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College Admissions Questions (4 Viewers)

At my daughters college, they usually pick courses for the fall in the previous spring time but that was all scuttled this year.

The school has come up with a whole new, flexible course schedule.

My daughter can now choose courses that are 10 weeks, or 13 weeks.  All 10 week courses are in class learning, all 13 week courses are remote learning.  The school has created a new "J" term where they are offering remote courses in the winter break time.  The "J" term and the normal fall semester will be concatenated together for credit and gpa purposes.

The idea is spread courses out so that they can reduce the class sizes for in class learning.

The school intends to have a reduced number of students on campus because they are making sure every student has a "single" bed room.   The old fashioned doubles are gone but the "quads" where each kid gets a small bed room and still have a common area are remaining.  They are assuming that foreign kids will not be on campus this year and they are asking local kids to commute for at least the fall semester.

All students will go home at thanksgiving and not come back to campus until late January.

What a cluster #### this all is :)

 
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Heading into senior year of high school, Kid #2 really has no idea what's at the top of his list. We were going to use Spring Break this year to visit a bunch of schools, which is when the world went nuts. Still hoping some schools might do socially distanced fall tours, but the backup plan is just apply to a lot of places and then make the decision on the backend in Spring 2021 when hopefully campuses will be more open.

Having the whole world go test optional is good for him - very good GPA, OK test-taker - but he's still taking the ACT next weekend because Vermont is on his list and they still require a test score. Got a 32 on a practice test with a 26 Math so we are cramming like crazy. If he could somehow get up to a 30 for Math, he'd have an outside shot at getting a 34 (he gets 36s on the Reading practice tests) which would open up a new range of more highly selective schools for him. Without that, I think he didn't take quite a tough enough curriculum to get into those schools on GPA alone. He's actually sitting down to do another Math practice test right now which always puts him in a foul mood

 
bigbottom said:
Still thinking nuclear engineering?
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Yep.  We participated in a virtual engineering presentation from Berkeley last night night.  Seeing all of the opportunities there got him excited and thinking a little more about other possibilities. He was somewhat intrigued by the Engineering Physics and Materials Engineering programs.  He even brought up the possibility of a double major.  

 
The_Man said:
Heading into senior year of high school, Kid #2 really has no idea what's at the top of his list. We were going to use Spring Break this year to visit a bunch of schools, which is when the world went nuts. Still hoping some schools might do socially distanced fall tours, but the backup plan is just apply to a lot of places and then make the decision on the backend in Spring 2021 when hopefully campuses will be more open.

Having the whole world go test optional is good for him - very good GPA, OK test-taker - but he's still taking the ACT next weekend because Vermont is on his list and they still require a test score. Got a 32 on a practice test with a 26 Math so we are cramming like crazy. If he could somehow get up to a 30 for Math, he'd have an outside shot at getting a 34 (he gets 36s on the Reading practice tests) which would open up a new range of more highly selective schools for him. Without that, I think he didn't take quite a tough enough curriculum to get into those schools on GPA alone. He's actually sitting down to do another Math practice test right now which always puts him in a foul mood
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We should combine the efforts of our boys.  We may be able to generate a perfect score.

 
The_Man said:
Heading into senior year of high school, Kid #2 really has no idea what's at the top of his list. We were going to use Spring Break this year to visit a bunch of schools, which is when the world went nuts. Still hoping some schools might do socially distanced fall tours, but the backup plan is just apply to a lot of places and then make the decision on the backend in Spring 2021 when hopefully campuses will be more open.

Having the whole world go test optional is good for him - very good GPA, OK test-taker - but he's still taking the ACT next weekend because Vermont is on his list and they still require a test score. Got a 32 on a practice test with a 26 Math so we are cramming like crazy. If he could somehow get up to a 30 for Math, he'd have an outside shot at getting a 34 (he gets 36s on the Reading practice tests) which would open up a new range of more highly selective schools for him. Without that, I think he didn't take quite a tough enough curriculum to get into those schools on GPA alone. He's actually sitting down to do another Math practice test right now which always puts him in a foul mood
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Best of luck on the ACT. Also, if he’s planning to apply to a lot of schools, I’d start working on essays this summer as soon as the prompts become available. 

