<p>Just wanted to pop in and say hi. Returned from a long business trip and now need to get DS to focus on the common app. It’s time. Want to do as much as we can before school starts in September. I had someone who has worked in admissions for Case Western read his common app essay and she really liked it. Getting a couple of other opinions too. That’s way more important that the EC essay, right? His EC essay is fine - he hasn’t cured a disease or anything - he’s a teenage boy with a passion for his sport. Nothing wrong with that, right?</p>
<p>Been talking to vitrac about the frustration of getting the GPA and class rank from the HS. I think our school holds this till October. What a pain. I will contact GC soon to ask (I don’t think she is even in the school over the summer… I will have to see…). How does everyone else handle this? Just wait?</p>
<p>Thinking of all of you who are launching in the next couple of weeks. Can’t wait to hear how it goes!</p>
<p>Spectrum- that is great news about your son. I am so happy for both of you that he is well. Wisdom teeth out is not fun… hope it is easy for him. </p>
<p>LINYMOM- you are way on top of things! That’s great. I don’t think there is anything wrong with being a teen. How many of them do cure diseases by 17? I think it’s more important for the essay to show who they are… but I am no expert.</p>
<p>as to the “EC essay” are you referring to that short paragraph on the common app? As I recall, there was a character limit, and the trick was getting the paragraph pared down so it would “fit.” As to content, the focus should be less on what was done and more on why it was important to your son.</p>
<p>For common app, generally, be sure to “print preview” everything to make sure that answers were not cut off due to exceeding character limits.</p>
<p>LINYMOM: yes, we are dealing here with the GPA/class rank, “nothing ready till October” issue…is really a problem with certain schools (UNC Chapel Hill deadline for EA is October 15th!!!)…</p>
<p>I will tell you what I have told the parents of my students; if it’s important, someone at the school can get it done…</p>
<p>Our local public has been giving out this BS since the beginning of time…no wonder there are certain early schools that our kids are never accepted to…</p>
<p>rodney: I just don’t get the rationale. Even if school is over at the end of June (like ours), we should have GPA and class rank by August 1, when common app is available. What’s the big secret? If a student (and family) want to get this done early, why the mystery? Why is October so magical? Well, DS finally registered for common app, so progress is getting made…</p>
<p>I have been complaining about this for years; I am “told” it has to do with the fact that guidance doesn’t return until late August (not true) and that grades are verified in the fall with unofficial transcripts so they don’t like to rank prior to that final check (might be true)…</p>
<p>In the mean time, I have a student from a different NJ district where they don’t rank who has already completed her ED app to Wake…transcript and everything…so it really shouldn’t be that hard…</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is a factor in your schools. Here in Texas where class rank defines automatic admission to state schools, public HS’s get their rankings out for rising seniors at the end of the spring semester (at least at our HS). Our GC told kids who were just in the top 10% to get their applications in early because after school starts again the rankings would change because the number of students enrolled in the school would change, and apparently this number usually goes down for seniors and the seniors leaving are not usually off the top of the list. Perhaps the reason rankings don’t come out until fall is because they don’t want to rank twice. It does seem really frustrating. I’m sure you can’t just get the ranking for your student like you could GPA since ranking is comparative to the rest of the class. But for something that happens every year for every senior class it would seem a system could be devised to get the rankings calculated earlier. Rising junior parents probably need to be all over that now to make a change. At least that is how things work here…Errors do happen, after S1 graduated we found that one of his grades was entered a whopping 16 points below what it should have been. This was corrected for his transcript but there was no way to know if that would have changed his rank. It didn’t really matter, all the critical decisions had already been made.</p>
<p>Spectrum- so incredibly happy that your son is doing so well. I hope the wisdom teeth removal goes well and that he loses very little weight as he recovers.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, pamom59, about the common app. Advice is welcome and needed!</p>
<p>^I am very happy that D. did not consider any ranks at all when choosing her UG. It did not occur to her to even look. Was not part of selection process at all. Looking back as she graduated from her UG in 2011, it was absolutely the best place for her, that matched her perfectly and where she got many more opportunites that we ever predicted for her at college. She still visits it frequently and say every visit just make her feel very happy. D. has graduated #1 from private prep. HS and attended public state college.</p>
