@greeny8 – thanks for the heads-up about Naviance. I never would have thought to look there as our school always seemed to suffer a long posting lag. I swear they said they waited for a tape to be sent from CB, but it was probably a file! Final score in, and testing is complete.
@mdcmom – we are grandfathered in under a high speed data plan that offers 92Mbps download and 36 upload. The boys don’t want me to touch it, so my next call is to investigate alternative TV options. (I really just want the news channels: CNBC, MSNBC, CNN and the major networks. Mindless flipping while preparing food.)
Could your son not work during the summer to save $$ for college spending money? I have not asked my older son to work during school but he earns more than enough to tide him over throughout the school year. He lucked out this Jan when last summer’s internship wanted him back. Kept him occupied during a REALLY long Jan break and got him out of bed.
I’m so glad that my D17 will be quitting her private music lesson after high school. Well, I’m not happy happy but considering how little she practices, it feels like a big waste of money these days. We rent her instrument (harp) so it’s lesson and the rental fees. I’m waiting for the day that DH and I can spend part of that money on occasional dining out!
My DS’ school district has Naviance but as info tool only and not sure how they update scores. I checked just now and his latest SAT II is not there.
SAT/ ACT scores sent to colleges: There is information about when scores are received I believe on the sites. The test scores are sent to the colleges electronically and they decide how frequently they want to receive scores. Some schools opt to receive the scores weekly, others every other week. It’s important to keep this in mind when sending scores through the rush process. It said something about sending the rush scores by paper but warned that some schools may not look at the paper scores at all and only rely upon the electronic scores. If you pay for rush scores, and the school only accepts electronic scores every two weeks and you just missed the transmission, the scores won’t be received for another two weeks.
I agree with what @paveyourpath wrote above. I would allow at least a couple of weeks for the scores to be received by the colleges. I did not pay to rush scores for older son but the scores were ‘received’ across a span of nearly two weeks even though all scores were sent the same day.
@srk2017 – I imagine you know this…but if not, here goes. In Naviance, under About Me tab across top, then under ‘official things’ tab across the bottom, and then ‘test scores’. Every HS seems to use Naviance as they see fit, so you may not see any of these things.
@Rightcoaster Good for you! I totally agree with not forcing kids to do community service. I know of schools that require 2000 hours of community service over 4 years as a graduation requirement. The schools come up with events that qualify and some of them involve getting parents to do things for credit hours. That is just ridiculous. I taught my son at an early age to be thoughtful and considerate of others and we volunteered as a family. Now that he is older, he volunteers mostly to do things with his friends and they support each others events as well. He still joins us on occassion if it is something that he is passionate about (such as cooking dinner at the Ronald McDonald house for families staying there). If a college doesn’t want him because he doesn’t have a leadership position in service, so be it. He knows who he is.
And not that this has anything to do with the class of 2017, but my boys and I have been crawling around trying to figure out how to hack into the Cat-5 and run a cable up from the Cat-5 board in the basement to provide high speed internet to the TV that sits on my kitchen counter. (Holes were already drilled to run cable to that TV but I am trying to figure out how to cut the cord with my cable provider.) It is very much a case of the blind leading the blind (as my mother used to say) as we are walking around trying to even figure out where the cable wire is running between the basement and the kitchen.
Hoping it will be as simple as just disconnecting one of the many unused Cat-5 connections and running wire up to the kitchen. Apparently this is much more interesting than writing college essays. I will be sure to keep you all posted as I am sure you find my ongoing cable TV saga fascinating.
Of course, we will still need to find an alternative to cable that provides the news channels.
As proof no two HS/Naviance setups are the same, D17s SAT II scores from June test are not loaded yet.
@CT1417 - I did go to ‘Test Scores’ section (some how) earlier and I see his test scores from last year but not from last month.
@CT1417 --first – stay safe!! Please don’t get shocked by any live wires. This sounds like stuff my son does for fun and adventure! Recently a tree took out cable, phone & internet wires (Cablevision, Verizon, Fios etc.) – he traced some of it out bc some had to get rewired - then parlayed it into upgrading wiring in his server lab. If you want any devious help and are in the NY tri-state area am sure DS would leap at the chance! Otherwise good luck & stay safe. :>
speaking of Naviance, I don’t see DS’s AP scores from last year or this year. But I see his SAT score from end of 8th grade!. My guess is district get data files from CB and they decides what to load or not to load.
