<p>Moda…I like kmc’s approach for S to send an email or call the Dean who has mentored him for advice on how to proceed. For some reason I was confused about the timing for your S’s application process. I thought he was taking just one year as a gap year and applying for Fall of 2014 but he is Fall of 2015, right??? He will be fine if that is the case. </p>
<p>NM, I concur on the beautiful pics of your D. It sounds like the wedding was wonderful and it is time to relax.</p>
<p>Moda, I like kmc’s approach as well, but would follow up directly if that doesn’t do anything.</p>
<p>DTE, I would say that we only can control what we can control. If BIL and BILW behave like jerks (as they always have, IIRC), just accept it and move on. But, I’m with you, I wouldn’t invite them back for anything. ShawWife on the other hand, would figure out a way to patch things over.</p>
<p>ShawSon’s GF stayed over last night – she’s on break from the camp where she went as a camper for years and then has worked at for years (and rises each year in the hierarchy). She’s really growing on him – and it is nice for us to see as she is much more accommodating and understanding of his specialness than the last GF. This morning he uncharacteristically awoke early and came down and prepared breakfast in bed for her. Although they have agreed that their relationship will end when she goes to another continent for the year and he goes to California for three, I think the termination will be tough for him. But,he is beginning to see alternatives to the kinds of relationship he had with GF#1 (she was quite attractive and it was a very physical relationship but we didn’t see her as especially flexible with him) and also that you don’t have to get hit over the head with chemistry day 1 to develop a great relationship. He now sees that he probably stopped after the first date with a number of very nice young women only because they weren’t GF#1 or didn’t give him the immediate chemistry of GF#1. </p>
<p>Moda, I like kmc’s approach, too. But I do admit that the whole med school app process is confusing to me and I am 100% sure that none of my math and science challenged offspring will ever put us through it personally.</p>
<p>NM, it continues to make me happy that the wedding was fun for everyone. Many weddings come off well on a surface level - great clothes, great hair, great makeup, great food, great drinks - but are lacking in the fun and personal warmth. It sounds like your D’s wedding had it all.</p>
<p>FG, great that you trusted S&D to do the trip planning and that it went well. I fear that I’ve been “too competent” in the trip planning department and may well be planning my kids’ trips well into the future.</p>
<p>The students had to have everything in starting last October with a Feb deadline (when his MCAT scores would have come in for S). All of his LORs were submitted last fall, including the President of the University! He had to interview with three professors on the committee (two were in other subject areas and he never had them as teachers and the third is the chair of the committee and the mole chem biochem dept. That was also completed in Feb. Kids were to contact the school when they received their first secondary and then AGAIN when they’ve actually submitted it. That was the end of june and here we are a month later and zip. My “thing” is, I don’t want to get on S to make a call mostly because I know he is furious already and slightly panicked as it is. </p>
<p>Every single thing I’ve read about Med School applications is that timeliness counts, especially because for the majority it’s rolling admission. Yes, the Ivies are more like colleges (slightly different timeline obviously) and release all acceptances at the same time in the spring. He has a few, but the majority of his schools are still rolling. None of them has an acceptance rate of over 10%. You submit your primary and then the “rule” is to turn all secondary requests in within two weeks of receiving it. He has 12/13 out of 17 done. Interviewing is typically scheduled from late August through January. It is suggested that people with earlier interviews have better results because the adcom committees aren’t bored to tears yet. And here’s the thing: schools limit the number of interview slots they offer so that a school might only offer less than 500 out of 7000 applying to fill the 80-100 slots available. It is very much the early bird gets the worm. In theory, having a committee letter and packet of support form UG sounds great and supportive, but at this point, no one can see any of his recs or even who submitted them until the school pulls their piece together. </p>
<p>I think I will start by splitting the difference and writing the brief email of inquiry for him…. send it to him and suggest he inquire. I will likely get a phone call of complete panic because he might be unaware that two schools on his list have started scheduling interviews. PLUS - at the one, my best friend/next door neighbor from Childhood’s husband (slightly kevin bacon-esque but net/net very very good old family friends) is very prominent and had already agreed to whisper his name. But if they tried to bring up his application, the result would be it’s incomplete… which doesn’t look good either! </p>
<p>Granted, it’s by no fault of his own, but do they know that? Hardly likely OR they could conclude the school isn’t as supportive to him as it could be for some reason. But I just don’t see how they wouldn’t be! Grrr is right!!</p>
<p>This said! Congrats to the Canadian! 
