@RoonilWazlib99 - good friend of our DS’14 is studying Engineering at Gonzaga right now. He couldn’t be happier. Best of luck in your DS’s search. Happy New Year.
@traveler98, congrats to your son on a fabulous SAT score. That score is good anywhere, including the reachy reaches. I personally would not worry about the essay score.
In regard to subject tests, I think the conventional wisdom is to take Math2 after precalc. Since your son has already had that, if he brushes up on some of the earlier math (algebra, etc.) he should be ready. For APChem, I’d wait until he finished that for the year. Just my opinion though.
^^^agree my son took Math 2 in May of the year he was taking pre cal and did fine.
I’ve got a college search slacker here as well. Though in fairness to her, she does have in depth conversations with me (at my request) about what she wants in a college, and I know she has spent time really thinking about what she hopes to find in her future school. But she absolutely will not spend a second looking at college websites (they all look the same as far as she is concerned), nor will she look (yet) at either the Fiske guide or the Princeton Review guide, both of which I bought, and I’m the only one who looks at them… 8-| I did ask her about this, and she was just very matter of fact about it. She feels like she’ll get more out of actually visiting schools, and she’ll get more out of a visit if she goes in without a preconceived notion from a guidebook. She’ll look at them after she’s toured, she said. Plus, she says, she’s just not that worried about the whole college thing, after the high school thing, she knows college will work out fine, wherever she ends up… I did want to hug her after that. :x Turns out she may be a bloom where planted kid after all.
The brief background on the above is she went to a small private school k-8. Searching for a high school, and then transitioning to a public high school (where she knew no one) was… well, it was a ride for all of us. But apparently one that taught her important lessons! 
@traveler98, congrats to your son on the amazing SAT score! And I’m glad to see UTulsa on his list. Great school.
@1822mom, I’ll bet your daughter will definitely bloom wherever she is planted. Our D went through the exact same thing: small private school through 8th grade, then forced into a big, diverse public high school. It was rough at first, but now she has all the confidence in the world when it comes to transitioning to college. She knows it will be okay, because she’s been through it before.
I’m glad there are some other parents of slacker kids – we can worry and bite our nails together!
@1822mom, I don’t think your D actually falls in the slacker category. It sounds like she’s really put some thought into her own wants and needs. (Although as a parent I get your frustration!) My oldest D and I flew around the country visiting schools. She applied to eleven and ended up at our local flagship 20 minutes from home so she could go debt-free even though it was her last choice. Her first year was rough but got better when she found the right major and her “tribe.” Maybe we should have gone with “bloom where you’re planted” in the first place!
Haha @snoozn you’re probably right, “slacker” is not the right term. But yes it does feel frustrating, and lonely a bit too I guess, she’s given me her list of requirements, I’ve done the research to make an initial list based on them, showed it to her, and she’s like, OK these sound good. I’m sorta hoping to get to the point of actual conversation, but I think perhaps I should just be grateful for whatever she’ll give me
@ShrimpBurrito exactly!!
Here’s hoping all our kids find great places to bloom!!
I assume you are being facetious, but that is pretty close to what actually happen with S16…and unless something changes it will happen again with S18!
DD is all signed up to take the SAT on Jan. 21. She is working a little with Khan Academy. Trying to get her to do more. She has gotten a few letters from coaches - they all ask for her SAT score.
Hello All,
We are novices to the college search. Maybe you can help with this question. D18 took her first ACT this past Sept and was told not to pay attention to the essay and that it “doesn’t matter” to the colleges - they just need to see that you took that part. Literally a test prep instructor told her this. So she did zero prep for that part (didn’t even read an example response) and didn’t bother trying to do well on it, assuming it didn’t matter.