<p>^^Miami: lol; the conversation was not about RANKINGS of colleges, but rather about HIGH SCHOOLs and class rank…but we love you visiting anyway!!!</p>
<p>DD’s HS rank makes this whole process harder for us. she goes to a hyper-competitive magnet school and will not graduate in the top ten percent. She’s got an excellent WGPA and SATs, though, and might be a NMF. So, applying to schools where 90% of kids were in the top ten percent seems a waste of money. Luckily, UT knows her HS, so there’s a good chance she’ll get in there. She won’t consider Alabama, where she’d get a lot of merit money. What she’d really like is a great small liberal arts college that gives great financial aid and/or merit money. She’s leaning towards women’s colleges with excellent endowments. Any other ideas?</p>
<p>Thanks all for the good wishes for my S. He’s pretty swollen right now and our blender is our friend! In spite of stiffness swelling and pain his appetite hasn’t quit a bit!</p>
<p>Houtxmom, if she is an NMF possibility, UT is familiar with her school and you can expect strong SAT scores acceptance into UT is a very good possibility. It looks like the average non auto admit in-state SAT score is 1918 or 29 ACT. [2011</a> SAT/ACT Scores | Be a Longhorn](<a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/scores]2011”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/scores). You probably already know that UT admission is somewhat connected to the competitive nature of the school to which she is applying. I’m sure it helps if the first choice is highly competitive for the second choice to not be as competitive. </p>
<p>As for LAC’s it would depend a lot on what she wants to study as the bredth of what they offer is usually less. Also, do you have a percentage or criteria in mind for an LAC to have a Jewish presence or a distance from home that you would like to stay within? It is often the case that to get good merit aid you need to have stats that are above most of the student body. If that is an issue we found the next best thing to merit aid was finding schools that guarantee to meet full financial need without loans. This is a link to one such list: [51</a> Colleges With the Best Student Financial Aid - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37241354/51-colleges-with-the-best-student-financial-aid/]51”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37241354/51-colleges-with-the-best-student-financial-aid/) but do look at the schools individually. I know from exploring some of those schools that many of them do meet the criteria but I was surprised to see TAMU on this list because we definitely had loans included in my S2’s FA. BTW that list is from 2010.</p>
<p>Our HS is another that doesn’t give out class rank until October. I really don’t understand why there is such a long delay. Everything is computerized these days - shouldn’t it be easy to calculate the rank a few weeks after junior year ends? </p>
<p>For my D’13 it isn’t such a huge deal, since I assume that she will remain solidly in the middle of the second decile. But for S’10, he was on the cusp of being in the Top 10% and we really wanted to know whether or not he would make it, as it impacted the selection of which colleges to apply to. So, it was really frustrating to have to wait so long.</p>
<p>"^^Miami: lol; the conversation was not about RANKINGS of colleges, but rather about HIGH SCHOOLs and class rank…but we love you visiting anyway!!! "
-This is sooooo irrelevant, I never heard anybody mentionning this at all. Who cares? Few HSs are well known either regionally or even nationally, but most of them are not theee and most HSs are on the same footing in respect to college admission. I cannot believe that this is even given five minutes of consideration at all.</p>
<p>^^^^^Miami, forgive me if I’m misunderstanding you, but it sounds like the first time you were thinking about colleges and their rankings and in the comment above I’m thinking you are talking about the ranking of particular HS’s. What is of concern is the student’s ranking within their class, as in being in the top 10, 20, 50th % of their class in whatever HS they go to.</p>
<p>@MiamiDAP- they are not talking about how high schools rank against each other, but rather about the student’s rank within their high school graduating class. For high schools that rank, a student needs to report their class rank on the common application. some schools are late in reporting that information to students, which is what this conversation was about.</p>
<p>While we are talking about rankings, Forbes just came out with their college rankings. It is quite different from USN&WR. They put all the liberal arts and National Universities together. They use a very different criteria. You should read their criteria. It is tied to value. Stark differences. For those who care, it may surprise you.<br>
If anything, it brings back the philosophy of Fit.</p>