Eos Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 I didn't want to hijack Jenny's thread. In my district (can't speak for the whole state) the high school required ds3 to take the PSAT with his 11th grade fall cohort because he was on the soccer team and therefore in their system. My first two kids didn't take the PSAT since they weren't doing anything at the high school. Dd4 is in show choir and theater, so I imagine they'll want to sign her up for the PSAT. Is there any good reason other than the National Merit stuff to do the PSAT? It would seem more helpful to me to just take the harder one in fall of 11th grade to have a first crack at it. We're not a family that starts testing any earlier, though I know many on this board do that. I also don't want my kids ticking the box that says "send my scores to wherever" because I really dislike the barrage of recruiting information that my friends' kids are subjected to - I've seen so many kids get the "we're interested in you" letters and emails that are so obviously efforts to keep their admissions statistics low and therefore ratings high. So many parents I know have fallen for this, it must be very hard to resist. So, another question: is there any worth to ticking that box in 11th grade? Thank you for all responses. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 If your DS3 qualifies for any of the Collegeboard.org National Recognition Programs https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10/scholarships-and-recognition/recognition-programs like my DD did (National Hispanic Recognition Program, which is an Honor) then there are IMO extremely good reasons to take the PSAT/NMSQT during October of the Junior year. I encouraged my DD to sign up for an additional email account, before she took the PSAT/NMSQT or the Pre ACT (is that the name?) exams. I suggested to her that she check the box that she was interested in having her info shared with schools. I told her that she would receive a lot of emails. The majority of them, she would delete, immediately after reading them, but a few might be of extreme interest. In her case, that was true. Good luck to your DS3 with the exams! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 2 hours ago, Harpymom said: Is there any good reason other than the National Merit stuff to do the PSAT? So, another question: is there any worth to ticking that box in 11th grade?. Not really. Inexpensive practice in a testing environment? No. I advise against ticking it unless you really want lots of junk mailings (email & snailmail). 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 I really, reallly advise against ticking that box. Mine did for an ACT between 8th and 9th, and ended up getting 136 POUNDS of college mail over the next four years! (Yes, I saved it all, because honestly I was curious as to whether it would outweigh my kid or not. By the way, the answer is "yes".) I really wish they had put the cost of what they mailed to us in an account or something.... 5 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eos Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 3 hours ago, Dmmetler said: I really, reallly advise against ticking that box. Mine did for an ACT between 8th and 9th, and ended up getting 136 POUNDS of college mail over the next four years! (Yes, I saved it all, because honestly I was curious as to whether it would outweigh my kid or not. By the way, the answer is "yes".) I really wish they had put the cost of what they mailed to us in an account or something.... Oh my word, this is beyond. Great photo, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 (edited) We did NOT tick the boxes and dd's mail had been adequate. She's gotten a few random things from small regional schools and stuff from the liberal arts 8 consortium because she signed up for one of their virtual things. U Chicago, lol (because everyone gets those). The rest have been schools that have her on their lists through some previous contact either in middle or high school. Although that's plenty. She's been on a lot of campuses for various reasons. Her DE school sends the most mail of any of them. Her top pick school only sends her email but they've had lots of contact with her already and she's gotten some smallish stackable scholarship offers for participating in their stuff. I like that kind of mail. Skip the glossies. Just send money. 😀 ETA- in regard to your previous question. There's no harm in taking the PSAT, but unless your dc is a really good tester (or a really poor one who could use the testing-environment practice), there's no really benefit, either. Edited July 13, 2021 by MamaSprout 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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