The ACT science section really isn’t science. 34 is a solid score so I wouldn’t stress about it.
@mamaedefamilia , Thank you! About the National Merit, She has an SI of 222,so we have our fingers crossed. Our School is considered to be a “Rural” school, so she was invited to apply for the “College Board national recognition program” this past March.
Yes, we are in TX. Her top choices are, you guessed it, UT and Rice and a few other OOS colleges/Universities. Though, she will be an auto admit into UT, there are no guarantees that she will get her choice of major. She wants to do Biomedical engineering with a concentration in cellular and biomolecular engineering. She has interviewed with a few universities on her list in the past couple of weeks.
She is very confident about what she has and is focusing on the dual credit courses she is taking this summer, her research paper and the ACTs, while working a few minutes on her essays everyday. Some times she amazes me 
. I think its more me, I don’t want to push her, but at the same time, not sure if there is something I can do. I guess it is more guilt because she is very responsible and usually does stuff on time. I always wonder if I am doing enough. Especially because, even though my husband and I got our Masters degrees in the US, neither of us did our undergrad here. And this whole process is new and as I said confusing. I just want to make sure she knows what she is doing and knows what to expect.
@mamaedefamilia , Thank you! About the National Merit, She has a SI of 222, so we have our fingers crossed.
Yes, We are from TX and UT and Rice are on the top of her list along with a few other OOS Colleges/Universities. You are correct, she could be an auto-admit to UT. That said, there are no guarantees that you will get your choice of major especially in Cockrell. We are also told her major of choice, Biomedical engineering (cellular and biomolecular engineering) is very competitive. So, I am not sure if UT is exactly a safety.
She on the other had is confident about her resume save the ACT score. She is a very responsible child. She is calmly focusing her energy on the dual credit courses she is taking, her research paper, ACT and a few min every day on the essays. She is planning to get her AA degree from the local CC this fall. I think its me who is worried, at the same time I do not want her to know that I am worried. Though I went to college in the US for my MS, I did not do my undergrad here. So, this whole thing is new and sometimes confusing.
Again folks on the ACT not giving the section only tests I wouldn’t sweat it because not many schools superscore the ACT anyways. I would suggest if there is a particular section your student didn’t do well on, have him or her study up on and take the whole test again. My D18 got a 32 On first test but had a 29 in Math; studied to bring that up and ended up scoring the same or higher on all sections and scored a 35 composite and that is the one test she submitted.
@TXStuMom Welcome! Your daughter sounds amazing.
@Mwfan1921 Ive been trying to google Northwestern TO. Did you happen to see anything about their HPME program going TO? My son has his ACT locked in but no subject SATs. They require two subject SATs for the HPME program. Hoping they will TO that since the big SAT/ACT is TO.
@TXStuMom - welcome!
Just learned that Ohio University (OU) has permanently waived their SAT/ACT requirement. I am guessing a lot of kids from S21’s HS will be very happy about this. The College Board - not so much.
I haven’t seen anything about HPME, but typically BS/MD programs aren’t TO, even if the undergrad school is.
Hopefully they will drop the subject test requirement, your S could reach out to the program director and ask. If they say they will still require the subject tests, ask what the latest is that one could take them.
Good luck.
@havenoidea Now I’m curious about the dream school! Maybe she’ll buck the trend at her school. Is ED an option and would that provide any boost?
I agree with @AlwaysMoving, the science section of the ACT does not test science knowledge - it tests reading comprehension of scientific texts, interpretation of tables, stuff like that. My older kid prepped hard for that section and did well on the ACT but the science was the weakest score because even just a couple of errors could knock you down to a low 30s score. Even if your daughter is interested in a science major, there should be other ways to show her academic strength in that area.
I think we are all flying blind this year. It will be interesting to compare notes a year from now when this process is finished.
Re: Princeton nixing SCEA this fall, there’s a thread on twit ter where Princeton Admissions says:
Sounds like they want to see everyone’s fall semester grades.
Adding, I think this makes sense in light of test-optional and the unreliability of spring junior year grades. There is a benefit in giving kids more time. (Though getting a bit of whiplash from all the changes in the admission landscape and the rug getting pulled out from under whatever shred of certainty existed.)
@evergreen5 now that makes a good reason why they bagged SCEA.
@homerdog https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2020/06/19/vanderbilt-announces-new-testing-policies-for-applicants/
@burghdad I have heard that more schools are superscoring ACT, especially this year. Taking the whole thing again isn’t the worst thing. I just wish we’d known so D could take the July test rather than September, when school/applications/who knows what else is going on! Of course now the closest available testing center for July is about 2 1/2 hours away…
@evergreen5 well, look at that. I like how Vandy bolded the sentence about how this is just for one year! Ha!
I find it interesting that many here don’t see their student’s list changing with all of this TO movement. Is this mostly a budgetary issue? A geographical one like not wanting to go too far from home? Or do you all think TO is not completely truthful so not worth investigating options that your student wasn’t already considering?
W&M had Alumni Admission Weekend programing online all day today. There was an opening session and then parent and student breakout sessions. D listened to one on how to brainstorm for the essay and took a bunch of notes and did all of the exercises and said it was “pretty good.” Ended with a 5 student panel that was good. My big take away- legacy admit rate was 65% this cycle. That knowledge now moves W&M into the safety portion of her list- though they said they despise the name “safety.” Didn’t realize test optional will be a 3 year pilot, and focus will be holistic with more of an emphasis on the transcript (course load and grades).
@homerdog – Count me in the last category – cynical about the authenticity of TO schools. The only college I think my S may add is Rice, but I’m not holding my breath on an acceptance given they’ve only admitted one student from our HS in the last 5 years, despite roughly a dozen who have applied.
Of course, my S had already decided not to apply to tippy top engineering schools b/c he thinks they’d be more stressful than he’s looking for.
@homerdog D is considering a new reach or two, but more because of the overall admissions insanity than TO specifically. TO is likely invite so many more applications that I imagine acceptance rates will be even lower to top schools.
@homerdog - I’m kind of skeptical about TO schools, but S21 will be submitting an ACT test score. I have rerun the NPCs for over 50 schools in the past two days, though, realizing that I failed to take out my D16 who is now officially out of this household - and that dramatically changed our NPCs. I don’t know if anyone on this thread besides me is eligible for tuition exchange - but I learned that USC (Ca) allows stacking of both tuition exchange (80% of tuition) and NMF (1/2 tuition) - so that full tuition + $8,000 is covered. Eye opening in a good way.
@homerdog Our list isn’t changing because our daughter picked schools that she’d like to attend based upon her personal criteria and none of those had test scores as a barrier. As in - she’d be a much better candidate if her ACT score was higher. It’s possible she could receive a higher scholarship if her scores were higher, but I don’t believe her current score would be a barrier to admission.