Our school was a mess when D19 was there. No specific college counselor and in fact her counselor had resigned over the summer so there was a brand new counselor who didn’t know anyone for letters of rec (I guess they used the brag sheet). She had had one meeting with the previous counselor which basically just resulted in her being dismissed by being told everything on her list was a reach. That said, we had hired a private college counselor because we didn’t know anything about the process (so very different to where we immigrated from) and it seemed overwhelming to us, so there was someone to guide her through everything that needed to be done when. Having been through it with D19 and now that the school has a dedicated college counselor, we are ok without an external (hubby insisted we ask C26 if they want one so that they didn’t feel their sister was favored, but just looked at us like we were mad and said “but mom knows all the stuff I need to do anyway” 
Perhaps draft an email and schedule it to be sent on the morning of the first day back to school, saying how much they really want that teacher to write them a LOR and didn’t want them to reach their cap before they had a chance to ask in person?
I was thinking of something like that. Thanks!
Right now, there’s 5 colleges possibly on the “I’m going to apply” list. What we’ve figured out so far in terms of “How many LORs required for each school?” are:
- U of A (AZ, not Alabama) - 0 required for reg app. I think 1 required for honors college app.
- Embry Riddle - 2 optional. No honors college app.
- UT San Antonio - 0 required for reg app. No idea how many for honors college app. At this school, you’re invited to submit honors app and there’s no info on honors app requirements on their website.
- Univ of Tulsa - Just counselor LOR for reg app. No idea about honors college app + website doesn’t have details listed.
- Texas Tech - 0 for reg app, 2 for honors college app.
When D24 was toward the tail end of 11th grade, the college counselor at school sent out a questionnaire for parents to fill out about their kid…basically a brag sheet but it included some other non-resume type of questions on it for parents to talk about their kids, provide additional context behind the student’s classes + extracurriculars.
We haven’t received anything like that from the counselor yet, but I would bet you $$ that it’ll be coming before senior year starts.
When we received the ‘brag sheet questionnaire’ from the counselor for D24, I got some flack from 1 or 2 other parents…they felt that me, as a parent, filling out the brag sheet questionnaire was basically doing the counselor’s job for them.
And I think that’s a bunch of bunk.
Like, do you want your kid’s counselor LOR to be helpful & useful or not? If it doesn’t matter to you, then don’t fill the thing out. But I, like a lot of parents, want my kid to have the best chance she can get. So I filled it out and submitted it to the school. Our HS is small. D24’s graduating class was 38 or 39 kids. D26’s will be about the same. Especially if your kid has a much bigger graduating class, how do you expect a counselor with a student case load of 400+ kids to remember the specifics about YOUR student? It’s impossible.
If we’re asked to do the same for D26, I’m going to fill it out. Because there’s a lot of medical stuff D26 went through last school year which the counselor might not remember. In 10th grade, D26 missed over a month of school in total across the academic year because of a bunch of illnesses - influenza, mono, & recurring sinus infections. She’d missed so much school that at one point, we got one of those formal state-required letters in the mail about it.
Despite all that, she’s got a 3.64 UW GPA (4.43 W GPA). Mix of A’s and B’s and I’m hoping that she can bring her C in Honors Physics up to a B by the end of the year. I think she’ll get accepted everywhere, but whether or not she gets into honors colleges (for the schools that have them) + how much the $$ amount/yr (COA) will be…we’ll have to wait and see!
In terms of applying with or without test scores (SAT/ACT), what we’ve figured out so far is:
- U of A - test scores not required
- Embry Riddle - not required
- UT San Antonio - required. Also required for merit scholarships
- Univ of Tulsa - not required, but the way they word things on their website, if you read the tea leaves, it sounds like they really do want them if you want to submit them. Whether or not D26 submits a test score will depend on how she does on the ACT next week + how she does on the June SAT.
- Texas Tech - required. Also required for merit scholarships.
I really wish that D26 wanted to apply to UNM and NMSU because those schools would be SO INEXPENSIVE and they both have cybersecurity programs. But she doesn’t want to live in NM for 4 yr. 
I also wish that one of my kids would have ended up at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX because I just love that school and I love Georgetown, TX. But alas…it’s not meant to be. D24 got into Southwestern but chose Austin College instead. And Southwestern doesn’t have the major that D26 wants. Maybe somebody else in D26’s graduating class will apply though! That would be pretty cool.
I feel that. I worry about how mine will handle all of the unstructured time in college. He has terrible time management instincts and even poorer skills. I know it will be a rude awakening at college when he thinks he has hours and hours and then feels blindsided by the amount of time it takes to prepare for tests or write longer papers.
I’d love for him to consider a small school that might be better equipped to notice and support him. But he loves big cities and schools. 
I’m hoping the fact that mine, wherever they end up, will most likely be doing a course where most people will be taking the same classes and therefore -hopefully - talking about what is due, etc will help keep them on track. But there is definitely still much work to be done around planning and how to use unstructured time (not getting lost in games etc).
