Super happy for S with a 225 in Wisconsin–should be well above cutoff (would have to jump 10 points which seems pretty unlikely). Since we are very dependent on merit, this makes a HUGE difference for him. He will have to take the SAT now, of course.
Stop paying attention for a day or so and wham - pages of new posts. S’18 did very well - 4 points over last years cutoff. So, that should make several instate schools financial safeties and setting the bar for other opportunities.
Congrats @dadotwoboys !!!
“Anyone else worried about large jumps?”
Well, I know CC is a self selecting group, but wow it seems like just about everyone that posts is saying that their kid is in NM territory. Maybe the test was unusually easy and the cutoffs will jump way up?
Back in October, I said:
" Gotta chime in on my S18’s PSAT assessment. Keep in mind that he did no prep and is not a very good standardized test taker. His assessment: it was so easy and it was stupid because on some of the reading questions none of the answer choices were right. I asked if any of them had a “none-of-the-above” choice, he said “no.” In my experience, this kind of assessment doesn’t bode well for score-back day. "
Given ^, he didn’t do too badly. Not great on the R&W, as expected, but really good in math. Overall, no NMS-anything, but we’re proud of him. He WILL go to college.
I’ll chime-in on the topic of large jumps: DS is talking to several classmates at his KS school w/ a SI at/over 220. His SI is 221 and the prior cut-off for KS was 217. So while I really do not think KS will hit 222, I was surprised at what DS was hearing among classmates today. Granted, our high school always produces a large number of NMFs…
our high school usually has 20 or so out of 600ish make NMF. The buzz my son heard at his school is about a third of his friends say that the TX score will go up, a third say it will stay the same and a third are praying that it will go down but they don’t think it will.
So I was wrong before. Our school usually has 8-ish, not 15!
Son is home and reported that he has one friend who scored exactly the same as him, and four who scored higher (he was at 223), including one 1520.
He also said there were a number of kids he would have expected to score high that had scores in the 1100-1300 range, which he was really surprised by.
So a mix of scores from our school, but sounds like a 223 is still on the high-ish end here. Cutoff last year in our state was a 220.
My daughter’s SI is a 215. We are in Louisiana. Any thoughts on her chances of being NMSF?
@qwertyuiop13 - Most recent cutoff for your state is 214. It’s listed as a medium volatility state in terms of cutoffs moving up or down. I’d say there is a definite chance, but nothing certain.
@GoAskDad, did your S know the scores of many class of 2017 students last year? If his school typically has many NMFs and he and his friends are among the crowd expected to produce high scores this year, there’s nothing to worry about. But if he’s heard from a teacher or GC that this crop of juniors has many more 220+ scores than the class of 2017 did, that might be of more concern.
Congrats on all the great scores!
My daughter had a decent but not great score. I suspect the ACT is her kind of test (and that’s the one most kids around here take).
This time next year we will be talking about some college admissions - yikes!
^Same, @bearcatfan. DS did fine, much better than last year even, but will not even be commended. However, he did score 35 on his first (and last!) ACT. He much prefers it to the SAT. I hope the same will be true for your D!
When applying to colleges next Fall, what is your opinion of which score to submit (both on first try) a 35 on ACT versus a 1560 on SAT? STEM student…both have perfect Math Score…ACT did have an abnormally low Reading Section 30 with rest 36’s…S18 took ACT as sophomore and SAT as junior…thoughts?
@traveler98 Most of the students DS spoke with are, indeed, the students who would typically score higher on tests like the PSAT - but not all. He doesn’t know the scores of students who took the PSAT last year, other than there was at least one “perfect” score. That is not unusual for the school, though. In this case, I’m not going to worry because at least DS is not right on the bubble like his older brother was. His grades are also very solid (no Cs). We will just have to wait/see how it turns out - though we will definitely travel to OU sooner than we did with older DS. OU has a great program for NMFs that is worth checking out - though our state flagship does, too, and DS might just wind up there. The overall value prop of our state flagship was just too hard to pass by for older DS and he has definitely benefited from it during his college years.
@brazos21 Could your DS take the ACT again, just to see if he can bring up the Reading section? (though the overall score is AWESOME and maybe he doesn’t need to mess with it again) I ask only because he may be able to get a 36 overall now, as a junior. Otherwise, the SAT score is also great and he could just submit that. Some schools will require all scores be submitted, but that current ACT score would be fine, IMO.
@brazos21 In the book Behind The Ivy Curtain: A Data Driven Guide to Elite College Admissions (the author used data from CC forums), he says any SAT score over 1510 is basically gold, so that 1560 is what I’d go with.
@brazos21 – I’d report both scores. From what I’ve read on college websites, the most important subscores in the ACT are English and Math and your son is golden there.
Congrats on all the great scores! If your DD or DS did not score in the NMSF range, that’s okay. You are not alone. CC is a self-select group. Our first two kids both scored really well. Our third - DD’18 - is not going to be NMF, so for this year the PSAT really was a practice. She improved her score and we are very happy for her and we have a good idea where she is aiming for her SAT in January. She is a great kid and will have many good options ( as did her siblings) and she will end up in a wonderful place and make life-long friends (just as her siblings did/ is doing). Everything is AWESOME.
@droppedit Thanks for reply…did that book have the new SAT numbers already in it? Just surprised.