Parents of the HS Class of 2018 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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For National Merit purposes (if she advances) her SAT score is above the confirming score needed. I was more asking specifically about applying for example to Stanford: if a student has a good ACT score and a decent SAT score, should the student only submit the score that puts him/her in the best light? Part 2 of the question was: is the student that submitted a good SAT score and a good ACT score better off than the student who submitted only a good ACT score?

I know the colleges say they’ll take either, but I just wonder if submitting both scores give someone a leg up?

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Or maybe to ask a different way: if a student submits a 35 ACT score, I wonder if the college just converts that to the SAT score using the table and notes that she got the equivalent of a 1570 SAT score? That’s what I’m hoping anyway - then she’d be done with testing :slight_smile:

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@LMHS73, Stanford wants to see all scores from all sittings of both the ACT and SAT, except for those taken very early for things like Duke TIP. Your D’s junior year SAT must be sent even if it doesn’t “match” her ACT. Here’s the link from the Stanford freshman admissions page:

http://admission.stanford.edu/application/freshman/testing.html

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Thanks @traveler98, I think I picked the wrong example school! Well, I guess there’s no real answer to my question except to follow the individual school or scholarship’s instructions.

Thanks for the inputs everyone :smiley:

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D & H have returned from their spring break travels and here’s what they found:

Univ of Puget Sound - They had attended a local event for this one in the fall and it had been the turning point for H to say OK yes I see that an LAC-style school is really probably a good fit for D. They both liked it going in to this visit. But coming away from the visit they both felt kinda lukewarm about it. They liked the area, they thought the campus was very pretty and well laid out, the housing seemed very nice, academic offerings seemed perfectly reasonable and solid, but they just, for whatever reason, didn’t feel a connection. D said she definitely wants to apply, but it just isn’t her top choice. Which is fair since I don’t really even want her to have a top choice right now. :slight_smile:

Western Washington University - This was the only one I needed her to like, even a little bit. It’s her financial safety. It’s much bigger than she wants for a school, but it has an honors program that I think she could get into. Again she didn’t love it, but she did like it enough that it stays on the list and can be her financial safety! She LOVED the honors dorm, and felt that she would have to do honors to be happy there, because she pretty much hated the regular dorm they saw. They were able to meet with the honors program director and have lunch with some honors students. She is generally an introvert and not great in those situations but she said it was fine. H really liked it because it was a larger school they had a lot of choices for academic programs, something he thinks is important for someone as committed to undecided as D. They both felt the smaller community of the honors program would be a good fit for D. The campus itself was described to me as quite nice, bigger than the others (of course) but a nice mix of older and newer buildings. The area seemed pretty good with an apparent divide between Bellingham (where you go to eat with your friends $) and Fairhaven (where you go with your parents $$). D & H stayed in Fairhaven and said it was very nice.

University of Denver - This one’s a wild card. D has been strangely enamored by it, and H reported shortly after their visit that she had really liked it. They apparently had a great tour guide, which I am learning makes ALL the difference. So much so, that my D, who does not ski, completely overlooked all the obvious markers during the info session and tour that said “kids who go here like to ski”. Which is not to say that you cannot be happy there if you don’t ski, but she just shrugged that whole aspect of the culture off, and it surprised me. She wasn’t wowed by the dorms, but again, kinda shrugged that off! I think my H was wondering what magic elixir they had put in the water… but, further reflection by her has brought it down to earth a bit. She told me this morning she thinks she likes the idea of it probably more than she would actually like going there. Definitely stays on the list. Still a wild card.

That’s probably it for OOS visits for us before admissions results come in. We’ll do closer to home visits as we can one at a time. My main worry now is that her financial safety is also the farthest from home! :-t My kid is a big homebody, and I have a feeling the closer in schools are going to rise in the ranks. I would love to have one I could bank on, though based on info from the fabulous 2017 parents I do feel pretty comfortable with at least one school providing enough merit to be very solid for her. Then the other half of me chimes in with, unless it’s guaranteed it’s not guaranteed! So I think we will have to decide whether that leap of faith is one we can take.

Belated welcome to all the new parents who have recently delurked! It’s so great to see this thread coming to life! >:D<

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Oh sorry, @LMHS73, I thought when you picked Stanford as an example it was coming from your D’s list. What luck that you picked one of the few colleges that require all test scores!

Some colleges superscore, some only look at the best sitting, and a few like Stanford want everything. If your D only likes schools that don’t require all exam info, then she can stick with her 35. Did she take the essay portion? Some colleges require the essay portion, not just elite privates (for instance UT Austin requires the essay with either the SAT or the ACT). Again, depending on her list if she didn’t take the essay section she might need to retake.

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@LMHS73, my D15 only took the ACT bc she was actually awful at the SAT. She had a very good ACT score, went 8 for 8 on admissions, including multiple honors programs and merit scholarships. If your D’s SAT score isn’t close to a 35 on the concordance charts, then stick with sending the ACT score only. (For those schools where the whole NMF thing doesn’t apply.)

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@1822mom - “committed to undecided,” I love that one - sounds just like my D!!

@traveler98 - Yes, she took the essay portion as well & got a 10 out of a possible 12. Her essay on the SAT was also kind of on the low side, so I’m guessing D18 is an ACT kid all the way!!

I like all of the suggestions to start on applications and essays this summer. D18’s plans (maybe more like: our plans for D18) this summer are to make money for next school year by doing lots of yard work (I pay very well); get her driver’s permit and attend the same one-week driving school that S15 went to; start on the college essays & applications; and have some fun in-between.

