mommdc, Thanks for the suggestion of using Khan Academy. I think it’s a good start.
With the new SAT the essay is supposed to be optional I thought. Of course you need to check if the target schools your child wants to apply to requires them.
It is optional @mommdc, but many schools require it and not just elites. UT Austin, for instance, requires the essay with ACT or SAT.
I wonder if the essay on the ACT or SAT would effect acceptance in the major the child applies for at UT Austin.
@BingeWatcher, I cynically suspect that UT Austin initiated the requirement to cut down on the number of in-state applicants. Probably a certain portion of top 7% auto-admit range students will skip UTA and just apply to TAMU, Texas Tech, etc if they don’t want to take the essay part of the exam. I guess maybe on the fringes the SAT essay might be used for restricted majors, but I doubt it makes any significant difference.
Trying to set up some college visits for my D’s Spring Break, but some schools don’t have their calendars up for April yet. ~X(
I wonder if that’s because they are figuring out when their admitted student days are @odannyboySF . Still, seems like they should have those dates locked in by now, that’s frustrating! I was just planning our upcoming visits as well, and the only snag I hit was I had to extend the trip by one day because the airfare on the date I planned to leave had nearly doubled since I first did my research for the trip! Luckily, moving that one day brought it back down, unfortunately I think the extra day of hotel/car/etc eats up most of the savings but I figure they will have an extra day to explore the area, which can’t be a bad thing.
H is taking her on all the distant visits :(( It was a mutual decision based largely on the fact that I really want her to form her own opinions of these places and I think H will be able to give her that neutral experience better than I will. I’m sending them with all my legwork, and all my questions, and strict orders to take pictures/videos/notes and lots of them for each place. I figure next year when she’s revisiting as an admitted student, it will be my turn 
@odannyboySF, are you sure? For every college we’ve looked at, they’ve all had this year and next year’s calendar available. If you tell me the schools I can take a quick look.
We are struggling to plan visits because my D doesn’t have a real list yet and the ones she’s expressed some interest in are (literally) all over the map.
@odannyboySF I’ve had the same experience–most calendars are up, but definitely not all.
@suzy100 we also have this struggle. We’ve given S18 3 areas of the country we can visit for the break. He has chosen Texas/Oklahoma at this point.
We had the same issue with every school our son wanted to visit over February break. We were trying to plan back in October/November and no one had anything in their calendars/registration area for Feb yet. Makes it hard when you’re trying to get flights and hotels to not know timing. We just estimated based on what they had at that time. Everything opened up in December, so about two months out.
Good call, @1822mom. April is prime time for that.
@suzy100 I check almost daily (yes, I am that person). Wellesley, Bard, and Muhlenberg haven’t posted April availability yet. I just hope we can get the days/times we want, because I’ve already scheduled a few around them. Fingers Xed!
Good luck @odannyboySF, and to everyone else planning spring break college visits!
Anyone else’s kid already choose their college? D18 has decided she’s going to USC (Southern Cal). She’s completely lost interest in all the other universities. It’ll be like pulling teeth to get her to fill out a reasonable set of applications next year (reaches, matches, and safeties).
On a humorous note, she received email from Caltech last night. More rejection-bait. At least they admit at the bottom of the message that the mail was sent based on information from the College Board or ACT org. Did the mass-emailing software not compare D18’s scores to Caltech’s averages? They’re the last university I would expect to resort to such tactics to drum up auto-reject applicant counts. Disappointing.
@droppedit - our son has decided that Virginia Tech and Gonzaga are at the top of his list, but he’s still looking around. Probably because he felt after visiting Virginia Tech that no college could come close and then felt the same way when he visited Gonzaga so he realizes he can feel that strongly about a couple places.
He has visited other schools as well so he does have reference points and has not loved every school he has visited.
@droppedit, it’s a good thing she has missed the deadline to apply to USC as a junior, or she might really be done! S18 has enjoyed visits to five schools (UT Austin, UT Dallas, U Tulsa, WPI and MIT). He hasn’t suggested a single school visit himself, although he’s mentioned Caltech in passing because a good friend of his is applying there this year. I think if he could apply right now he’d be happy to do so, not to skip senior year but just to get the applications out of the way. Since he has a good range of schools already, the other day I told him I’m happy to arrange visits for any colleges he chooses but that research is now up to him. I suggested he might like to make an appointment at his school’s college and career center which is separate from the regular counseling department, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he ignores that suggestion. Like your D, he seems quite content with his current list.
@traveler98 – she got the “Apply to RHP” letter from USC a few months ago. At the time, I said, you’re miserable in HS and want to graduate early, here’s your chance. She was very excited but USC wasn’t her top choice then. A week or so later she said, I won’t be ready to go to college in a year, and didn’t apply.
“Anyone else’s kid already choose their college?”
We started the college selection process early. D has already visited several schools, some more than once. D appreciates the time to process and figure out what is important to her. She pretty much has it narrowed down to two: McGill and U Toronto. She is a likely admit at both, and is eligible for Canadian tuition (~5K/year, before any merit scholarships). They both seem to be a perfect fit for her. Regardless, H and I are encouraging her to cast a little wider net, just to give herself some more options. You know how finicky these teenagers can be!
We have been doing college visits the past couple of years with S18. We will finish that off this Spring Break with a short visit to Pasadena to see Caltech. I’m pretty confident that S18 would apply to MIT right now if possible! The problem we have is figuring out his “safety” schools. The schools he is interested in are MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale. Which, if you look carefully, spell LOTTERY! He is in the top 25% of all of them in terms of grades and test scores. So, it will not be his transcript that keeps him out. Hard to get him to look at schools like UT Austin or Rice. Just a tough situation when all the schools you want are crap shoots…
S18’s college choices will be limited by merit aid. Thankfully he really likes UT Dallas:-) He’s meeting with the UTD’s college rep at his high school today to find out more about their merit scholarship (National Merit, Honors AES, and the McDermott scholarship). I already know a lot about them because I’m CC junky;-) but I’m happy that he’s meeting with the rep to find out more information for himself.
He learned over Christmas that a friend who got accepted into Texas A&M as an engineering major was put on academic probation and dropped out after his first semester. It was an real eye opener for him. I’m happy that UTD seems to be supportive of their students and don’t seem to have “weeder” classes.
@odannyboySF, I think I misinterpreted your post! I read it as you couldn’t figure out when some colleges were going to be on spring break (and thus not a good time to visit), but I think you were looking for a tour schedule? Sorry about that!
I think my D has a favorite picked out, and I’d be thrilled for her if she is admitted, but it’s a reach. We need to spread a wide net ($$) so visits will be important I think. Luckily she came along when we were looking at schools for her older sister, so she’s got an idea of what she likes and what she doesn’t.