@STEM2017 I actually don’t think you are overthinking it. Schools that ask those questions are generating a formula which kicks out a ranking/number of some sort at the other end.
I would have him contact admissions and ask.
@2muchquan Another poster coined Big Merit Aid College as Big MAC. Loved it!
I meant Big U, i.e., a large research university, and particularly one with good diversity.
@STEM2017 I’d select honors.
@eandesmom I think part of the problem of EFC judgement is that EFC isn’t how much you can (allegedly) afford to pay. Its how much you can afford to come up with somehow (i.e. borrow). Like you, we could have cut out cable and whatever people suggest we should have cut out (we don’t even take vacations), but we would never have accumulated our EFC (x2). But the FA people don’t expect you to have accumulated it. They expect us to go finance it. When you’re in the middle your EFC is basically a rating of how much you can borrow. Your EFC may as well be FICO-based.
re:judgements. I also hate living in a Stepford town where other people are gung ho to pay full sticker at the best school that accepts their kid. I am tired of the “what, no ivy apps?” judgement. Tired of “why would you app there/you could do better.” Tired of the school pushing all the kids to app 99% reaches and maybe a local safety. (Might be why SO MANY seem to end up local when they could have found plenty of great matches out there.) Marginally angry the GC never ask kids once during the whole college process “how much can/will your parents pay?”
@flatKansas … Yes! Bitter that GCs apparently know NOTHING about the $$ part or at least seem to act like it. I wonder why??? Surely they know about it.
re: SAT scores. S actually texted me from his retreat with his score. I’m thinking it should be enough for confirming NMSF if we get that far. (was almost identical to his PSAT) Yay, etc.
@carachel2 That is so sad about your hometown news. So sorry to hear about it.
June 4th SAT scores came today, so that means 6 weeks waiting.
@flatKansas At S17’s school, they are happy just to get kids to apply to college, and the finances are the first question the GC asks. City public school here.
@carachel2 So sorry to hear about the girls from your town. Horrible.
** re: Bio SAT Subject ** S17 didn’t take the Bio SAT II but told me his classmates said it was really easy compared to the AP test. It’s really not a big deal though because S17 isn’t applying to any schools that require even one SAT II. I did make him take the Math Sat II last year and got a high score but that was before we really thought much about his college list.
I seem to remember that the snail mail report we got on the Math Subject test did include how many problems you could miss & get your score. But I’m not sure right now where I stashed it.
@flatKansas I had never thought about it that way. And you are spot on. How depressing is that!
Our GCs don’t seem to recommend a thing, at least not yet. Which is good and bad I guess. Our free counselor in training doesn’t seem to understand that schools “generous with aid” are not the same thing as schools generous with merit aid. Or that really the info is out there and there is no need to send out Hail Mary apps and hope for amazing offers. Do your homework and in most cases you have a strong idea of what an offer will look like.
@flatkansas I don’t necessarily agree with your assessment that it is based on how much you can finance. I don’t believe that schools really expect us to take on $1,000,000 debt on an engineer’s salary. FA is flawed in numerous directions. One that severely impacts our family is that they only want to know about dependent kids. From one perspective that is logical. But from another it is flawed. No school cares that at this point we have raised 4 other kids to adulthood, one being a disabled adult. So all FA decisions are based on 4 dependent kids.
@srk2017 – RE: taking another Subject Test.
My son added USH to the list b/c he heard at one of the college info sessions we attended (that I also sat through, but somehow missed?) that Yale? Stanford? liked to see a humanities exam. He has also taken Bio, Math II & Physics.
Once he knows where he will be attending school and that school’s FL requirement, he may sit for the Latin Subject Test next June.
@fun1234 – I have always wondered how students were able to say how many incorrect responses they had as I have never seen anything other than a score for the subject tests. For years, the rumor was that one could score an 800 on Math II while still having six wrong. I have no idea if this is correct or how one would confirm.
RE: score reporting for ED deadlines.
