Same.
I think you’re onto something. I know when S24 started this process I told him not to check anything off and he barely got any college mail. I think I forgot to remind D27 as she is getting flooded. It’s such a waste of paper and money with all the digital marketing, especially for this generation. I think you’ll be okay if you have received anything yet.
2 visits this week! Carnegie Mellon and Case Western! Both look like will make final list- CMU is a super reach but very much their vibe and Case is a good size and the huge maker space building is a hit. That is more a 50/50 school for them- wouldn’t be surprised if they got in or not. They did give breakdown of gpa and scores and % admitted (dm if anyone wants it)
also got SATs back and though total score didn’t go up, super score went up 40 points which is something! Really hoping August math jumps a fair bit more, sigh. Kid makes lots of dumb mistakes (we know from practice tests! They know the content)
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Love hearing about all the cool things your kids are doing! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer.
S27 decided to reschedule the SAT for September so other than paying a hefty cancellation fee, all is good - so happy he’s heading out with us to see family. The September test is at the end of the second week of school so I’m relieved that the overlap between test prep and homework will be short.
His June SATs went up 40 points, which is positive but realistically won’t make all that much difference in strengthening his application. He got the same EBRW score as before; it was his math that went up. The math was and still is his lower score. He thinks his pacing is the biggest issue he faces (in both sections).
In other news, his online English Honors class is going…and I’m booking hotels for the college visit road trip to NYS. Unfortunately, it is high season in the Finger Lakes so HWS visit is stupid expensive; if any class of 28 parents are reading this for next year - take my advice and book any visits there for March!
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It’s smart not to check the college board box to receive materials. D25 did not check the box and she only got mail from schools she interacted with until she became a NMSF. After that she did start to receive some college mail, but not a crazy amount. S27 made the mistake of checking the box and gets so much mail. He said that he gets a ton of email from colleges and it’s super annoying.
For the June SAT, his English score went up 30 points, so he was super happy with that. He is definitely glad to be done with the SAT.
He is busy working at a summer camp from 9-5:30 daily. Then he has soccer practice most days right after the camp and comes home pretty exhausted. His high school gave students a long list of college app summer assignments and he definitely needs to get started on that.
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Regarding mailings, S27 is getting a fair amount but there is no rhyme or reason regarding the schools. He’s gotten a lot (like a lot) from Univ of Chicago - which would be way beyond a reach - and then a BUNCH of small nonflagship out-of-state public schools. But strangely, he’s gotten very little mail from any of our in-state schools. I guess he gets a fair amount from smaller, much less well known private and Catholic colleges across the Northeast, too. He looks at none of it.
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This evening we had a family meeting to discuss the state of the Kid’s college list. He has 9 yeses, and 7 maybes. He is going to work on picking another sure thing, out of state, so he has another option in case he decides he wants to experience another part of the country when May 1 rolls around. It’s almost go time!
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I have to marvel at U of Chicago’s marketing budget – D27 has gotten multiple mailings from them and, iirc, so did my elder child. Neither is a fit in any way for the school.
But I was able to use their marketing materials to teach my kids about how marketing can persuade kids to apply and therefore push the school’s acceptance rate down and burnish its reputation.
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I wonder if this is more marketing for parents- I’m totally taken in by ALL the schools while he doesnt so much as glance at anything lol
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Fair point. I will admit that with my C24, it was marketing that got me interested in the school they ultimately ended up attending. But I think it’s because the info they highlighted in the brochure made it clear that the school (Oberlin) would be a good fit for my kid. There are some schools whose postcards and brochures are pretty generic.
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CMU is one of my kid’s reach schools too – though she won’t get to visit unless she gets in.
My kid got home yesterday from a visit to grandparents/learning to scuba dive! She had fun with the diving – not surprising for a kid who’s loved marine critters her whole life. We’ll try to help her figure out a way to get dry suit certified to do it in Alaska before she forgets everything, not sure how hard that will be.
Getting ready to spend most of July out doing trail work starting this weekend (me, kid, and lots of other volunteers), so I’ll try and nudge her to get a bit more done on fly-in apps and a college essay before she goes. There will be a bit of time in between 4-7 day outings, but only a few days here and there and those will be busy.