 
Daughter went on vacation with her mom to So Cal last week, and was able to self-tour UCSD, USD, and Chapman.  I was hoping they'd get out to check out the Claremont Colleges, but they didn't make it out there.  They tried to check out Pepperdine, but the campus was literally locked down with a guard at the gate who turned them away.

Tough to get a feel for much driving around empty campuses, other than it reinforced what she already thought in that she didn't like the feel of a big school (UCSD).  She still wants to visit UC Davis, as it's at least got a college town feel to it.  But other than that the focus will likely be on other West Coast small schools, and maybe the do-dad-a-favor visit to U of O (which she's already been to multiple times when she was younger).

Would sure help if she could narrow in on an area of study, but she still just doesn't have any idea.

 
SFBayDuck said:
Daughter went on vacation with her mom to So Cal last week, and was able to self-tour UCSD, USD, and Chapman.  I was hoping they'd get out to check out the Claremont Colleges, but they didn't make it out there.  They tried to check out Pepperdine, but the campus was literally locked down with a guard at the gate who turned them away.

Tough to get a feel for much driving around empty campuses, other than it reinforced what she already thought in that she didn't like the feel of a big school (UCSD).  She still wants to visit UC Davis, as it's at least got a college town feel to it.  But other than that the focus will likely be on other West Coast small schools, and maybe the do-dad-a-favor visit to U of O (which she's already been to multiple times when she was younger).

Would sure help if she could narrow in on an area of study, but she still just doesn't have any idea.
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Does she want to be out of the city?  Because Pepperdine is pretty darn remote. I spent a fair amount of time on Pepperdine’s campus (college girlfriend went there) and they are super conservative about letting boys visit girls in the dorms.  That might be a major plus for a dad.  Is LMU a possibility (my brother-in-law and his wife went there and loved it)?  I also have friends with kids headed to Chapman and USD and they are really excited.  The girl going to USD is undeclared I believe. 

 
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bigbottom said:
Does she want to be out of the city?  Because Pepperdine is pretty darn remote. I spent a fair amount of time on Pepperdine’s campus (college girlfriend went there) and they are super conservative about letting boys visit girls in the dorms.  That might be a major plus for a dad.  Is LMU a possibility (my brother-in-law and his wife went there and loved it)?  I also have friends with kids headed to Chapman and USD and they are really excited.  The girl going to USD is undeclared I believe. 
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Like most things, I'm not sure she knows yet.  She's a pretty cautious kid, much of that coming out of having several life-threatening food allergies, so in some ways the more "closed" a campus feels the more she might like it.

Side note - anyone dealt with food allergies and college?  There is no question the ability to accommodate her food limitations, be it at a cafeteria or with student housing with a kitchen,  is going to be a big part of her selection process.

 
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I guess you get used to it, but as a northeast guy used to gloomy weather for most of the school year, I remember driving by Pepperdine and thinking "how does anyone ever concentrate on schoolwork in such a location"?

 
SFBayDuck said:
She also got her AP test results back today, 4s for Bio and US History, and a 5 for APLang (which she didn't even take the AP class for).  I actually did a little dance when she showed me, really happy for her.
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A 5 on a test for a class she didn’t even take?  That is impressive!!

 
bigbottom said:
A 5 on a test for a class she didn’t even take?  That is impressive!!
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Thanks!  The best part was that she always thought of English as her "worst" subject which is why she didn't take the AP class.  But she really just clicked with her teacher and it started to come together for her.  The teacher encouraged her and a few others to take the AP test and helped them prepare, and obviously it paid off.

