Parents of the HS Class of 2020 (Part 1)

I should add to my above comment that if you are applying into the College of Engineering at UCLA or Berkeley, they do not look at alternative majors. For most UCs you can apply into the College of Engineering and put an alternative major in the College of L&S and if they don’t accept you into engineering, they might accept you into L&S for your alternative major.

UCSD asks that, if you are applying into any of their capped majors, you list an alternative major that is uncapped.

I’m new on here. I have a DS20 and have been reading for a while! I have gotten a lot of great info. I’m also wondering what VPN would be safe to use. I have checked Naviance so many times it’s scary…not sure I can wait another day!

@hgtvaddict I haven’t met a parent who thinks they worked as hard as today’s students. You have everything under control. One thing I told my wife recently holds true for all CC parents. “I know I love our kids because I am even willing to go to the internet (College Confidential) for answers”:slight_smile:

@SCgirl1 My old VPN does not have a server in the right place…so I am looking for another. Will report back if/when I find a good, free, one. Hopefully someone else can chime in…

The VPN I have used in the past with no issues is Tunnel Bear. I never downloaded it after I got a new phone, but I used it twice with no problems.

No VPN needed here - our school had my dd20’s scores up on Naviance last week! I don’t know if someone screwed up or what, but there they were “October 2018”…

@4gsmom Counselors received scores last week. Some schools loaded scores to Naviance, including several here. Others didn’t. No screw up.

I finally broke down and checked my d20s naviance and as I expected nothing uploaded there :frowning:

@typiCAmom: “Again, the more I read these acceptance threads, the more I’m convinced I have an average excellent kid, not an exceptional one (doesn’t mean I am any less proud of her).”

Trust me, I know these things. I said as much to a well-respected poster here at CC about my Stanford kid, more in an attempt to say the school does what it does in accepting kids who have done their best and shown their best. Not their best in relation to another student (such as those I have dubbed the supernova in my post above), but done their individual, respective, most excellent best, and then were able to successfully communicate that to the folks at Stanford.

“And I can’t predict where she’d be happier, at Stanford or UCLA.”

I can tell you, but, you know, I’m totally biased.

When will CB open the PSAT gate tomorrow? :smiley:

7:00 am Eastern is what I heard.

I just checked CB again for scores and it says scores are pending and we should have them within a week. Ugh! Anyone know why this happens or how long it normally takes? Previously it said the scores would be available today.

@Musicmom2015, don’t worry. This happened with S2’s actual SAT, and it was posted by the end of the day. So sorry you have to wait, but chances are very, very good that you’ll see something either later this morning or late this afternoon. Fingers crossed for you.

@Musicmom2015 - sorry its taking so long for you. i just know that with my two oldest kids (s15 & d16) - we didn’t get scores back till after the holiday break when the school gave info to the kids. that waiting was hard. you can do it!

I’m pretty sure PSAT scores will be out sometime today, especially since schools have obviously already received them. I’m not checking until one of you say they’re up, though! :smiley:

They are up. Good luck to all!

If the PSAT really does predict SAT scores, then I think we have found D20’s “test.” She actually finished this one and rocked the ELA part. I don’t think it will be enough for NMF, but we’ll see.

I tend to agree with the above posters about how a child with a lower standardized score can do well in college courses. My kiddo does well with her AP/DE courses because she puts for the effort to complete her assignments and study for the tests. It may take her longer than some of her classmates, but she gets the same (if not better) results.

Did anyone else get the Tulane e-mail with the Spotify playlists for finals? Clever.

BTW, I used X-VPN and it worked well to get the PSAT scores. D came in right at her SAT goal-score, so we are pretty happy. Send out free scores from the December 1st SAT she took, since today was the last day, and we felt comfortable she did well (and all four schools superscore).

No hitch getting S2’s PSAT scores this morning, and he surprised us by landing very safely above the cutoff for our state. But - and I’m really hoping this will turn out to be entirely hilarious - his score is starred ineligible because he managed to forget to fill in the questions about whether you’re a h.s. student, what year you’re going to graduate, etc. :)) I guess if you’re going to mess something up, that’s the way to go? It looks like an easy fix (especially as he’s in the system with his real SATs from this fall plus last year’s PSATs, etc.) but we’re keeping several sets of fingers crossed before we really dissolve in laughter here.

Fingers crossed for those still waiting! Congratulations @bigmacbeth , @tutumom, @Cheeringsection and everybody else who’s past the waiting.