Yes, that’s what I did, Borgity. Except I never said “ignore your parents.” 
One of those moms is now contacting me for her younger D19. Her older D was accepted at Stanford, Berkeley, Amherst, among other schools (and, interesting, seems to have been Tufts-syndromed at Barnard, because she was rejected.) It was especially fun helping the older D choose the 4 words that described her for the Stanford app. I am looking forward to working with the younger D.
I’ve been looking at future ACT dates and it’s not looking very convenient for a retake. On the April date she has solo/ensemble contest and is in 5-6 entries. June date is the morning after she returns from a choir trip to NYC at 10:30 pm. July date is her grandparents’ county fair and the Minnesota cousins come down. It wouldn’t be so bad if there was one in that general vicinity and she could get to the fair shortly after noon, but there are none in the area. September might work…or a Sunday in April or June if they’ll let us sign up for a Sunday. I don’t know if April or June gives her enough study time, with soccer going on. I’ll ask her what she prefers.
@HeartofDixie I’m not sure what to tell you as DD is eager to be involved in the process, although she often discounts my opinions she is still willing to talk. Would starting at community college be an option if he doesn’t get going? If you can’t help much, he may have to do that. If he can maintain a 3.5 in cc and joins Phi Theta Kappa, there can be some decent scholarships for that at the transfer school. Or if there is a local public he can commute to?
Oh lord.
I wasn’t going to say a thing about the kid’s ACT score on social media, since it’s the kid’s achievement and not mine. But now my darling husband has gone and posted a bright orange brag post about kiddo’s 32. I know he is just being proud, but I suspect the kid is going to be angry and upset about it.
Sigh. Family drama.
@ninakatarina Poor proud dad - I would make him delete that ASAP - too personal!
@HeartofDixie your S19 sounds like my D19. Last week it seemed like she had some free time so I tried to get some information out of her in regards to what schools she might want to apply to, etc. I really didn’t get very far. She deleted some of the colleges I put on the “list” on the College Board website. I didn’t say she could do that. :((
D19 has a pretty AP heavy load, has a good GPA, but the high school is really competitive. It is puzzling to me why she pushes herself so hard when she doesn’t even seem to care about where she goes to college. I didn’t make her sign up for AP classes. She used to have an idea of what she wanted to do and what she wanted to major in college with, but now seems like she doesn’t know anymore. So I’m frustrated too, as I’ve done a fair amount of research trying to figure out where she could go to college.
On top of all that, I hope that her March SAT score is higher than her existing one. So until that score comes in, all I can do is find options for colleges.
I feel like I am doing all of this footwork for her because nobody did it for me. I was the oldest child also, and my parents didn’t do anything to help me figure out what I was going to do after high school. I guess I’m trying to save her from herself. I asked her to talk to her junior friends and her senior friends about where they want to go, where they applied, etc. as she does better with hearing those stories and then coming up with a plan.
@heartofdixie Your son sounds like mine. Trying to pry a word about college out of him takes a lot of effort. My son is at least done testing, but he acts like there is nothing left to think about! Have you taken your son on any tours yet? I took S19 to an open house the other day and was able to get a few tiny crumbs of info afterwords.
I do think my son wants to go to a 4 year college in 2019. He has good stats (34 ACT, A- average, meh ECs), but is not very “academic” so it is hard for him to focus on potential majors and he is not keen to explore a variety of interests as an undecided major. He has not visited any college website. I think he has no clear goal and therefore his path is not clear and he may feel a little overwhelmed. That is just a guess though. For all I know, maybe he thinks about college 24/7!
@BorgityBorg - I agree. I think you can ask around to find a willing parent, maybe even a former English major who would help. I found it helpful to talk with parents who had kids a few years older than mine who also applied to similar schools to my D. D17 was applying to several out of state LACs and not many in our area do that. So, I definitely sought out others who could give advice. Now, other parents are asking me for help and I can pay it forward.
However, I think I want to hire @EastGrad for my son! 
@BorgityBorg , we used a consulting service for S14 as he was targeting many lottery schools. We didn’t do the full blown service, but had them do an analysis of his profile in the summer before senior year. That cost us a few hundred dollars. In hindsight it was not a very positive experience, as I think she was more pessimistic than was warranted. S14 did not have perfect stats and chose his own path in course selection in high school, which I guess did not impress her. We also used her to review his Common App essay which was another couple of hundred dollars. I thought that was more useful as DS was dismissive of our feedback. She gave him good and constructive feedback that helped him clean up his essay. In the end S14 did well - admitted to a couple of Ivies and top universities. Your mileage may vary.
So my S19’s section scores are not what I would have predicted and are somewhat lopsided for him. Not complaining with his composite of 34 but math is a 32. Not sure if an engineering bound kid should retake. He’s not headed to a highly competitive school so possibly not. 35E, 32M, 34R, 34S.
@MAandMEmom if he is headed to a highly technical school they will probably be overjoyed to have a kid who has the other skills as well.
@MAandMEmom Most schools’ Common Data Sets break down the mid-50% for math and English scores, so you can see where his 32 puts him for the schools on his list.
