<p>Except that I have the sneaking suspicion that Newport’s approach is like “Moneyball” for college admissions. To recap for non-sports fans, the Michael Lewis book “Moneyball” describes how the Oakland A’s exploited discontinuities in the labor market for baseball free agents to be quite successful on shoestring payroll. (Long story short: teams overpaid for home runs and runs batted in and undervalued on base percentage.) Once the A’s made the playoffs a few times, other teams (notably Boston) adopted the same approach, bid up the price for high on-base percentage hitters, and the A’s advantage was gone. So they’ve had to move on to finding other niches that are undervalued, using recently developed quantitative metrics for defense, for example.</p>
<p>My point? By now, adcoms can probably spot a “Cal Newport” application a mile away – particularly if it doesn’t seem genuine – just like they learned to sniff out and discount the now-cliche overseas service trips. They’ve probably moved on to spotting some other “discontinuity” in the pile of apps, and by the time we figure it out (or someone publishes a book about it), that will be over with too. </p>
<p>I think the best kids can do at these “lottery” schools is to BE THEMSELVES, present themselves in a thoughtful and enthusiastic way, and try to persuade an adcom that, if admitted, they would fill a niche on campus that contributes to a well-rounded and interesting campus community. It won’t get you in everywhere, but it probably will get you in somewhere that, upon reflection, is a good match of school and kid.</p>
<p>@twogirls, your D. has practice for 4 hours in all the summer mornings for what? SAT? whatever, it sounds stressful. My D. wasn’t even home most of the summer. But once she came back, she did some study, definitely not much. Her school started yesterday. she still has questions to two of the chapters in Huck Finn (one of her summer reading assignments for AP english) unfinished! she just realized that last night. :eek: She plans to take SAT history test in October (already signed up) and SAT in November, after PSAT.</p>
<p>^ pre-season for fall sports began on August 19. Since then she has had field hockey practice every morning from 6:30-10:30 ( not Sunday). When school starts it will not be four hours- thank goodness!!</p>
<p>Does anyone have an opinion on whether to take the Oct SAT vs the Nov SAT? If I remember correctly, the October test has the question and answer option which could be helpful if needed for review for a later test. OTOH, might it be better to take the shorter and less stressful PSAT first before plunging into the marathon test? Is one more widely administered? I haven’t signed D up for either test yet but I think she’s probably going to be as ready as she’ll ever be to get this over with.</p>
<p>We were originally going to do the Nov. test. But after seeing her practice CR scores and the fact that the test is the morning after the first round of playoff games, we are going to wait until the winter. She’ll get a few months of AP English under her belt. Or maybe we’ll just go straight to ACT…still deciding. </p>
<p>If I thought she had a real shot at NMSF I would probably do the Oct test as a dry run for the PSAT.</p>
<p>@keepmecrusin, I’ve heard AP English is supposed to be helpful to SAT CR.</p>
<p>@3girls, I remember your D. did really well on her PSAT last year. Since she’s going to try to get in NMSF, I’d say definitely take one SAT. We are thinking about doing the one in November, because D. didn’t have time to study in the summer. It might help if she does the SAT after PSAT, at least she’ll have a few more weeks to study. It’s a pain that PSAT score doesn’t come up until December though.</p>
<p>Well, the college visit schedule for BunHeadGirl’s school shows a few in-school visits. Oberlin, Macalester, Carleton, Amherst, and Sarah Lawrence will visit in September and or October. We hope Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire, and Bryn Mawr visit this year, too. </p>
<p>BunHeadGirl is most excited about Sarah Lawrence College, as it is on her list. </p>
<p>Which colleges/universities are visiting your 2015’s high school?</p>
<p>3g3c, my D is taking the October one because she’s also going to take the ACT in October (the week after the PSAT) and I was trying to spread the tests out just a little. And I think she’s ready.</p>
<p>@bunheadmom, thats a nice list. I know SLC well. We live 30 mins away from it. Everyone I know who’s been there loves it.
