@magnetnh - D16 looked at Drexel, which is on quarters, across the board every student we talked with said the quarters move quick and you have to stay on top of things. Schools that are heavy internship oriented seem to like the trimester/quarter system.
Eons ago, I went to Ohio U, which was on quarters at the time (not sure if that is still the system). I recall enjoying the quarters because I got to take more classes, over the course of my degree (different subjects) and if I was really hating a class (like micro economics). I knew I only had to stick it out a short time and it would be over. But, like the contemporary students have said, the quarter moves quickly and one bad test grade can really hit your overall grade and then your GPA because there is not much time to dig out of a hole. I don’t recall having a hard making the transition from semester to quarters. And as you pointed out fewer classes per grading period is nice.
I loved being done at Thanksgiving, it was also good for getting a jump start on the holiday job market. But then I didn’t get out of school until late May early June which is later than those on a semester system so it evens out in the end.
Taking the SAT or ACT sophomore year is not “getting standardized testing done.” Over 90% of students who take the SAT twice, increase their score. We had out kids each take an SAT early in order to familiarize them with the test, take the mystery out of it and reduce the anxiety. IMHO, every college bound student who wants to try for merit aid at a State school or admission at a competitive private college should take the test more than once. An 18-year-old generally has absorbed more general knowledge than a 16-year-old. A Senior will write better than a sophomore, etc. Have the kids take it twice. (SAT or ACT) - JMHO
@Glido - Yes, I agree that test scores usually improve with age and repeated sittings. I would recommend taking it again too if you are going to improve. But, if you already have a 32+ACT or 1500+ SAT, the value in re-taking is more limited. Of course, as you pointed out if you are trying for merit it can make all the difference.
In the case of my D16, she did worse on her second sitting of the SAT (after an SAT prep class). Her 3rd sitting only beat her 1st sitting by a very small amount (certainly not enough to justify the cost and time of another test). For ACT, her second sitting score was identical, only the subject scores were swapped, first sitting Eng was X and Math was Y, second sitting Eng was Y and Math was X. It popped her ACT score up 1 pt for few schools that “superscored” ACT. My D16 actually scored better on the tests that she took blind, no studying. As for getting the nerves out, our school requires all Soph to take the PSAT and then again for the Jr year PSAT. I think there was more anxiety for D16 as the testing went on because she was thinking “I need to get a better grade”. Guess there are always exceptions to the norm!
What I meant by “getting standardized testing done” was getting your sophomore to actually sit for the test and kudos to those who obtained a score that was in their desire target zone.
I am leery of taking the test more than 3 times. I also think it is super important to check out your potential schools policies on score reporting. If they require you submit ALL scores and you have a downward trend as my D16 did, it is gonna look bad. You gotta know your kid and the school policy to make a truly informed decision.
Any winter athletes out there? My D18 is doing some studying (via Khan Academy) for SAT this summer (she thought I was crazy - too early - until she heard a lot of her friends are in summer prep classes!). A teacher advised her not to take the test until January because there will be a lot of learning between Sept and Jan to better prepare her. My concern is that she’s a winter varsity athlete and will have little prep time during winter. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I think our school district is pretty weak on teaching grammar skills but the junior year AP English teacher does a fantastic job getting the kids ready for the PSAT and consequently the Nov/Dec SAT. Even with an outside summer prep course, my S16 dramatically improved his writing score after being in her class for a couple of months.
@fazevan Student athlete. I would say the teacher’s right in this instance. She should be able to prepare her just a little more and may be able to give her more tips.
This is my strategy for studying for the ACT, but I plan to study every two weeks (on Saturdays or Sundays) during the school year. That might be possible for your D.
Hi, all. Just checking in from our college road trip, Midwestern edition. On this trip, DD has seen Michigan, Ohio University, and Miami Ohio. Tomorrow is Indiana and Friday is Butler. One thing we’ve learned is that very very large schools do not appeal to her. So we scratched OSU off our visit list. VA Tech’s undergraduate enrollment is nearly the size of Michigan’s but the smaller graduate enrollment makes it feel much smaller. DD also felt that Tech’s campus was more compact and easier to navigate.
DD will study for the SAT once we get back, figuring this will knock out studying for both PSAT and SAT. If she can pull off a good score then she will be one and done. My older child did this on the ACT, scoring a 34 on his first try, and we figured that was good enough!