Yes, good news is very welcome. I tried to throw a little prayer up to Mom to get busy on this for me…. </p>
<p>Hey NMN - were they taking a honeymoon? Can’t wait to see more pics, especially because I so love the details. And LOVED the corn hole game which will be awesome for their backyard some day! They clearly are tied at the hip and just looked so young and fresh faced. I do so love a wedding! As long as it is not for one of my own at this point! :)</p>
<p>Incredibly frustrating, Moda. A friend’s daughter has had her first two interviews scheduled already for this year’s cycle – hard to believe that the committee letter couldn’t have been put together by now. Can they instead just submit the letters of recommendation as separate letters rather than a committee letter?</p>
<p>I started writing the note for S to then make his own without too much stress and then concluded that it would do serve no purpose to tell him of other interviews being scheduled as that would freak him out even more. So, I put on my best writer face and wrote the letter to the assistant who S had spoken to previously and then cc’d the head of the dept and co-chair of the committee - a man who also interviewed him. I was more than polite and was appreciative of her time.</p>
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<p>Yes, strong. But what came before is mostly thanking them for their time and that my concern is that if I was an adcom I’d assume it was the kid who hadn’t done something or that his school didn’t support him. Neither being good for my kid. Then I said… </p>
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<p>I close with the question of when can it be expected and to please let me know if there is any reason he is not being supported or has been ranked negatively.</p>
<p>Well, I got an email back an hour and a half later saying it was being written, would be sent later in the week and “[School] is thrilled to endorse your son’s strong application to medical school.” I had just gotten the chance to write back to say thank you so very much, huge relieve and I so very much appreciated her quick response about 45 minutes after that when I then got yet another email from her that said, “Just to update you both…it’s done. He’s all set.” So, I can only surmise that in the three hours from when I sent my original email, mr chairmen inquired as well OR they noted the Prez’s LOR in his file. Frankly, I don’t really care how it got done, but will just cross my fingers that the quickness that took this from “later to this week” to “done” is reflective of only good things.</p>
<p>Let’s hope he gets a request for an interview soon! While this doesn’t assure him acceptance, it at least assures ME he’s got at least a chance to sell himself.</p>
<p>great. Glad that you succeeded.</p>
<p>Go, moda, go! It is ridiculous that you had to get involved, but I’m so glad you did! Do you think that means that if you hadn’t emailed, the school would have never responded?</p>
<p>Truthfully, Missy, I have no idea. I know they had said they had a lot of students applying. I also know that she had originally tried to tell S that schools weren’t reviewing until the end of August for kids not applying to Med School’s equivalent of early decision, who took precedence in committee letters - which is basically not in keeping with their stated policy that it’s a first asked, first served process (which I did not mention in the least for fear of getting someone who I needed to do good work in trouble). However, I do think it might have had them pulling up his file. And I do think that between the co-chair’s likely inquiry based on the assistants response to update “you both” and the LOR from the President of the University, they might have thought it wise to get it done sooner vs later in the week. </p>
<p>I will fully admit however that I have never proof read a letter or agonized over word choice more. Clicking on send almost gave me an anxiety attack. But from any inquiry made to this school, whether it was the advisor his sophomore year when I was concerned about S’s happiness or the billing department to understand a new system of billing, their replies have always been truly quick. Had I not inquired at all? Can’t know the answer to that question and frankly, KMC’s advice in most cases is what I would have done. But in writing the note for S to send more or less, I just realized that as his parents we too were concerned because we had invested quite a bit in his education at this particular school over several others.</p>
<p>All I can really hope for at this point - is that he’ll get requests for interviews which will leave me feeling they didn’t hold anything of my meddling against him. Because he did inquire politely. He was being patient. It was killing him, but he was trying to be respectful of what they had told him. Of course, it was hell for me to listen to his angst. And at the end of the day, I felt he deserved the same respect having played by all the rules. But too… I can honestly admit that one of my concerns was that perhaps they hadn’t ranked him positively for some unknown reason… and that’s why his wasn’t yet done. And obviously, if they hadn’t ranked him positively with his grades etc, then it would be about character. You know? They don’t drop kids from being supported regardless of grades etc, but they do vary their degree/level of recommendation for sure. I felt this was a question worth asking directly, and one I felt the admission committees would be wondering too since his secondaries to some of these were sent at the end of June! Plus the online handbook said you could ask and while no specifics would be shared as letters are confidential, they would gladly give a clue.</p>
