Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you feel the neee to share the GPA and test scores in your question? They’re not relevant to where he needs or should be in the process. Just wanting to brag I guess?

NP, stats are relevant as standard for how polished common app and essays will need to be will differ if chasing top schools versus a state school that is stats driven.

Oh please.

People get so crabby about working ahead. You know those at top schools do this and have very full summers with jobs and friends. They are only happy busy and are better at time management. And those that aren’t, maybe they want to work ahead so they can go take pressure off during school year managing it all. The summer is long, lots of hours to fill that can be social and productive.

GPA is just one single data point. There are other data points, rigor is important, test score, and other parts of the application. Dichotomy may not be a dichotomy if high rigor is there. Difficult to generalize.

What does his driver’s license have to do with anything?

Mine rising senior doesn’t have much of anything done yet. It’s fine. I’m really trying to step back a bit so she feels like she owns this process.

Sounds like your kid is perfectly fine, OP.

Also for the crazies out there, 3.85 GPA is a high gpa (if at a non-grade-inflating private/public) and after talking to two AOs at top 20-ish schools, anything 1500+ is very high and you don't get much extra mileage raising it by a few points at this stage unless you are going into super impacted/competitive majors like engineering/CS and than the math score in particular needs to be very high.

I've heard that people under-report SAT scores if the school is test optional and that has skewed the 25% and 50% averages per school too high.

Apparently anything over 1350 (90th percentile) is solid for top schools (top 50-ish) and should be reported.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you feel the neee to share the GPA and test scores in your question? They’re not relevant to where he needs or should be in the process. Just wanting to brag I guess?

OP is genuinely seeking advice. WGPA is only 3.85, score is only 1500+, what's there to brag about? Weird.

Probably UW.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the feedback so far. I actually mistyped his GPA, but it does not matter. I was just trying to put things in contexts. Good to know that he is not falling behind yet. He is very lay back and kind of lazy hence my worries ...

It's... JULY. Every single moment doesnt need to be high intensity stress.

OP here. Thanks for the feedback so far. I actually mistyped his GPA, but it does not matter. I was just trying to put things in contexts. Good to know that he is not falling behind yet. He is very lay back and kind of lazy hence my worries ...

That the WGPA is 3.85 but the SAT is 1500+ is actually an interesting dichotomy - usually when scores and grades don’t align it goes the other way, and the grades outpace the scores and suggest grade inflation. OP, if there was an event or issue that pulled your son’s grades down, he should think about how to address it in the common app, maybe in the additional info section. Or if it was a case of having a rough start adjusting to high school and then improving, lean into that and demonstrate his growth and improvement into a stronger student.

In terms of what he’s actually doing with his time though, he sounds fine. The common app doesn’t open until Aug 1. Yes, he could be working on the non-essay parts that will port over from the previous version to the new year, but it’s not that big a deal that he isn’t doing that yet.

1500 is a great SAT score and he should leave it be no matter how the August test goes.
My DS wrote several common app essay drafts over the summer but didn't get serious until September. It was fine. He submitted 6 EA apps + 1 ED. IME it was hard to keep going at that point - psychologically he wanted to wait until ED results in December. He wound up preparing 3 more apps in full before ED came out (he was admitted). That would have left 5 to do over winter break/early January if ED hadn't worked out, which seemed do-able.

Anonymous wrote:Why do you feel the neee to share the GPA and test scores in your question? They’re not relevant to where he needs or should be in the process. Just wanting to brag I guess?

OP is genuinely seeking advice. WGPA is only 3.85, score is only 1500+, what's there to brag about? Weird.

Anonymous wrote:Why do you feel the neee to share the GPA and test scores in your question? They’re not relevant to where he needs or should be in the process. Just wanting to brag I guess?

+1.

Calm down, OP. Your DS is way, WAY ahead of mine. Does that make you feel better to hear?

Anonymous wrote:Why do you feel the neee to share the GPA and test scores in your question? They’re not relevant to where he needs or should be in the process. Just wanting to brag I guess?

NP, stats are relevant as standard for how polished common app and essays will need to be will differ if chasing top schools versus a state school that is stats driven.

Why do you feel the neee to share the GPA and test scores in your question? They’re not relevant to where he needs or should be in the process. Just wanting to brag I guess?

Just want some reality checks to know whether DC is too far off since we have no private counselor, and I am the one keeping track on the schedule: Currently DC is still busy with his summer camp and doesn't spent time on his common app or college applications. He took SAT twice already with a score 1500+, will take one in August. WGPA 3.85+. Visited his dream school in June which he has decided to ED1. Have two more campus visit scheduled in the next two weeks. He has just gotten his driver's license and promised to work on his college app in August.