There is no ideal time for DD to take these tests since she is a spring and fall athlete, manages the basketball team in the winter (the time commitment is the same as if she were an athlete on the team, and she earns a letter because of that), plus her other ECs. I would prefer that she get it out of the way earlier in the school year before fatigue sets in.
She is not shooting for NMF so that takes some pressure off. Besides, it is very difficult to get in our state. I haven’t looked since my older child’s year, but the cutoff back then was 222 so just making commended was good enough for us.
We will be full pay so a score that gets her merit from a college will be gravy but it is not necessary. There is some incentive for her though since we will offer her the same deal her brother has and that is any money left over after paying for four years of college is hers to keep. Her brother gets $22k in merit every year so he will graduate with a tidy sum and hopefully DD will also!
@2014novamom Hi! I actually just confirmed with my parents that we are going to be touring GMU on Saturday, August 19th. I also got an email from VT about touring, since apparently all of their dates from now until August 29th were taken, saying that they have some spaces available on any day, except Sunday, between August 6th - 11th and August 22nd - 27th. Here’s the email I received:
Thank you for resending – this may have gotten lost in the shuffle of this week’s emails. That is true that people can cancel. We will have no problem accommodating you and your family for an information session as there is plenty of space there. The part that is more difficult is the accommodation for the tour as we usually bus everyone down to main campus and our bus has a capacity of 37. We have sessions going on from August 6-11 and then again from August 22-27, which fits within your timeframe.
The best days for you to visit would be a Tuesday or a Saturday, as we do not use our bus on those days so you should be able to park and meet the tour group. Unfortunately, we will not be able to make August 16 work since we do not have information sessions or tours that week. What are your thoughts? If you and your family can identify a day that you are interested in, we can work on the accommodations.
I’m definitely excited since I thought I wouldn’t get to tour VT this summer and I thought I’d have to wait until next summer. Touring VT was going to be the highlight of my summer vacation, so this is good news. Hope your D is having fun on the tours.
@2014novamom I’m also not shooting for NMF. I don’t think any student in our county has gotten The National Merit Scholarship in a while.
Also, sorry for me asking, but what do you mean by “full pay”?
I also like the deal you made with your D allowing her to keep any money she doesn’t use for college. That’d definitely be good start-up money.
Also, another question. Would you mind giving a brief description of your visit to VT? Until I visit, which may or may not happen this year, I want to find out as much about the campus as I can.
Random question. Have you guys seen any Back-To-School commercials yet? I just saw my first one of the summer, made by Walmart. I guess it really is that time of year again. Soon leaves will fall, pumpkins will be picked, turkeys will be stuffed, and gifts will be given. This year has definitely been rolling by.
Also, when do your DCs start school? I start Monday, August 29th, about a week before Labor Day.
Congrats to all the SAT and SAT 2 scores.
As far as SAT II subject tests, most colleges recommend or require 2 . Is there any benefit in taking more than 2?
@ak2018 I’m glad you were able to snag a spot at VT’s tour. Make sure you also sign up for an engineering information session also as they will talk admissions criteria specific to engineering. Their standards will be different than admissions for the general population and it is important to get current information. You’ll also hear about the curriculum specific to engineering. I remember doing this with my son and it was quite helpful. The general tour starts with an info session that describes VT in general terms (student body size, traditions, size of classes, etc.). Then you ride a little bus to main campus and tour a typical classroom, the drill field, bookstore, library, and campus landmarks. We did not see any dorms or dining halls.
Also take some time to look around Blacksburg. You’ll be spending 4 years in that town so you need to make sure you like it!
Our county actually has a large number of NMSF. Last year 2 were from DD’s school. DS’s alma mater had 163 semifinalists! So it is not unattainable but the cutoff score is so high and the scholarships are not necessary so for us it is not worth stressing about. Obviously it would be nice though!
“Full pay” means we will not qualify for any need based aid so we will have to foot the entire bill ourselves. Any merit based scholarships DD gets will reduce the size of the check we have to write and will essentially end up going back to DD when she graduates so there is some incentive for her to get merit.
