Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have gotten stacks of postcards and mailings and my DCs 10th grade PSAT scores were abysmal (about a 175-180). Agree that they are trying to gin up their application numbers. We've also gotten some mailings for summer programs at the colleges, which are money making operations. No reason you can't look at the colleges, but I wouldn't assume that the mailings mean anything in terms of fit or acceptance.

This score is not abysmal. It's in the 80th percentile nationally.

Your poor child.

So what IS an acceptable percentage for your child to fall into?

SATs need to be in the 2100 range for the target schools. This just happens to be a really smart kid (4.0 GPA, 5s on AP tests) who does not take standardized tests that well.

Uh, APs are standardized tests, so the standardized test methodology is probably not the problem. 5s are good, although meaningless for admissions. Not everybody gets 2100s but most kids do improve a bit between their first SAT and their retake. Is your DC a junior? Juniors haven't taken the real PSATs yet. Or is DC a senior, in which case DC should have taken the SAT last spring?

I am the PP you are responding to. Thanks to the other pp for calling you out on the Uh. Super annoying. My DC is a junior so has not taken the SATs yet (that's why i mentioned 10th grade PSATs). The 10th grade PSAT is the same test as the "real" PSAT, it just doesn't count for NMSF (which is obviously not a factor for my DC anyway).

I did not mention that we were sending APs anywhere - only mentioned it as a contrast to PSAT scores. APs are standardized tests but both the ones my DC has taken so far had heavy essay components. And the multiple choice sections were more fact based than logic and vocab like on the SAT. So it is possible to do well on AP tests, since it is testing course content, and not do well on SAT type tests. In fact DC didn't do very well on the SAT subject test in the same topic. Not sure what, as you put it, 'the problem" is. But SAT tutoring is in process so hopefully that will help.

Bragging poster here. I'm sorry I turned people off. DD goes to a high school that is routinely derided as awful on DCUM, so I tend to want to make the point that great students are everywhere, not just at TJ or the Maryland schools (or private schools). And even with a bunch of 5s, rest assured that we in no way think she's guaranteed admission to any of the schools that she is interested in. And while she has some good extracurricular activities, she will not be recruited for a sport, isn't nationally known for anything, and we aren't giving tons of money. So yes, she is just one of a multitude of kids that all look the same to these schools.

So I'm in the minority and/or just being shouted out, but this is what I need to hear ("DD got 7 5's) to realize that 3 3's wasn't squat. Maybe I'm just slow . . . .
Totally agree regarding the Naviance, except that it doesn't give any view to APs as far as I recall.

If you haven't tried Naviance, it will give you a rough idea of how kids from your school did at various colleges, with a detailed graph of college acceptances by different GPAs and SATs. What Naviance will not show you is hooks, legacy, athletic, or other things. Nor will it show you which kids also sent in their AP scores.

Some of this you just learn from places like DCUM, although i agree the first AP poster ("DD is sending in her APs") did it better than the 2nd ("DD got 7 5's, waddya think of that, huh?)!

If you haven't tried Naviance, it will give you a rough idea of how kids from your school did at various colleges, for different GPAs and SATs. What Naviance will not show you is hooks, legacy, athletic, or other. Nor will it show you which kids also sent in their AP scores. Some of this you just learn from

I'm the pp with 2 "average" high schoolers (one now in college). I have to say it really opened my eyes to see exactly how many APs and what grades/scores these (DCUM) kids were getting. I didn't take DCUM as 100% true, but it got me investigating the data from my kids' high schools. See, we were under the (completely false) illusion that a 3.5 GPA with 3 APs and 1800 SATs scores was a pretty decent candidate. It's all relative, certainly, but coming from schools in this area, these stats take you to at least the second tier of colleges nationwide and in VA, might get you into GMU and Christopher Newport (a school I have never heard of 4 years ago). For me, it was an eyeopener. I'm glad I figured it out sooner rather than later as our entire family adjusted expectations.