 
SFBayDuck said:
She also got her AP test results back today, 4s for Bio and US History, and a 5 for APLang (which she didn't even take the AP class for).  I actually did a little dance when she showed me, really happy for her.
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Do another little dance for yourself. Depending on the college, 4s and 5s may count as credit, thus saving you $$$.

 
In the Galilei household:

Senior to be... AP Calc AB, AP Gov, AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Chem, AP Lang - 4's on all of them.  He was really disappointed and confused because he thought he nailed the Calc and Chem. (had a 5 on AP Bio and AP US History last year)

Junior to be... AP Bio and AP US History - 5's on both (5 on AP World Hist last year)

 
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Galileo said:
In the Galilei household:

Senior to be... AP Calc AB, AP Gov, AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Chem, AP Lang - 4's on all of them.  He was really disappointed and confused because he thought he nailed the Calc and Chem. (had a 5 on AP Bio and AP US History last year)

Junior to be... AP Bio and AP US History - 5's on both (5 on AP World Hist last year)
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I imagine he’ll still get credit for all those classes though, which is great! Congrats to both your boys. We ended up solving our Calculus quandary as our son got a 4 on his AP Calc BC test, which only allows him to opt out of Calc 1, which he intends to do. We were against him opting out of both Calc 1 and 2, which he could have done had he got a 5, so we were able to avoid a potentially contentious decision. We were probably the only parents in the country rooting against a 5 on a test.  He also got a 4 on his AP Psychology test, and got 5s on AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism, and AP Stats tests. Very happy with how things turned out. 

 
My incoming Senior has not been able to take any SAT/ACT tests yet. Even though all the schools he will apply to are test optional for 2021 admissions, perhaps a good score could help push him over the line, so I wanted him to take each one at least once.

He was signed up for the ACT this past Saturday 7/18, but we got an email a few weeks ago that his location was cancelled.  When we tried to rebook it, all of the other locations within an hour's drive were booked solid, so we didn't rebook for that date.  But apparently many of his classmates rebooked for locations 2-3 hours away for this past Saturday - some drove the night before and stayed at hotels.  And virtually all of them got to their test locations Saturday morning to find locked doors - the tests had been cancelled and no one was notified. Complete debacle.

SAT was supposed to be through the school this past Spring, of course did not happen. (It's part of the state's standardized testing, taken during school hours.)  The school say it's rescheduled for late September, but I'm not counting on that happening.  At this point, not sure if we will bother with him jumping through hoops to take either of these tests, I don't know if it's worth it. His GPA is very good but the PSATs he took came back very mediocre, so test optional may work out very well for him. 

 
themeanmachine said:
My incoming Senior has not been able to take any SAT/ACT tests yet. Even though all the schools he will apply to are test optional for 2021 admissions, perhaps a good score could help push him over the line, so I wanted him to take each one at least once.

He was signed up for the ACT this past Saturday 7/18, but we got an email a few weeks ago that his location was cancelled.  When we tried to rebook it, all of the other locations within an hour's drive were booked solid, so we didn't rebook for that date.  But apparently many of his classmates rebooked for locations 2-3 hours away for this past Saturday - some drove the night before and stayed at hotels.  And virtually all of them got to their test locations Saturday morning to find locked doors - the tests had been cancelled and no one was notified. Complete debacle.

SAT was supposed to be through the school this past Spring, of course did not happen. (It's part of the state's standardized testing, taken during school hours.)  The school say it's rescheduled for late September, but I'm not counting on that happening.  At this point, not sure if we will bother with him jumping through hoops to take either of these tests, I don't know if it's worth it. His GPA is very good but the PSATs he took came back very mediocre, so test optional may work out very well for him. 
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A friend of mine drove 3.5 hours the evening prior to get to a location where her daughter could take the test. 

