Here’s a funny but college-related story. We were in the Caribbean for President’s Day weekend and went on a “bioluminescent” tour in the bay. The company’s van picked us up then stopped by the Ritz-Carlton to pick up a cute couple in their early 20s. I said, “we’re from Atlanta, where are y’all from?”. The guy replied New York City and the girl said Los Angeles. I go, “oh, my D18 is dying to go to USC in LA”. Well, it turns out that both of them graduated from USC last year. Both raved about their time there. The guy was in finance at a big company and the girl was a model and actress (no big parts yet, we didn’t recognize her). She said she was going to Milan for a show and then might meet her father in Dubrovnik on the way back. I said something like, “wow, good luck with all that”, in an encouraging way.
After the tour, which was really cool, D18 gets on her computer and says, “hey, here’s the girl”. It was Jamie Foxx’s daughter! I felt kind of silly with the encouraging words given that she could find our entire net worth in loose change between the cushions of her couch.
Superscoring SAT Yes, for colleges that superscore, it makes sense to send in all scores. They only superscore the math and reading scores for a max of 1600 (the essay is not in the mix here). If they don’t superscore and accept score choice, you may want to only send the best score. Not all colleges allow you to score choice, so it’s important to look at the requirements of each school. This is where a spreadsheet comes in handy!!
@vistajay Thanks! Yep, there’s paperwork to fill out, but kids who miss the PSAT are allowed to substitute an SAT score through the alternate entry method.
"If a Student Misses the PSAT/NMSQT® Administration
A student who does not take the PSAT/NMSQT because of illness, an emergency, or other extenuating circumstance, but meets all other requirements for NMSC program participation, may still be able to enter the competition. The student or a school official must write to NMSC as soon as possible after the PSAT/NMSQT administration to request information about procedures for alternate entry to the National Merit Scholarship Program. The earlier NMSC receives the written request, the greater the student’s opportunities for meeting alternate entry requirements. To be considered, a request must be postmarked no later than March 1 following the PSAT/NMSQT administration that was missed. NMSC will provide alternate entry materials that require the signature of a school official."
They mention postmarks, but we called to get instructions, and then emailed them. They emailed the forms, and we scanned them back. Snail mail isn’t required.
Well, we got another strong contender today in the University of Wisconsin Madison! He absolutely loves it and said it’s not just in the top of his list, but it is the current leader of all the schools he has been to.
Loved the city, the campus, the people, the programs. Looks like I am going to have to do some research because I haven’t even gone to their website!
@suzy100 I spent some time yesterday reading up on the concordance, score compression, etc., and I agree with you. The concordance doesn’t seem right at the higher end of things. Nothing to do about it, really, but it helped me put my S’s score and Selection Index into proper context.
He’ll probably still retake the SAT for scholarship purposes. I think there might be a psychological benefit to being 1500 or above even if the difference isn’t statistically significant otherwise. His SI of 223, though? That’s solid. There’s no way CA will hit 224 because 224 on the new PSAT would be equivalent to 228 of higher on the old PSAT. Nobody, no even MD or DC, is going that high.
I am over the moon about S18 today (as I think he is about himself, too)! This is the kid who does not do well with tests in school. His reaction to standardized testing always is “it was so easy and some of the questions were so stupid or didn’t have a correct answer choice (mom’s thinking uh-oh).” He never scored higher than a 29 on his practice ACTs, but knocked it out of the park with a 32. He is DONE!
I’ve seen people comment that they think the test prep companies’ practice tests are more difficult than the real one. I don’t know if that’s true in his case or if it is with added better focus because he knew it mattered.
Anyone else’s kids have some new ideas on where they might want to apply after getting back their first standardized test scores? D18 typically scores a bit higher than average, but has really taken off this year and got much higher SAT scores than expected. A day later, she’s changing her perspective quite a bit on where she might apply, with a focus on schools that are more selective and also much larger in size than her original ideas. It was exciting to see her become more enthusiastic about the upcoming college search…I wonder if she’ll be able to keep that momentum when she sees how much work college applications can be :).
@lifegarding I’m glad your D is able to expand her horizons a bit. Does she already have some good safeties picked out?
In our case, S’s score cemented our existing plans. We knew going in that merit $$ was going to be paramount for us, especially because S is thinking about med school. With med school in play, the undergrad degree needs to be as close to free as we can get. We’ve scoured this site for autostats, competitive and NMF scholies, but until we had some idea if he’d make NMF, all of it was very tentative.
He’ll be applying to several of the big NMF schools, one UC, maybe one or two CSUs, and Tulane. His favorites at the moment are UNM, followed by a tie between OU and Michigan State. UT Dallas is third, and he’s holding Tulane as an unranked wildcard because of how much merit we’d need to make it work.
All of this is without visiting, so I’m expecting lots of changes once he’s been to each school. We’ll be visiting OU, UT Dallas and Texas Tech over spring break. UNM is a day’s drive, so we’ll hit that one on a three day weekend at some point. Same with Tulane except we’ll probably fly.
For Michigan State, S will probably be invited to one of their top scholars weekends, and they offer travel assistance, so we’ll either wait for that or try to arrange a summer visit. I know summer isn’t ideal, but Michigan is the farthest away/most complicated to get to.
S has AP Psych in the bag already, he’ll be taking AP Lang, AP Bio and AP Micro/Macro this year, followed by AP Lit, AP Calc BC and one of the Physics ones next year.
@suzy100 that will be a game changer for all NM scholarships not just FL, other schools known to give big National Merit scholarships will likely adjust their scholarships to keep their potential NM students from heading to FL! If this passes it’s a win all the way around!
DD’18 has three APs this year (AP ENG Lang., AP USH and AP CALC AB). She just filled out her classes for next year - 4 APs (I’m a little nervous about that.)
He is DONE!