a "good" SAT score

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

He has earned most of his ASE certifications........... but would like to get into diesel tech....

Outstanding.

If he has gumption close to Holloway's kid he will be making more than most except the outliers....for a long time, if not in perp. Steady work counts for a lot as well.

Having a direction at an early age is something I never had. The option was there but was a machinist working in well paying shops. Cars, cigs, beer and women needs were well funded. What else is there at 19 years old? You're never growing old, right?

Get that kid on his path and stress the importance of getting really good (and fast) at one thing.

With respect to a prep class, I took a CPA prep class and passed first time, all parts, by the skin of my teeth. It was a defined set of data and I worked old tests for months. During the test I knew the answer was "C" or "B" while reading the question for many of them.

Way different than Sammy's kid. He's just way smart. Probably has clarity of thought as well. Wish I knew that one.

Congrats on the smoking score.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by masraum

Pretty much every time it was taken, we'd have a handful of kids get perfect scores.

That's pretty amazing. Perfect scores are very, very rare.

For example, only 400 out of 1.5 million worldwide got a perfect score last year.

(And half of those were probably from China where there is rampant cheating, getting tests in advance, etc).

Your high school had a lot of geniuses!

[1990C4S]

Scores are less important than percentile.

[Norm K]

The original "standardized" test. And like pretty much all that have followed it's often a somewhat dubious predictor of future performance.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by McLovin

That's pretty amazing. Perfect scores are very, very rare.

For example, only 400 out of 1.5 million worldwide got a perfect score last year.

(And half of those were probably from China where there is rampant cheating, getting tests in advance, etc).

Your high school had a lot of geniuses!

It was a fairly high performing large school in NoVA. Yeah, I'd say that we probably had one to 3 a couple of times a year. That was back in the mid-to-late eighties.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by Norm K

The original "standardized" test. And like pretty much all that have followed it's often a somewhat dubious predictor of future performance.

Because ability doesn't guarantee performance.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

That's right, they don't ask for admissions info on the new tests where he could check the box for his ethnicity (Hispanic).

He's definitely not from a low income family, but he's not a white kid either as far as they are concerned.
He meets every requirement for "special consideration" because of his heritage.
It'll be up to him if he takes advantage of it.

There was a time when I would have discouraged it, but with all the reverse discrimination in the world today there has to be some way to level the playing field.

Nice. Sammy Gorenzales. Has a nice ring to it.

[A930Rocket]

Congrats to you and your son.

I took mine once ages ago on a Saturday. Drinking beer the night before didn't help.

[M.D. Holloway]

My 13yr old daughter took the PSAT and scored a perfect score. Not sure if that translates to the SAT but it sounds like your son is well on his way to an Ivy League to me! Congrats on a job well done with him. He inherited your smarts.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

My 13yr old daughter took the PSAT and scored a perfect score. Not sure if that translates to the SAT but it sounds like your son is well on his way to an Ivy League to me! Congrats on a job well done with him. He inherited your smarts.

I only took the PSAT, I somehow completely missed the SAT. This was in the '70s and I made Jeff Spicoli look like a National Merit Scholar.

I never saw my score but apparently it was quite high because I got accepted into University of Minnesota college of Liberal Arts w the benefit of almost no transcript, (I graduated from a hippy "free school" w no grades). True story. Still baffles me to this day.

I remember being told that I was accepted soley on my PSAT score. I had no recollection of taking the test.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by McLovin

That's pretty amazing. Perfect scores are very, very rare.

For example, only 400 out of 1.5 million worldwide got a perfect score last year.

(And half of those were probably from China where there is rampant cheating, getting tests in advance, etc).

Your high school had a lot of geniuses!

Really? I can think of two in my family, (brother aced the GRE and sister's kid aced the ACT). And neither one cheated or took the test more than once. They didn't have to.

MAJOR caveat: The brother definitely got my share of the brains.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Nice. Sammy Gorenzales. Has a nice ring to it.

LOL, close. Wife's maiden name was Gallegos.

[McLovin]

So what happened with his college applications, how did it turn out?

[daepp]

I thought the SAT had a max score of 2400, no?

[epbrown]

Originally Posted by daepp

I thought the SAT had a max score of 2400, no?

I always thought it was 1600. Remember in Risky Business where Joel scores 1153 and his parents want him to take it again?

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by daepp

I thought the SAT had a max score of 2400, no?

Old old days, 1600 max based on a Math and Verbal score, 800 each. Sometime later, they added a section and it became 2400. I guess now it is back to 1600 max.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by McLovin

So what happened with his college applications, how did it turn out?

He ended up with an SAT score of 1562 IIRC.
PSAT score of 1470
ACT score of 35.

He received the athlete-Scholar award at his high school and a special achievement recognition award from the state of California Senate. Huge thing, gaudy but neat.
Gradumacated summa kum laude.

But that wasn't enough to get him accepted to UCLA which is where he wanted to go.
He was kind of bummed but they were cool about it, he was simply too white and too rich and too local.
A friend of the family works there and told us if he was a non-resident he would have gotten in. Same story if he were poor or had a different complexion.

We were told there were not enough spaces allotted for that category and they were all spoken for by people who were connected.
Oh and the Hispanic thing gets discounted if the last name is not Hispanic.
We didn't do any politicking at all. In hind-sight I could have made some phone calls or written to some folks to help the cause but didn't think it was necessary.

He ended up getting offers from 5 different UC schools and Cal poly.
3 of the UC schools offered $10k regent scholarships, he ended accepting the offer from UC San Diego.
Fine school, especially for undergraduate work.
He starts school next month.

There was a time when all he talked about was cal tech but his interests changed from physics to mechanical engineering over the past 10 years.
He toured the campus twice but just wasn't all that enthused.

[daepp]

Well, congratulations on UCSD. My nephew turned his education there into a very fine career!

My son just finished his 3rd year as an ME - and they haven't broken him yet! He absolutely loves it - tickles him in all the right places!

[mepstein]

Originally Posted by AZ_porschekid

I can respect that decision. It's his life, and ultimately not your projection of his.
Diesel mechanics are in high demand. Either way. Most people have no idea what they want to do when they graduate HS. Better do something now then waste years figuring it out at 7 grand a semester at an uni.

Btw I bet he'll make more then a recent grad with a 4 year liberal arts degree.

My son will graduate next year with a liberal arts degree. After a bank internship this summer, he was offered a job, post graduation. $85k, $15k signing bonus and a $20-50k yearly bonus. He loves the work and the people and they will pay for his MBA. Not bad for a low paying liberal arts degree. He did mis a perfect SAT score by 1 point but he lives with the pain :-).

[Arizona_928]

That's an old post.

But at the same time. That's really good for a liberal arts degree, and frankly very hard to accomplish without networking... I take it you're in De?