No one wants to re-take a 34 though! If he’s in the top 25% and getting good grades in rigorous math classes, I would probably just let it go and be happy with that great score.
@MAandMEmom I would not worry about repeating the ACT. Purdue which is considered a really good engineering school their average engineering composite ACT score is 32 and the range for acceptance is 28-33. So with a 34 composite I think he would be all set as long as his actual math grades are good and he has taken calculus or plans to in high school.
I would definitely not retake a 34 ACT. There isn’t a school in the US where 34 is in the bottom 25%. The highest 50% range for ACT scores I’ve seen is MIT’s range of 33-35. So even there, your kid’s 34 is good
If you’re worried about schools that think a 34 is ho hum, those schools are a crapshoot anyway, where people with 36/4.5+ routinely get rejected.
Thanks for all the advice! We are in the unique position of having access to the Tuition Exchange program as hubby works at a private college. We were aiming and his favorite so far in the program is Wentworth which would be a good fit for him in many levels. The Exchange program is competitive and he would likely be at the top there with that composite. He actually wasn’t smitten with WPI another closeby option for us. Other competitive colleges in the program are Villanova and UPitt but they are super competitive. He is in public school and ahead in math but that would mean calc AP next year as a senior. Our in state options are also very good (UMass) but even though I work at a public college, our benefit is not great and a private will actually be a less expensive option.
^^. I would agree with @gusmahler, no need to retake that 34.
Son19 is going to retake the SAT in March to see if he can up his English/reading section. I would’ve loved it if he had done well on ACT but he struggled with the format and timing a bit, and he didn’t do as well on a few sections. He just didn’t like it, and felt that it was harder than the SAT. My other son hated the SAT and loved the ACT.
Son19 has been taking an SAT prep class a few days this week. He said he’s learning some new things so hopefully he’ll get a tick upwards on his score.
Tomorrow is a free day, and I’m debating on trying to squeeze in a college tour somewhere. I don’t really know what school would be worth visiting without firm test scores in place. His current score is good enough for most schools, but not the reach types. So without scores I just don’t know if it’s even worth it to visit a “reach school” just for fun so he can see it, or not. He’s visited most of the matches on his list, except the state flagship, and we’ll go there when he has an official invite from the track coach. He can’t do that until end of Junior year, and I don’t need to visit there multiple times to know what it’s all about, we visited with son17 already.
I think we are done with visits of everything but the reach schools this summer and a couple interview visits in April or May, to places we have already been.
Interim report cards are coming out today. Kiddo has pulled his calculus grade up to an A for the moment and he tells us that he is the best at derivatives in his class. He still hates math, but he is getting the hang of a part of math that I never quite mastered. I’m very proud.
Now if only that new wizardry at calculus could translate into good scores on the stupid standardized tests… but of course the standardized tests look at math that kiddo isn’t currently being taught and didn’t learn properly the first time.
^^ Willing to trade one respectable math score for a resepctable English section, ha.
I’m not sure why son19 doesn’t do well on English sections, he is a decent reader, and he does well in English class. He’s not a great writer, but I think that’s in part to less than great teaching in that area. I don’t think there is a huge focus on that in school, and kids can just hack their way through reports and projects. He certainly does not sit around writing for fun, but he reads for fun not just school assignments.
I think part of his issue is how the SAT likes to “trick” you in regards to the questions. I think he gets confused a bit, and just picks the wrong answer. I don’t think it’s as cut and dry to him as the math section.
@MAandMEmom
A good deal of my College Confidential time has been spent arguing that SAT/ACT scores are not the great predictors of college/life success that they are popularly assumed to be. GPA and rigor of secondary school alma mater are better predictors of college performance. Neither of these secondary school metrics necessarily predict success in life’s work. That having been said, a student who has strong grades and strong test scores still may benefit from a college where the metrics of classmates are in the same ballpark.
You might want to check the Common Data Set profile at candidate schools to see if they roughly match your son’s. At schools like Purdue, U Maine, UMASS, Northeastern and many other large universities, the profile of the engineering and CS students is significantly more competitive than the the general university profile. At schools like Clarkson, Stevens, WPI, RPI, RIT and Wentworth, the population distribution is much more uniform across majors because these Universities focus on STEM majors. Your son may want a school where his classmates are in the same ballpark as they move on in the math, physics and CS studies. The average 550 SAT does not compete well in math with the average 700 SAT (nor the 32 ACT).
Many of these schools also have co-op programs which can help financially.
As you know, it is important that your son fits comfortably into the college environment. He needs to attend a school he can get excited about. It may not be a good idea if he is the quickest learner in the class and he does not feel challenged.
ME resident moved up from MA.
I said that MIT has the highest 25/75 numbers I’ve seen. Actually, Cal Tech has a 25th/75th profile of 34-35!
Yeah, Caltech’s scores are ridiculous – more than half the class, I believe scored an 800 on the math section. It wouldn’t entirely surprise me that when the 17-18 CDS is released that the 25th percentile on the math is something like 780 or 790. (And the EBRW will probably end up around 750-760.)