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@LMHS73 my d18 has a very good ACT score and she’s just going to use that. She has to take the SAT later this month for school but doesn’t anticipate doing as well on it and isn’t studying for it. She’s not interested in any schools that require you to submit all scores and we don’t see the point of studying for and taking the SAT when she already has a good ACT score. My d15 took both tests twice and submitted only the higher score (for her the SAT). She applied to 11 schools with 10 acceptances and good scholarships at 9/10 schools. I don’t think it’s necessary to submit both tests.

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Dealing with make up work-

I’ve been blessed with very healthy kids and never really had to deal with sick days. Last week ds18 got hit with a double whammy. He called me after school on Monday asking me to please come pick him up from school because he didn’t feel he could safely drive home. Turns out that he mustered through the school day with a fever of 103 plus and doesn’t remember anything other than sleeping through lunch. I thought he was just over tired, he crashed on the sofa as soon as he got home, he woke up at 8pm and was not lucid at all! I took him to the emergency room, strep test and mono test were negative and they told him to get more fluids as he was dehydrated and take Tylenol for the fever and stay home from school for the next two days. He stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday so tired he couldn’t get out of bed let alone crack a book but got the fever down to 99.x Thankfully he felt he could go to school on Thursday but was still a bit out of it and he had to fly to Las Vegas for a competition on Thursday night. He had planned to miss school with an unexcused absence on Friday even though if he hadn’t had this competition I would have kept him home on Friday. Monday morning he went to school but was in such pain he went to the nurse. She called and told me if I can’t get him into the doctor on Monday I need to take him back to the ER because she thinks he has developed a secondary complication from the high fever and has a blister/infection in his throat.

Thankfully he pediatrician could see him on Monday. She re-ran both strep and mono tests and they still came up negative but said he had one of the ‘angriest’ looking throats she’s seen so prescribed antibiotics and a prescription gargle for pain. DS returned to school on Tuesday and said he was much better.

The problem is that he missed an insane amount of homework, tests, labs… he’s in several AP classes that are full speed ahead to prepare for AP tests. His teachers are pressuring him to take the make tests and quizzes ASAP. The AP chem teacher even wants him to take the make up test before he’s completed the labs and homework. The student handbook says he can have two days for every excused absence to make up the work. I’m wondering if I should get the GC involved to advocate for his allotted make up time. I don’t want him to rush through make up work and at the expense of his GPA. Has anyone else had experience with this?

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I have! Email the teachers and let them know that your son was ill and he will make up the work he missed in all of his classes. It’s the beginning of the quarter for us, but if grades are due for your teachers, they can assign I’s. When the work is done, they can submit a grade change. It’s not difficult and it happens all the time. Try teachers before guidance/admin.

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@keepmecruisin; @KAMmom - Now THAT’S the kind of info I was hoping to hear - thanks for sharing!!!

I found an old CC thread from a few years back talking about the same issue (converting scores). One family submitted the daughter’s ACT score & they got a call from the college a while later asking her about her self-reported SAT score. The family got a little nervous because they didn’t send an SAT score and the one the college was reporting was way higher than her actual SAT score. The college rep then realized that it was them (the college) that converted her ACT score to an SAT score from the conversion table.

So yeah, that sounds like the plan to me: submit only her ACT score unless any particular school she applies to requires something else (SAT scores, all test scores, etc.).

Thanks so much - you both made my night !!! :open_mouth:

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If applications open over the summer should the transcripts be ordered and sent at the end of junior year rather than waiting for school to resume in the fall? Would the receiving colleges accept those transcripts prior to an application submitted?

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@3scoutsmom - sorry to hear about D18’s health issues - that stinks! They’re all so busy and stressed-out, it’s a wonder that they’re not all getting sick from shear exhaustion! I hope he recovers quickly and has the time to make-up his work without having a relapse - you’d better keep a good eye on him.

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@3scoutsmom, I hope your S18 feels better soon!!!

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Yikes @3scoutsmom, that’s scary. I hope he’s back in his groove soon.

Is anyone else’s kiddo taking the SAT at school today? D has a very good ACT score already so she’s going in with no pressure, but some of her classmates are pretty amped up about it.

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@LMHS73 I recently went to a Wash U presentation, and they said that they want either the SAT or the ACT (if a student has taken both) - whichever works best for the student. They really did not encourage students to send in both. I haven’t heard any other school state that so emphatically. Schools change their policies from year to year, and the policies for the upcoming admissions cycles are probably not out yet.

My oldest child took the ACT once and the SAT twice, as well as 4 SAT subject tests. She sent the minimum that was required for each school, which was typically SAT and 2 subject tests (since her SAT was much stronger than her ACT).

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So I’d have to laugh if I wasn’t so disgusted. My daughter’s college prep lit class is blasting through Hamlet in a week and a half. Most if not all of the kids don’t really understand it.

Someone asked the teacher a question. She told them to Google it. Methinks the teacher doesn’t understand Hamlet, either. Yet she is doing several quizzes and a test on it. There goes the fourth quarter lit grade …

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@3scoutsmom; @homerdog - Thanks for your posts about the national merit process yesterday. I reread them today and learned a couple of things!

D18 got a killer score on the PSAT (way above our state cutoff) but she wound up getting 2 of those dreaded semester “Cs” in her AP Calc BC class and its accompanying lab class. She got a 79.34 (.66 below what would have been a “B” - OUCH) in the class & they get the same grade for the lab as they got in the regular class. Those are the first two “C” grades she’s ever gotten in her life!! That’s why I keep saying “if she advances.” [-O<

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@LMHS73 Hang in there. I know lots of super bright kids who ended up with Cs in either BC Calc or AP Physics!