IIRC some schools have you list year by year.
Is anyone’s kid not applying to any academic reach schools? My D25 is 3.2 and test optional. There isn’t a single reach school I could think of that she would like more than others on her list.
Honestly, for her it feels like we are just waiting on financial packages which is not super exciting.
1 school out of the 7 he is applying to requires every class to be reported with grades. They also all require a transcript to be sent.
Thank you!
For clarification, the difference is that some schools require the Courses and Grades section, which includes all courses taken and the grades received. If you go to the Common App tab, Courses and Grades would be listed at the bottom on the left, along with a note of the number of the student’s colleges that require that section. There are also some colleges that require the same information to be listed in a third-party platform like SRAR.
Thank you!
My kid isn’t applying to any reaches either. He has two on the target/safety border (Rose-Hulman and St. Olaf), but he’s above the 75th percentile for both. The other schools are all safety state schools that I made him apply to. So not a lot of exciting surprises on the horizon, but I still worry about his acceptance and merit scholarships from Rose. We can’t stomach paying the $82K COA at that school for four years.
Anyone’s kid heard the official announcement from their school about National Merit Semifinalist? No word yet here.
Our school is not timely about it. Last year the kids had to go knocking on their door to get their letter because they were coming up against the deadline.
This is definitely true for my view of S25’s list right now! Right now he has 5 schools he’s applying to. We toured reach schools, and honestly, none of them made him feel warm and fuzzy and itching to get on those campuses on his own.
It does seem like S25 is applying to competitive schools since he’s interested in engineering, so I am still going to sweat over any acceptances. But I am right there with you in terms of not having academic reaches. You are not alone.
Thanks! I read the thread. I’m actually asking for advice from the other parents here, i.e., personal opinions.
This is how I go about it:
- The point of how you did vs your school is valid, and/or if you come from a well resourced school where everyone takes the test each year.
- Looking at score range before TO (2020 graduates) offers a relevant datapoint.
- If the school is a “Top X” type school, its pretty clear that even the ones that are still TO are actually “test preferred.”
- Can you “confirm” GPA with AP scores?
So my personal opinion may differ from most posters, which is probably a good reason to share it
S25 has a mid 1300s SAT score, which is fine. He also suffers from what I might call “west coast syndrome” in that many kids out here have gotten the message that test scores don’t matter because the UCs, WSU, and UW are test blind. So he’s decided he’s not retaking the test and the only place he’s submitting it is Auburn because they are test preferred. We did the net price calculators on some schools with merit where his SAT was in range and his merit award is higher if he doesn’t submit it.
He has a perfect GPA, he’s in the top 4 or 5 kids in his class, his recommendations are excellent, his ECs are pretty great if not CC level .
Will that be enough for some of the schools on his list? Probably not. If Notre Dame lets him in I’ll buy you all a drink after I peel myself off of the floor. Maybe Richmond will though? Hopefully Furman will. In any case he’s decided he’s happy with a lot of choices on his list and doesn’t want to deal with getting a higher test score.
Part of the reason that I’m ok with this (other than it’s his life!) is that D23, who had a horrific SAT score, went TO and was accepted to all of the schools on her list. She had a 3.6-3.7 UW GPA. She is loving life at a great LAC where more than 60% of kids do submit scores. Now, she wasn’t applying to top tier schools but she was accepted at great colleges.
It’s all a gamble, some schools absolutely want scores, which they should make clear. Some schools really are test optional. I think 1410 is a great score! But other than taking a look at the CDS, or asking admissions, I’m not sure how our kids are supposed to know where to submit.
@VTMom03 Test score submission: My take is, definitely submit if it’s at or over the midpoint of the 25–75%ile range. In the lower half of that range, it’s more of a judgment call, but do remember that one advantage for colleges of being test-optional is that (nearly) the only students who submit scores are those who think their scores are high enough to improve their chances, or students in applicant groups (e.g., often international applicants) who are still required to submit. As a result, the 25%ile band at a TO college is not the 25%ile band for all students, but rather that band for a slice of students whose scores might be expected to skew higher than the actual 25%ile would be.
@2plustrio Lists without reaches: My C25 will end up with a reach or two, but C19 and C23 didn’t—the former because she simply didn’t want any, the latter because her major is the sort of thing that is usually only offered at big public universities, and they’re very often admission by stats, not a “holistic” review. Not having reaches makes for a much more predictable, chill application experience, I will say.
@Kumihama-Cho NMSF notification: Nothing here yet—but this afternoon is C25’s school’s biweekly “senior seminar”, and so I’m hoping the official word arrives then.
Same here for D25. After lots of college visits, none of the reaches did anything special for her and combine that with no merit money opportunities, they all got scratched…so we have 3 targets and 5 safeties. But all good schools, so I’m happy with that. Just need to get that essay done…by far the hardest battle of the entire process.
Our only reach school is more geographical, than academic. It’s UNC Chapel Hill - his stats are above all of their academic requirements, but with so few out of state students accepted, it turns it into a reach.
All of his other schools should be matches. He’s happy with them all. So basically we’re not counting Carolina, assuming he doesn’t get in. For the others, we’ll see what the money looks like - I’m hoping he gets some merit aid at some of the more pricey schools.
My guy missed the NMSF cutoff too. We knew he would once the score came out, as it wasn’t near where the cutoff had been in recent years. Unfortunately, his sophomore year PSAT would’ve been high enough (that year or this year) but not the junior year one. I don’t know what happened that day, but he bombed.
I didn’t think they were supposed to release those until Sept. 11.
Do you know what the deadline is?
@2plustrio , can we trade? I could use a little less “excitement” in my life right now.