S15 is tweaking his list. So far 3 UK colleges, Chicago, Northwestern, GWU, NYU, McGill and Michigan. The UK schools visited his school. I think a bunch of Ivy schools are on the list this year and he’s not considering them.
Sports schedule and charity trip wont allow him any time to visit this year so we tried to hammer out the important visits for the past two summers. We’ve been to all except Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>In-school college visits are really for seniors in my D’s school. Juniors are not supposed to go to fall presentations. There’s an elaborate college fair in spring for them. Junior year is just so tough, and grades are so important. It’s hard to know which schools are going to be appropriate.</p>
<p>BunHeadMom maybe our kids will end up at Sarah Lawrence together. The theater department is great and the ability to take creative writing classes along with acting classes really interests my son. </p>
<p>He got email appointments for school rep visits from USC, U of Maryland and Lafayette College last week. I am happy that these sessions include juniors.</p>
<p>We are still going with the December SAT and ACT with retakes in January and February if necessary. We don’t start school for two more weeks but usually guidance sends an email regarding schools that are making the rounds.</p>
<p>3girls, when you say “If I remember correctly, the October test has the question and answer option which could be helpful if needed for review for a later test” does that mean that different test dates for the SAT might offer different options? My D just signed up for the November test, is there something she’d get taking the Oct test that she’ll miss out on?</p>
<p>I have recently read a couple of the Cal Newport books. When I was reading through the High school superstar one, at first I was frustrated by it, thinking it was just more of the same “you have to be superhuman” sort of advice, but as I got further into the book I found it more helpful. I felt that some of what was in the end of the book, should have come earlier in the book. One of my take-aways from the book was that some of the kids who have done impressive things, did them in ways that an ordinary kid could do; the accomplishments were things that happened because the kids followed up on things that might have otherwise been overlooked.</p>
<p>shoboemom–The Oct, Jan & May SATs offer the Q & A option. An additional $18 fee (I think) gives you a blank copy of the exam book and both the responses your D submitted and the correct responses. This all arrives six to eight weeks after the exam date. I had ordered it from last Oct’s test thinking it would help my son study for his Dec 1st exam but unfortunately, the material arrived the night before the Dec 1st exam.</p>
<p>Ah, CT1417, I hadn’t thought of the timing. I actually wasn’t even sure when D would retake. I hadn’t gotten that far! </p>
<p>Shoboemom, the q&a book is just like the PSAT booklet that the kids got back after the sophomore test. If the test goes really badly or is way out of whack from practice tests, it would be helpful to see what went wrong. CT1417 makes a good point though. It’s only helpful if the retake won’t take place until January or later.</p>
<p>I’m still torn between whether to advise D to take the October or the November test. I think I’ll see where they are administered and see if that makes a difference.</p>
<p>Wait-what is the Q & A exactly? When my son took the SAT last June, I paid like $10 extra to get a breakdown of the questions right and wrong as well as the type and difficulty of questions. is that the Q & A that you’re talking about? If so, does it change each year as to the date that it’s offered? Can someone send a direct link? Thank-you!</p>
<p>There are certain test dates ( mentioned above) that allow you to send in a fee and get a copy of the test, your answers, and an answer sheet with all of the correct answers. It is my understanding that the test dates that offer this option do not change. This is how many tutors get copies of SAT tests- they get them from their students. I wish I had known about this when my older kid took the SAT.</p>
<p>When my D. took the SAT when she was in 7th grade with CTY (in January) we paid to get her test back. It was really helpful. At the time, I didn’t notice that there were only several tests that you could do this. When my cousin took the test (March), he asked to do the same thing. but he was told there was no such option for the March test.</p>
<p>3girls - Oct SAT is two weeks before the PSAT and Nov SAT is two weeks after… Not sure if it makes much difference either way providing your D is ready. I encourage my kids to spread out exams as much as possible. Taking back-to-back exam is tough on kids but maybe your D likes it that way.</p>