Similar situation here. Our high school has close to 3000 kids and only 4 counselors. S26’s graduating class has around 700 kids. He has never met his school counselor even once! Just emailed her a couple of times. S22 got a brand new counselor August of his senior year. So we are used to it, and have no expectations.
Asking teachers for rec letters is the same nightmare scenario. S26 has asked three and all three said they limit it to 15 and they’ll decide by the end of the year which kids they will be writing for!!! So what the heck are the students supposed to do, wait till the end of the year and then scramble to find another teacher in case they say no? Or ask 7-8 teachers hoping someone will say yes? That isn’t the right approach imo. I told S26 to write to his school counselor and ask what to do.
Yes, pretty much the same. About 850 kids in the graduating class, two counselors. Good luck!!
We have about 1800 in the school with 5 counselors, which isn’t awful. We don’t have a college counselor though. And S26 is on counselor #4. There are new ones every year. He hasn’t met her at all. I emailed a question about classes and the response was really not good. Fortunately one of the assistant principals also responded. But the counselors don’t know most of the students.
March 8 SAT scores are out. D26 had very high hopes. She only got 20 points higher in math and 20 points lower on English. It’s just wild because she’s literally in the hardest classes her school offers and was pegged as gifted when she was in third grade and was in accelerated math her entire life. If she doesn’t pull it up another 150 points she’s going to have to go test optional across the board. Currently super scoring a 1250. Which is a great score, don’t get me wrong. It just doesn’t jive with her class ranking (6%) or her intelligence level. Maybe I’ve got my mom glasses on when I look at her.
She has another SAT in April at the school. I don’t know if I’m gonna put her through it again after that. It stresses her out pretty bad. She’s got AP tests to focus on for May.
Just a bummer because Brown is one of her top schools she wants to apply to and they are not test, optional or test flexible in the least. Yale at least will take AP tests instead if she can nail a few of those.
Some people just don’t do well in standardized tests. What does she think about retaking - does she want to try? Is it too late to think about ACT as a possible option? - my D19 did way better on ACT than SAT.
C26’s school day SAT test (5 March) only releases results to students on 3 April. Annoyingly long wait.
Anxiety can certainly impact test performance. Is it possible for her to get an accommodation for extended time? Not for the April exam, of course, but if she took it outside of school in June or over the summer? The extra time made a world of difference for my kids.
ETA I agree that it might be worth trying a practice ACT test if she hasn’t yet. Some kids do significantly better on one than the other. I think the SAT questions are more analytical, whereas the ACT questions are more straightforward. And while the ACT has historically been the faster-paced exam, supposedly that’s less of an issue with the new digital version.
Historically, she’s always tested super high on standardized test that’s why we’re both kind of baffled. Like she was the 99th percentile across-the-board from when she was little up until the last time she did one of the state tests. I think it’s how high stakes this one is that has her a little bit nervous and the nerves kill it
Maybe it would help if she actually reviewed some math on her own though. She’s so busy just keeping ahead of schoolwork that she hasn’t buckled down to really study beyond just taking a few practice tests.
Ugh, I’m sorry. That’s so frustrating. I’ll chime in for the ACT as well – my D22 was a tippy top kid who just couldn’t get her SAT score up to what she needed, but she was one and done on the ACT. She was also one of those 99th percentile testers since childhood. I wonder if the ACT just works better for some of these types of kids?
For the upcoming school SAT, I do think the key is learning every tip and trick with using the provided Desmos calculator. Have her watch some YouTube videos about this – my D26 got a lot out of the ones from SuperTutorTV – https://www.youtube.com/@SupertutorTV/videos
D26 is very disappointed with her scores as well- got the exact same score as her PSAT from last year. She was hoping to be at least 100 points higher than that score. Looks like the ACT is the better test for her. Her ACT is not great but def better than SAT. She is taking her second and final ACT on April 5 and her final SAT in June.
For what it’s worth, my D26 is slightly underperforming on the SAT as well (compared to other standardized tests). She has a 1390 and will re-take in May. She has a school day ACT in April. Not sure what it is about that SAT test… kinda curious to see how the ACT goes for her. Have you tried the ACT?
Sorry the SAT is causing frustrations. I hate that there is so much pressure. Even the best of test takers feel it.
We are headed out next week for east coast spring break college visits. We have already visited a few “likely” schools — but this trip will be very “reach” heavy. That wasn’t my intention, but the trip sort of came together that way. I guess it gives her something to shoot for…. And, if she really fell in love with a school, we could always consider ED.
Anyone have restaurant recommendations for Boston?
No recs as it’s been a while, in fact, it was my spring break college trip with D19! Friends took us somewhere for poutine but I don’t recall where.
But wanted to say it was such a fun trip. Enjoy it and take time to sightsee too!