Question: Has anyone paid for an used the ACT Online Test prep that you can get when you register for the ACT? It is $40 more to get it. I am considering it if it a online style course that adjusts to what my kid needs to work on. I think something structured like that may help her over the self study with the paper book/tests method. But I don’t want to waste the $ if it isn’t any good.
Just received notice that our local P.E.O. chapter has nominated D17 for a $2,500 one-time scholarship. All you ladies, if you know someone in P.E.O. I believe you can get your D17 nominated (no dudes). I think nomination is a formality, and it’s pretty much assured, but the deadline is September I believe. Nice little surprise! One more essay to do, though. :((
@STEM2017 Thanks for the quick feedback. I’ll talk to my daughter but I think she might use it. Remember I am ok with her 30 - she is the one motivated to bring it up. Really $40.00 doesn’t seem to bad.
Q2 - her writing score on the first test was HORRIBLE (how do you get a 30E and 33R but only a 19 on the essay?) I have read about the scoring issues and that most schools are tossing it anyway. But should I have her take the writing part again anyway? Or just save the $?
Worst Case Scenario - S never finishes his CA essay. But OTOH, he only (currently) has one school that uses the CA. But… that school is at the top of his list. D 15 is home from her summer internship and I may enlist her to nudge him along because he is driving me and his college counselor crazy. Another Worst case is that he misses National Merit by 1 point. His schools skew towards him getting to be a NMF.
@stlarenas I personally would have your D do the writing again, unless none of the schools require it. If they do require it, and she doesn’t take it when she takes her next test, then she will have to send in the old score anyway. Even if she gets another 19 it’s worth it. That’s not a horrible score. If she looks at the rubric, I’ll be she beats the 19.
Dd and I have both spent the better part of an hour messing around with the Coalition App and it is a disaster. It is incredibly unfriendly and difficult to work with. Worst part of all, the guidance counselor portion is not navigational at all if you can’t find your specific school listed. Why? B/c they tell you to select the school not listed option, which, by the way, does not even exist.
Dd is bailing on the CO App and applying individually. What a pain.
Worst case scenario—not getting into any UCs and then filling out the application for San Diego State wrong so also doesn’t get in there.
From the HS profile (about 3000 kids total): 32% White, 27% Asian, 23% Hispanic, 10% African American, 7% Pacific Islander.
Both my D and S have received their HPV vaccines. I am so glad they don’t have any adverse reactions to vaccines, so they get whatever is recommended. I need to go read up on the meningitis discussion.
Worst case scenario is I finally decide I’m not going to nag my procrastinating DD anymore and she doesn’t do any apps, therefore going from a full merit kid to a working at Chickfila kid. And she gets paid in chick’n minis.
Or she only gets into Bama where her sister goes and they are forced to live together. Oh the horrors.
Both DDs got the first HPV dose and it made one of them sick. No more doses.
@carachel2 - Getting in to GT is hard enough, but OOS merit aid is very difficult to get at GT, they don’t give a whole lot of it… There are co-ops in future years to help but if they can’t afford full pay for at least 2 years it could be a financial disaster.
Can someone give me a quick lesson in how merit at American U. goes down over time, which is what I’ve heard? Is it certain awards, not the big ones? How can you tell? D17 asked me about it, and I don’t want to tell her ‘no’ without doing a little due diligence. She’s actually doing SOMETHING and I’d like to encourage her ideas.
@JenJenJenJen I think the block plan is not for everyone. And if memory serves when I looked at it briefly, cost may be a factor. Also, while Colorado Springs is stunning, it’s super conservative and my tree hugging kid would not be comfortable there. I don’t expect necessarily that the school is as conservative as the town but the relatives we have there sure are and that might not be good for future harmony. LOL!
Downsizing: Not yet, because we still have three at home after D17 goes to college. However, we’re already planning that the moment D25 (the youngest) is gone, we’re selling the house and moving to something much, much smaller. We do not include plans for boomerang kids in our planning, and if they do return, they get the couch, I suppose—we’re not really into sparing effort on making that arrangement comfortable, you know?
Worst-case scenario: My daughter remains just barely on the side of positive for Alabama (though her aunt and uncle who live in North Alabama are working on selling it to her!), so presumably it would be any other acceptances being unaffordable, leaving that as the only possibility. From my POV that’s a pretty good worst-case, but she remains a bit horrified by the possibility of going to a school with a five-digit student body size.
University of Central Florida: I used to be faculty there. For a while, including while I was there, there was a lot (I mean, a crazy amount for a large school) of friction between the administration and the faculty, and that actually creates problems that trickle down to the students. From friends who are still there, though, it sounds like that’s gotten better lately (particularly connected with the change of provost a few years ago). They do still overwork their faculty, with some crazy class sizes (like 27+ students in some classes listed as involving a lot of writing, with no grader or teaching assistant provided—sorry, but there’s no way to actually give solid feedback on multiple writing assignments for students when there’s that size of a class), but overall faculty morale seems to have gotten to a reasonable level, which allows faculty to feel more invested in their students.
@curiositycat333@JenJenJenJen We did a Colorado College tour and DS ended up going there again on a school field trip visiting CC and U of Colorado Colorado Springs. Family was under-impressed and DS hated it. CC is VERY Expensive, the same cost as East coast LACs.
I think it is a fine school for Out Of State, maybe City kids. Not for kids from Colorado or Montana, as the marketing point is all the mountains, skiing, hiking, climbing, and outdoors. We are like, been there done that, we could do that on our own.
The campus is very small and not pretty. It looks like a high school on flat urban area. A 6-lane boulevard cuts across the middle of campus.
The guides said the students are pretty dry although parties can be found.
We are skeptical about the extreme Block schedule as well. 3 1/2 week for a semester worth coursework of math, physics or even philosophy class would never work. The topics require mulling over, sort of gestation period.
From the high school profile: D17 private high school is 76% white, 8% Asian, 8% multiracial, 4% African American, and 1% Hispanic, it’s more diverse than our public school which is 82% white.
Worst case scenario: Net Price Calculations were wrong and schools we thought were affordable for us, are not. I have printed out the data and have been lucky with FA before, so hopefully the numbers will be close.
Best case scenario: Come decision time we will have decisions and choices to make!
@picklesarenice I hope you share more about your college visits! Wondering specifically on comparisons / observations between Mount Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley. My D didn’t care for Mount Holyoke AT ALL (but I loved it!) and I’m curious about the new Trustee Scholarship available and will have to investigate!
Yep, not much OOS merit aid at GT. About 40 OOS students a year are awarded the Provost scholarship, which reduces the OOS tuition and fees ($32,404), down to the in-state rate ($12,212).
About 40 students (who could be in-state or OOS) receive the Stamps President’s Scholars Program