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I really liked it (as did my kid), more than I thought I personally would (not that my opinion matters in end;) I don’t think there was any particularly secret news in the info session to share beyond these 2 fun facts to me – food is always 5 minutes away (by design), and they have plugs everywhere 
. Also, there is no one big dining hall, just lots of little ones. Campus is very nice (IMO), abuts Pitt, so lots of restaurants and posh suburbs are on far side of campus and really close to the main downtown. Seemed very manageable in size to us - we tend to both like mid-size.
It is more Scottish themed than I knew:) I had no idea school color was “tartan” and their band wore kilts: The Kiltie Band - Carnegie Mellon University Athletics . I knew there was some of that…but it is a lot - lol.
I liked hearing about fun traditions like the fence painting (which is a never-ending thing…) The spring carnival sounds really great! “booth” with to code (really inspected!) a 2-story building kids make and “buggy” like souped-up box car races that they train for for months Booth - Carnegie Mellon Spring Carnival They even have days off for this…
Obviously, academics are top-notch and sound like students often are ( somewhat surprisingly to me) double-majoring or minoring across multiple departments. “Secondary” majors sounded quite common. Our tour guide was a linguistics and psych double major and said she had lots of CS majors double-majoring in her major, and she had lots of engineering friends and lots of collaboration for research and projects. They were (rightly) very proud of their drama department but touted opps for non BFA majors. I really liked that students were not siloed. She swore it wasn’t cutthroat at all either.
Anyway, huge reach for my potential engineering or robotics major, but I will make their list and is possibly even tops for now.
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D27 hung her UChicago marketing poster up in her room because it was pretty. One school which she originally liked has moved down her list due to the amount of mail she’s gotten from them. I’m mostly recycling the mail now before she even gets to it.
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Hi all. Parent of a D27 graduating this year and then a D29. I wish I knew of this website a few years back, it looks like there is tons of information on here. Going on college visits but have always tried taking them to different colleges/universities while on family trips. they always hated them. 
But now she wishes she had paid attention when visiting and walking around the campuses. Trying to help and guide her a bit with building and narrowing down the college list but not as easy with a teen.
She has a 3.97UW GPA & 5.07W GPA. She’s taken a few AP courses and has scored 5’s. Still waiting for the latest round of Physics, US History and English Language which the scores should come out next week. She is planning on going pre-med but still is undecided on major; Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Neuroscience or ?? She taken the PSAT(14xx) and the ACT(28) but was sicked on both of the test days so she is not happy with her scores. Scheduled for a retake next week.
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welcome!
Sounds like a smart kiddo and good luck on her next round of testing…
My 27 (who is my second of 2) didn’t start getting into tours into spring of jr year either…Pays WAY more attention than they did last year:)
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It likes they finally realize that maybe parents do know some things. 
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Welcome! Can I ask a potentially dumb question? How does one get above a 5.0 gpa? I’ve seen this a few times and always scratch my head; our school’s gpa would max out at 5.0, which would be impossible since the first two years’ honors courses do not get a grade boost. Is it that your school gives above a 4.0 (or 5.0) for an A+? Something else?
That is a school specific rule- my kid got AP boosts in 9 and 10.
there is absolutely no standard to any GPA rules- some schools have no weighting,or could have many levels of weighting. Some have A- as different than A and some have different cutoffs for A than others…I think I heard someone that an 88 was an A- somewhere.
My 27s school has no weighting and in fact no calculated GPA on transcript as they know colleges recalculate anyway and don’t want to try to weight.
my 25s school topped off at 5.3 for an A+ for an AP level though only 1 APs from 9th an 10 graders. Ivy level kids had like 4.9s if I recall
I wasn’t trying to make that a generalization; I was only talking about S27’s school. Sorry that wasn’t clear. So it’s an extra .3 for A+, from what you’re telling me, at your kid’s school. That helps me understand how it works at some other places. Thanks for the clarification.
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Ahh got it.
Honestly, I don’t even look at GPAs published or from other kids as it is SO different.
The only time I ever consider comparing is for UCs, Umich or Umass where I know how they recalc.
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