@Gatormama, someone told me about Messiah College because of their music program, but apparently they have environmental science and Lacrosse as well.
Also ABET accredited engineering which surprised me.
Check out their net price calculator. Seemed close to the cost of PASSHE schools for us.
We visited Gettysburg College over the weekend. The kid surprisingly really liked it, despite Gettysburg being in essence a really really small town. But the campus is nice, the performance spaces are interesting, they have opportunities to get off campus and study elsewhere, so the isolation wasnāt too much of a drawback.
There was a World War II reenactment in the area, so we kept seeing people driving by in tanks and paratrooper outfits, next to statues of Lincoln and monuments to Civil War battles. It was odd, but kind of fun and charming.
Well. SAT scores are up. I peeked this morning and showed my husband. He wants me to keep it to myself and have S19 look it up when he gets up. So you will all know before he will. lol. 1540. 800 math. 740 reading. Happy for him. He studied his butt off this summer.
Iāve got him signed up for October but Iām not sure Iām going to be able to convince him to take it now! Canāt wait to see his reaction. He will either be thrilled and be done or say he wants to try to up the reading. I really donāt think itās worth another Saturday afternoon. I think it will come down to what his friends got. Im sure they will compare scores today. :-S
Weāre in the same boat. Son got a 1570 and heās thinking it might be a one and done. Not sure how much return heāll get for the time invested in studying again. Our HS discourages Junior from taking it until after the PSAT so none of his Junior friends took it. I think the prep for the SAT can only help with the PSAT so he studied over the summer. But with two varsity sports and Robotics he might just spend his time on his coursework.
Great scores! We would be one and done with those. Iāve already warned my daughter that regardless of her scores, it will be a bad idea to share when she starts taking the tests. If they are lower than friends, she will feel awful. If they are higher, there could be jealousy. Some kids donāt mind it but it would bother her.
1540, 1570!!! wow!!! I just want my son to get over 1400. I would assume this would equate to about 34/35 on the ACT?
@mom2twogirls believe me. I donāt want S19 to share scores. I will remind him again. But I know kids at school will be talking and he will hear other kidsā scores for sure. I hate that that are all so competitive. S19 isnāt interested in the schools his best friends are looking at so thatās been a good thing.
@sdl0625 thereās some controversy over the new SAT conversion charts but, according to College Boardās chart, a 1540 converts to a 35. (1530 would have been a 34.)
Iām in awe of those scores. If you donāt mind me asking, how much did he improve between the first diagnostic and this test?
Those are impressive test scores, especially 1st time as juniors. Obviously very smart kids that are also good test takers. Congrats. If my kid had those scores it would be one and done for sure.
There is a lot of other stuff for the kids to be doing thN taking tests!!
Congrats.
@homerdog and @NJFL123 Congrats on those scores! Upper 1500ās for us here as wellā¦thank goodness as I was worried that one would do markedly better than the other, but we avoided that scenario. The scores are pretty much in line with what they got on their practice tests, so I think those CB tests are good indicators.
@ThinkOn Yea! I was thinking about you this morning! Iām glad both kids are happy and done. And, yes, the CB practice tests are very close to the real test. I think the last practice test S19 took was a 730 english, 780 math. Not too far off from his August score. He started the summer at a 640 english, 740 math but he was very organized with his studying this summer using PWN the Math book, the Meltzer books for reading and writing, and Kahn as well as the CB practice tests. Iām glad it paid off.
Congrats on those scores. So please, when is the thread for the average kids gonna be created? Because Iām depressed now.
Wow. Those scores are very impressive. Congratulations. My kid will be no where near those scores, but Iām happy for those who are able to get them.
S finally was willing to talk some about colleges this weekend. We got onto Naviance together and looked at his GPA and what I think he will get on his tests (not 1500 LOL) and we talked through some options. If he does well this year in school and works hard on the test he might have a shot at UMass Amherst. It still looks reachy right now, but UMass Lowell looks like it is a match for him. We also looked at some out of state schools and there are several that look like he is right in range for. The only thing that burst my bubble is that he completely vetoed the states of ME, NH, and VT. I thought there were some really good schools for him up there but he wants city, not trees. He even vetoed the city of Burlington because it is surrounded by trees. Well, OK then. Back to the drawing board.