 
We lucked into having my kid take the ACT on Sunday at a Jewish school - since observant kids can't take it Saturday

He said they did a decent job of social distancing and everyone wore masks

Fingers crossed for a 32, but we'll see - think that would be about as well as he could expect

With these latest testing debacles and so many schools now planning to be online this Fall, I really think colleges aren't going to expect kids to have test scores. Who knows how it will play out - except for my ongoing strong belief that early decision full-pay kids are going to have a huge leg up, except at the schools that admit 10% or less

 
themeanmachine said:
He was signed up for the ACT this past Saturday 7/18, but we got an email a few weeks ago that his location was cancelled.  When we tried to rebook it, all of the other locations within an hour's drive were booked solid, so we didn't rebook for that date.  But apparently many of his classmates rebooked for locations 2-3 hours away for this past Saturday - some drove the night before and stayed at hotels.  And virtually all of them got to their test locations Saturday morning to find locked doors - the tests had been cancelled and no one was notified. Complete debacle.
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bigbottom said:
A friend of mine drove 3.5 hours the evening prior to get to a location where her daughter could take the test. 
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Wow.  I guess we lucked out.  We were able to get a spot about 20 minutes away for this past Saturday.  This was my son's second ACT.  He felt much better about the reading section which was his lowest section on the first round (28).  Oddly, he didn't feel great about the math this time (35 last time).  He said there was stuff he didn't recognize that he hadn't seen before.  He got bogged down a little and didn't get to the last 6 questions.  Fortunately a couple of the schools on his list super score.

 
Yeah my kid’s supposed to take the SAT in August at a location like two hours away.  He really needs to take it though, we’ve taken a couple practice tests and he has done great, would definitely help his admissions chances even at SAT optional schools.

 
My son and I watched a program today from Purdue's College of Engineering.  As part of the program, they had one of the admissions officers present.  She outlined 12 areas that they consider when making admissions decisions and GPA was NOT one of them.  This wasn't an omission on her part.  She deliberately said she does not factor in the GPA.  This does not mean grades aren't considered...just not in the form of GPA.  They first look at minimum high school requirements (4 yrs math, 3 yrs science, 2 yrs foreign lang, etc...) and if you don't meet those, the application is not considered any further.  They then look at the course work the student takes.  They are essentially  looking for strength of schedule.  They compare what courses the student takes with those that are available at the high school.  They are looking for students who have taken advantage of the opportunities and the level of rigor in the student's schedule.  They are also looking for relevant coursework.  You want in the engineering program?  Are you taking the sciences and math available or are you just meeting minimums?  They look for consistent grades of A's and B's in these rigorous/relevant courses.  A "C" somewhere won't rule you out, but it starts to raise flags.  So, instead of GPA, which would be influenced by things like your health, PE, band, underwater basket weaving, etc..., they focus on grades in the rigorous and relevant classes.

In case you are wondering, here is the list of the 12 factors they consider for admissions:

1. Minimum HS requirements met

2. Strength of Schedule

3. Relevant courses

4. Grades (but not overall GPA)

5. Academic trends

6. ACT/SAT (although, as she pointed out, this is changing)

7. Extracurricular activities...she stressed it is not about "what" you do, it is about "how" you do it...level of commitment, leadership, etc...

8. Essay

9. Recommendations (want it personal, by someone who can provide insights to personality and "soft skill" set)

10. Purdue major and college

11. Personal background and experience

12. Time of year you apply

 
Hard to overstate what a debacle the ACT is right now

Tons of cancellations for the mid-July sitting, with plenty of kids never getting notified their testing center had closed until they showed up the morning of the test. Some people driving 5+ hours in hopes of having their kid get into a sitting

My kid took it that weekend with some pretty sketchy social distancing/masking around him.

Scores were supposed to be out at midnight last night. But the ACT also tried to roll out a new test registration system yesterday afternoon that completely crashed and burned. So they took down everything, promising an update this morning. The update just came out - check back again tomorrow afternoon. So now not only can nobody register, but kids who took the test can't get their scores.