<p>ps… I am assuming they being “thrilled” was positive vs passive aggressive. Not going to go there… again, no good can comes from that. I think his stuff is solid… he is good at knowing instinctively who really likes him and who is on the fence. Given that, I think all his LORs would be strongly in favor of him overall. And the committee ltr is apparently just a summation of the good things said. Eek! Maybe it got done so fast because there were so few! yep… no good can come from that. he’s great… they messed up and made it right. that’s my story and Im sticking with it. Writing in a stream of consciousness can be dangerous.</p>
<p>I suspect that the timing and the ranking are probably not that highly correlated. Not sure what had to get done. Someone had to combine the letters of recommendation into a department rec? Who actually does that? I kind of guess that the issue was support staff rather than faculty saying, “Put this kid later. We don’t love him” or even faculty ranking the kids.</p>
<p>Everyone will be gone when I get home. I guess I should force myself to work out, when what I really want to do is watch last week’s Project Runway.</p>
<p>Watch Project Runway while you’re doing pushups/lunges whatever, right?</p>
<p>Moda – really glad they finally got it out the door. I wonder if there was a staffing change and someone didn’t understand why early applications really, really matter?</p>
<p>I’ve got the back-from-vacation sleepies today, and the drizzly weather is not helping in the slightest. And the world’s pushiest salesperson is not taking no for an answer. Makes me sorry I looked into the product in the first place. And we’ve gotten the annual retrospective audit request for our business insurance. Why the **** they can’t accurately price business policies prospectively, I don’t know. Instead, we get a tentative premium, and at the end of the policy year they do an audit, review our taxes, and then send a premium adjustment notice, usually asking us to pay more. Grump.</p>
<p>Okay, arabrab, you talked me into it.</p>
<p>Mod–Whew. I am been fretting for you all day and was going to call D to ask her what she thought was going on and what to do. I then remembered she did not use a committee as she only took her premed as a post bac and all of her research was not connected to the school. DIL’s school does not offer the committee option.
You did a great job! Hope you have a relaxing evening. </p>
<p>Good for you, moda!</p>
<p>Phew, moda, that’s a great relief! S sounds like a very strong candidate, and - fingers crossed - good things will be coming his way soon! </p>
<p>present company kids excepted, but I wonder what those interviews for med school actually do. I have met some brilliant doctors, who have some shall we say “interesting” personaliites both in work and in life. .
NM the pictures are beautiful. I admire your daughters ability to stay true to herself. I cant help but wonder what D1 was thinking. I hope she feels in a better place. She looked beautiful as well.
Glad all the travelers are back safely and had a great time
MP you can always sit on a ball as you watch TV it is supposed to engage your core, then you wont feel guilty. I watched PR should prove interesting.
My new guilty pleasure is Married at first sight, It is like a train wreck I cant help but watch.
Sometimes I get tired of thinking Karma will take care of things, I don’t see this happen. but I have way of meditating where I put troubling thoughts in a “thought bubble” and set it free to float away it helps me
D2 celebrates her 21st birthday Friday. cant believe how fast the years have gone</p>
<p>Exactly Shaw - it was administrative pure and simple. But S also had to deal with that administrative person to set up all the interviews back in Feb and is when he noted a decided lack of coordination overall - not new people, just an annoying inefficient process somewhat. And too… you’re still counting on that person to do a good job and certainly don’t want to piss them off on any level. But still, you’d think they’d time stamp requests to keep them in queue, or perhaps work OT to keep up with the unprecedented requests (which is not unworrisome either). But they do indeed rank students… or rather the committee does which is comprised of faculty that the students interview with along with the lead administrator. There were also just as many parts of their forms for their use (bio, ec’s, research, course work, and an essay!) as the regular application. Some kids likely use the same essay for their primary application, but S wrote a new one (like 10 new ones!). Again, glad it is in and I look forward to hearing it’s been received so I can just be supportive to the wait and watch project runway. </p>
<p>Actually I did watch last night’s bachelor finale on Hulu and am now getting set to watch Masterchef. I really don’t watch any regular TV here and went to the symphony tonight after we got ice cream. I felt better that we rode bikes both to and from. Working out? Not so much. H on the other hand has gotten himself on a pretty nice little schedule. Works from about 6am to 11. And then catches up again for about an hour mid day and then around 5:30 here (which works with the time difference) he talks on the phone for about an hour. He goes back home next Monday and Tuesday but will be back Weds. It is expensive to go back and forth, but with no mortgage and taxes etc, we’ve definitely saved a boatload the last several months. And speaking of boats, he rather enjoys a conference call from mid lake!</p>
<p>I need that “thought bubble,” DTE – either that, or a voodoo doll with a plentiful supply of pins. Maybe both. I feel better already just with the thought.</p>