Son19 had a great track performance the other day, and unexpectedly finished on the podium and qualified for the Alll State meet next weekend. If he does well there he would move on to the National Championships, which would be totally crazy. Anyways, he was so happy and proud, it’s not easy to advance that far. We got a great photo of him on the podium and he is smiling ear to ear.
We have some nice weather for skiing, but then he needs to get back to training again tomorrow.
@homerdog Take a look at the coursera specializations offered now - that can give you a flavor for what “data science” can mean - but yep, many things to many different fields. In my past life, we were looking for mainly statistics backgrounds with experience using sas, python and sql. I was the oddball working on nlp, text analytics type stuff. Basically taking structured and unstructured data sets and pulling sense from them (through whatever programming method) and then applying those insights into business recommendations (needing business sense and knowledge of how that insight logically translates…) Statistics phd were easy to find - but ones who could do the “and so what” part were a needle in a haystack.
We visited Arcadia University today and have turned in our first college application! They said they would give a fee waiver to anyone who applied on site. The app fee for them is only thirty bucks, but we figured that while we were there and the visit was fresh in our minds we might as well apply. Have to send them one rec letter and one test score and the kiddo’s application is complete.
It’s not his favorite college visit but he liked a lot of things about the college. And the essay is optional for them. So, one application is (partially) complete. They’re a rolling admissions college too, so he might hear a reply before senior year even starts! I’m happy to finally have found a safety that DS doesn’t just tolerate, he is quite fond of it.
I also discovered why I had never heard of this 150 year old college back in the days when I was looking at colleges. They changed their name in 2001. Back when I was looking at schools for myself, they were Beaver College.
Gee, I can’t see any reason WHY they might change that name.
We had Arcadia on the list at one point @ninakatarina and I had a chuckle when I realized that it is the former Beaver College. ;))
@ninakatarina They let you apply for 2019 already ?
Hey, I think I remember a Beaver College from back in the day!
We visited UMD-College Park today for Maryland Preview. This is our first time doing a larger open house type event rather than a standard tour and information session (actually, we’ve only done one of those, too). So we attended the general information session, went to an info session for the School of Computer Science, Math and Natural Sciences, and an info session and tour for the School of Music. We actually skipped the standard tour to eat lunch.
S19 wasn’t feeling it at all until we got to the music info session, which I believe had 6 students in attendance. The size of the campus wasn’t appealing to him, and the CS and science students (the ones on the panel and the future ones in the audience asking questions) were “too intense” and made him realize that he “doesn’t actually like science that much.” He might go back to the music open house in the fall, but said he wouldn’t be interested in other programs there. I guess we got a few more tiny bits of information about his likes and dislikes, so it was worth the very short half loop around the beltway.
Our prom dilemma is what vehicle to take. Family/community comes to watch them arrive- you can either be outside to see the vehicles, or sit inside as they are announced onstage. DD wants to pull up in her go-kart, but she needs a rainy-weather option for backup. Our nicest vehicle is DH’s big truck but she used that last year. Well, we have the Studebaker, but it’s not easy to drive.
Individual speech contest is Saturday. They were supposed to have a conference one tomorrow for practice, but it’s cancelled due to potential ice. At least thinking there would be a performance tomorrow gave her some impetus to work on it today on her day off.
Hoping it’s nice weather, @bjscheel! The go-kart sounds perfect.
@carolinamom2boys they gave us the application and said that they start reviewing in August and have rolling admissions. I was also surprised that they let us apply this early. The kids who were filling out applications all sounded very interested. I think it’s a good marketing step, maybe? It definitely will drive up the number of applications they receive. The app isn’t complete until they have a score report and a teacher or GC rec, but they did give us a handy recommendation form to take home.
Kid took a Princeton Review practice SAT test yesterday. Does anyone have any experience as to whether these are an accurate predictor of the real test?
