@snoozn Wow that’s definitely judgemental. I have a friend who does Jitsu and having a close studio made her favorite school even better. Of course it’s a great school for many other reasons like an incredible program for her major, but the Jitsu studio nearby made her even happier. A sport doesn’t even compare to a brand of coffee.
DS17 is not good in science. He is a B science student. I had him take the Physics subject test because he had regular Physics this year and if he had scored a 680 and he was able to somehow get into UGA he would get credit for Physics 1010 which is a 3 hour class. Anyway he ended up with a 660. So close but oh well I doubt he will get into UGA. I told him if he gets in I will have him study for it and take it again…
Why am I mentioning this? Because UGA isn’t the only college that gives credit for SAT II tests. Make sure and check the colleges they may be attending. (For example Georgia Tech gives credit for Chemistry and English.)
We toured Georgia State today. I had decided by the time we went through the 2nd building that it wasn’t the right school for DS17. However after the tour he said he liked it! The only good things I could come up with is that DH works downtown and was able to meet us for lunch, DS13 is over at GT and DS17 could commute if money became an issue… He is going to apply but I’m not sold on the safety issue at all.
:-S
@Mom2aphysicsgeek quoted
But those of us that are getting close to retirement age may have built up assets outside of IRAs and 401Ks that can be multiple times our income. I guess the formula assumes those assets should be liquidated or borrowed against before we receive free money for college. This seems fair to me since I do have the means to send my D to college, I am just not comfortable liquidating my retirement investments to do so.
But getting rid of cable or cutting out vacations just won’t get us to the EFC, we must rely on savings.
Amen!! we are putting so much pressure on these kids they will all be fine. I have a friend who works in admission in an ivy grad school and he says its not always where you go but what you do when you get there!!
Those of you who just got the June SAT scores. How did your kids do on the essay part? The reason I started posting on CC was it was the only place I discuss how to interpret those scores. There’s really very little information out there on what schools are going to do with this score. I was trying to figure out if S17 essay score was good enough, or if I should make him take the whole thing over just for that grade. We have decided against retaking it.
Just wondering how other kids on this board did with the essay part. And your thoughts on this redesign that removes the essay from the total score. It’s to S17’s favor since essay writing is his weakest link.
Holy crap. Just filled out the SRAR for UPitt for my D17. Yes, I did it. I admit it. What a pain in the arse that is. Trying to figure out the right categories, trying to to remember if it was World History vs. Ancient History, typing in ALL CAPS or Mixed Case consistently, changing something for Full Year to Semester. Deciding between Pass/Fail or No Credit when the grade was ‘P’ but the class was for No Credit!
Well, luckily I was able to copy and paste the results into a Google Doc so maybe the next one won’t be so bad.
@2muchquan - I think some colleges make the application process difficult in order to weed out the kids who really aren’t sure they want to go there.
I think it also weeds out those kids who wait until the last second! You need a good hour to do that.
JOTD
A man from goes into a bar in Boston. He asks the bartender: “Did you go to Harvard?” The bartender replies: “Yale.” The man from says loudly: “DID YOU GO TO HARVARD?”
for UPITT I started entering courses a week or so back and then deleted thinking sending transcript is better. Now, back to entering them. hopefully weekend early morning session (while DS and W sleeping) 
Does UPITT require SAT IIs?
what does SRAR stand for? Self Reported Academic Record? UGH. It would seem you need your transcript in front of you to fill it out.
@2muchquan Did you look at a transcript while doing it? As I mentioned last week, I’m glad I did as I didn’t realize D’s school used different titles from the course catalog for certain classes. We want with the course catalog titles.
And agreed sending the transcript would have been easier. But the SRAR is MUCH easier to read than D’s transcript with all the codes and acronyms. That’s probably why schools do it this way.
^and next year’s courses.
@itsgettingreal17 yep. Had to have transcript to enter that stuff.
I think the SRAR is a pain.
On the Bama front, I told dd to contact the New College and the Russian professor and see if there is any way to create a Russian major since she will be beyond a minor before high school graduation. With their generous NMS package, if she could create a major, study abroad could be funded and she could also pursue 3-4 majors (Russian, French, business or econ, IR) b/c of the free 5th yr.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - My understanding is schools consider that 20% of the parent income is fair game for colleges, yet only tap assets at 5.64% (that’s certainly not 9 times more heavily but nearly 4 times more). But income certainly does affect EFC more than assets do.
The “consensus” schools cap home equity as a percentage of income, if memory serves, generally at either 120 or 240 percent (so if your income is $100,000 / year, the equity that will count toward your EFC will be $120,000 or $240,000, depending on the formula the school uses). Again, only 5.64% of that would be considered fair game in calculating your EFC.
I’m sorry to hear D is struggling. It’s not easy, that’s for sure 
Sending positive thoughts your/her way.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek that’s one of the questions I had for you. Given your daughter’s level of study, couldn’t a full year of study abroad and either a couple of semesters or summer study abroads combined with whatever their language offerings are and independent study work for her?
@curiositycat333 , I also couldn’t find the percentile for essay. D got 7/7/7, total of 21. I think the impact of removing essay might be beneficial for D. She has 40 in writing.
A bit frustrated by today’s SAT scores. She improved over March, but not as much as I had expected. And the concordances seem weird. Her score-- 1420-- supposedly concords to a 2020 on the old SAT and a 31 [C] on the ACT, rather than the 34 she actually received. To answer @curiositycat333 – she scored 4,5,5 on the essay. She’s a good writer, so I am a bit surprised. Oh well. I guess we’ll stick to submitting the ACT for applications, although her SAT II subject tests were respectable.
I’m also a bit annoyed by a response to an email I sent to Smith explaining that she’s at their summer program now and asking about options for a tour and a visit on July 30 when I’m there to pick her up. I received a one line email reiterating information that is on their website, without explaining whether we need to preregister (I guess not?) or if we could also meet with faculty or an admissions officer. Just didn’t seem welcoming or enthusiastic at all.
No progress whatsoever here on applications, college lists or anything. My daughter will be going through a college admissions prep course at Smith next week, and I’m hoping that will really get her going. I guess we shall see. I haven’t even opened the CA, considered any essay prompts or even figured out what supplemental materials each college requires. We are planning on spending a few days touring colleges in MA and the surrounding areas at the end of this month. So I guess that’s progress!
@lovethebard Those aren’t my numbers. They are from Forbes. Forbes states that the formula is 49% of income, not 20%.
@itsgettingreal17 It isn’t what she really wants to do, but the closest school on her list right now is 8 1/2 hrs away in an inconvenient location. The next closest is 11 hrs away. Coming home for short breaks is not going to be possible and she is really struggling with that. She is thinking about her youngest sister who is only 6 and her niece (5) and nephews (5,4,2, and 8 months) and how if she is gone for long periods of time, just how much of knowing them she will miss.
She saw our 6 yr old with her oldest brother. She only saw him about twice a yr until they moved here and she treated him more like a distant uncle than a brother.
She is going to write the depts tonight and see what sort of response she gets.