Congrats to your D’18 on scholarship @bearcatfan
Decided over the weekend to visit Emory as we are in the area vacationing, in direct contravention of my advice against summer touring. But there was enough activity to keep the campus interesting. I thought the Atlanta campus students would be too STEM heavy for my S18, and in fact 5 of the 6 tour guides were pre-med. But we found one who used to be pre-med and was now theatre, so he got some good intel about the arts community. He liked the school, and it remains on the list. Great facilities. Coke $$ buys a lot of new buildings.
@bearcatfan congrats on the early scholarship! We are also waiting on ACT scores - seems like many are waiting this time around.
S18 has been at the National Scholars Invitational at aTm the last two days. Will be interesting to get his feed back when we pick him up later today. We don’t expect he sees this as a good fit.
@AmyBeth68 our school has also said no transcripts or LOR requests will be filled until Sept. @bearcatfan and @my2callgirls I am sorry y’all are still waiting on ACT scores!
Class rank and GPA were posted this past week on Naviance. Sadly, DD’18’s GPA dropped by several 100ths of a point, something like .05, and she lost 9 places in rank. When all is said and done I doubt it will make too much difference in her application. I wish our Naviance would have updated SAT/ACT scores too.
What is everyone’s feeling on self reporting SAT/ACT score on the common app?
We are on the fence about reporting them for DD’18. We did not report any for DD’16. Her score were rather erratic across her multiple sittings, her ACT was slightly better than her SAT and we only reported one or the other to certain schools. It was easier not to report and just send the official score report. It didn’t seem to impact her acceptances at all, DD’18’s score have risen with each sitting and SAT/ACT are nearly identical according to the concordance tables, but are nothing to brag about. Would you self report or just send the official score score?
@labegg What is the difference between self reporting and sending the official report? Besides, I’m thinking, having to pay the college testing racket to send them?
@bearcatfan Awesome! Money is money. Congrats to your daughter.
@AmyBeth68 Holy cow, that’s a busy summer. And good for your daughter on the strength training. You don’t know how many athletes ignore this aspect of improving in their chosen sport.
@labegg – We haven’t even gotten to the mechanical part (what to submit, exact timing, etc) of the application process yet.
We’re still trying to talk D18 off the “class rank” cliff. She’s at 12% and wants to be in the top 10%, so she wants to take an extra AP class or two online that’s “go at your own pace”, thinking the grades will come in before applications are due and raise her rank. We don’t even know if that’s how it works. Besides, her top school choice has “not considered” checked on the CDS for class rank. It’s crazy … but she’s at a internship right now with top kids and that’s apparently what they talk about.
I can’t seem to get through to her that her application and, most importantly, essays are what matter now. She has the GPA, test scores, ECs, etc. to get in almost anywhere. Concentrate on the big EC this Fall then nail down the essays and she’ll be in good shape. Arrgggg.
@labegg, don’t all colleges require you to send in the official report? That’s what my D will be doing, despite the expense.
@bearcatfan and @my2caligirls, I can’t believe you guys are still waiting. That’s crazy-making! And congrats to your D, @bearcatfan!
Bearcatfan: Congrats on the scholarship! Every little bit does help!
Amy Beth: Sorry about all the summer coursework for your daughter.
Vista: glad you liked Emory.
David: what is the National Scholars Invitational?
DS18 leaves for China on Thursday and returns Aug 14th. School starts the next week, Aug 21st. Apply Texas opens on July 1st I hope he will have some time and internet access to at least start it but I doubt it. He also has summer assignments to get done.
DD16 returns from her internship in Germany on Aug 10th and I’ll be driving up with her to OK to move into her apartment Aug 17th and returning home on the 19th. Her classes also start on the 21st.
DS20 is currently at Boy Scout camp returns on Saturday, he’ll be home for a week then DH and I will take him up to UTD for a three week coding camp. I have been to UTD before but DH and DS20 have not and hope to arrange an unofficial tour by a current student from a parent connection made on here on CC before we officially drop DS18 off for his camp.
Of course I just realized that I have commented to volunteer at youth gardening camp 9:00-noon Aug 14- 17th so I’ll have to ask DD16 to pick up DS18 from the airport on the 14th and leave after noon for the trek up to Norman.
This summer, S18 is finishing his rough draft of Common App essay, and reviewing honors college requirements. He’s also teaching himself Latin for fun. S18 also works with the 5yo on multiplication/division. My youngest is only 1st grade but really likes math and patterns. We use Summer Bridge books a year ahead of 5yo actual grade to push and challenge him.
@3scoutsmom WOW sounds like your kids are off on great adventures!
@sushiritto I think bc we start school and end school later than many (after Labor Day we begin), they have to get a head start on the AP work. She’s made a schedule so that she can stay on track despite her busy summer. I hope she sticks to it haha!
@labegg I haven’t looked that closely yet but we’ll probably send the official ACT report. Does anyone know if you can just send in your best composite or will they send all tests? We aren’t sending any SATs as there is a huge difference between her SAT scores and ACT scores, hoping to avoid that all together unless she is applying to an “all test scores required” university. I really need to look into that. 
@AmyBeth68 I am pretty sure that with the ACT scores you can pick and choose which scores to send unless a school requires all scores to be sent. Believe that with the SAT all scores get sent if you choose to send them.
Have you folks sent off scores to any schools yet? We’ve held off sending them anywhere, mainly because D hasn’t really finalized a list of schools, but for the UC’s and SLO.
Yes, we used free score sends to send to schools we knew DS would apply to or might apply to and to National Merit because if he makes the cut I don’t want to pay to send the score!
OK, dumb question. Pick any school, let’s say the University of Colorado, Oregon or Washington (something outside of CA that my D may consider as safeties, maybe, who knows), what’s the difference between sending now or with your application in a few months? Is this “demonstrating interest” for your D’s or my D’s app later?
@sushiritto it might show demonstrated interrest but might not matter if your D is still testing or recently tested and you can use free score sends it saves money, if you are outside that window I don’t think I’d worry about it.
Thanks, I think we’re outside the “free score report” period. How much are they to send?
$12 for each school for SATs