At this point, I'm surprised more schools aren't just saying not to test, and that they'll ignore all scores for this fall. Although NCAA is currently still requiring test scores from Division I athletes, which is a whole other debacle

 
Galileo said:
My son and I watched a program today from Purdue's College of Engineering.  As part of the program, they had one of the admissions officers present.  She outlined 12 areas that they consider when making admissions decisions and GPA was NOT one of them.  This wasn't an omission on her part.  She deliberately said she does not factor in the GPA.  This does not mean grades aren't considered...just not in the form of GPA.  They first look at minimum high school requirements (4 yrs math, 3 yrs science, 2 yrs foreign lang, etc...) and if you don't meet those, the application is not considered any further.  They then look at the course work the student takes.  They are essentially  looking for strength of schedule.  They compare what courses the student takes with those that are available at the high school.  They are looking for students who have taken advantage of the opportunities and the level of rigor in the student's schedule.  They are also looking for relevant coursework.  You want in the engineering program?  Are you taking the sciences and math available or are you just meeting minimums?  They look for consistent grades of A's and B's in these rigorous/relevant courses.  A "C" somewhere won't rule you out, but it starts to raise flags.  So, instead of GPA, which would be influenced by things like your health, PE, band, underwater basket weaving, etc..., they focus on grades in the rigorous and relevant classes.

In case you are wondering, here is the list of the 12 factors they consider for admissions:

1. Minimum HS requirements met

2. Strength of Schedule

3. Relevant courses

4. Grades (but not overall GPA)

5. Academic trends

6. ACT/SAT (although, as she pointed out, this is changing)

7. Extracurricular activities...she stressed it is not about "what" you do, it is about "how" you do it...level of commitment, leadership, etc...

8. Essay

9. Recommendations (want it personal, by someone who can provide insights to personality and "soft skill" set)

10. Purdue major and college

11. Personal background and experience

12. Time of year you apply
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those all make sense and closely match what others have said in the past in the thread after talking with admissions people.

The only one I don't recognize is #12.   Is that some how related to EA/ED/RD?

 
NewlyRetired said:
those all make sense and closely match what others have said in the past in the thread after talking with admissions people.

The only one I don't recognize is #12.   Is that some how related to EA/ED/RD?
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Yes

 
Galileo said:
Yep.  We participated in a virtual engineering presentation from Berkeley last night night.  Seeing all of the opportunities there got him excited and thinking a little more about other possibilities. He was somewhat intrigued by the Engineering Physics and Materials Engineering programs.  He even brought up the possibility of a double major.  
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I went to Cal as an undergrad and did double major in ME / MSE.  As I said before, the nuclear engineering profession is a strange one, and there aren't that many opportunities.  My older brother did Nuke-E at Cal 2 years ahead of me.  He now does data analytics in fin-tech...   After an MSNE from MIT.

FWIW, my best classes were in MSE.  Great professors, topics, etc.  Engineering Physics is pretty bunk IMO.  No one know what to do with those guys.  Send them to grad school so they can either do research and focus their efforts, or teach them a proper trade.

Not sure how it is now, but when I was an undergrad 20 years ago, once you were in the College of Engineering, it was easy to switch majors.  You don't really have to decide until late in your 2nd year really.

 
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The Z Machine said:
Not sure how it is now, but when I was an undergrad 20 years ago, once you were in the College of Engineering, it was easy to switch majors.  You don't really have to decide until late in your 2nd year really.
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Depends on the school. At my son’s school, acceptance to one engineering major is acceptance to all. You can easily switch before you start, or pretty much any time during your first two years. University of Texas, however, you apply for a specific major and it is reportedly very difficult to switch once admitted (which is just crazy to me as I don’t think most 17 year olds have an informed opinion about the nuances between different engineering specialties). And then there are schools like A&M, where you don’t apply for a particular major (all freshman are “general engineering” majors) when applying for acceptance to the college. But then, after you complete your freshman year, you “apply” for a major by rank ordering your top three choices - and you may not be able to get into the major you want!

