Chiming in real quick @NCComputerNerd and @carachel2. I have to agree that A&M tour was not very good. My D16 really liked the school on paper. She was an auto admit OOS student and would have gotten a pretty good package. During the info session where we could ask questions they did not know what I meant when I asked of applying EA was binding. They have not ever used the term binding? It took me a few to explain it to them. The campus was huge and our guide was pretty focused on telling us how people will grant jobs to A&M grads over other applicants. I have no doubt that this can be true but still. Our guide was enthusiastic but really didn’t have a broad knowledge of anything other than her major and the cheers for football.
We are about a half an hour from UCF and I have heard terrific timings about the school and their honors. They also treat NMF really well. I was just there because that is where my D16 high school graduation was just held. Couldn’t tell much of the campus since we went straight to the arena and then left. I
Looking at the coalition app, most of my D schools are on it. Not sure if she should stick with the common app since I am familiar with it from this past year or try something new. I do like the essay prompts.
@WhereIsMyKindle I did not post a detailed visit report for OU. We only did the tour. It was well organized. The students seemed really happy and had a lot of school spirit. The dorms and buildings were fine, nothing special and paled in comparison to OSU, which we visited the day before. Some renovations are needed, imo. We did love the library. Really liked the surrounding area and proximity to OKC. And liked the non-party options offered by the school. D would be happy to attend.
@NCComputerNerd and @livinginLA …sorry to hear of your bad experiences too but also glad to hear that we were not alone. It makes me sad. D doesn’t care at all about football and so I looked around and could really see how it would not be high on her list. SIGH.
Thank you @itsgettingreal17
American says they’ll take both Common and Coalition.
Ohio State must not have updated yet because Coaition is not mentioned.
Add us to the list of people who visited UofSC in the pouring rain. LOL! We did an unofficial visit there. S17 liked it, I wasn’t as much of a fan but ultimately it’ll all come down to $$, and Russian and Accounting and what he wants. Texas A&M was crossed off the list this week after confirming they do not allow double majors that are not within the same college. We are now down to 9 schools.
School ends here on the 19th and S17 is busy all summer with a community theater, working and driver’s ed. I keep realizing how quickly this upcoming year is going to go! I’m not ready!
One thing I learned about UofSC this week is that it is unusually warm. Over 70 days a year over 90 degrees. That’s New Orleans-warm. That’s almost no-pants, no-shirt warmth!
I find all this Coalition App discussion odd. I thought it was going to be a non-issue. Not so sure anymore! D’s HS uses Naviance/CA, so I’m guessing we’d use CA for schools allowing it. Then I assumed we’d just use the schools app for the others (pretty sure none on WBOD use only Coalition App).
The UCF application is free for nmsf. It is also easy (essay optional) and has a late application deadline for FA and honors college. So, if we make nmsf and don’t get into an EA school D will have to consider it.
@payn4ward
Thanks for explaining the free score schedule. Have the free SAT scores from March already gone out? I’d like to change where those go (safeties that don’t consider subject tests) since the June scores will repeat the same info.
@nw2this I think the March scores are already sent. No harm done though.
Sign this petition?
See the thread
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1896849-shining-a-spotlight-on-the-dark-corners-of-the-college-board.html#latest
Woke up in the middle of the night and skimmed a few things hoping to go back to sleep. I should not have clicked on your links, @payn4ward. Goodness, that makes me sick to my stomach. I don’t like CB, but equally, I don’t want my dd’s future destroyed. She has dutifully done all the box checks, I am not going to make her start over with the ACT.
Fwiw,this link is easier to manage. https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/today/author/0_0wfbO39QcRs8iMxQYHbiqe?trk=prof-sm&_mSplash=1
A couple of thought…I know he is posting emotionally, but he is not articulate (what does that reveal! ) The posts are a jumble of jargon and snippets of interjected opinions. He is probably hurting his cause by not laying out a well-organized factual argument. He does sound like a disgruntled employee. His stating that he will reveal something juicy sounds juvenile and taunting which comes across to me as completely unprofessional. Ultimately, I think his approach is going to hurt his credibility.
On another but related note, thinking about the SAT reminded me of a conversation I had with an admissions officer yesterday. I asked him how they were going to evaluate the new SAT. The response was that they didn’t know yet. I asked if they was any chance they were only going to look at the CR and M subscores and not the writing. The response was they aren’t looking at the essay. I clarified by saying that I meant the E and W subscore that is combined with the CR subscore to make up that portion of the 800 pts of the non-math portion of the test. The admissions officer looked at me like I was nuts and didn’t know what I was asking. He said, “I don’t know what we are going to do for sure, but we are not converting them to old SAT scores to compare that way. We are treating it like a different test and will look at the reported percentages.”
I’m not sure what that means exactly bc i feel like the percentages are a moving target. But it mostly reveals to me that AO’s don’t really know much about the new test, it’s content, na dhow the subscores are being treated by collegeboard.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek The AO probably looked at you and said to himself: Not another CollConfidential goofball!?!?!?
Ha! @2muchquan Probably right!
What it dos tell me us that AO’s don’t care about the test itself. They only care about the #data. These tests are just being used to classify kids into percentages.
One other thing he said in response to another question is that NM kids are almost always automatically accepted into the Honors College. Interesting tidbit bc it did not come across that way in the HC presentation.
I found this post by the head of admissions at USC. She took the redesigned SAT to get a feel for it. http://uofscadmissions.■■■■■■■■■■
Not overly informative, but I am guessing they are going to end up looking at just the 2 section scores and not the subscores. (Why? No logical explanation. Just a feeling from reading that. 
)
Actually, I think I just had my gut feeling validated by this answer on their "redesigned SAT question page:
Why would any college choose the Coalition App exclusively since it is so new - seems odd unless they were not on the Common App. Most, but not all of the colleges my DS is aiming at are on Common App so we started filling out profile info and soon will make a chart with the school specific questions - through I suppose they are not yet “final” - maybe that happens in July?
I wanted to share a resource I am finding useful - it was actually on another thread so I am just passing it along here i case you have not seen it – http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/default.aspx
It has a lot of data about colleges and allows you to compare a group of colleges - you choose. So info about costs, graduation rates over time, admissions etc. It is not as updated as I’d like though. I also heck out info on College Niche: https://colleges.niche.com/
Seems like a reasonably helpful way to peek inside to see what students think.
Also, I sometimes look through USNW rankings (boo I know) and The Best College reviews:http://www.bestcollegereviews.org/ - can search for things like top research universities etc. Has a blog that includes a piece on comparing college rankings: http://www.bestcollegereviews.org/comparing-college-rankings/
So QOTD for me – what other resources for data that is of interest to you or “insider” perspectives are you finding helpful as you & your students build your college lists?
Thanks!!
@CA1543 Those are good ones! Here’s another important one:
I also like to look for admissions blogs for each school. UGA and Tulane, for instance, have good ones. They will sometimes answer student questions, or pre-announce certain info. For the same reason, as mentioned: Twitter, FB. Also, Vimeo and YouTube.
Thanks @2muchquan – love the weather one - I have actually looked at weather sites as it is totally relevant re freezing days, amount of snow (hard to love Rochester, Chicago, Ithaca, Michigan etc.) but for good schools may have to deal! Being from the south I am used to heat and humidity though having lived in NE for over 20 years, I think it might get to me but DS has had little exposure to it - seems to say he’d prefer cold. Love the ideas about blogs, FB Twitter, Vimeo etc - can’t say I am mining those particularly well!!