When S is playing games on the computer (he is direct-connect to the modem and the rest of us are wifi) he SUCKS the bandwith so everyone else has trouble connecting. We supposedly have one of the upgraded services too. That typically makes me rant, but I am really at a loss about what to do… other than send him away to college. :-?
Since I will see his SAT scores tomorrow, I have ceased to fret about it. S has a busy day tomorrow. He is going to the local bridge club to practice up for a tournament he is going to in a week! His tournament partner is not his regular partner. Sometimes he cracks me up. =))
QOTD: This is something my mother discussed with me about a month ago. She wanted to let me know that she is planning on providing her fav grandchild (my son) with a $500 allowance and wanted to tell me this so that I wouldn’t budget to give him additional money. How much does a kid need?? He doesn’t need that much money. He will live on campus, have a meal plan, he has no interest in doing any shopping for clothes (khakis, polo shirt and a zip up sweater make him happy). I haven’t figured out what a fair amount is so I think we will have to see what his needs are. He does like to go to restaurants for dinner with friends and he does like to visit museums, galleries and concerts. I prefer he not have a job freshman year because he does have medical considerations and I want to make sure he eases into his new circumstances but he said he would like to have a job on campus and thinks it will give him an opportunity to meet people outside of his major or college. Good point. Hard to know right now but definitely something on our checklist.
For those of you with multiple children who have children that might be looking at schools in the same area you may want to consider purchasing a small home for the kids to live in. A friend of mine with 3 children (2 boys, 1 girl) decided paying ~40K per child for dorm living was not a good financial investment. He purchased a small home near the college the first child went to and strongly encouraged the other two children to consider attending a school in the same city. All of his kids were on board with this family savings plan ($120K went into a home they still own rather than to colleges) and all kids ended up attending the same school. The two boys were 2 years apart and the middle son graduated and two months later the sister was moving in. The house was a 3 bedroom and the kids all selected friends to move into the house (as paying tenants). Worked out well for them so while not for everyone I throw it out there in case it’s of interest to anyone.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I haven’t noticed the exact attitude you have regarding people who can’t meet their EFC. But on a related note, one of the CC attitudes I find most annoying is that those who do without all luxuries to save for their kids’ college educations are somehow superior to those that are not as frugal. While they feel superior about their sacrifices, I pity them. I’m very frugal when it comes to possessions, but I would not trade the memories we have from spending money on experiences, even if that means D doesn’t get to go to an Ivy or elite school, and neither would she.
Son received a nice letter from SMU today offering him a chance to log in and “reserve your personal invitation to apply.”
It reminds me of the letters we used to get from Publishers Clearinghouse.
Seriously, who is advising these colleges to send out this insulting stuff???
@CA1543 – I am in SW CT so maybe you will hear from me! Older son already commented that he is ‘not so sure about this’. The Cat-5 was installed with ten drops throughout the house more than 17 years ago. Things look very jury-rigged downstairs. Cables and wires just cut off, twisted colored wires, stray wires looped around pipes, all kinds of equipment lit up…do not want anyone to get hurt so will then need to balance cost of an electrician vs savings in cable bill. I need to pop over to the CC thread of those cutting their land lines and see how everyone is handling life w/o cable.
@srk2017 – my son took one AP in 9th grade and none again until this year. I told his GC his 9th grade AP score and she manually entered it, so count us among the schools that do not post AP scores on Naviance.
@STEM2017 – I recall seeing many more of those with my older son. They all followed the same format and I think I recall reading that an outside company mails the solicitations. Agree that they are kind of insulting, but mostly just a waste of paper and postage.
@STEM2017 Wonder how much money that they could be using for scholarships or facility improvements that they are wasting each year. Email today from Presbyterian College with the subject line: “Never work a day in your life. No really! Respond to learn more.” No thank you. Who is advising these colleges is a great question.
^^^
My son’s June ACT scores not updated in naviance either. New GPA is up though.
Tonights Rant: My wife has this fantasy where she pretends she is a great cook, by ordering this called Blue Apron. All the food is sent to you and they give you instructions on how to prepare everything. Well I’ll just state that my wife’s strongest skills are not related to the kitchen in any way. She has tried to cook a few meals and it must take her 2 hours to get anything made. Then it looks like a bomb went off in the kitchen and she is so tired from “cooking” that she likes me to clean up this huge mess. Not fun. 
If your spouse recommends you try one of these food prep services please suggest just ordering some take out or going out to eat.
@CT1417 thank you so much for spelling out the Naviance test score find…you made my and my sons evening…I never dreamed the June SAT2s would be there! All testing now done here :D/