@Mwfan1921 I see. So that maybe means that having comparatively higher grades and rigor should still help a TO candidate. And showing interest for colleges that count it will also still be a plus for TO candidates too.
It’s just odd because this is a special-circumstance year so I would think all metrics would be changed including that 25% threshold. Not exactly altruistic to say “we are TO!” but then have that limit.
Does it follow, then, that (to balance any cut in rankings a school may suffer by going TO) admissions for those students who DO submit tests will be less-holistic and more stats driven? In other words, if your student does submit scores, they’d better be absolutely top-notch, regardless of ECs, whereas TO applicants would feel more pressure on ECs, essays? Just speculating…
I mean, we hear a lot about AOs trying to engineer a vibrant community of diverse students with different backgrounds, interests, personalities, etc through holistic admissions. Do you feel that some of that will go out the window temporarily for the sake of rankings and economic survival?
@inthegarden thats where my mind is going as well.
Ugh, I wish there were more good rolling admissions schools! There is one academically-solid one within reasonable driving distance of us but it’s too urban and too big for our D’s tastes. She might apply anyway, just for the reassurance.
@3kids2dogs, not sure I completely understood your previous post. Were you referring to lopsided M/ERW scores? If so, my D’s are even more lopsided, so it’s a real quandary what to do if she can’t raise one end a bit.
@inthegarden in regards to my earlier post this morning:
I’m worried kids who submit less than perfect test scores will be viewed non holistically and instead the admission decision will primarily be based on whether their test score will help raise the average.
In other words, Tulane’s middle 50% ACT is 31-33. The student who has a 32 might have otherwise felt good about his score, but now the idea might be “this student can’t help us balance out the 27 or 28 a test optional kid may eventually submit, so we’ll go with this other kid with a 34 instead to help our overall average.”
Does that make sense?
Been reading old threads for days now. Struggling with trying to understand how high (within top 50+) is reasonable to shoot for ED this fall. Don’t want to overshoot with those two chances at ED, don’t want to undershoot either. So much uncertainty. And some visits may still need to happen, not to mention teenage boys who are only lukewarm so far about digging in. They will come around, but I have a feeling Aug/Sept/Oct will be a whirlwind around here. More gray hair on the horizon.
Anyone else have a club swim kid whose team has started back up? Aquatic centers here are slow to open. S21’s team has lots of convoluted plans: lower numbers per lane, carabiner stations for gear along the lane line to avoid clustering at the end, headsets for kids to hear coaches. I’m pretty comfortable, given all the chlorine. I really want to see my kid swimming again.
@3kids2dogs ugh. I agree with that as well. But maybe the tilt towards accepting the highest stat kids won’t be that extreme. Maybe above 50th percentile will still be a good thing if submitting a score.
I don’t see how schools can ask for a score after they’ve admitted you. Sound like some schools (Bowdoin?) does that. In the case of this year’s kids, there might be kids out there with no score to give. And I haven’t seen any colleges give directions saying kids have to submit a score eventually. When would they tell kids that? Lots of kids out there maybe not taking the tests now. If schools need a score, they’d better start advertising that.
@3kids2dogs, that’s what I was thinking…that maybe colleges will turn to their TO kids to fulfill more of their holistic needs and, lean on those submitting tests for the very highest scores. Ugh. We’re caught in the middle at this point. And as for affording full pay, that’s up in the air too, depending on the market.
@homerdog I agree there are a lot of kids who have not been able to test at all yet my D is one of them. It’s not an issue of being TO if you don’t have a test to submit. AO and schools will have to come up with some kind of new system if kids can’t get tests in.
I don’t see it as something to list on other applications. Centre College has something similar. We saw it as a way to put D19 on the radar of her admissions officer before the general application process started. I agree it’s kind of a shortcut way of indicating specifics like grades, scores (in the case of Centre, at least a couple of years ago), and having a decent letter of rec. I guess the one thing it would signal is that D is probably applying to Furman.
And the thing is…we all kind of need to know this kind of stuff to determine whether a school is a reach/match/safety. How to make a list? I feel like we (meaning all of us, not just D) are going in a little blind and will have to temper expectations since admissions will be pretty wacky. I guess all we can do is have the kids present themselves authentically and then cross our fingers. Likely means a lot of apps per student to hedge bets unless the student has a score and wants to attend a public university that’s a safety.
@homerdog, I agree. I also have this fear that our local GC will balk at dealing with a lot of apps and put her foot down. I doubt many kids around here tend to apply to more than 4 or 5, though I don’t really know.
Re many applications, a related question: Does each teacher who agrees to send recs have to submit directly to each college applied to, or does the teacher submit to the GC (who then submits to each college). Just wondering if the teachers have to do that much work and in a timely manner?! also noticed that one school on Ds list wants only one teacher rec, and that teacher must be from the student’s junior year (whereas D’s best junior year teacher will not be doing recs for anyone) so it looks like she will have to have different teacher recs for different colleges., an exhausting patchwork to keep up with.
@inthegarden At our school, the teacher posts the rec once to Naviance and then the GC shoots it off to each school they’ve sent transcripts to.
That’s similar to what we’re seeing. The “serious” swimmers have left for Florida to swim there.
We’ve discussed how last season the big meets were canceled and now the LCM season will not be about PRs, and how to make the best of that. Being away from the sport and their friends has helped them realize why they swim, so that has helped.
I’m able to glean info from 2 friends who hire elite college admissions couselors, and both have said test scores will be more important. Here is roughly why:
So basically there are less ECs and less class rigor, and that makes the test more valuable.
Also, schools will still shape their class based on the numbers they want for each major, URM, geographies, wealth, Test scores, etc, but this year it will also be the number of TO they feel comfortable with. Don’t hate Tulane for being honest.
Well, non-essential retail reopens June 15 here. D21 got a message from her manager, so looks like she’ll be back to work! Hoping for a decent amount of hours now that she’s more available. Masks required, and 50% capacity. Managers are going back next week to get trained and figure everything out. I’m fine with her going back; I think it’s better than sitting in the house missing her friends all day! Her store was never all that busy, but is in an outdoor mall so maybe will be busier as everyone is dying to get out their homes. S17 has had no issues at his Walmart job, and they’re taking a lot of precautions so hoping for at least a bit of normalcy!
D21 had virtual NHS induction last night. Pretty funny! The one time she had WiFi issues, so she was huddled on the floor in the corner of the living room to be closer to the router! Trying to recite the pledge in unison was pretty funny! They’re going to put a video together of everyone (they broke it out into smaller groups) and send it out to the families.
I can speak to the Common App, which a lot of LACs use. Once a teacher uploads the rec to the Common App, the student can choose which recs to include in an application. The student cannot see the rec. They choose it from a list of available apps. This really helps with keeping things straight for the college application process. Our HS also has a way for students to keep recs on file for scholarship applications, etc.
@homerdog @theirchoices Thank you! The responses I’ve seen appear to be the same-not to list Furman Scholar on other college apps. There were absolutely no hoops to jump through. Her counselor asked if she would be interested in being nominated, she said yes and sent her “senior sheet” used to list her “resume” of Hs achievements/EC/GPA/etc. which she will use for all other college recommendations…then after some time received a letter/award from school. She just received an email today about the Bausch & Lomb Award. Would this fall in the same category as Furman to not list since it is affiliated with another college or would this award be different since the name of the college not on award?