@elena13 That is good information to know. Maybe it would be best for my son to reach out to some of these schools AO and ask that question point blank. We met the area AO at Lafayette and have her card.
@homerdog a lot of larger schools make you apply to a specific major so they know during admissions how many people to adit into each major. We live in CA and at a lot of the schools it is hard to change majors once you are admitted. I think since your DS is interested in things that are usually in the same school he should be fine even at a big school because he wonāt need to change to another school. At a school like Dartmouth he wouldnāt have any problem changing majors at any time if he changes his mind.
Regarding college marketing emails and brochures:
My oldest had a collection of email subject lines she received from colleges. Read as a group they sounded like she was being stalked and should call the police.
For our second daughter we saved every piece of college mail in a box (more for fun and curiosity than information) until she made her college decision. Weād get three letters on the same day, all offering a free streamlined application, for three different colleges, all obviously using the same marketing company and apparently the same mailing list. It was comical.
Subject tests: We have one reach school that is still on the list because of small size and merit award potential. They require, not recommend, Math II and one other. Hopefully, she has a decent score on either Physics or US History. I think as long as the Math grade is mid to high 7ās, sheāll be satisfied with a 600+ score in the other.
Even though we havenāt visited this school, one of her friends from last summerās Math program is there, so it moved up the list.
The closer this gets, the more I look at the list from safety to high reach and think, if she only got into one of these schools, sheād be fine.
@gallentjill D is applying to a fall visit program at one school, and Iāve decided to let her go by herself. Will miss the opportunity to live vicariously. Iāve really enjoyed the visits.
@homerdog Good to hear re Dartmouth and the SAT essay. S19ās essay wasnāt stellar so heāll be glad to hear that they donāt consider it. At this point, thatās his favorite school and I pretty sure thatāll be his ED school.
He took the Math II, Bio and Spanish SAT2s on Saturday. He felt strong on both math and bio (and had prepped hard), but felt he bombed the Spanish. But he didnāt study for Spanish. Heād studied recently for AP Spanish so he decided heād do it as his 3rd subject exam if he had energy after the first 2. Hopefully heād done now with testing. I agree with others. The subject exams are awfulāonce you get to those it feels like the testing will never end. Heāll redo in fall if needed, ug.
He has 5 more days of school. I think heāll sleep and Netflix binge for 4 days after junior year is over! What a grind this year has been.
On good news, he finally has something he can list in the leadership box. Heās tried every year to get a student officer position and lost each year. This year he almost talked himself out of putting himself on the ballot (which involves a speech to the student body). At the last minute, he decided to go for student council since there were 4 slots and only one other person had put in their name with 3 hrs until applications closed. Odds seemed good. Alas 6 others put in their names after him, so in the end there were 8 competing for 4 slots. On the drive to school, he was moaning āWhy, why did I decide to do this? What if no one likes my speech?ā His āspeechā is kind of a stand-up comedy routine. āCome on! They love your speeches. You had them in stitches last year!ā āBut I lost the election.ā Anyhow, finally Victory. He is now on student council. Not sure why he was so keen, but he was.
@Kona2012 We got that same email from College of Wooster saying that they would be sending D19 an invitation in August to do a streamlined application and mentioning merit scholarships. I had sent them a score report from Dās February ACT score (school administered test) because I had read that they are one of the CTCLās with merit scholarships. Also we had gone to a CTCL fair last October and D had signed up then for emails from them. Maybe we will plan a visit to Ohio. Iām still not convinced my D19 should go OOS due to anxiety issues, but COW looks like itās would be one on our list if going OOS seems right for her.
Subject tests: D19 took Math II and Physics. She (and her pair friends who also took it) felt comfortable with how she did. Donāt know how thatāll translate, but I think a score with a 7 is a not unreasonable expectation.
As for Physics, she said something like, āI didnāt do well, but I did better than I expected,ā meaning, she was in a non-AP Physics class (not offered at school) with a teacher who teaches things well but in-depth. So she did a lot of own-study on stuff she never got to in class. Weāll see how that translates to a score. Since she wants to study Physics in college, itās a bit of a pickle if she gets a something with a 6. At the moment, she only has one school on her list that requires them, but itās one sheās really interested in, and itās one that a Physics score with a 6 would probably squash any shot she had at the school.
Weāll wait to see the scores come in, then she can decide whether she wants to take the test again. But I donāt know how much more studying would help with the Physics score.
On the positive side, school! is! over!