Here is what CB says on their site:
When will you release scores for future SAT administrations?
Fall 2016: Scores from the October, November and December 2016 SAT administrations will available within 26 days of test day.
Spring 2017: Scores from the January, March, and June 2017 tests will be available within 39 days of the administrations.
This schedule also applies to SAT Subject Tests.
We are committed to delivering scores as quickly as possible, and we will work to reduce score delivery times in the future.
Students taking the October administration will have scores back in time to make early action/decision and regular decision deadlines. We will share specific dates for October, November, December when they are available and after we share dates for the spring 2016 administrations.
How often will higher ed receive SAT scores from now on?
Our goal is to start sending scores on a daily basis again by this fall.
@carachel2 I cannot fathom. So incredibly heart-breaking.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek and others. Thanks. All-state choir kid, pre-Med. just a huge huge loss. We knew the others in the car better but still… I just can’t fathom.
@fun1234, I never have been able to tell how many or what questions were missed on a SAT subject test. They do not have the reports that detail like the SAT test does. S wanted to know because he missed some on the physics test and was curious to see if they were the questions he thought he missed.
@carachel2, I’m very sorry to hear about the girls from your town. How devastating.
I just saw S’s SAT score. I have to say he is consistent. The score concords to his ACT score of 32, concords higher than his May 2015 SAT score, and is about the same as his PSAT score. He is DONE! We didn’t ask for the detailed score report, but he must have gotten 1 wrong on math (790, my math wiz). His reading and writing score is a bit disappointing, but accurate. He is a strong reader as shown by his subscore. He is not a strong writer, as evidenced by his common app essay (which needs A LOT of work). This will confirm if his PSAT score makes NM, and the schools he is targeting are not elite, so all is good in his world.
SAT
I’ve got to agree that the math curve seemed harsh and the reading one more generous. D went down in math, despite being quite confident she’d done better. She went up in reading where she felt she’d done about the same. Anyway, I’m pretty happy with the super-score as she has reached the magic number of 1400! The concordance suggests otherwise, but **** the concordance, right?
Help & Judgment
I certainly find more help than judgment (can dependent on which threads you head for…). And it is weird that the one person I felt judged me the most unfairly is one I’ve seen good (but not sugar-coated!) advice from. I had mentioned needing merit aid and also that D kept a school off the list because there is no Brazilian Jiu-jitsu studio nearby. This poster came in shrieking that it’s all about the cost and ridiculous to throw away a school because they don’t have your favorite brand of coffee or a nail salon in town. WHAAA? It was a real double whammy – first off, comparing a sport my D has been doing seriously for 10 years to needing a manicure. I just don’t even…know what to say. And then the idea that merit seekers must find and take the BEST deal. D would rather go to an affordable safety than to a place where she can’t continue her sport. Seems reasonable to me Okay, mini-rant over, you can all come back now!
Food
CU-Boulder has excellent food and my oldest D does pretty well finding food even though she’s a gluten free vegan. WPI had excellent food, including vegetarian (which D17 is). Smith was also good They have a number of small dining areas, some of which are completely allergen free for certain allergens. Vegetarian food was no problem. Funny – the adcom said that UMASS has the best food in the 5-college program, so it must be pretty good.
@carachel2 I am so sorry, how absolutely heartbreaking. One devastating loss and 3 left that may never fully recover from the experience.
@carachel2 That’s awful. What a terrible loss. In regards to SATs I was a one and done person. I scored better than I ever imagined and never took it again. I also never took the ACT. When it comes to EFC- I don’t think my parents can pay all of it. Well they can now since I got the highest merit scholarship but without that, I don’t even want to think. Apparently the government seems to think we have so much money when in reality we have just enough. My grandfather on one side has always been generous with money but my other grandfather though he has less financially gives more of his time and love. Case in point grandfather 1’s graduation card was an unwritten card with a check that had my name spelt wrong. You think after 18 years he could spell my name.