FWIW for people who are “chasing merit,” a lot of CTCL colleges are TO and also give out a heck of a lot of auto-merit scholarship $$. D26 wants to major in cybersecurity and none of them really offer that as a major…otherwise if a place like Southwestern University did, D26 absolutely would be applying there.
Just something to consider if your kid ends up not excited about going to a really big school. Our school counselor mentioned CTCL colleges which is what made us take a look.
That stinks. I hope the counselor has some info.
This whole PSAT saga in my house goes to show you how important quality education is. She is one of the absolute top students in her grade, I think number two or three out of about 250. Just pulled from classes at a very young age for testing as gifted and had a gifted teacher and supplementary work for years. She’s in as many AP and honors classes that are offered and getting top scores in those classes. She’s had multiple academic awards as well. State standardized testing is in the 99th percentile across-the-board in every subject. And yet her score was a 1220. Respectable? Absolutely. But it is not what she expected based on how she does everywhere else. I grew up in a different state and a much more competitive school district and I scored higher back then and I was a slacker.
Trying not to beat myself up for a living where we live. It’s a beautiful area. And she loves it. But the education is not as rigorous.
Just feeling gloomy. 
Counselor sent the score report - 1430 with index 214. I’m pretty pleased with that considering the “prep” only consisted of about half an hour revising some geometry on Kahn academy (C26 did it in freshman year at the height of adhd issues and the practice test they did showed they needed that). No explanation as to why it didn’t come yesterday but anyway.
I think they will probably do some prep for the SAT. They will probably want a higher score just to prove to themself they can do it.
wow. Did she get 5 on her past AP tests? She will do well on college admission I think based on my other child’s experience. That’s why it’s called standardized test of course there are exceptions
We need merit that’s why I want her to do little prep. She has plenty of time but not cooperative. We just have to work with what she has no other option. living in northeast hard to find merit close by, still building list.
S26 got NM index of 202 which I know is not in the national merit range, but made me happy. This kid is an average kid at a highly competitive public high school, has real struggles with test taking at school, especially comprehensive tests like finals, has testing anxiety big time. But for some reason he has done better than expected on PSAT and much better on SAT. Maybe because we made it very clear that these tests are completely optional for him and there’s no pressure to do well here. If you do, its a bonus, if you don’t, we forget about it and move on.
Whatever be the reason, my only hope is that it gives him some confidence in his own abilities. That’s an area we have been working on for the longest time.
She has not had the opportunity to take any yet. She’ll have three at the end of this year to take and then probably three next year. Her school offers limited AP options.
We will see how those go. State average for PSAT here is abysmal.
To quote the “Your College Bound Kid” podcast, it’s not about where you go…it’s about what you do when you get there and what you do when you get out of there that will determine your trajectory of career success.
In other words, so your kid doesn’t have a ‘hit it out of the park’ test score. Guess what? It likely won’t matter at all.
And once your kid graduates from high school and is actually IN college, guess what? Nobody gives a rip what your SAT or ACT score was.
There are a LOT of really great options for TO schools. Your kid will probably do just fine at college, given the sort of student she is now. Focus on finding the right fit. The right academic fit. The right financial fit. The right fit in terms of major(s) she’s interested in, campus vibe, distance from home, etc.
Does she have any ideas yet on what she might want to major in?
Just to give you a comparison, my older kid (D24) graduated HS with a 3.33 unweighted GPA (>4.0 weighted). SAT was 1200. Scored mostly 3’s and 4’s on her AP exams, but got 2’s on a couple of them. Applied as a biology major. Applied to 7 schools and got accepted to all of them. Received merit $$ from each. 3 of those were CTCL colleges & she decided to enroll in 1 of them. The 2 New Mexico colleges she got into ended up, after merit $$, to be cheaper than attending in state with the merit $$ she was awarded from U of A and ASU.
Your kid not having a 1500 SAT is not the end of the world. Everything will work out!
It’s easier when you’re past your first because you realize things you were hand wringing over before doesnt really matter that much.
I remember when I thought D24 not being named a captain of her field hockey team was going to hurt her application. So ridiculous and completely irrelevant.
Yep. And D19 got into her dream school with an ACT at the 25th percentile. Test scores are only one part of it.
Mine also got a 227! Exciting!
S26 probably missed the cutoff by a point 220 while CA cut off is 221, sheepishly admitted that he could have studied more despite me telling him this is coming up and he has a lot of things due in October.
He then got philosophical and said you know you say to study but actually sitting down and studying is hard. And for some reason it made me laugh for a few minutes. He’s a smart kid and hasn’t had to try much until now and he’s finding it difficult to focus on things that aren’t due in a week.
His younger sister has a planner in middle school and a lot more organized. Just goes to show you we can push/ask as much as we can but at kids have their own personality and you can only guide them to a certain degree.
Aww it sucks when they come so close and just miss it!! But you never know! Maybe it will go down after the last set of scores are released
Thank you. Perspective was needed. 
We continue the college tours this winter. Carrying on!
D26 had her orientation today for the new job at Walmart. So now my kid has a badge and a blue vest and everything! Kid said she’s not nervous at all about this job like she was about Taco Bell. This job is also only on weekends, which she prefers because she feels like she won’t have to stress out about having time in the evenings after school to do HW. First official shift is next weekend.
Hi there! New here. 2026 kid, about to dive in to the college search craziness! Solidarity and look forward to your collective wisdom and shared suffering!
Welcome! We’re happy to have you here!
Kiddo shocked all of us and herself by scoring a 1500 on the PSAT. She had taken the test a few time before and done fine, but no where near NMSF status. I did not even ask about her score because I just assumed it was a non-issue. With an index of 224 she will more than likely qualify. Problem is that her highest actual SAT is a 1390. Now she feels tons of pressure to improve her SAT score, which I hate for her. Kind of wish she had just done fine like all the other times. She is interested in Engineering so she really needs to get her math score up anyway, particularly as her current top schools are UVA and GW. So much pressure on these poor kids.
Congrats to her! That’s awesome!
It’s possible that her 1390 SAT score will be sufficient, depending on the English/math breakdown. From what I understand, they will use the same formula as with the PSAT to calculate an index score for the SAT (so englishx2 + math/10), and you need to reach at least the commended index score. Last year’s commended index score was 208.
So she potentially is close. Probably not a terrible idea to take it again to create a little more wiggle room in case the commended index goes up this year.