I had the wrong time for SAT registration - I thought it was at 8 am ET, but it’s actually at 8 pm, and I’m like whoa why isn’t it working lol. But it was worth the effort. The good news, at least some seats are available at some local high schools for Aug. The warning, the giant high school where my kids last took the test, which always has had Aug availability in the past even at the last minute, is full. A bit concerned for this evening, that there will be a thousand different moments in which the CB website might glitch and then they’ll be full, but I’m on it lol.
Why does CB make the student click through like 15 screens of previously-entered info before getting to the point of registration? I know the answer is big data grab, but one would think that eliminating that useless exercise might dramatically reduce the burden on the server, no?
So, last night was interesting. A peaceful protest in my hokey little North Texas suburb ended with the NATIONAL GUARD and our PD SWAT tear gassing the crowds of 99% peaceful protesters because ONE teen was mouthing off…total of 9 arrested…S21 was leaving his job at Whataburger and got caught up in the tear gassing and saw it all happen. His normal 6 minute drive home took him 34 minutes. My anxiety level was at 1000 when he told us. I hate that this is the world that is being handed to him.
@Momof3B yep it’s a thing now. The military shutting down peaceful protests.
We had a bunch of high school kids (including D21) organizing a peaceful walk through our town and some parents went nuts. They were all over social media begging our police to not let them protest because they were afraid that looters would come and break windows in town. At first, the police were working with the kids to figure out how they could protest without a problem but, in the end, the kids cancelled the protest. I know those police put pressure on them to cancel it. We don’t need a permit here to protest so the police had no right to tell the kids it’s “not a good time”. What kind of message is that to them?
In a few towns over, high schoolers were putting up paper hearts that said “black lives matter” and they were harassed by local adults telling them to stop and ripping down their paper hearts. Someone got a video and it’s going viral.
D21 and S19 both made signs and were ready to go. I’m this close to telling them to still go into town and sit there peacefully with their signs.
I never pegged D21 as a social justice warrior but she’s been revving up and getting more interested in politics over the last three years. She and her friend started a Cookies for a Cause and are donating the money to NAACP Legal Defense Fund. They’ve raise $300 now in 24 hours and spent the night making cookies and delivering them. In this summer of little to do, many students have more time to pay attention to important issues and want to make a difference.
I am a part of a parents group from our high school that came together this week because our kids want to have their voices heard, so we are organizing a peaceful march this Saturday. We have some city council members, school admins and PD involved. Our high school is a Title 1 school and very, very diverse. I’m so proud of our kids for wanting to stand for their classmates.
@eb23282 Maybe watch a virtual tour prior to help get your bearings?
Good on all of the kids getting involved. Having teenage girls and listening to their friends over the past 3 years, I think a lot of kids are becoming more politically/socially aware/active. I just hope they vote!
@homerdog Are you sure your D21 really wants to go to school in the South? My D21 can’t wait to get out of NC, she has had enough of confederate flags and the thinking that accompanies it. Our school just had a kid post racially charged things on social media. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not.
@jeneric well she would not go to the Deep South. That would be a problem. She knows that the NC schools she’s looking at and Richmond too are not a hotbed of liberals. We’ve done quite a bit of research and all three do have a mix of politics. I’m not dying for her to go to a college that would be an echo chamber so I think these three would be ok. We visited Davidson and W&M with S19 and D was along for that trip. Yes we saw confederate flags on that drive. But our town is majority conservative so she’s used to that. She’s had a number of classmates posting awful racially charged messages on social media as well.
I’ve spoken extensively to Wake parents and they say that there are definitely southern Christians at Wake but there are also plenty of kids who identify as more liberal. We’ve visited Davidson and know two students there and have asked as well. Sounds like it’s a mix there too and not a particularly political campus which would be ok too. We have a friend whose daughter will be a freshman at Richmond so she can get us the scoop.
@homerdog@Aguadecoco@jeneric my D18 goes to Clemson. She is very liberal and she has no problems Her roommate the first 2 years is a liberal Southern California girl. . She is a proud member of the Clemson University Democrats Club. She has an internship that to help woman STEM professors with pay and tenure equity. The University also does a lot to try to foster diversity and diversity programs. It is no doubt more conservative than a school in the NE or California by the fact that about 66% of the students are from South Carolina.
However, as @homerdog mentioned I like the fact that in her Political Science and Economics classes she is hearing different views than her own and those which her parents instilled in her. To mean hearing differing views is important in learning and in life.
I would not dismiss a school just because it is in the south.
Looking for advice. My son took the March SAT. Writing skills are fine but he totally blew the approach and got low scores for content. He said he didn’t want to just rehash the content, but applied advanced skills he was taught in AP Lang. oops! He thought his essay was awesome and was emotional about the low scores.
He got the 97th percentile (700) for English on the exam. Unless I’m wrong, he can’t submit that SAT without the writing part that’s attached. We will try to get another test done but I can’t decide whether or not to sign him up with or without essay on future tests. The counselor advised to take the essay and he’s a good writer but I’m inclined to skip it since everyone is going TO and it’s subjectively graded. He plans to apply to engineering so not related. Reaches are Notre Dame and Cornell, the rest are moderately selective schools.
The terms “liberal” and “conservative” are relative terms. There’s a very wide range in both categories.
In our “neck of the woods,” a large public high school in the SF Bay Area, with 500-600 students per class, you MAY get 1-2 kids who attend a school in the South per year and then it’s either Rice or Vanderbilt.
My oldest would not look in the South. D21 is not looking in the South either.
@sushiritto Agreed on your first two sentences. All I can say is that I think that at lots of large public schools, even those in the south, you are going to find lots of like minded folks. And that just because a school is in the south, depending on major etc., I would not automatically rule them out. In addition to the ones you cited and that @homerdog mentioned GT, Emory, UT Austin, Miami, UNC, UVA etc. are also great schools that someone who comes from Northern Cali, or New York etc. would be able to find their people.
Do you remember when the CB stated that priority registration would expire at 8:00 PM EST? I just registered D for the October SAT now. So now we have both August and October test dates, just in case.
@NateandAllisMom Most schools no longer require Essays. Many say that do not even consider them if submitted. If he retakes the test I would not have him take the essay. Furthermore I would not be afraid to just submit SAT he already has even with the essay score he is not happy with. Especially if he is looking at Engineering. Plus he took AP English and got a 700 on the verbal. I don’t think school even if they consider essay scores is going to count a subjective essay score against him in these circumstances.
Her reasoning was that UCs used to require the essay, but it’s all TO now and I think he will stress about it, so I think I will not take her advice. We’ll have to decide on a case by case basis which schools to send this SAT to if he can’t get another test. She said they mainly would be looking at the composite anyway and not the essay.
I would try registering now. I changed our June to an August registration last week. And I’ve been trying to get a 2nd test date for the last week. I was going to wait until 5:00 PM PST, but CB allowed me to get October test date early.
FYI UCs do not require essay at all,they won’t even look at it, only SAT/ACT are test optional.
From UCs website:
Elimination of writing test: The University will eliminate altogether the SAT Essay/ACT Writing Test as a requirement for UC undergraduate admissions, and these scores will not be used at all effective for fall 2021 admissions.