 
My incoming senior hasn't been able to take any SAT or ACT yet, unclear right now if he will at all.  But the school says they are planning on all seniors taking SATs the last week of September (they are going back to school on a hybrid schedule, at least as of right now).  

He's getting mailers/emails from some of the schools he is interested in applying to (all public universities, none highly competitive overall, though perhaps a bit at some for his major of interest), encouraging applications now, with benefits like 2-week turnaround on admissions decisions and no essay required.  Every school he's applying to is test optional for 2021 admission.

Is there any downside to him just applying now to some of those schools? If he waits to take the SAT (fingers crossed) and gets the scores, he's probably not applying until November.  No guarantee his scores will help him, though if he's on the bubble, it's possible.  If he applies now and is rejected, I wonder if he could go back later in the fall with good test scores and ask them to reconsider?

 
My kid’s senior year in high school is already F’d not to mention the Inability to visit colleges and the ongoing standardized testing debacle. Now this article from the Boston Globe is going to give me an anxiety attack. There are going to be so many fewer college spots in Fall 2021 for this year’s high school seniors:

“A record 20 percent of Harvard first-year students are opting to defer their admission, the school announced Thursday, as students decide to take a gap year rather than start their elite education online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

At MIT, 8 percent of first-year students deferred, up from normally around 1 percent, according to the university. At Williams College in Western Massachusetts, 90 students took a gap year instead of the usual 25. And at Bates College in Maine, 10 percent of students have requested deferral, up from 4 percent.“

 
Galileo said:
My son and I watched a program today from Purdue's College of Engineering.  As part of the program, they had one of the admissions officers present.  She outlined 12 areas that they consider when making admissions decisions and GPA was NOT one of them.  This wasn't an omission on her part.  She deliberately said she does not factor in the GPA.  This does not mean grades aren't considered...just not in the form of GPA.  They first look at minimum high school requirements (4 yrs math, 3 yrs science, 2 yrs foreign lang, etc...) and if you don't meet those, the application is not considered any further.  They then look at the course work the student takes.  They are essentially  looking for strength of schedule.  They compare what courses the student takes with those that are available at the high school.  They are looking for students who have taken advantage of the opportunities and the level of rigor in the student's schedule.  They are also looking for relevant coursework.  You want in the engineering program?  Are you taking the sciences and math available or are you just meeting minimums?  They look for consistent grades of A's and B's in these rigorous/relevant courses.  A "C" somewhere won't rule you out, but it starts to raise flags.  So, instead of GPA, which would be influenced by things like your health, PE, band, underwater basket weaving, etc..., they focus on grades in the rigorous and relevant classes.

In case you are wondering, here is the list of the 12 factors they consider for admissions:

1. Minimum HS requirements met

2. Strength of Schedule

3. Relevant courses

4. Grades (but not overall GPA)

5. Academic trends

6. ACT/SAT (although, as she pointed out, this is changing)

7. Extracurricular activities...she stressed it is not about "what" you do, it is about "how" you do it...level of commitment, leadership, etc...

8. Essay

9. Recommendations (want it personal, by someone who can provide insights to personality and "soft skill" set)

10. Purdue major and college

11. Personal background and experience

12. Time of year you apply
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Do AP test scores matter? I would expect Calc and physics and Stats to be influential. And perhaps others. 

 
SoBeDad said:
Do AP test scores matter? I would expect Calc and physics and Stats to be influential. And perhaps others. 
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My son didn’t submit any AP scores with his applications and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.  Through his junior year, he had some 4s, but no 5s (and a 2 in AP World History his freshman year). Ended up deciding that submitting would likely hurt as much as help. Also, he didn’t take Calc and Stats until senior year, so that wasn’t really an option either. But if you have all (or most) 5s, I think I’d definitely submit. 

