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About Me
- Ted Liu
- Sugar Land, Texas, United States
- Born and raised in Shanghai, China, I have been in the States for over twenty (20) years, fourteen (14) of which as a guidance counselor at one of the top high schools in the greater Houston area. My career interest is mainly, as you have probably already guessed, in college consultation.
1. My husband and I are from outside the United States and aren't familiar with applying for College in the USA. Are there any advisors or outside services that you can point me to that can help us prepare our son, who is in the 11th grade for the next year of preparations that are necessary as part of the college application process?
ReplyDelete2. How can we confirm that our son has all the credits he requires to get into College?
3. What should we be planning to do this year beyond writing the PSATs?
4. What should be the goal for a "good" PSAT score, how about a "great" PSAT score?
5. When should he write his first SAT?
6. Will a "great" SAT score make up for a mediocre GPA and ranking in grade 9 and 10?
7. If our child ranks in the bottom half of the class, but gets a "great" SAT score, is it possible for him to get into UT Austin?
Thanks for visiting my blog. I see you have quite a few questions. As a public school employee and due to mission of this blog, ethically I can't recommend/endorse/promote any particular individuals or institutions. But I am more than happy to work with you, to answer any questions you may have. Hope you will understand it. Plus, I believe I am actually as good as, if not better than, a lot of so called educational consultants out there. Hey, why you want to pay when you can get it for free? :-) Kidding. To answer your 2nd question, generally speaking, what is good enough for graduation then, it is good enough for college. They are, for the most part, in sync. Colleges nowadays rarely publish anything more than general graduation requirements as their minimum course requirement for admission. I mean we are talking about extreme rare cases when they do that. 3rd question, After taking PSAT, our usual recommendation is to start taking the regular SAT later in the fall and/or in the spring when he feels that he is ready/comfortable. Of course, he still needs to continue working on improving his rank/GPA. ACT should also be part of planning in terms of enhancing his chances. I guess that is a different question for another time, right? 4th question, I don't think I quite understand it. "Good" and "great" for what, or according to whom? This year's National Merit Scholar Semi-finalist Selection Index is 216. I guess anything close to it is good and anything higher than it is great? I am not sure if that is what you are asking. Question No. 5, Whenever he is ready and feels comfortable about the test. Also, please see the answer to Question No. 3. 6th question, Yes, the vast majority of the colleges and universities out there are using these two main factors, rank/GPA and SAT/ACT scores, to determine admission/rejection etc. Nationwide, among four thousand plus schools, only a small fraction uses factor(s) beyond those two. If a student's rank/GPA is not so impressive, s/he will need a "good" SAT/ACT score to compensate for it. Vice versa, if the rank/GPA is good then SAT/ACT requirement may not be "great" at all. Question No. 7, the short answer is not likely. CAP or transfer later on may be more feasible/realistic.
ReplyDeleteMaybe for junior year, take the SAT if you are ready to see how you do.
ReplyDeleteAlso, start thinking about possible majors in college and potential college choices. Look at college stats and info and start working on college apps summer before senior year.
Good point! I like it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteACT is recommended too? Do I have to take it?
ReplyDeleteNo, you don't have to if you are happy with your SAT scores. Since SAT and ACT are very different tests regarding format of the questions, many of our students tend to do better in one than in the other. Plus, most schools accept both or either, it is just you may have an edge you need to get into a school of your choice by taking both. Please log onto both ACT.ORG and Collegeboard.com for more information in terms of differences.
ReplyDeleteMr. Liu, Sir, now that PSAT is over, is it time to take SAT?
ReplyDeleteYes, whenever you are ready. And please don't forget ACT.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little unclear about ranking. e.g. If you have 2 students ranked #2, how do you rank the next student with the highest GPA? Is he going to be the #3 or #4?
ReplyDeleteHe is going to be the #4.
ReplyDeleteHere are some of the usual questions most colleges ask us concerning rank/GPA.
What is this student's rank/GPA?
How many students are sharing this rank/GPA?
What is the size of his class?
What is the highest/lowest GPA of his class?
How many students are ahead of him, below him?
Is your rank/GPA weighted/unweighted?
How many semesters does his rank/GPA cover?
What is the scale of your GPA?
When will Juniors receive their PSAT scores? When can we find out the 2010 National Merit Semifinalist cut off scores?
ReplyDeleteCan you share some statistics about the students who were accepted by Harvard during the past couple of years? e.g. SAT scores, SAT subject scores, volunteer hours, leadership, extra-curricular activities, etc.
ReplyDeleteUsually, we will get the score reports sometime in December and will release the info to the students sometime early in January.
ReplyDeleteNMS Cooperation usually announces the cut-off around August.
That is a tough question on students got into Ivy Leagues, but I will try. Before I start, one thing I must make it very clear. Every student is different, and it differs from year to year. The point is that even if you/your student fit the profile, there is no guarantee that s/he will be able to get in.
ReplyDeleteBut here are some commonalities for you to look at.
They are usually, not always, ranked within top 1 percent.
They have always taken the most rigorous courses available/possible.
They most likely score within the top 1 percentile nationally in the standardized testing (SAT/ACT/SAT II's etc).
They are always involved in a few student organizations/extra-curricular activities consistently and serve in the capacity of leadership rolls, like being a president, team captain, editor in chief etc.
They are always exceptional writers (write fantastic essays that are insightful, perceptive, observant, humorous and conscious of the reality).
They usually have something unique, such as being artistic (visual or performing); playing a sport; running a service/nonprofit organization, and newspaper/radio/TV/web based publication, etc.
They always have great relationships with teachers/counselors who give excellent letters of recommendation.
Last but not lease, they are usually recipients of some known co-/extra-curricular awards/competitions.
I heard that you would initiate 1-on-1 meetings with Juniors to counsel them on their progression. Are parents invited at the same time? When do you plan to start it?
ReplyDeleteYes, we did originally plan on starting the individual junior conferences at end of September, but due to the volume letter of recommendation requests for the college application, we simply could not start then. It was impossible. I am sure you are aware of the fact that only three counselors are taking care of all the juniors and seniors this year. So technically, we are dealing with twice as many seniors as we did in the past. November 1st application deadline is always huge for us at CHS, since that is done with, we will start pretty soon, hopefully. Yes, both students and their parents are invited. Please on the lookout for the invitation.
ReplyDeleteHi Mr. Liu!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this is true or not, but someone told me that there are some credit by exams in FBISD that offers the Honors credit. Like, you can take a Psychology Credit by exam without taking the course, and earn honors credit for taking the exam.
I don't think this is true, but is it or not?
No, not that I know of. It is a good question, though.
ReplyDeleteIs it true that Clements does not offer AP Physics B this year and that those signed up for AP Physics B had to change to AP Physics C?
ReplyDeleteIt is true we do not offer AP Physics B this year due to staffing. It is not true that those signed up had to be switched to C. They had a choice of C or another class.
ReplyDelete