Toured Indiana today. Smaller than Michigan, bigger than Tech. Beautiful campus with lots of flowering plants and green space and the buildings are all constructed of Indiana limestone, much like VTech is all built out of limestone known as Hokie stone. DD was not all that impressed however, especially since the info session ran an hour long unlike the usual 30 minutes. We skipped the dorm tour because it was clear she wasn’t going to apply. Kind of like how DS and I ditched the U of Illinois tour midway when he knew U of I wasn’t the place for him.
@2014novamom Well we didn’t exactly pick a date for VT yet, since my parents still have to look over their work schedules, but if we find an opening that works then we’ll go. I’ve looked over the VT Engineering Info Session website and saw a PowerPoint that looked really interesting. I looked it over and saw some pretty neat info that made me take a little sigh of relief.
Based off of the PowerPoint, The College of Engineering Statistics state that, for the Freshmen Class of 2015 (The Graduating Class of 2019):
• Average reported GPA: 4.12
• Average SAT Scores(Math/Reading): 685/606
• Average ACT Scores(Math/Reading): 30.0/27.8
• Male to Female Ratio: 3.2:1
• Under-represented Students: 30.1%
Considering the fact that I expect my GPA for next year to be around a 4.29, and my ACT Math/Reading score to be around 30 - 32, it kind of makes me feel better about the ACT.
I’ll definitely try and see if we can schedule a session for The CoE. I’ll also try and look around a bit, but only if we have time. Did you guys see the Ware Lab? That’s what I’m most excited to look at.
Glad your D at least knows where she doesn’t want to go. Colleges that I don’t really see myself attending, but might use as a “last resort” option, are at the bottom of my list. Is your D interested in engineering in any way?
Daughter starts back to school August 18. Looking forward to not hearing “I’m bored”! Not much for teens to do where we live and she is to young to drive. Next summer will be better for her I hope
@ak2018 - our son visited VT in the spring and loved it. It’s his top choice school for sure and the Ware Lab was one of the reasons he liked it so much! He was impressed with both the facilities and the people.
As the tour went through, every team was in working on their projects and every single team had a member step up and come talk to the tour. He was already looking for a school that had a Formula SAE team, but he was floored by all the different competition teams and loved the variety and options.
He was also flattered a bit (which I’m sure raised the school in his estimation) because as they were going through, he talked directly with the team captain for one of the car teams and was asking them about their car and what obstacles they had to overcome. He had a genuine conversation/back and forth with the guy and offered some ideas. The captain said, “Man, those are great! You definitely need to come here; we could really use you on our team!” He was glowing.
He still has more schools to visit, but VT is a real favorite.
Also - he did both the admissions session and the specific CoE tour. Very helpful if you can get into a CoE tour if that is your area of interest. Plus it’s fun when you set up a visit with admissions they send you an “admit one” ticket and we joked that he doesn’t even need to apply - he already got his ticket.
He said when the tour was done he wished we could just put a down payment there now and reserve him a spot. He truly fell in love.
Ack! DH just noticed ds18 was browsing CC! I have mixed feeling about this, I’m happy he’s starting to be more involved with the college process but don’t want him to feel that he doesn’t measure up to some of the sure high stats kids with mega EC’s that post here. I warned him to stay away from the “Chance Me!” threads. Out of curiosity I asked him what specifically he was looking for on CC and he said he was researching merit aid. So that’s a good thing:-) I did mention that he could ask me about merit aid since I’ve been obsessing over it for over four year now!
It turns out that he’s been talking to his friends about colleges and they are not happy with his current choice and they think he can do better and should look into more prestigious schools. One of the colleges they were pushing was CMU thankfully he gets that there is no way we can afford tuition there, not to mention transportation and winter clothes. It was good that we revisited the “money talk” again.
@RoonilWazlib99 You guys got to tour the different labs? Cool! I’d say I’d be most interested in the Robotics and Mechatronics Lab. I’d definitely love to see it!
VT is also my first choice as well! Are you guys IS or OOS?
I would honestly be flattered if any one of those college kids acknowledged my presence! :)) Your son is so lucky that he got to talk to someone in his intended field. Hope I get to as well.
Also, there is a CoE-specific tour? I thought it was just an information session.
Definitely hope your son ends up at VT! I’d honestly say the same things if I went there.
@3scoutsmom Usually the knock I hear on UTD is “no football” so at least his friends are above that. We know people whose daughter went to UTD virtually free and is now headed to med school. They are thrilled with it.