 
The_Man said:
My kid’s senior year in high school is already F’d not to mention the Inability to visit colleges and the ongoing standardized testing debacle. Now this article from the Boston Globe is going to give me an anxiety attack. There are going to be so many fewer college spots in Fall 2021 for this year’s high school seniors:

“A record 20 percent of Harvard first-year students are opting to defer their admission, the school announced Thursday, as students decide to take a gap year rather than start their elite education online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

At MIT, 8 percent of first-year students deferred, up from normally around 1 percent, according to the university. At Williams College in Western Massachusetts, 90 students took a gap year instead of the usual 25. And at Bates College in Maine, 10 percent of students have requested deferral, up from 4 percent.“
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Hadn’t thought about this year’s deferrals making it tougher for next year’s admissions, but obviously makes sense. 
 

I am going to take my daughter to check out Santa Clara, St Mary’s, and UC Davis this week. Obviously all self-guided, and we’re hoping the private school campuses will be open (Pepperdine was locked and guarded when she went there a few weeks back). She wants to visit a couple of schools up in Oregon as well, but is holding out hope there may be some sort of formal tours at some point in the coming months. Not likely, but if not we can always self-tour this Fall. 
 

What a strange time for these kids finishing up HS and in college, I really feel for them. Was the most exciting time of my life, and it’s just all FUBAR’d right now. 

 
SFBayDuck said:
Hadn’t thought about this year’s deferrals making it tougher for next year’s admissions, but obviously makes sense. 
 

I am going to take my daughter to check out Santa Clara, St Mary’s, and UC Davis this week. Obviously all self-guided, and we’re hoping the private school campuses will be open (Pepperdine was locked and guarded when she went there a few weeks back). She wants to visit a couple of schools up in Oregon as well, but is holding out hope there may be some sort of formal tours at some point in the coming months. Not likely, but if not we can always self-tour this Fall. 
 

What a strange time for these kids finishing up HS and in college, I really feel for them. Was the most exciting time of my life, and it’s just all FUBAR’d right now. 
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In 2008 and 2010, we took my daughters on 2 college trips, one visiting schools in the south, including UF,  FSU and Duke, and one in the north east  which included  Hopkins, Princeton, and a nice trip to NYC and a Broadway play. Great times. Next week, one of my daughters is doing a virtual dissertation defense by herself in a room on campus, and she told family not to come due to COVID risk and there's not many places to really celebrate safely.

 
SoBeDad said:
In 2008 and 2010, we took my daughters on 2 college trips, one visiting schools in the south, including UF,  FSU and Duke, and one in the north east  which included  Hopkins, Princeton, and a nice trip to NYC and a Broadway play. Great times. Next week, one of my daughters is doing a virtual dissertation defense by herself in a room on campus, and she told family not to come due to COVID risk and there's not many places to really celebrate safely.
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Sorry - but congrats on the amazing accomplishments! What’s her field?

 
SoBeDad said:
Neuroscience at MIT. Something about epigenetics using tissue samples from mice and humans. She was leaning toward the postdoc path, had a great interview with a UC school, but now is reconsidering industry, seeing how postdocs in the lab have been impacted.
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GB parents who can raise kids who are smart and hard working. Great job and hope I can do half as good a job as you!

 
The_Man said:
Having the whole world go test optional is good for him - very good GPA, OK test-taker - but he's still taking the ACT next weekend because Vermont is on his list and they still require a test score. Got a 32 on a practice test with a 26 Math so we are cramming like crazy. If he could somehow get up to a 30 for Math, he'd have an outside shot at getting a 34 (he gets 36s on the Reading practice tests) which would open up a new range of more highly selective schools for him. Without that, I think he didn't take quite a tough enough curriculum to get into those schools on GPA alone. He's actually sitting down to do another Math practice test right now which always puts him in a foul mood
Click to expand...
Welp, results are in and --- he got a 32 (27 Math, 29 Science, 35 Reading, 36 Writing). Guess that practice test was pretty accurate!

