College Board doesn’t curve, from what I understand, but it is not at all transparent on how the scoring works. The number of points taken off depends on the difficulty of the question – so two students could both get two math questions wrong, but lose a different number of points.
Fingers crossed your C26’s score is what they want so you can be done with this already!
We are limping, limping toward spring break here. This past weekend was insanity – drove four hours Friday night and got in past midnight, D26 interviewed for a summer program at 8:30 Saturday morning, then drove three hours to the airport (got stuck in horrible traffic jam), flew two hours to my D22’s school to watch a show she produced/directed this semester, crashed for a few hours on her floor, flew home Sunday evening.
It was wonderful, but D26 is paying for it this week, as she has an AP Physics test that might kill her (last one did NOT go well), plus a giant architecture project due on which she was woefully behind. I don’t think she’s slept for more than 5 hours any night this week. Just gotta make it through tomorrow.
We’re touring Miami of Ohio next week.
It always takes longer for the school day tests – not sure why, but that’s been true for all three of my kids.
Please report back on Miami Ohio! They have a program we are looking at. I’ve heard the college town is cute.
We are touring Monday !!
Oh fun! We’ll have to compare notes. I booked a regular tour and info session in the morning, and then a department-specific tour in the afternoon (emerging technology and business and game design, which is through the college of creative arts).
We’ve looked at some really different colleges – unfortunately what my D26 wants to study and the environment she thinks she wants aren’t usually found at the same place. Miami Ohio on paper seems like it could offer both.
Thanks. I found something that says they “equate” scores across tests so that students don’t get penalized for harder papers, but it wasn’t at all clear to me what the methodology for doing that is.
The highest 75th percentile of the schools (not the college overall) that they are looking at so far is 1470, so I think anywhere in the mid 1400s or higher will be ok. That’s a smidge higher than their PSAT. They’re all test optional. (The 1470 is UIUC which is a little hard to judge, as arch is in the design school but the only course there with no portfolio required so I don’t know how representative those scores are. They do emphasize strong math for arch admissions so that works for C26.)
Do most of the arch programs you guys are exploring require a portfolio?
The portfolio thing is a quandary for my D26. She is hugely creative, and she’s got a handful of pieces – but nothing that shows a solid background in art or design. She’s never been in traditional art classes because she’s always taken band, and electives are limited at her school.
And then, now she’s working on committing to a summer program that has nothing to do with what she wants to study (probably not the best plan, but she has her reasons for wanting it) – which will leave very little time this summer to build up a portfolio.
Oy. I’m not really sure how she’s going to address this.
So far, none of the ones we are looking at do*, though Boulder’s EnvD one said we could upload one if we wanted. A couple of the colleges on the list require secondary admission to the major in/after sophomore year, which I’m a little wary about. Because of poor freshman year grades (then-undiagnosed ADHD), GPA means selective schools are not on the cards. (It’s also why we want to kind of validate the grade trend since then with a decent SAT score.)
*If C26 decides they do want to go super reach and apply to Cooper Union, they have a different process whereby they give you some kind of project to do specifically for them as part of the admission process.
C26 is in the same boat as yours - naturally talented design wise, both 2D and 3D, but has never taken school art classes (unless middle school counts). Choir has been the VPA focus in high school. They are taking weekly art classes outside school this year, and they’re signed up for the arch summer program at Cal Poly SLO, partly because (someone else here noted) it’s also a good way to see if the kids actually want to be immersed in studio before committing to it at college. I think that and their summer camp experience (all the way from first grade to counselor, it’s a STEAM focused camp) are probably the only “relevant” ECs, so not a whole lot to go on with. I veer widely being confident and totally uncertain about their prospects, but they have the Arizonas and CC( Cuesta-CPSLO) as safeties, so there’s that. Sigh.
Looks like I spoke too soon about D26 returning to school today. She just texted, needs to be picked up right now. 
Definitely My D26 has a busy day planned. She is meeting with a Coach and a current student who participates in her sport at 8 am touring the sport facility. Next up is a Morning admission/ Campus tour. She is meeting with a friend she has coached with for Lunch ( will check out her dorm ) and then finishing up with The College of Engineering afternoon tour. Her poor Dad is taking her and they will be getting in Late Sunday night due to a long competition day on Sunday that was supposed to end by 2 ish that is now ending at 6 due to not having enough Judges!!
Oh boy. That does seem to be the norm for all our high school kids, though – they’re all so busy! It’s okay, they’ll sleep someday. You know, when they’re adults, and life calms down. 
D26 is feeling nervous about SAT on Saturday. She did a practice test Tuesday and her score tanked to below 1500 for the first time (not complaining, still a great score but she’s got high expectations). I told her to just stop looking at SAT stuff, relax, and see what happens. She can always retake it in June or August if necessary.
She also has been getting some Bs on big assignments here and there over the past couple weeks, which is unusual for her. Her overall grades are still mainly As (B+ in French but time to bring it up…). She has spring break next week and the week after, and I think she needs it. Unfortunately, she has a research project she’s been procrastinating on that she will have to focus on during the break:/
We are planning a few tours over break. Lafayette and Lehigh during week 1, and UVM during week 2! About 3.5-4 hour drives each week. I’m excited for these road trips:)
The rest of the break will be mainly that research project and hopefully some downtime for her.
Gonna keep the kiddo home tomorrow, too. So out the entire week because of the dang flu. She’ll have a bunch of work and tests to make up. All of the teachers seem to have tests right before spring break!
In other news, though, D26 said recently that she doesn’t even want to apply to UNLV because “Las Vegas is just…bleh…like an armpit. Nope.” It’s got a good cybersecurity program and it’s affordable. But I don’t blame the kid. I wouldn’t want to live in Las Vegas either. There’s a reason we never vacation there. 
Yup. It was a hard no from C26 as well and I don’t blame them at all.
We are actually going to Vegas for a weekend while C26 is away at a convention later this month, but only as a base for desert travel around it. (Hoping there isn’t a govt /national parks shutdown)
My D24 took the first few practice tests and did really well. Then took the March 2024 test and it was so much harder! The last few practice tests were more realistic I think. I don’t know that the actual test is harder than it was a year ago, but I think the practice tests are more in line with the real test.
That’s why it’s hard for us to judge. C26’s best practice score (1520) was on one of the new, supposedly hard practice tests (#7), but they said the actual test felt significantly harder than that. I am wondering if the fact that that was supposed to be a hard practice test made them overconfident, but I’m not dissecting anything with them now - we’ll just wait on tenterhooks to see what the score was.
Hopefully it turns out in their favor. It’s nice when you finally get the score you know you can.
I remember my D22 being in tears after taking several practice tests for the SAT, and she just couldn’t get above a certain score. It was so frustrating, and kids are so tired during junior year. (Turned out the ACT was her much better test.)
My D26 is a naturally lucky test taker – she’ll get national merit easily, while her sister couldn’t quite get there. And yet D26’s grades are not nearly as strong as her sister’s were. It’s just so variable.
It’s all exhausting, though. Hope your college visits are good, and the road trips fun – report back!
Got some awesome news today. Senior trip is going to be to Disneyland, not Knotts Berry Farm. D26 is really excited. One of her good friends has never been.