Introduction to Loomis Chaffee College Guidance for Underclass Parents Or, in the IMMORTAL words of David Byrne, “How did I GET here???”

Areas of Interest to Teenagers

WHERE DOES COLLEGE FIT IN?? When does the process start? What college is right for me? What happens if you don’t get accepted? Is the application process going to be stressful? How long is the college application process? What grades do I need to be accepted into a “good” school? Do AP’s matter? Will my parents have enough money left over after putting my brother through? How do I know if a college is right for me? What colleges are people expected to attend after attending Loomis Chaffee? How big of a role does sports play in getting in to college? Do AP courses really matter? Is going to a highly ranked college better? What if my top choice was Princeton, what would I have to do to get in? How do colleges decide who gets in? What is the best college? How much do SAT scores matter? What’s the difference between top choice and best choice? How many should I apply to?

Four-Year Curriculum: Grade 9

Four-Year Curriculum: Grade Ten PSAT: October Junior Year Course Selection: January Practice ACT: April Subject Tests: June (maybe…stay tuned) June-August: vacation visiting!

STANDARDIZED TESTING/TEST PREP If my child hasn’t started test prep yet, is he/she behind? If my child hasn’t taken the SAT yet, is he/she behind? When should my child take the SAT? What is all this I am hearing about the NEW SAT and will it affect my child? What is the ACT? Should my child take it? When does my child need to have a standardized testing plan? Should my child be doing test prep next summer? My child heard from her/his teammate who is a senior that they should test early and often. Is this true? What kind of test prep does Loomis provide?

Sometimes it feels that if you are not ahead, you are behind with test prep. Everyone needs to do test prep. The question is WHEN and HOW.

Standardized Testing and Test Prep ARE: Individual to each student’s academic strengths and weaknesses Dependent upon the Loomis Chaffee calendar and the day-to-day demands of our school life Dependent upon comfort and familiarity with standardized testing Dependent upon the motivation of the student

Commonly Held Misconceptions (or, things to ignore from well-meaning folks ) The more you test, the better you test. Start earlier, end earlier. Taking the first SAT for “practice” is a good idea. Test prep is incredibly expensive, time-consuming, and worth investing in a private tutor for. Test prep companies work because they guarantee a score increase. The SAT is a more widely used admissions test than the ACT. Colleges care more about testing than anything else.

Was released in March of 2016 Writing section was split and half of it is included in the Critical Reading section, the other half is an optional essay. No penalties for guessing Content is deeper rather than broader More reading in the math section and a required no-calculator section More science and social studies in the verbal and math sections THE NEW SAT (The College Board won’t tell you this, but changed the SAT to improve their share of the standardized testing market which they have lost to the ACT which is a more content- and curriculum-based assessment therefore able to be used from 8th graders up for Common Core and National State Balanced Assessments. So it’s all about the $$$ shhhhhh….. We’ll pretend it’s about making a better test but we know it’s really not.)

TEST PREP OPTIONS Sophomores are exposed to both the SAT and the ACT through practice testing this year (PSAT in Oct., practice ACT in April). LC offers test prep overview courses in junior year for both ACT and SAT run here on campus by Summit Test Prep. We subscribe to an online test prep company, Method Test Prep, that is made available to sophomores at the end of the school year in case they want to do any test prep on their own over the summer. The College Board offers free test prep linked to the PSAT and the SAT through Khan Academy. Good old fashioned test books work just as well as anything else.

SAT II/Subject Tests/Achievement Tests/Whatever They Are Calling Them Now Q: Should my child take these before junior year? A: YES, maybe. If he/she is enrolled in: Chemistry advanced Geometry advanced (or beyond) 3rd or 4th level Advanced language study Then maybe, yes. But talk to the teacher first…

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST: JUNIOR YEAR CURRICULUM, or, what courses should my child be taking to get into a “good” college? EXTRACURRICULAR & SUMMER ACTIVITIES, or, does my child have to save the world and find the cure for cancer to get into a “good” college? COLLEGE VISITING, or, when does my child need to know what he/she wants to do with her/his life and what kind of a college he/she wants to go to?

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LOOMIS CHAFFEE COLLEGE GUIDANCE CHAFFEE HALL Amy Thompson, Kathleen Wiggenhauser, Virginia DeConinck, Lori Johnson, Jed Stuart, Josh Smith, Frederique Dupré