@labegg I’m sorry about that subscore drop but wow! about the reading.
All of my kids have lower math scores than reading. We read aloud to them a lot since they were infants, read a lot in general, and it probably helped that we didn’t have TV.
But my kids also showed wonky visual processing and/or visual-motor scores with testing which seems to have impacted their math development to some degree. They are fine, but not nearly as strong as verbal.
Two of my other kids have had extensive testing and nonverbal learning disorder came up as a possibility for both based on verbal and perceptual reasoning discrepancies. Further testing did not provide enough evidence to support a diagnosis for either at the time. But both are really clumsy, evidence their visual- spatial skills are off. Hearing them talk, people tend to overestimate their abilities.
D has been organizing all of her apps and is just about to hit submit on most of them. She’s been in frequent communication with her GC, and has had surprisingly easy access to her (D’s in a public school with overworked staff). GC has responded to all questions and requests within 24 hours, and more than once she’s thanked D for doing all of this so early. School started four weeks ago and I know the GCs were very busy with schedules for awhile, but NOW seems to be the time to get things done with your counselor!
I second what you’re saying @ShrimpBurrito , I know the GCs get a bit of a bad rap in public schools. But they have an impossible number of students to manage. I am beyond thrilled with the level of attention my D has been getting from her GC and teachers. Everyone has been anxious to help her get her apps finalized and ready to send. She’s been in school for 2 weeks, my D dropped off her Transcript Reqs on the 2nd day of school, I think her GC nearly passed out. She emailed me to say this is the earliest a kid has dropped them off haha. It’s going to pay off when these apps are submitted and she can focus on her heavy workload and sports. Beyond that she’s had some sit down chats with favorite teachers to discuss her college options and potential majors/career paths. I am so grateful that there are so many caring teachers who take time out of their busy schedules to mentor her.
@AmyBeth68 Talk of teachers who graciously serve as mentors leads me to a sweet story. D was alone at our hometown airport, nervously preparing to fly to Montreal for her two week summer program. Her favorite teacher, who has taught D foreign language and AP science, happened to be on the same first flight, going to a conference at Yale. While at the departure gate, Ms T worked the room to find out who was sitting in adjacent seats so that they could switch, allowing D and Ms T to sit together for the 2+ hour flight. The two of them had a wonderful time talking about a huge variety of subjects. It meant so much to D. Big hugs to you teachers out there who go way above and beyond to guide our kids.
@ShrimpBurrito Great story!!! I really try to recognize our educators and administrators, they do important work and many go above and beyond as your story illustrates. Bravo to Ms. T!
D’s ACT score went up which was good since she thought it was horrible. She was really hoping for a little higher so I think she is slightly disappointed. Oddly she scored lowest in math and science her strongest subjects. It’s too bad we can’t combine her SAT math with ACT reading, she would have a great score. Now her ACT and SAT are pretty compatible so I guess that’s ok.
I think the Math section on the ACT was a doozy this go around. My DD texted me at screen shot, at lunch, to tell me her classmate, ranked #20, also scored the same thing on as DD on her math…now DD does not feel so bad, they comisserated together and split her Hershey’s chocolate bar, lol.
I thought S had a really solid chance for a 35 on the ACT but it was not to be. Another 34.
I am trying to decide if there is any real benefit to spending the money to send both sets of scores? This time he had E35 M 35 R 35 and S 30. Last time he had a 36 in S, so for the couple of schools that super score that would make a 35. Do you think it would make any difference? Should I pay the extra $12 just in case?
Several other schools say they “look at all sub scores” so again do you think the 36 vs. the 30 in science matters at all? If it were Math or English, or maybe even Reading I would definitely think it mattered, but do schools care about Science?
My DS took a hit on the ACT which wasn’t surprising. He had said it was horrific. I agree the math must have been a doozy and I think in his case that got into his head. His English subscore went up but after math it was downhill. He usually scores near perfect in science but this was wayyyyyyyy less than perfect. Which is why I think the math section and the crying girl got into his head.
My friend’s D also did really poorly on the ACT math this go-around. It seems like math was a real problem for that particular test date. I thought the ACT co curved the tests to address differences in the difficulty level of individual tests? Anecdotally, that doesn’t seem to have happened here, don’t you all agree?
@mommdc Yes, my composite is 35. However, schools also get the subscores (I got 36 E 35M 34R 34S). If they manually calculated it, they’d see I actually had a 34.75, which is why I’m asking if my score would actually be viewed as slightly inferior to a 35 (since it rounds up).
@AmyBeth68@ShrimpBurrito - we have found the same at our public HS. Pleasantly surprised! I posted earlier, but D went to drop off her list of LOAs needed and the GC pulled her in to a spontaneous 1 hr meeting/interview. D was so happy, she came home on cloud 9, feeling like the GC really cared about getting to know her. We can’t imagine all this GC’s seniors will get this attention. It certainly pays to be the early bird.
I wish our guidance counselor was more responsive. She’s had an invitation from the Common App since September 1, and paper forms (yes there are still some) since September 6. Nothing but crickets. I did drop a note to her yesterday very nicely asking for the status of these. Thank goodness we use Parchment and can send official transcripts out ourselves through that account.
On a slightly different note … I feel one of D’s schools is playing a bit loose with applications. They made a HUGE push during a summer open house that her particular program was going to start review in September, and the earlier the better because they would start interviews in October. Apply now!!! So D applied through the Common App on September 1.
I saw on Twitter that the same school just yesterday advertised for interviewers, who need to be trained. So that will take several weeks between vetting those people and training, right? I suspect they are not reviewing anything right now, and maybe made that push to chum up their early numbers. I’m not a huge fan of this school as a whole - I question their ability to handle what has been record-breaking freshman enrollment the past several years.
It’s possible that they are putting applications in a Yes/No pile unofficially, but I doubt it. Something about this school feels a bit hinky to me, even though a lot of people from this area go there and are happy about it. They’ve also made another big push this year to attract men to the nursing program. This is kind of reach-y for her just based on the ACT score (she’s in the middle, but again they made a big deal out of how competitive they are) but who knows.
Personal Statement woes. D scrapped the one she had been struggling with all summer and went with a different topic. How do you know when it’s okay? You hear so much about avoiding cliches, etc., but what if your only meaningful story dabbles in that very category? Idk.
She just wants to send and be done. Part of me understands that, the other part wishes I knew for sure that whatever essay gets sent is a strong one. I’m not adept in creative writing and I don’t think D feels she is either.
She has such strong stats with GPA, testing and pretty decent ECs. I really hate to think that a weak essay is going to sabotage all of that hard work at her reach school. (Sigh)
@Kayak24, can she ask one of her teachers - and I don’t think it has to be an English teacher necessarily - to look it over and give input? Both of my Ds wrote essays whose topics could be considered somewhat cliche, but it was how they wrote them - and not so much the topic - that made them unique.
