Busy weekend coming up. Son is heading out to a local college for a robotics competition tomorrow and then on Saturday heads to the Regional Championships for track event.
He is in a conundrum right now. He has qualified to participate in the National Track and Field event next weekend from his win last week, but that championship is the same weekend as his Deca Competition and SAT test. Huge bummer. It’s not easy to qualify for the national tournament, and I’d hate to see him miss it, but he has been looking forward to entering the DECA competition with his friend/teammate and he has been prepping for the SAT so he should get that out of the way.
But, he might never qualify again and I think it would be cool for him to go to Nationals and take it all in. He could also keep getting better I guess and qualify in the Spring or next winter.
So we have until Sunday to decide, so I think we’ll see how he does at the Regional and what that’s all about, and then make up our minds. Just cruddy timing unfortunately.
@Corinthian - we stopped by Kalamazoo’s table and they said they don’t have an Education major so we nixed it. I’ve heard great things about that college though. We stopped by the Hope table on a whim because a HS classmate of mine’s daughter started freshman year there and apparently love it. I had never heard of it until I saw her FB post mentioning it. I do hope you and your D are able to visit. We were going to try and get there over spring break but D has to work so we will have to get it in some other time.
@ILMom13579 my parents, my brother, SIL, and two nieces are all Hope graduates. Great school.
@Corinthian - that is very reassuring! I’m going to try and get my D there this spring if possible…maybe when the tulips are blooming…what a sight to see! When I was a teenager my family would drive through Holland on our way to visit some friends, such a fantastic town and so beautiful!
@RightCoaster terrible timing, so sorry. Hard choices.
@RightCoaster Tough choices for sure, but what an accomplishment to be in that position!
@ILMom13579 Hope college is in the beautiful lakeside town of Holland, MI. A wonderful place to visit in summer. I know a student there now that loves it. Very conservative.
Your posts describe Valparaiso University. Less intense but intellectual kids, music, theater and writing opportunities—especially in the honors college, CoachUSA bus service to both Chicago airports, scholarships available, math strong, etc. You can PM me if you have specific questions.
@Cheeringsection - thanks so much for the heads-up on Valpo. We have been on the fence about IN schools because she isn’t sure she wants to teach there when she graduates. I know some scholarships/aid require you to teach state disadvantaged schools so we have been keeping that in mind while researching. But Valpo looks like it might be a nice place so I’ll have D look into it.
Congrats @rightcoaster. Nationals in track is an amazing, once in a year accomplishment. To me, that makes it a no-brainer compared to the SAT. There are at least 5-6 more SATs that he can take (May 5, June 2, August 25, October 6, November 3, December 1 (though December is pushing it)). (The dates after June are only guesstimates). But only one national track championship. And, since he’s being recruited for track, competing in the nationals will look great on his resume.
I actually don’t know what DECA is, so I have no opinion on that.
@RightCoaster Sorry to hear about the triple conflict. I would say take the SAT in May or June. There are actually plenty of chances to take it. Late August and October dates are good too.
I understand that he does not like “ACT format,” but these days SAT and ACT questions look pretty similar and prepping for either one helps both. So if April ACT date works schedule-wise, I would have him do one full-length official practice ACT set and see if he can “get that test thing out of the way” in April.
@payn4ward oooh. You think ACT and SAT questions are similar? I think I disagree. English way harder on SAT with more primary source documents and math is wordier than on ACT. They test the same content but are written very differently.
ACT is faster, though, so that can make a big difference.
@RightCoaster I agree with everyone. Go to the meet! I completely understand that he’s been prepping for SAT and it’s hard to kind of switch modes and think about taking it later, but maybe he can scoot his study schedule ahead a bit and take it later this spring. I wouldn’t wait until August though. Little time to retest then and it’s nice to have those scores in hand sooner to sculpt the list. Congrats again!!
@homerdog CB/SAT hired many ACT test writers to make SAT look more like ACT.
Their grammar sections have become very similar.
There still are many differences, and I agree with you on the differences mentioned above.
Both my boys scored equivalent scores on SAT and ACT, so there was no clear winner.
I think for them the pros/cons of the two tests were wash, and they ended up scoring the same. YMMV
@eandesmom Yes, UVM is definitely on the list of schools we might want to visit during our east coast tour. I have a couple friends who went there and through CC (and reading your posts on your S’s college selection journey) it’s been on my radar.
Re Cal Poly, that’s also one that I’ve also thought S might look into, but we’ll reassess CA schools after the east coast/up-state NY tour.
Had a busy vacation week with my D. Made a trip to PA. Here’s my thread:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2053521-pennsylvania-road-trip.html#latest
Mother Nature cut it a day short, so we need to head back to see a few that we missed. But man PA is full of some fantastic schools!
I think son19 is leaning towards blowing off Nationals and taking the SAT and doing to DECA ( HS business Competition) with his friend. He’s been working hard to prep for both and wants to capitalize on that now.
He had anther good day yesterday at the big meet, and although he didn’t win he did get a medal. He is feeling really confident heading into Spring track season and now feels like he should qualify again for the National Spring meet. He is hitting certain thresholds pretty easily now, so I think he can do it.
The SAT’s are the big issue. He’s been prepping and wants to get it over with. The next time the SATs come around he has all sorts of sports and academic stuff going on and can’t sit for the SAT. So he’d have to wait until the Fall.
If he takes it next week and does well on the English section he is done. He can move on to focus on other things
Worse case, he has to test prep again in August and take it early Fall.
If he tests well now he may be able to just be done with it, and then be able to have scores, transcripts etc done in time for recruiting stuff this summer.
He could still claim that he is National Qualifier for the winter.
He also doesn’t want to bag out on the biz competition with his friend because that is basically a DQ for them and his friend would be bummed. They get to travel one day this week for the event and have been planning it for a few months. The track thing just kind of happened and was unexpected.
The bad part is I think the National Track meet in the Spring is the weekend before final exams week, arrggghhh!
He makes good decisions and thinks them through. I would fully support that.
@RightCoaster He’s got some solid thinking and reasoning there, I would absolutely support whatever his choice might be. Really, there is no “bad” choice.
I think your son is very responsible and thoughtful of his teammates @RightCoaster . That’s something to be applauded.
And since I just had to fill out a parent survey thing for my d19’s counselor, I’ll add that this situation sounds like a good little anectdotal story about your son’s values and teamwork. For a kid going into engineering, this is a great little example of why he fits.