I do not think the NMSF distribution will change much in my state of LA, but we will see. S18’s HS is one of 2-3 schools in the state where lots of NMSF are concentrated (25+ each typically). After that there are a lot of smaller private schools and a few magnet HS with 5-10 each.
@labegg DS said a girl in his room started crying during the math section! He said it was terrible. He felt science was harder but he didn’t know if he was just brain fried or not. Science is usually his ace in the hold - he usually scores in the 35-56 on that section. So it’s a little troubling to hear him say he didn’t feel as good about science. With his practice tests we really were confident this might have been his last one but you never know what ACT will do to you…
Back n the day I cried at the SAT math, I tried to get through it but eventually I stood up and turned my test in and walked out. I never looked back, took the ACT and was very pleased with my score and loved that the ACT tested science knowledge.
So, I have a question about college visits to your child’s HS campus and whether that’s considered “demonstrated interest.” In the next few weeks, there are a bazillion colleges coming to my D’s HS campus and they also have scheduled info sessions in big cities like SF and San Jose. Do you need to attend both to “demonstrate interest”? Is one good enough? Do you think theses schools actually log the attendance for these campus visits?
Students must sign up and miss class, so they better be putting my D on their Santa’s “nice” list. :))
WashU is visiting right now as we speak at her campus. It’s one of the 20 or so she has on her still-too-large list of colleges.
Thanks @ShrimpBurrito it’s been tougher than we thought it would be for sure. But she’s been dealing with this since she injured it a year and a half ago, so in some sense, this part feels like there’s finally light at the end of a very long tunnel, just gotta keep on keepin on as they say. :x
I am so sorry to hear about the ACT challenges! D didn’t take it but she has a good friend who did hoping to raise her score. I didn’t hear anything, but now I get to be worried for her friend! :-SS
Common App question for the hive mind: I’m curious how the counselor recs and teacher recs work. Her school uses Naviance for this if that makes a difference. My main question is, if she decides to add another school after her other apps and recs are all in, does she have to go back to her counselor and teacher recommenders to have then submit their recs to that school? Or since the recs were already submitted to Common App and she can just click click done. :-/
I’m interested in this because I have been giving some thought to possibly asking D to add a school or two to her list, possibly in December or possibly earlier, but with her counselor recommender likely going out on maternity leave by the end of next month, I don’t want things to get mucked up if she’s not around to forward a rec she already wrote. Trying to decide how soon I need to push the button on these other possibilities.
Edit to add: @sushiritto I would think a meeting at a school visit would absolutely count. But they don’t visit every school (Almost no schools come to my Ds school) so maybe the more general meet-n-greets are meant to be opportunities for those kids and you can forgo if you’ve met with the rep at school already. OR you can do both and double up your interest! 
@sushiritto our school’s GC said that this DOES count for demonstrated interest. I had also asked her how much demonstrated interest you need to show. She said unless your child really stands out in some significant away, then it’s really just a matter of checking a box, and you don’t have to go all crazy about this. I’d say a HS campus visit plus 1 other thing like a follow up email, but that’s a guess.
Sorry for the follow-up …I always seem to leave something off. Our GC said that you definitely DON’T have to do both the HS one and the local community one.
We’ve been to a couple of local community multi-college road shows, and there is definitely a sign-in list that the colleges use.
@melvin123 So simple, yet brilliant. Thank you. I’m not very good at these social situations. I just texted D about getting an email address and following up with a thank you. Let’s see if she listens to me. :-??
@1822mom from what I understand, with our Naviance situation anyway, for each school my D18 plans to apply to she has to give her GC a transcript and letter request form. She is able to choose which teachers she wants to send letters from etc. I emailed the GC yesterday just to make sure that there was nothing more we needed to do once we link Naviance account to the common app and she said that my D18 just needs to let her know that the app was sent so she can prioritize. I’d assume it would work the same (maybe?) for your child; although I know each school probably has their own set of rules. But I’d assume she can just put the request in for the letters and the transcript for any additional schools she sends to.
To be honest…I found the Common App to be a bit confusing when I looked at it, but my daughter seems unphased lol.
@sushiritto My S20 went to a college info session at his high school yesterday. I don’t know if they log attendance, but S asked the rep a detailed question, and she took down his email address so she could answer it thoroughly later. That’s one way to do it!
As an aside, S20 was SO on fire about this college yesterday! He spent the entire evening reading aloud from the brochure, the Fiske Guide, and Niche reviews. I could tell you anything now about SMU’s sports teams and rivalries, pre-med programs, campus, and traditions. :)>- That kid is going to have a BLAST in college, wherever he goes.
I think there are some schools that really expect you to come visit to show demonstrated interest. At least that is what our CC said. My daughter has visited most of the schools she is really interested in and has tried to e-mail the local rep occasionally to ask specific questions about their programs/school/EC opportunities/etc.
I hate the competitiveness that some of this brings out in me. The mom of a girl who is looking at one of the same schools my D is mentioned in passing that her D is flying out to the college for something this weekend and it got me fired up like “we need to get out there again for something”. Ugh. I will be glad when this is all over.
We visited everywhere, and got to talk to admissions people (a benefit of staying in-state for us).
Now, of course, they are emailing inviting her to different fall open houses. One said that a $100 bookstore voucher will be offered to all students visiting that day. It’s two hours away, so really that $100 isn’t worth it to us since we’ve already visited. If we were local, we’d be going.
@sushiritto and @amominaz re the need to visit to establish interest…no college is going to expect you to fly there in order to meet “demonstrated interest”. Just one reason for this is the admissions philosophy that they don’t want to require things that wealthy kids can afford to do, but poor kids can’t.
Some colleges within a reasonable driving radius (4 hours?) might want to see you visit, but that’s just a guess. I didn’t really think of that when answering before because it didn’t apply to us (all my D’s schools are flying distance). IMO, if it’s within a reasonable driving distance, you’d probably be going to visit before applying anyway; there’s a limit to the # of schools your kid will want to apply to, so wouldn’t you want to actually visit the school to see if it should be on his/her list?
@Veronica02 I’ll be interested to know if your efforts succeed. I have twins who are applying to quite a few schools, and although we can certainly afford the application fees individually, they add up to serious money.
Our kids have to be out of class, too. Last year as juniors, they were limited how many college visits they were allowed to get out of class for. Hard when you are still trying to narrow down your list!
Interesting. We just got an email that Rice has changed their policy for SAT subject test from required to recommend it. Can’t help but wonder if the hurricane damage was behind this change. Otherwise, seems like suspicious timing.
@amominaz there is a movement within a bunch of the colleges to get rid of MANDATORY SAT subject tests because of the costs associated with that, and that these requirements are burdensome on the poorer students.
Well! We got first acceptance today from University of Pittsburgh. It’s nice to get that first one under our belt. Their merit awards start to roll out in November so that’s the next excitement. She needed this confidence boost. VERY exciting!
Plus I’m not so sure the subject tests are adding a lot to the application. S got an 800 on his SAT chemistry and it was only the 90th percentile…when ten percent of the test takers get a perfect score I don’t see how that can help differentiate top students. His 790 on the Math 2 was only 76th percentile…so 24 percent of test takers got either a 790 or 800! To me the scores seem quite useless given the bunching at the top end, since it’s only the very selective schools that are requiring them.