Declaring majors: Itās easier for me to say this b/c I have a daughter who knows what she wants to major in with ~90% certainty, but Iām all for declaring majors. I suspect that AOs arenāt necessarily tallying them, just trying to make sure they have the general STEM/humanities/arts balance that theyāre trying to achieveā¦
@Kona2012 - Yes, I think it would be good for your son to reach out to the AO at Lafayette if he is interested in keeping it on the list. He could ask whether not having the SAT 2 scores would hurt his application if he is otherwise a good fit for the school.
@homerdog - I saw on another CC thread that Yale had also recently dropped the essay requirements for ACT and SAT. Whatās your thought about whether or not the schools really still want to see the essay?
The more I learn about the SAT II Physics, the more I wish Iād learned about it 6 months ago. Itās definitely not an easy test to take even if youāve taken AP Physics. D19 may end up taking some other subject test entirely unrelated to science in hopes of getting a solid 700+ score to go along with what is hopefully a 700+ score on Math II. Even if she doesnāt get into the school requiring the SAT 2s, she could send it along to the optional/recommended schoolsā¦
@BorgityBorg s19 would like to get two strong SAT2 scores and feels the same way as you about trying other tests. He wasnāt considering Lit at all but, since History ended up being like a trivia contest, he thought heād retake History and add Lit as well. At least, with Lit, he thinks he might be able to figure out an answer where, on History, you either knew the factoid or you didnāt. He also thinks some test dates may have easier tests so heās even up for taking both of those in Aug and Oct. He just thinks heās got nothing to lose since heās using score choice anyway and standardized tests donāt really stress him out.
Yeah, at this point, she basically has August to take the full SAT and October to do any other subject tests. Itād be nice if the Math II was a really solid 700+ so if she needed to do something else she could just take one test and focus her studying on that one test.
D19ās friends took History and hated it; one of them took Lit and liked it marginally better than History, but all 3 of them felt much better about Math II. D19 might just end up taking a language test if necessary ā I think Iāve heard (you, @homerdog , may have been the one saying it) that those can be problematic b/c native speakers take it, but she wouldnāt be taking one of the major languages. Of course, if you have to submit a foreign language SAT subject test as your second test, a more science-oriented college might be wondering exactly whyā¦
@elena13 If a school says that they require it, then it has to be sent. I still get the feeling that it truly is at the bottom of the list of things considered, especially since now more and more top schools are dropping it.
S19 will only send his first SAT with his highest Math and EW score 800/740). Even though he did ok on the essay on his second SAT (7/6/8) and his other scores were practically the same (800/730), I donāt think we will bother to send it anywhere except schools that require the essay. Right now, thereās only one of those left and it seems to be slipping down his list for other reasons so he may not apply.
William and Mary says that they consider it but I still donāt think weāll send it. If he had received a 23 or 24, then heād probably send that second test to them.
MANY schools say they donāt require it at all and, in those cases, I truly think that means they donāt consider it at all so the score doesnāt matter.
@SDCounty3Mom Excellent insight and advice, thank you. Iāll tell my kid she should just hold her nose and close her eyes, and pick a major to check on the common app.
@SDCounty3Mom wait, so would it be a risk to apply undecided to a universityās Arts & Sciences school? Thatās the current plan here. For parenting-a-teen purposes, I am trying not to suggest specific majors although I see a possible fit in math/physics (and both academics and ECs would point in that direction). There is some desire to minor or just take classes in marketing and/or entrepreneurship, but probably not to major in business.
Iām trying to have my son work on some rough drafts of his main common app essay this month and Iāve looked at the writing supplements for most of the schools where we think heāll apply, but I know it doesnāt officially open until August 1st. For the supplements, do they always change year to year? Even if he doesnāt start the supplements until August, it would be nice to start formulating some ideas ahead of time, especially since our schools start so early.
@elena13 I think the schools change a lot of their questions frequently, but I seem to remember they usually keep one generic type question the same like " tell us something so important about yourself that you absolutely must tell us".
@elena13 Iām having S19 email all of his AOs and see if the supplements will be out before 8/1. A few have said that they might be out earlier and, if so, they will be on the admissions website as soon as they are ready. We will just keep checking.
Main essay prompt: I can make a strong argument that any essay prompt in either the Common App or Coalition App could be framed to work in both applications. Yet, D19 claims that she likes the main essay choices in the Coalition App better. If she insists on splitting the schools up, we may end up tracking in 4 total apps (two schools have their own). Or, maybe this will help in the weeding out of schools.
When we were driving to school this morning S19 started riffing on all the ways heās a nerd. I told him he needed to write it down. Today at dinner I asked if he had written anything and he said no. So I told him, no dessert until he had written for 10 minutes.
He went downstairs to write and was still writing when I brought his cake down half an hour later. I have no idea whether itās any good, but Iām just happy heās writing.