Article on ACT writing scores. http://www.toptieradmissions.com/act-screw-up/
no summer programs here this year. Ds works full time in the summer and does a community theater show.
College summer programs at Duke and Brown. Academically, enjoyed both programs. The residential aspect of each program differed in that Duke was much more structured (camp like) than Brown (more realistic college feel to it).
May be ACT should provide the essay itself to colleges instead of their messed up scores or both.
@srk2017 I like the idea of providing the essay itself or re-scoring the essays.
Oh! UKy did not feel other wordly southern to us (we are from the Chicago area). Sure, we hear an accent, and in response to some of our questions we got “Yes, ma’am” and “No, sir” (we are not used to that!). We found the friendliness and manners in speech a breath of fresh air.
Our D16 who is going to UKy this fall also thought she did not want any schools in the Deep South. We all thought Lexington felt like the Midwest, but with different accents and better manners than Chicago proper.
The campus is very nice. So many of the buildings are new, and there’s more to come! Lexington is easy to navigate, and the campus is in the heart of town.
Promo over. 
QOTD1 - Don’t know if D17 would have a preference, but I suspect semesters are less stressful, so that would be my preference. Honestly, if I were coming up with a system, I would have a true quarter system in which you would take 4 (shorter) quarters’ worth of classes (2 fall quarters and 2 spring quarters - not 3 quarters as the quarter system does now). In my system, each quarter would be shorter (7-8 weeks) and students would only take 2 classes per quarter. There’d be a week (maybe 2 – I haven’t worked out the exact calendar yet) off between the first and second fall quarters and the first and second spring quarters, and a month off between the fall quarter 2 and spring quarter 1.
QOTD2 - Summers: theater workshops, DE college course abroad, TASP, local DE college course for foreign language.
Actually, the colleges do get the essay. From the ACT site: The high school and colleges to which ACT reports your scores will be able to view an image of your essay online. The image of your essay will remain available for them to access for up to one year after you graduate from high school.
@pave- I didn’t know about the essay being available. I guess then if colleges are serious and then they should read the essay if writing score is important them. DS took it in September (first time test with new essay format) and got 31. None of his classmates who take later got above 30 even with 35 or 36C and 2 attempts to improve the essay score.
@nw2this I lived in Chicago, managed 13 states around it Illinois and spent a lot of time on the various college campuses in all of those states for my line of business. As a Seattle native, who lived in chicago for 10 years, I cannot say I found any of those areas to feel otherworldly or “deep” south and agree with @Midwest67 that they all felt quite midwest, some far better mannered than others with slightly different accents/inflections but nothing extreme.
I keep trying to convince S17 to even consider Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois but honestly I think he’d be pleasantly surprised by much of Kentucky and Tennessee. Southern Indiana honestly, to me, felt the most “southern” but that was in attitude more than anything else.
I think saying the accent on Bama’s campus is southern is kinda funny. Over 50% of the freshman last yr were OOS. Ds has been there 2 yrs and I don’t think a single friend he has mentioned is from AL. I think most are from TN, CA, and IL.
ACT Writing - Anybody else waiting on a rescore result? They cashed my check last week, but no news yet. We got a big envelope from ACT yesterday, and were expecting rescoring news, but instead it was the Test Information Release that I forgot we ordered.
summer programs my D has done summer at the beach, pool, the mall, universal, Disney, oh and let’s not forget the parties at night! Can she put that on her app? =))
I went to U of Chicago which is on the quarter system, and I really did not like it for the reasons others have mentioned – didn’t like the late start in fall and late end in spring (summer really, since finals were not over till mid-June). And I didn’t like the 12-week quarters because it felt like I never got to really get settled into a class. The first couple of weeks you’re still getting adjusted, and boom! it’s time to start writing your first paper, then a week later comes midterms, then another paper, then suddenly it’s almost finals week. I was used to semesters in high school and I never did really adjust.
The only good thing about it is that the quarter system, at least at U of C, really is 4 quarters since there are full-length classes offered in summer. Having summer classes available if you suddenly realize you need additional credits in this or that to graduate is very helpful.
The advice for students at quarter schools to start looking for summer jobs over spring break is good. Most employers have done their summer hiring by the time quarter schools get out.
Thanks to everyone who responded on my questions about studying graphic design or similar.
@curiositycat333: Her UC GPA is 4.428. She is taking IB Visual Arts which is a 2-year class, very rigorous and involving a lot of research as well as creating art.
I wonder if her IB Visual Arts teacher would help her compile a portfolio? She’s probably done this for other students in the past. (I guess I didn’t make clear earlier, but D is very talented at drawing – she’s not just some kid who thinks graphic design sounds cool.) She could also probably advise her on the different programs available.
@paveyourpath Lax games went well. It’s a Mon-Thursday tourney 2 games a day, teams coached by local college coaches. 10-12 decent MA High School lax programs all battle each other. It’s a good way for the coaches to meet the kids. There were 2 coaches at our games today who were interested in some of the kids there, including my son, but not schools where he wants to go to. His teammate does want to go to one of the schools, so todays session worked out well for him. Hopefully tomorrow my son can talk to the coaches he want to. Too bad, because he actually had a good performance today, had some key goals and some nice assists. Clouds came in and cooled it off a bit.
Chilling out in the air conditioning now, feels good!
QOTD2: Academic programs in the summer. HA Ha, good luck with that in our household. Seriously, that ain’t happenin.
Bumper Sticker idea……Friends don’t let friends apply to U Chicago 
My kid’s college research this summer involves going out with college students from work. Does that count?
@Mommertons we got the rescore maybe 10 days to two weeks after the check was cashed. And the refund maybe a month after the rescore
QOTD1: I went to a college that had semesters, but fall exams were in January after winter break (like DS’ high school). The college has since changed that schedule to a normal semester finished before Christmas. I’ve never taken quarter-based classes.
I haven’t ever tried it, but I like the idea of the J-term (January) that some colleges have, where there is a short session in January. MIT is the only college on S’ list with that setup, I think.
I’ve read that it is generally recommended to apply and interview for summer internships and research jobs long before spring break. I don’t know the exact dates, but I looked at a few REUs and the deadlines to apply were in February.
There are research programs available at quarter-based universities, so those would probably fit better for students with quarter-based classes. For example, Caltech’s SURF program is open to applicants from outside Caltech. But, I agree that since there are more semester-based universities, there are more research programs that fit that type of academic calendar.
@Mommertons The general schedule for rescore and refund that we experienced matched what brindlegreyhound said.
@dustypig I don’t think I’ve ever seen a UC capped GPA over 4.4. Is that possible? If you only have 5 a-g courses per semester in 10th and 11th and 8 points for AP/IB/honors, that comes out to 4.4. And, the capped GPA goes down if you have more a-g courses than 5 per year. (Don’t forget arts/music counts as academic for the UCs. Classes the summers before 10th and after 11th count.) https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/