@momtogkc I like my local Nordstrom Rack as they have free wifi 
@payn4ward We love Nordstrom Rack but she can only find her favorite Top Shop brand at regular Nordstrom.
D still hasnāt finished her summer reading book and school starts Monday - I started the nagging last night. Hopefully she will get most of ti done today even though we have to go to school to switch her locker and she and her sister want me to take them to the next town over to go to Urban Outfitters.
@momtogkc Same boat, almost ā my D19 has two books for AP Lit, she has read the first quarter of one of them, and even that has been like pulling teeth. Her school doesnāt start until the last week of August, but,weāll all be away next Thursday to Monday (night) with D17ās freshman move-in/orientation and then a trip up to Wyoming for the eclipse.
Like another posterās kid, my D19 also rises or falls to the level of those around her, not everyone is an iconoclast or natural born leader. Iām just going to try to keep her from falling in love with party schools!
@Gatormama I know how you feel. We had some of the same struggles with our oldest and S17. I knew in state PA was high, comparable to in state UC prices. With a mid stats kid, I found it next to impossible to find schools under 30 for S17 beyond his in state options. When putting together S19ās list, although he has slightly better stats, the financial picture really doesnāt change much other than there are more that come in, in the 30ās than the 40ās. Bleh.
How is the CC to state school program in PA? While our in state costs are lower, the program to the state schools is quite good and a lot of kids do that for financial reasons. Temple used to have great merit aid but apparently went WAY overboard and thatās all gone now. Drexel does offer some merit but youād still be in the low/mid 30ās :(. Allegheny is quite generous even for mid stats but it would probably be upper 20ās at best and more likely low 30ās.
I did look at CC to state school (PSU) but gave up in disgust. Itās barely cheaper vis a vis tuition, and our nearest CC is an hour away. There are dorm options at the CC ā bringing the total cost to, you guessed it, over $20k.
Iām encouraging D to grow to love one of the PASSHE schools. Itās a good idea anyway to love your safety.
And Iām OK with it, mostly. Itās up to her to make the best of it, and maybe thereās an honors college option that will work for her. Sheāll likely have great stats for the PASSHE schools ā sheās got the lax and drama ECs that might garner interest also ā and so maybe we can get some healthy competition going among a couple of 'em 
@gatormam My nephew is about to start at Penn State Harrisburg and I canāt believe how much tuition is! I think my entire PSU bachelors cost less than $30K in the early 90s.
S19 would probably consider OOS public options in PA since he doesnāt want to be too far from home, but I donāt think heāll even visit PSU - they seem to give the least aid compared to Pitt and Temple. If we visit, it might be my own curiosity to see the campus after all these years.
Other things Iām mulling as SAT day looms (Aug. 26):
I think we will send the test scores, if she has a pulse that day. You get four free, and you can decide who to send them to up to nine days after the testāafter that thereās a fee.
I hate to not use something that is free
I think it makes sense to send them to schools that superscore, yes? I have more than four of those, so why notā¦especially the ones that are safetiesā¦
Ok. So I was thinking of not sending scores but, @Gatormama now has me thinking. Maybe it makes sense to send them to the safeties. Does anyone know, though, if a school superscores and you send the test scores on the test day, will the school still look at each test as it comes to them and then superscore them?
I guess I was under the impression that you had to choose your two best sections (for the SAT) and then send the two tests where these bests occurred. And that this had to happen after youāve seen your scores for multiple tests and you send a āsuperscoreā.
If S19 sends the Aug 26th test and sends a test from Oct or Nov (all via this free option), then will the school do the superscoring themselves?
@homerdog Regarding sending free SAT scores without seeing them first, we chose not to do that. For our D16, we were chasing merit and wanted her to put her best foot forward. For her, that meant sending only the scores that helped her application, especially for possible scholarships. We didnāt want to risk the chance of sending a low score.
While some colleges do superscore for admission, there is not much information about superscoring for scholarships. In fact, the ones that did provide information, noted that they only looked at āone sittingā score, not superscores.
My D16 was fortunate that she did significantly better on each section (700+) on her second sitting. We are glad that we did not send her first try (600s). D16 ended up with several very nice merit scholarships at selective LACs. Maybe it would have worked out the same if we had sent the 600 range SAT scores but the piece of mind knowing the scores before we sent them was worth the $12 per test score fee.
@scholardad I hear you. I just assumed merit money was also based on a superscore that was sent since those are the numbers that would be sent for admission. If we wait and send two scores (just thinking S19 might do better on math this time and better on reading on a later test), I donāt know if thatās different than just sending each one on the day of the test. I think weāll just wait and see the scores. I donāt want to make any mistakes and S19 isnāt applying to any school thatās a slam dunk with a certain SAT score. All of his schools are holistic admissions.
