@go2mom, when you suggest that kids email adcoms, in what context do you mean? Do you mean just to say, “Hi, I’m here, I’m interested” or do you mean with specific questions?
Blargh. Just went into my alumni interviewing portal to see how the candidates I interviewed fared in the college admissions game this year.
I interviewed six young men and women this year. We can rank them on a scale from basically a “no thanks” up to a “one in a million” candidate, with several ranks in between. I rated three of my candidates as “highly desirable” - the rank right below the one in a million, one as “desirable”, and two as “acceptable” (kind of a “like many others” ranking).
Only one was admitted - one of my “acceptable” candidates. The three highly desirables had one deny, and two waitlisted. It just bummed me out because my only admitted candidate was a legacy and she just wasn’t really impressive, especially compared to the other kids. She was fine, “like many others,” but nothing set her apart as someone who was truly engaged or interested. I’m sure there were other factors - perhaps she was super nervous or felt pressured due to being a double legacy.
It just made me realize how much of a “game” it can all be. And how some schools are a true “lottery.”
Speaking of lotteries, we asked our S18 to research whether or not any SAT 2 tests were required or encouraged by any of his schools and only one school he is interested in, Stanford, wants to see them. I thought that might turn him off Stanford as he has been complaining of the upcoming IB test season with finals on top of that. He really did NOT want three hours of standardized testing on top. But, he said he is willing to take them for Stanford, so cross your fingers. He is doing Math 2, Physics, and Chem in June.
@RoonilWazlib99, yep, those kids don’t always make the decisions we think they will. My S also has just one SAT subject test school on his list (MIT). It’s not even his top choice, and he knows he has very little chance there (no national awards, no hooks, almost no leadership positions) so I thought he might pass once he found out about the testing requirement. He’s committed to taking them in June, though he won’t even think about studying for them until after AP exams are done. Oh well, we can easily afford the test fees and if that’s how he wants to spend his time on a Saturday morning in June then it’s all right by me. If he really enjoys the summer coding camps at his current top choice (UT Dallas) I wouldn’t be surprised if he ultimately decides not to apply to MIT.
@traveler98 - We told S18 not to stress as he’s already studying for the IB Chem exam and then is studying for his IB Chem, IB Physics, and IB Math finals anyway, so he shouldn’t need to double up. We’re hopeful that studying for his finals will be like studying for the SAT 2 tests and it won’t be extra.
Although he responded to that with, “What’s the point of taking them if I’m not going to study for them?” . . .
I finally just called S19’s guidance counselor to ask about SAT IIs. He thinks S19 should just focus on his grades this spring. Thinks it’s honestly too early to know if he will have colleges on his list that consider them. We already know he won’t have any that require them. GC also said, for schools that just consider them, he suggests only sending 780s and 800s. If you don’t get those scores, don’t send. He thinks it’s a boost if you have those scores but schools may hold it against you with lower ones. He also mentioned that he’s never had a student use an SAT II from freshman or sophomore year. Thinks kids are more prepared after junior year. Especially for the science SAT IIs, he felt strongly that kids at our school really need to be in that AP version in order to be sure they’ve covered everything. Students who have taken them after an honors science class have historically not done well.
All of this info is, obviously, specific to our high school. We’ve got one happy S19 now who isn’t taking SAT IIs this June.
OOPS. Meant to post on Parent of 2019!!! 
@homerdog timing of taking the SAT II exams should coincide with the completion of the corresponding class. DS18 took his Math and Physics SAT IIs at the end of sophomore year because that’s when he finished those classes. At that point he did not know if he would need them or not but we thought it was better to go ahead and take them while it was fresh is mind then go back and take them later. He got 800 on both but turns out he won’t really need them but I doubt he would have done as well if he put it off a year after taking the classes.
@3scoutsmom Thanks. I know. I hear you. S19 definitely will not need them though. Would only be to boost applications if he did well. He won’t take any science related SAT IIs (planning more liberal artsy major although undecided). He can take English or History or Math II (or some combination of them) next year. He’s in Pre-Calc honors this year so would be ok taking the Math II now but his teacher thinks it wouldn’t take him long to study for it if he put if off until after BC Calc. APUSH is next year so History SAT makes more sense next year too.
Planning on taking regular SAT in August and then in October if needed so he won’t (fingers crossed) still be studying for that at the end of junior year. By the end of junior year, I think he will have a pretty solid list of schools and then he can decide if he takes any SAT IIs.
So the school-wide ACT was today (in Ohio it is a graduation gateway, so it’s free but all juniors take it). My daughter and all her friends were complaining it was harder than others they’d taken - one person took it earlier in the month and said it seemed significantly harder than even a few weeks ago.
