p>
<p>My eldest scored high on both ACT and SAT with little prep. My youngest has the GPA, EC’s and now I realize the capability to have the test scores to match. Some of the things he said were like a light bulb going on in my head.</p>
<p>He advised having testing over by the end of junior year and that the actual dates you sit will depend on the students schedule. Take the tests when you are not playing varsity sports etc ( if possible) He also recommends back to back testing. eg Sit Jan SAT, keep reviewing, when score is released review wrong answers then sit again in March and hopefully be finished.</p>
<p>I am not sure if I can post a link to their website- but pm me and I can share. What he said made a lot of sense to me!</p>