Sadly, no, @collegeandi – we live in SoCal, but she’s spending the two weeks of spring break at an “internship” in NYC. …if two weeks and unpaid is enough to call it an internship. However, I did buy the “red ACT book” again and will find a class or tutor for June. Thanks!
My d19 really only did one practice ACT before deciding she didn’t like it as much, so my thought process may not work but I would think there is actually a lot of sense in relaxing at this point and waiting until spring/summer. As you said, she is in APUSH. I know that the part of the SAT my d had the hardest time is full of documents that aren’t much different than the ones in APUSH. I’m assuming it’s similar on the ACT. So she is studying just by taking that class. And all of our kids are taking some kind of math… so studying math as well. At the end of the school year, these kids who are taking classes that challenge them, are very likely to be more prepared for either ACT or SAT than they are now.
The only reason it was really worth it for my d to take it this fall was because she tends to have an awful lot of test anxiety. For her, it was worth doing early and getting a score that would get her into the schools she is looking at, and bonus to it being when none of her friends were taking it which puts extra pressure on her. Additionally, she is considering applying to someplace that requires subject tests for engineering majors and I wanted her to not have to clump all that anxiety together on a short time frame. Now, she has the option to take the SAT again in August if she wants to try for her goal score again, but there isn’t pressure because it’s not a make or break thing for her in the least. For her, because of anxiety, that worked best. Different strategies are going to work for different kids.
Our spring schedule is already insane with plays, college visits, applying to summer programs, more plays, school needs to occur somewhere in there. If kid gets in to any of the summer programs he’s applying to, he won’t really have a break until August comes and it’s time to start applying to schools. Really the February ACT is our last shot for him to take it before things get crazy. Well. Crazier.
And I haven’t even begun to worry about subject tests. Kiddo is a humanities kid all the way. I need to look at the specific schools he is thinking about, I remember reading that some of them only require subject tests if you’ve taken the SAT, and you’re cool if you send an ACT?
@jenjenjen someone on CC did a great wrtite-up on Western Michigan U. Might be a place to check out for theater.
@ninakatarina Check individual schools for testing requirements. These days very few schools require subject tests as tests cost money and it is a burden to the families who cannot afford them. So colleges only “recommend” them but do not require them.
Many counselors say “recommended” means required unless you cannot truly afford it or have other burdens. Testing anxiety or too many schedule conflicts would be a good reason not to take it in my book.
Thanks @mommdc !
@JenJenJenJen One of my twins will be waiting as realistically long as possible to test, we’ve had a major change in medication recently and want to see how it works long-term before having them sit for the SAT. I don’t see a downside to waiting.
@JenJenJenJen My D16 took the ACT in June of her junior year. She’d done pretty well on the SAT, and wasn’t inclined to study for the ACT but I figured it wouldn’t hurt her to take it. I got her a huge ACT prep book, and then spur of the moment, also grabbed the ‘if you are only going to spend a week prepping’ book that was next too it on the shelf. Guess which one she prepped with… However, it turned out that the ACT suited her and she did shockingly well on it. So it paid off.
S is now signed up for the March 10th SAT (first time). Thinking about ACT too, but haven’t signed him up yet.
And for the Math II subject test on May 5th. Sigh. Still need to sign him up for ACT later in spring, AP Calc BC in June, & Physics subject test next fall, … Looking forward to this part being over. The exams seem endless…
Son just came home from being at a track meet since leaving the house at 7 am. All day at a big meet in Boston. He posted up a few great results though so he said that made up for the long day he said. With his times and height he’ll qualify for some of the elite meets later in the winter. Today was his first meet because he missed the opener taking the ACT.
Now he is depressed a bit because he has to go crank some homework out and work on a big essay due later in the week.
D19 took the ACT test Saturday (snow delay of one week). She liked it a lot better than the SAT so she has decided she will take it again if her scores aren’t great, especially since she didn’t prep at all really. One comment she made was that she was surprised by how many seniors were taking the test. I sincerely hope we are not doing any testing in January of senior year.
Starting to think about booking our spring break trip. The plan was to see Davidson, Wake, Richmond, and William and Mary. I’m starting to waver a little though.