@bearpanther Before I realized that Princeton Review did not use the actual College Board practice tests, I took S19 to one of their sittings. His test score on that test was very close to his initial score on a College Board practice test that I had him take a few weeks later. Not sure if that helps since it’s anecdotal. He never took another Princeton Review test since there are eight official College Board tests and he just used those to self study at home.
Has your child taken the PSAT? That’s generally a good predictor of SAT score.
He took the PSAT in fall of 10th grade and scored a 1200 (630 R, 570 M). Practice test yesterday was a 1390 (720 R, 670 M). Aside from the practice test he has done no other studying; he has a lot of test optional schools on his list and so I think he is not putting any extra effort into it (he gets what he gets). I am trying to express my thought that he shouldn’t close any doors as what he wants now might change in 6 months.
@bearpanther Other companies like Princeton Review have had a hard time replicating the new SAT because it’s so different from the old test. I would have him take a College Board SAT practice test and see how he does. That would be a better gauge. He didn’t take the PSAT this year but took it last year? Usually kids take the PSAT junior year.
@lawalks When you have test scores, be sure to look at the admissions data for each school, especially the middle 50 percentiles for test scores. Then post scores with your cumulative GPA in the chance me forum. Right now your UW GPA at 3.5 is on the low side for the more competitive of those schools; try to improve.
@bearpanther My junior thought that Princeton Review’s reading sections were not as hard as the real SAT. However, I have read anecdotes of others having the opposite opinion.
Thanks for the info. I honestly don’t know if he will take another practice test but if he seems interested I will direct him to CB.
@lawalks As others said, there are forums here where you can rate your chances of acceptance at other colleges. Also, you’ll need ACT or SAT scores to get a more complete picture of your chances. Some of those colleges are really competitive (particularly UVA, Michigan and UNC). Don’t actually know much about most of the other schools, except UMD. That is a really good school. You may want to leave town to experience being away from home, but don’t count out being a Terrapin. It was a pretty good school back when I attended and it’s apparently gotten even better.
But I also wanted to congratulate you on the improvement in your grades. That will look really good to the colleges.
I’ve heard rumors of some of the more shady SAT prep courses giving you a purposefully harder test before you take a course and a purposefully easier test after the course to show improvement. I doubt Princeton Review would do that, since they are such a huge name in the industry. But it is always recommended to take actual SAT (or ACT) tests to eliminate that type of bias. Actual SATs are readily available online at Kahn Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/sat/full-length-sat-1/paper-sat-tests/a/full-length-sats-to-take-on-paper
Yes! D19’s standardized testing is over! She got the score she needed for the Bama Presidential scholarship, so will not be taking any more tests. (She’s not necessarily going there, but wanted the scholarship ACT score just in case she does).
I’m more obsessed about the scores than she is. She didn’t even know scores came out today, while I’m staying up late to get her scores. Granted, I’m actually up late to work, but I found the time to check her scores also.
The rest of the school year will be anticlimactic. D19 is injured, so won’t actually be competing in any track meets for at least 3 weeks, maybe longer. She doesn’t want to do any more college visits until the summer or fall.
And her homework is so much less than last year, she doesn’t know what to do with her free time. Last year, she had English, where she had to do a ton of reading, and AP World History, which also had a lot of reading, in addition to science and math. This year, AP Lang has basically no homework. Same with pre-calc. And she took APUSH over the summer. She basically only ever has homework in chemistry and physics. So when they are between sections, she can have a few days in a row with zero homework, which was unheard of last year.
@gusmahler same here, although it’s not that late on the west coast. I’m going to stay mum though, we will see if he thinks to check or when ACT emails reminders that the scores are ready. That won’t be for 2 more weeks or so as I made him do the one with the essay. Not really sure why since no one seems to care anymore but…I did.
We are officially lopsided. Which is a bit sad. Not that S19 would be remotely interested in Bama but he’s got the ACT score for the presidential. Too bad he doesn’t have the GPA to match! Still, given the result, he may be one and done and maybe I should have shot a tad higher on the free score reports.