Eckerd is a safety with nice automatic merit aid based on his stats. If you have any questions about Eckerd, message me. We have both a son and daughter who graduated from Eckerd.
@chardonMN List looks good as long as he would be truly happy at any of the schools of the safety list. Thatâs a hard call if heâs only seen one of them.
Still a surprise to me to see how selective Pitzer has becomeâŠ
Just received an email from Georgetown announcing a change in their testing policy. It wasnât on our list so Iâm not sure what has changed but, for those who are interested,
@lkg4answers Iâm not sure, but I am guessing that the new part refers to the fact that they no longer ârequireâ 3 subject test. About time. I wonder how long until everyone on CC stops insisting 3 are required?
we heard a rep talk about Georgetown at a college experience night, but otherwise Georgetown is so not on peopleâs radar here in the midwest. Nor are SAT subject tests - our guidance counselor had never heard of them. maybe Georgetown is trying to open up to a larger range of kids. ?
Really sad to say that this may not even be news because of how often it happens, but underage drinking has ruined a senior year here. I will share only enough details to make my point. Seniors and others at a party, two that are drunk decide it would be fun to leave and go to a very public place in our town where adults, families, etc would be present. Someone calls the police. The two students try to run and end up jumping from a height to try to evade the police, one falls and the other keeps going. The police take care of the one that fell. There are broken bones, a head injury, surgery, and lots of pain to be dealt with over the next weeks. Student has missed all but the first week of senior year classes, will not be able to drive or carry a backpack when returns to school, has cancelled plans to apply ED, will miss homecoming, has lost the captain role in a fall sport and the spot on that team. Parents please talk to your students about how one (or more) bad decisions can make such a big impact on their life. The post-HS options they have worked towards for so long are SO close to being achieved. In less than a year they will be in that post-HS world. Good decisions are critical to getting where they hope to be.
@bgbg4us your guidance counselor has never heard of subject tests?
@bigmacbeth I agree. I think they changed ârequiredâ to âstrongly recommendsâ but I donât know the rest of the requirements for GT. For my older child ('17), very few of his schools recommended subject tests. My daughter is obviously a different kid with different interests and the majority of her schools either recommend or âstrongly recommendâ subject tests for her major. The comment is always followed by something to the effect of âunless you canât afford themâ which basically means they are required.
Subject tests are not something our school talks about either. Iâd never heard of them before CC. Of course, Iâd never heard about GPAs above 4.0 until I got here either! Our school only offers a few AP classes and they donât weight them differently. I asked friends who have their kids in the public HS which is much larger with more AP and itâs the same there.
My sons school knows about subject tests, but almost no one takes them because almost everyone goes to state schools where it is not needed. The guidance counselor incorrectly told him that subject tests are only needed if he is lacking in a subject and he did not need it. Thank goodness he had me to let him know that the schools he was interested in required it.
Questbridge app was submitted last night! Now another 3 week wait to see if he is a finalist ?
@cheeringsection that is just so sad 
@Cheeringsection Something similar happened with a classmate of my D18. Great kid with a promising future made one bad decision senior year. Thankfully he survived but that one decision was very, very costly.
@ShrimpBurrito and @MamaBear2001 it is sad and I cannot imagine how it is impacting the student and parents of student that kept running.
I just posted a new thread about SAT2 tests! I need to order scores asap and we are not sure if we should send them or not. Some in the past have said ânot requiredâ really only applies to underserved or people from schools where they arenât readily available. Neither applies in this case. Scores are good, but SAT1 are even better.
SAT 1: 1560, 800 math, 760 reading
SAT 2 Math: 780
SAT 2 US history: 770
Thoughts??
@Musicmom2015
Send those scores!
I think they are great for any schools. Now you/your kiddo only need to worry about the rest of the application packages! ?
Edit to add: I think other than Georgetown (mentioned above, need to have 3), MIT and CalTech (will need a science subject test in addition to Math II).
Those scores are fine scores. Try not to compare to those with higher scores than your child but look at all of those below your child. They definitely show his/her competency in math and history.
I agree to read the small print to see if you need a science subject test. Some schools also allow you to get out of a foreign language requirement if you have a somewhat decent subject test score. We arenât sending the foreign lang score with applications but, if my kid ends up going to a school where it might be useful, weâll send it before school starts.
@bgbg4us I understand that some schools donât have many students taking subject tests. I was more surprised that a counselor (whose job it is to know) hadnât heard of them.
Really depends on the college, very few require or even recommend SAT II subject tests. I would be reluctant to send any subject tests as the 1560 rocks!
With that said. I think the SAT II Math 780 hurts you as its only 69th percentile while the 800 from the SAT I is the best you can do and you achieved it.
I would possiblly keep the 770 in US History as its 89th percentile. Below is the chart for all tests:
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/sat/pdf/sat-subject-tests-percentile-ranks.pdf
Send the scores. The %ile doesnât matter bc those taking it are self-selecting. Scores above 750 are definitely solid scores for just about any school, even highly selective. (The math score would only be low at a school like Cal Tech where 800 is the range.)
FWIW, I agree about science scores. Those that require them may require science specifically.
@socaldad2002 I agree with @Mom2aphysicsgeek. Just send the scores, they are solid. The difference between a 780 and 800 might have been 2 questions! Think of them as supporting actors to the 1560. Just sending in the history score would make me think that perhaps the other subject test score (because who takes just 1) was not good at all and hence omitted.
@lkg4answers - re: counselor not knowing what SAT subject tests were â I KNOW!! I am just shaking my head. But I guess I have to look at the context of the school (midwest - very few here takes the SAT. . . ) and low SES ( very rare a kid gets into ivies/elite schools and dismal Naviance stats) and sheâs just trying to get kids to graduate! but still . . . . youâd think sheâd know.
@bgbg4us Yeah, we are in the midwest. D17 took the ACT, which was still the state-requirement back then (2016). But, she still took 3 SAT 2/subject tests. Large public HS. I donât give a pass to that counselor, at all. There are smart kids at every school.
D20 is not taking any subject tests, which is a breath of fresh air! 
At what point do we start sending test scores? My son knows some, but not all, of the school he wants to apply to. We are still honing the list, but some are definite. Do we go ahead and start sending test scores to them? Do we wait until we have the applications done for those schools and send as a packet? Do we wait until we have all the schools he wants to apply to and just send all at once (except for the one or two he wants to EA? )
Or can/should we just start sending to the schools we know he is applying to?