@inthegarden , I hate feeling like a “mean old witch mother” too. Ugh. But I draw the line on the core values: kindness and health (physical and mental). The vacation thing is a health issue. I think we just don’t know enough about this disease yet, and I’d like to delay getting it as long as possible, in hopes of improved treatment. DH thinks they will eventually have an anti-viral like Tamiflu that you can take in the first 48 hours.
I agree with everyone who noted that there are going to be tricky decisions coming up. We are still on “Pause” here in metro-NY, but I have been letting the kids take socially distanced walks with friends, and D19 went to a backyard “gathering” of four friends with chairs set up 10 feet apart and thoroughly enjoyed it.
@inthegarden I’m so sorry to read about the vacation situation and your cat. There’s nothing worse than being on the opposite side of your kids on something and feeling like the meanest parent in the world. Everyone is so raw these days, and it just stinks.
And your poor cat. Hold and love him as long as you can. Older pets are such a treasure. 20 years old is incredible in general, but especially since he started life feral; you must be a great cat parent!
A local school district (probably about 13-14 miles away from us) just announced that they are cancelling all summer testing in their facilities…so no June/July ACT happening there.
I’m anxious to see what our school district decides…this is such a mess!
Momof3B Ugh, I’m sorry! I’m hoping they don’t do that here too. I don’t see why they can’t space the kids 6 feet apart and use more rooms and proctors.
Only 1 more AP on Fri for S/D21’s (excluding makeup math for D). Their school ends today though!
Just found out S18 tested pos for the covid antibodies, which confirmed what we thought. So, hopefully that means he’s immune (I don’t know why it wouldn’t).
On the college front, the younger kids’ school had a talk from an AO at a top 15 school who said they, and most of other selective schools he’s spoken with, have built a larger class than usual, expecting more “summer melt” and deferrals. He said whether that happens or not, it will affect the class of 2021 (less class space/dorm rooms). He said kids should be asking AO about this.
@Momof3B Oh gosh. I doubt ACT is happening anywhere. Are there school districts out there having summer school in person? I’m even highly doubting SAT and ACT in person in the fall. Even if kids are back to school, it will be on a way different schedule with fewer kids in the school at one time. I don’t see high schools offering up their buildings for kids who don’t go to their school. Will they be able to find proctors? Where will they seat all of these kids? Usually, kids take the test in classrooms. Maybe 20 kids in a class. Now it will have to be ten or less for social distancing so that means more proctors. On and on. I just don’t see if happening.
The more possible option for D21, anyway, is that her school will have it’s “spring” SAT that is always given to the whole junior class. It was officially moved to fall. That test has everyone spread out in the field house.
I saw on the ACT website that they will announce “during the week of May 26” where the June 13th ACT has been cancelled. I think it stinks they’re only giving basically 2 weeks notice – not student friendly for kids who’ve been prepping.
I preemptively moved S21’s registration to the July date in a neighboring district (our schools are not hosting). He’ll be fairly peeved if they cancel it 2 weeks out, but I’m not super optimistic.
It occurs to me this is another way some kids are more affected than others. Will students in some parts of the country have a lot more access to tests than others?
I’m beginning to think that COVID part of the common app is a place to share specific impacts around things like testing b/c it will vary by region/state.
@inthegarden You have reason to be wary of the trip to Florida. There is reason to believe they are censoring their COVID19 numbers because they may be higher than expected.
@AlmostThere2018 All of this ACT and SAT scheduling/rescheduling makes me want to just chuck D21’s study guides out the window and call it a day. I’m over it.
@homerdog – I know! My S can’t give up yet, though. He needs to apply to a couple of non test optional places to make sure he has an affordable option he’s excited about. Sigh.
Speaking of test optional - how weird is this? Elon (a school my daughter is interested in) had a facebook live event yesterday where they talked about next year’s admission process and one of the announcements was that they were starting a three year test optional pilot. That part is not weird. The weird part is that if you matriculate to Elon (obviously admissions decisions have been made long before that point) is that you must send a score in.
So they will be evaluating candidates without scores, but they want a score on record for every kid who attends. Thinking through it, I suppose they want to show student success after three years even if scores don’t meet the average? Not sure.
On another note, my daughter was picked to be a section leader for marching band next year. She’s very excited. Fingers crossed marching band gets to go ahead next year.
Same here, my son is only applying to in state publics and all them will be requiring test scores. So far, Texas A&M is the first to announce a later start to the application process to give students a chance to take the tests in September
It really stinks because many of the schools/sites have already cancelled, so that info is available to the ACT (and of course the site) and neither party has communicated that info to test takers yet.
So kids are studying thinking it’s happening, but it’s not. Meanwhile they could be changing their site, as you did. In my suburban Chicagoland area, students could conceivably travel to WI, IN, or IA to take the test.
@Mwfan1921 I would think it’s easy enough for students to look up the summer plans for the school where they are scheduled to take the test. See if their district is having summer school in school or online. Online? They won’t host an ACT for sure. Stinks that ACT isn’t communicating. Many people can figure it out without them.
D21’s last AP exam in 15 min! She’s nervous for this because it’s AP Psych and she wants to major in psych. In her mind, anything less than a 5 means she’s doomed to be a failure at her chosen major!!!
Meanwhile, my work is trying to kill me. Overworked and underpaid, I tell ya!
I know someone that was on the call and she mentioned that her understanding is that they want the scores so that they can determine how useful the scores would have been for them during admissions. They are doing their own internal study, admitting without scores but then going back after the fact and seeing if there is any correlation to the scores and success at Elon.
Speaking of test optional - how weird is this? Elon (a school my daughter is interested in) had a facebook live event yesterday where they talked about next year’s admission process and one of the announcements was that they were starting a three year test optional pilot. That part is not weird. The weird part is that if you matriculate to Elon (obviously admissions decisions have been made long before that point) is that you must send a score in.
So they will be evaluating candidates without scores, but they want a score on record for every kid who attends. Thinking through it, I suppose they want to show student success after three years even if scores don’t meet the average? Not sure.
/quote]
Actually, there are a number of TO schools that require a test score from all matriculating students, even if they applied TO. So not so odd.
I do wonder what those schools will do if some kids literally have no opportunity to take a test.
@momof3B I’m also in DFW, do you mind sharing which district or where you heard about the ACT cancellation? I haven’t heard that our district has cancelled yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.
D’s top 3 schools have not gone TO. Two are out of state flagships, so I don’t expect they will. She has one SAT score, it’s ok for admission but not for any type of merit.
AP Psych is in the books with no problems!! Lang tomorrow and she is done! YAY!!
Have the more open states, e.g., Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, or others said anything yet?
[/quote]
I am in West Texas, I have not heard of the 2 schools (each school in different ISDs) cancel yet. I did a google search and could not find anything. So as far as I know the June ACT test is still a go.
D also took Psych with no problems, she said is was easy and has Lang tomorrow and then she is finished with all 5 AP tests!
Edit: The school giving the ACT closest to us is having a in person (non virtual) Teacher conference at the high school June 4th. They specifically said they are not cancelling it but participate may choose online version. So this makes me think the ACT will take place. What do ya’ll think?