Thanks for the additional points to consider, @scholardad and @homerdog ā¦ I hadnāt considered it that specifically!
Iām sending out questions to the prospective score recipients to find out more. Will post what I find.
ETA - There is this on the College Board website, but it still doesnāt address all of the questions raised here.
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/sat-score-use-practices-participating-institutions.pdf
@Gatormama Please report back your findings. Iāll be interested to know if things have changed since I have a younger daughter that will also need to hunt for merit. I did ask the colleges my D16 applied to and wasnāt given specific answers for some of them - only that the process for admission and merit scholarships was āholisticā. We did consider the Univ of Alabama which has guaranteed merit for stats and they do not superscore for merit.
https://scholarships.ua.edu/faq/
āNo, we do not āsuper-score.ā We evaluate your application based on the highest composite test score from any one test date taken at the national level. We do not penalize based on a student taking multiple tests.ā
@Gatormama I would look at some of the SUNYās. For OOS they all come in around 30 but several have some OOS merit they offer.
Regarding sending scores, our older kids did send their free scores, S17 did not.
For schools that super score yes, merit in our experience as well as admission was based on the super score.
Today is the first day of school. 
D had to read Great Gatsby this summer. She was excited about it but wanted to wait until the end of summer to read it so it was fresh in her mind. Well she waited too long and as of yesterday had about 80 pages to go! She came home from a sleepover and I sent her right in to read. I went to ask her something and she was walking around her room wearing the new clothes we had just bought for school. I was about to yell at her and she said, āDonāt worry, Iām trying on clothes, cleaning my room and listening to the end of the book on audible.ā Oh well - at least she is learning to multi task?!
OK, Otterbein wrote me back first:
"Otterbein does not superscore, so you will not need to worry about that. If (D) takes the SAT again and does better, she can send in that next score and we will use that for her application review.
However, at the SAT link I posted above, Otterbein is listed as following this policy:
Highest Section Scores Across Test Dates ā Version 2
(Highest M, CR, W) has indicated that it considers your highest section
scores across all SAT test dates that you submit. Only your highest
section scores will be considered as part of the final admissions
decision. Each time you submit scores, will update your
record with any new high scores.
strongly encourages you to submit your scores each
time you take the SAT. Sending your scores each time you take the
SAT can benefit you by allowing to consider you for all
available enrollment-related opportunities.
You would read that and think that the school superscored, wouldnāt you?
So check with each school personally ā either the College Board doesnāt have the latest information, or its definition is different from the schoolās policy.
Thanks for sharing the response from Otterbein. Iām glad that you found out about the discrepancy now before your D19 applies! You made a good point about checking with each college just to confirm that what CB has online is correct.
Still couple of weeks till school starts. One of the summer reading books ordered three months ago cannot be found. [-( I do not want to order it again but may have to.
Catching up on 600+ posts since I was last on CC. I feel slightly guilty reading the posts re kids taking the Aug SAT. S19 pretty much did nothing academic except get his summer reading done and self-study for PSAT. Last summer, he did online math classes, and this summer, well he (and I) just sort of didnāt have the energy for it. He didnāt even tour a single college this summer. Arg. Part of it is a vague anxiety about junior year and just wanting to postpone thinking about college. But the big part was that this summer has been devoted to trying to make the junior national team in his sport. Itās a very small sport and takes about 5 years of training just to be able compete; it was an achievable goal if he devoted his entire summer to training. But itās been a grind. Anyhow, he succeeded and now is dealing with the stress of competing at a higher level and going from being the fastest in his club to being at the bottom in a bigger pond. He took a week off and now has returned to full-on training.
D16 has been home for the summer. She also had some academic plans to keep up on her language and get a head start on a stats class she will be taking. And was going to get her drivers license finally. Sigh. Nope on all fronts. She did work (teaching assistant) quite a bit, which was good but otherwise was doing art in her spare time. She also spent a lot of time thinking about her major(s). She had picked her school in large part with the idea of double-majoring in theater + a STEM degree, and because she wanted to study abroad as part of her major. Fast forward to summer after freshman year, no more theater (?! this was from a kid whose life was theater in HS). Study-abroad? Maybe not. Wants to double-major in math & physics or math & CS and study abroad might not work out. I honestly did not expect this, and of course we shall see where she is at the end of senior year.
My d19 isnāt taking any august exam either. And she hasnāt wanted to tour colleges quite yet. We are on vacation for the next 9 days so she isnāt doing any prep. We are just enjoying the last few bits of freedom before the insanity of the school year begins again.
Plenty of time @mom2twogirls