Pretty good, has kind of locked in his match/likely schools and done nothing to increase his chances at the reach schools. His school is now talking about offering an on-campus ACT in October so I'll do some research about ACT super scoring and talk to his college counselor. With his current Reading/Writing scores, to get to a 33.5 composite, which rounds to a 34, would require 63 points - like a 33 Science and 30 Math, for example. I think he could get to the Science score with prep but I'm increasingly dubious about getting the Math much higher. At this point, given the rest of his application, I'm just not sure how much boost he would get from a 32 to a 34 and it's worth all the time, effort and test prep money it would take

 
My genius/idiot son could not log in to his College board account.  I think he somehow managed to create 2 new accounts trying.  I told him to call today and try to get it straightened out.

 
Galileo said:
My genius/idiot son could not log in to his College board account.  I think he somehow managed to create 2 new accounts trying.  I told him to call today and try to get it straightened out.
Click to expand...
Both testing services are a total mess right now. ACT in particular has been a nightmare with their transition to a new website and people have been waiting on hold for 3-4 hours trying to get someone who can help them

 
The_Man said:
Both testing services are a total mess right now. ACT in particular has been a nightmare with their transition to a new website and people have been waiting on hold for 3-4 hours trying to get someone who can help them
Click to expand...
My mistake...it was ACT.  I don't know why College Board was on my mind.

 
I was looking at my daughters college bill today and there is a grant on there that looks suspiciously like the exact amount of the Pell Grant, but it is a separate line item from the normal Pell Grant and just has some generic name with it.

Just to double check, is there any government aid in regards to Covid for this semester for students as part of the CARES act?

 
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Currently on a west coast college visit trip. Sucks so hard not to have a guide and not being able to see inside buildings, like dorms. 

 
NewlyRetired said:
I was looking at my daughters college bill today and there is a grant on there that looks suspiciously like the exact amount of the Pell Grant, but it is a separate line item from the normal Pell Grant and just has some generic name with it.

Just to double check, is there any government aid in regards to Covid for this semester for students as part of the CARES act?
Click to expand...
My daughter's school is late releasing aid info. Once it does, I will report back as to whether she got anything similar.

I did a quick search and it seems that there is an emergency grant available to students under the CARES act but I think the student has to apply for it. If you didn't apply, then I'm guessing that's not what you received but it's just a guess.

 
Fear The Turtle said:
My daughter's school is late releasing aid info. Once it does, I will report back as to whether she got anything similar.

I did a quick search and it seems that there is an emergency grant available to students under the CARES act but I think the student has to apply for it. If you didn't apply, then I'm guessing that's not what you received but it's just a guess.
Click to expand...
We did not apply for anything specific but we do get FAFSA for her already (being retired makes this really easy because of the dumb government rules).

She received some COVID related grant money this past spring due to being already on FAFSA, so I was wondering if this was something similar.

 
NewlyRetired said:
I was looking at my daughters college bill today and there is a grant on there that looks suspiciously like the exact amount of the Pell Grant, but it is a separate line item from the normal Pell Grant and just has some generic name with it.

Just to double check, is there any government aid in regards to Covid for this semester for students as part of the CARES act?
Click to expand...
I'll try to remember to check Monday. There is new cares funding, but I don't recall the specifics. I just know I accepted a meeting invite related to it in October- and that I don't need to be up to speed on it until then. We are posting charges and aid this weekend, so I can see what new grant funding posted though.  

 
Cornell had the chutzpah to delay their financial aid packages for a week with the justification the delay helped people plan their fall.

 
Gawain said:
Cornell had the chutzpah to delay their financial aid packages for a week with the justification the delay helped people plan their fall.
Click to expand...
I can only comment on our school, but we were late getting ours out too. The state and the feds were still changing our allotment deep into July. 

 
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