When applying to both Gateway and SAO schools to cast that wide net, how are your kids managing the multiple essays? It seems that Gateway schools have more essays than the SAO schools. Also, has anyone encountered issues this year with word count on the Gateway portal essay spaces?
We are using both platforms but chose SAO for the schools that are on both because there are fewer essays (though SAO requires that you upload a graded paper and Gateway does not).
At least one school on Gateway requires an upload of a graded paper. I wish we could have just turned one in during our interview. Also, seems as if you go over word count, Gateway wont finish the process?
Which Gateway school wants a graded paper?
At least with the schools I’m applying to, Deerfield and Andover both require graded writing samples.
I wish all the schools would get on the same system. Why are there two different systems, both serving the same purpose and applicants, thereby duplicating work?
SAO seems to have the same prompts for all the schools, but Gateway allows its schools to upload their own prompts. It seems more and more schools are moving over to the SAO so hopefully we can have an actually standard application for all schools in the future.
There seems to be a difference between SAO and Gateway schools on how many essays for parents to write, also. It’s interesting to see the different parent prompts. Do any of you have your kids see what YOU write? X_X
@Golfgr8 We allowed our child to see what we wrote in the parent statements last year. We tried to be objective–as objective as inherently biased parents can be–and we welcomed the opportunity to share. DC is DC’s own worst critic, and we enjoyed sharing our honest thoughts.
I think “Wide Net” means wide range of schools including lots of lower ranking SAO schools and not just many of top schools on Gateway with individual essay prompts.
But we didn’t know that and applied to too many Gateway only schools. What I did was analyzing all the questions, sorting and dissecting them into fewer answers that could be reused for multiple schools with minor edits.
Although DS would have liked to apply to a couple Gateway schools, we ended up leaving them out since most were on SAO. Including Gateway would have required going back to the recommenders with another format, which we didn’t want to do.
Plus, these kids have current homework and tests at their current schools; at some point it gets to be too much.
Do boarding schools have a preference between Gateway and SAO? I know that there are a couple of differences in the essay questions, but is there anything else significant that is different between the two?
@Golfgr8 DS applied to 11 schools, 10 on Gateway. Plus L-villa. He budgeted his time early on and set aside time for each school every day. Sometimes he would switch schools from their "schedule " because he had a hard time with their essay questions and just had mental blocks, but he made sure to use the time from each day for essays. He finished without too much stress…and before the deadline. On Gateway, he could see the parent statements but he agreed not to read until he was done with his portion…(kept him focused on his responsibilities). Hang in there…you’re almost done!!! Then, comes the hardest part…just ask Tom Petty!
Sometimes you can choose essay questions that the answer could be used for other school’s essays. Better yet, you can choose a question that you can recycle an answer you have already wrote for SAO or another school.
Might not be the best way to write an amazing essay. But if you don’t have enough time and have to make compromises…
Ugh, all that writing was such a pain! Best wishes to all kids and parents working on essays, short answers etc. As others have said: reduce, reuse, recycle!!