Fast forward to now when she bombed the essay part but got a 35 composite on the ACT. Now what? Junior year has been so intense and she has no time to take and retake tests, as you all can surely understand. Do we keep the 35 and not worry about the essay? I don’t remember what she got on the essay. Maybe a 7 or something (around the 50 percentile if I remember correctly). If she takes the test again she probably won’t get another 35. I asked two different (selective) admissions counselors this. One said he can’t really answer that but that all info on an application is fair game. Another said, “We won’t even look at the essay.”
What would you do?
Thanks in advance.
If it were me I would not have her retake it. I really think that it’s going to matter very very little, if at all. (There have also been issues over the past year with strangely low ACT essay scores.) Congratulations to her on a fantastic score!
ETA: Here is just one thread about issues with the ACT essays. There were many more:http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/act-preparation/1861583-act-essay-scores-inexplicably-low-says-washington-post.html
@Kalani Hello. My S18 had the similar issue. He took the ACT as a sophomore and scored a composite 35 and had a 22 on the essay. I had the same question. We too received mixed advice. Bottom line is no one really knows how the essay is being used. Some schools say they aren’t using it but want it. So, I assume it is something they can point to if it’s down to two candidates. S18 took the SAT as a Junior and scored a 1560 and a 19/24 on the writing. Most have advised to just submit the SAT. So who knows. Good luck.
@Kalani I think it varies by school. Check with the schools your kid is applying to. It’s usually on the website which test results they look at. I know many don’t look at the essay results at all.
I’ve read here on CC that when you send your test scores to colleges, they can see your ACT/SAT essay. Colleges want you to write the essay not necessarily for the score, but because they want to see a sample of your writing, knowing that college application essays are often heavily edited.
I can’t vouch for the reliability of this theory, but it sure makes sense.
Interesting @ShrimpBurrito. That does make sense, with all the help that often goes into the application essays…and in many cases not just help but something closer to fraud with parents and other adults basically writing the essays for the students. Some kids (my S included) don’t write well under pressure, but I imagine the student’s voice will still be comparable between the ACT/SAT writing sample and the more polished application essay (assuming the application essay is truly the student’s own work).
I was going to say the same thing as @ShrimpBurrito…I’ve heard many times that schools will look at the essays as an authentic piece of the student’s writing knowing there was no help given. I think you can submit that score with absolutely no worries whatsoever. Congrats!
I’ve heard they can be used as verification and as an authentic sample as well. And while there is some merit in that, I believe a student’s brain is so zapped after 3-4 hours of timed testing that it’s almost unfair to have to string together a coherent and well thought-out essay at that point based on a random prompt, then have it be judged to ascertain your writing ability.
Interesting. I had not heard that. I agree @Kayak3 that it seems crazy to expect such an essay to be truly representative of a student’s work, but then again, I’m not sure there’s much about the whole testing/admissions process that hasn’t seemed at least a bit crazy. I think in the case of my D’s lackluster essay score, I’m going to choose to ignore. There are just bigger things to worry about. If she takes the test again, I’m not even sure I’d have her do the essay. I’d want her to focus on bringing up the math score so why muddy the waters stressing her out about the essay?
Of course the fact that 99% of the schools she’s looking at don’t even look at the essay helps me with this laissez faire attitude. The other 1%, well, I guess they’ll get what they get.
I hope the time-crunch writing is judged as such and not as an end-all be-all representation of the student’s writing ability. Just as the SAT/ACT itself is usually used in conjunction with GPA to get an overall idea of how the student might perform in college coursework. I guess at the elite level it’s also one more comparison point to try to differentiate between excellent candidates. It seems there are grading issues though, at least on the ACT side, leading some colleges to basically ignore the essay grade even if the college officially requires the essay.
Not to be too cynical, but the reason the essay score doesn’t often matter is because they aren’t used when computing Rankings. A low essay score to an AO likely means very little because by admitting that person, they aren’t taking a risk that the school’s ranking will drop, whereas if you admit too many applicants with lower general ACT/SAT scores, it will get noticed because it puts your school’s ranking in jeopardy.