Wow, Congratulations @homerdog @ThinkOn @NJFL123 DCās for achieving one and done! =D> =D>
What a relief! Now that one thing is checked off, they can focus on other things.
I agree that for those kids in the range for national merit, prepping and taking SAT early makes so much sense. It can only help with the PSAT.
I bought all the books homerdog mentions. They were ādecorative prepbooksā just calming my nerves, never touched, and then are lost. I do not know where they are any more. ~X(
The only prep S19 did all summer was three CB tests, and he is reaching nowhere close to his last yearās PSAT score. I think he has the potential to improve. Hope that was not a fluke 
He will take SAT in October rescheduled from August due to Hurricane. I marked December and March tests on my ātestingā spreadsheet. Depending on the outcome, he can take ACT in February and then April/June.
Having SAT or ACT done by June of Junior year was a huge relief for DS17 so I hope DS19 achieve that.
@payn4ward I donāt know if I ever mentioned it but S19 got a 1360 on the PSAT last year so his SAT score is a vast improvement. I think it proves that kids really can study for this test. He improved his reading/writing score by 110 points and his math score by 70.
I think he was particularly motivated this summer because he got a couple of Bs first semester sophomore year and he was starting to get a little worried about his GPA. He knew there was nothing he could do about the Bs at that point but wanted a decent SAT score to help his overall applications.
I think the guidance counselors send out a practice test for the PSAT soon. I will be interested to see if it is easier or just shorter. Our school usually has 25-30 NM semi finalists and this year only had 16. Not sure whatās up with that. S19 is definitely not in the top 20 kids in his class so I donāt even have a grasp on whether he would have a chance.
@homerdog What an improvement! =D> =D>
DS19 got a 1460 last yearās PSAT, but his first prep CB this summer was in 1300s.
I had given DS19 two CB PSAT practices last year (last yearās practice set and DS17ās practice set), and he did those two sets, so I think he was well prepared.
I think PSAT is both easier and shorter.
In the past I was able to find more CB PSAT practice sets on internet. There are at least 2 since new PSAT started. I am not motivated to locate them now, ā¦
okay, wait, here we go
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/psat-nmsqt-practice-test-1.pdf
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/psat-nmsqt-practice-test-2.pdf
and a new 2017 one will become available soon.
I also have DS17ās actual PSAT test. If one has siblings, C17 or C18, they can read those as well.
@me29034 , what about some of the schools in philly. When we looked at Drexel, was not a whole lot of trees :).
@Gatormama , yeah waiting for the same thread. S is smart, but not that smart.
My kid had 700 R/W, 540 M. I tried to push Khan all summer long and Iām hoping it did some good. We have the paper tests and heās working his way through a couple problems a night when he doesnāt have homework. Iām really hoping that itās made some difference, because 1240 just feels so much lower than I thought he ought to be.
@homerdog @NJFL123 @ThinkOn Wow - amazing job by your kids - congratulations!! 1500s arenāt even on our radar. Stinks because D is very smart, gets all Aās in advanced classes, etc.- she just does not test well. Her practice SAT (pretty sure we only ever finished one full one) she had around a 700 on Language Arts but she is always in the 500ās for math. She says she can pull As in math classes because if she learns something that week she can remember it, but once she is done with it she canāt remember anything. Oh well - she is also not very motivated yet. Her SAT class was postponed due to Irma. Today was the first day back at school. This morning I got a text, āThey are doing the SAT class today, should I go?ā Yes you should go - that is why we signed up!
@payn4ward We also lost one of our prep books this summer before it was every even touched! Our math tutor asked us to buy a certain book because it was the one she used for homework. We packed it on our summer vacation thinking maybe D would work on it a little. It was never opened, I thought it was never unpacked, but somehow between MA, ME and FL we lost it!