Aren’t they supposed to be about the same in terms of difficulty? I could see one or two questions being stinkers, but wouldn’t they be about the same in terms of the types of things they ask? My daughter said the first one she took was mostly calculus-based math (thankfully she had that) but that this was much more algebra-based and no calculus or geometry.
So much for “standardized” tests. :-?
@bearcatfan, the standardization also comes afterward when ACT or College Board decides on the grading curves. One sitting perhaps a student can get five wrong and still have a 35, another “easier” sitting they might be able to get only two words to get a 35. Both testing companies also use trial questions which might be difficult or strange, and they don’t count in the score at all.
That is so weird! I guess we will see what her score is - hopefully it’s better than the last time.
She’s already signed up for the June ACT, which will be her third attempt. Anecdotally many of her friends have raised their scores a couple points each time they took it, so I’ll settle for that at this point.
We went through our DD’18’s list of prospective school and were surprised that only 1 required SAT IIs. To be sure, I looked up that school’s website - and they just stopped requiring them! We were all set to sign her up for two of them, but she said no and I didn’t have any reason to disagree. Both of our other kids took them. (Our experience is that the best time to take them is when the student is taking the correlating AP.)
Our son took Physics and Chemistry last year, but is now taking IB Physics and IB Chemistry so we figured we would wait to have him take the SAT 2s as long as he could wait. One to make sure he actually needed them as so many schools don’t require them or even recommend them anymore and two to make sure he had as much exposure as possible to the material before taking the exams. He still has another year of IB Physics and IB Chemistry, but he should know enough after two years of each (I would hope!!).
Took our tour of Towson U. on Monday and DD seemed to like the feel of it more than St. Mary’s (MD). It is much larger (22K students vs. 1,700), so she felt like she’d have many more options for majors, clubs and activities, and making new friends. The tour guide was not the best, but we did get to see most of the campus and DD liked having the chance to see students moving around as they changed classes - St. Mary’s felt very quiet even though we were there most of the day. She also felt like the larger campus would give her the opportunity to be with a much more diverse group of students, include diversity of opinions, which she wasn’t sensing at St. Mary’s. Also, the Towson tour included a formal information session on the different opportunities on campus and some information on the application process, which was helpful to DD, and they had materials specific to the different colleges. The St. Mary’s introduction to the tour was the admissions counselor standing outside with us for 5 minutes talking about how students needed to really consider what they wanted out of their college experience…but no information at all about St. Mary’s opportunities so it was up to our student tour guide to hopefully cover all of it while walking us around campus.
We head to UMBC on Saturday for our next tour - it’s smaller in enrollment than Towson but still a fairly large size (maybe 11-12,000 students?). That will wrap it up for us until the fall, when we’ll visit UMCP. DD still seems very set on staying in-state, public, which sounds great to us. She also doesn’t want to be too far away from S18, although she isn’t interested in going to the same school as him. She kept asking how far of a drive each school is from his university, which made me smile :).
@bearcatfan Ohio parent here too. Do you know when the results from today’s ACT will be out? And do you know whether the scores will eventually show online? So far, today’s ACT is not showing up on S18s account and I wondered if that is typical since the school registered him.
Also in Ohio here, but the test was administered earlier (and D did not take because she already had a score high enough that she could bypass the school-administered test) : Students who participated in the March 21st state-funded ACT will receive a printed report with their results at the address that the student provided on their answer document. This report is mailed directly from ACT. Students and parents should expect the results to arrive sometime between April 10 and May 19.
I found this tidbit buried in the 2021 Acceptances thread. Very interesting implications for our 2018 kids:
http://kenyoncollegian.com/2017/04/13/political-divide-impacts-class-of-2021-admissions/
So not only will International applicants be down in fall (likely), but applicants to red state colleges might be fewer—and probably applications to blue state colleges will be more.
^My S certainly eliminated large swaths of the country, partly based on their deep redness (Deep South and Plains states) along with research on the types of schools he’s interested in (non-sectarian LACs). But he’s got schools in Ohio and Indiana that he’s not eliminating just because of the politics of the states.
The guidance counselor said to expect the results of the April 19 ACT in 3-4 weeks, but it would not show up online any sooner than the school would get printed copies. I’m still going to check, however, because they said the same thing about the PSAT and those scores showed up online earlier than the school got them. They were supposed to take the ACT on March 21, but there was a fog delay lol.
About the eliminating “red state” colleges … not to bring politics into this too much, but that seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face. I can see other reasons for eliminating a school, but not because it happens to be located in a state that swung towards a particular candidate. But, hey, if that increases the odds for my kid so be it. 
Does anyone know which year tax returns will be used for filling out the financial aid for our 2018 kids?
@Pri930, I believe schools will use the data from 2017.