While I think Davidson could be a match, I’ve talked to a few parents recently who have considered Richmond and Wake for their kids and were a little surprised they were on our list. First of all, the reason both schools are on our list is because they give merit (competitive merit, but still merit). Also, S19 would like the weather and they are both the right size with small classes, etc. My friends say, though, that both have student bodies that are white and privileged and curriculum that’s more pre-professional than the rest of S19’s list. We live in white/privileged land where kids get Teslas for their 16th birthday and S19 wants out. Part of me thinks we should still visit, though, and have him form his own opinions of the schools. He’s really only visited schools that are very similar to each other (Carleton, Mac, Grinnell, Kenyon, etc). I’m also now gun shy about the Greek system at Wake. That, paired with the privileged student body, seems like a bad match. Maybe he should see what Wake and Richmond are about if we’re already down there for Davidson? And now I’m also wondering if Davidson is too conservative or religious-feeling in any way. I never even thought of that but, on Niche, Davidson is ranked #2 for Christian colleges…what?? I think that must be wrong.
As for William and Mary, this is the most recent add. Since we were going to be in Richmond, I thought we should give it a look. It’s a match in a lot of ways. The biggest thing that I don’t like about it is that it’s mostly kids from Virginia and S19 really likes the idea of meeting kids from all over. At least we can visit Williamsburg and that matches up with APUSH content at some point, right? :))
The last part of this trip’s dilemma is that all of these schools really like the interview. It will be his first rodeo with that (although he had a one on one with the Davidson rep and the Dickinson rep at his high school school since no one else showed up for their visits). Anyone have advice on the interview? We think he’s pretty good with adults but I worry about the “what kind of a vegetable would you be” type questions.
I really don’t want to waste a family trip if these schools aren’t good matches. I think I’ll have S19 read about each school before I book anything and make sure there aren’t any red flags for him.
Your senior won’t be doing testing in January of senior year. Most schools have deadlines and the latest test they accept is December. In fact, neither ACT nor SAT even give January tests.
D19 wants to do pre-med. A couple of college reps gave her a warning that med schools may not accept AP credit for required classes.
In other words, in order to be admitted to med school, you need to take several classes, such as biology, chemistry, and physics. Some med schools will accept the AP test credit that the undergraduate college gives. But some won’t.
So their advice to her was that, since she has no idea where she’s going to go to med school, the safest course of action for her is to take freshman chemistry and biology in undergrad.
Now, she’s wondering if she should even bother taking the AP test for it. She’s taking AP chem and AP physics now and is planning to take AP bio next year. But, since she’ll likely be taking all three classes as an undergrad, it doesn’t make sense for her to stress over taking an AP test that ultimately won’t matter.
She already took the AP Psychology test last year and will likely take AP Economics, AP literature, AP government, and AP statistics next year. She took both AP world history and AP US history. She only got a 3 on world history, and most colleges don’t give credit for that.
Just thought I’d ask here if anyone has heard similar advice and what their child decided to do. Will colleges look down on the fact that she took, e.g., AP Chemistry but didn’t take the AP Chemistry test?
@gusmahler I haven’t heard that med schools do not take AP credit BUT all of the kids I know now in college doing pre-med did not use their science or math AP credits. They started from scratch so that their GPAs would remain high…and they are still finding pre-med track tough. They do feel, though, that taking the APs were still a good idea as they got good experience with content before attacking college-level science and math classes in undergrad.
@homerdog From what I’ve been told U Richmond is a nice place, but maybe kinda preppy and white. Just what I’ve been told by fiends that have graduated from there, and by kids my son17 knows. I think it’s a good school, just not what son17 was interested in, and definitely no for son19.
We have a friend with a freshman son at Kenyon right now, let me know if you need more details.
Your son is not interested in any schools in the Northeast?
@homerdog, since you are down there, how about College of Charleston and U South Carolina?
@RightCoaster thx for the info. Loved Kenyon and will go back again to see it with kids on campus. We visited last summer. As for east coast, he’s interested in lots of schools. But they are all full price! Haverford, Tufts, Midd, Bowdoin, Colby. Dickinson on the list as a safety. I guess I’m throwing the idea of Wesleyan or Amherst around but it’s so hard to know about fit unless we visit and I’m really trying to not schedule trips to visit reach schools that are full price. We can visit if he gets admitted depending on how things fall out with schools he’s already visited.
@mommdc we weren’t planning on driving south towards South Carolina. He’s leaning towards smaller schools so he probably wouldn’t be interested in USC. If he wants big, he can probably get into Wisconsin. As for College of Charleston, I’ve heard good things but I don’t know if he needs more match LACs on the list. Thanks for chiming in!!