<p>I started a thread on transcript errors at about this time two years ago. I think the worst anyone reported was a grade of F on a class that had been dropped early in the semester. The ones I found were in the nature of leaving off the code that indicated that a class was AP or pre-AP.</p>
<p>bluei: the four errors on his transcript:
- left out “advanced” in title of his computer science class
- left out orchestra for second semester
- he’s taking a senior seminar in history and they left out the title
- he’s auditing a spanish V honors class and they didn’t include it on transcript</p>
<p>My son says that the teacher recommendations were the most difficult part of the application process. Teacher’s time is valuable and precious and feeling that you are “bugging” them is a tricky situation. My son’s teachers wrote their recs over the summer, but the difficulty came when it was time to submit. One wanted to do it online, but had never done it this way before. The other was his AP Spanish teacher and her rule was that all communication had to be done in Spanish -ughhh! My son met with each teacher for 5 minutes at the beginning of school with all instructions and required forms. He explained that a few had rolling admissions and that he would really appreciate their help in completing his application as soon as possible - that their help was crucial . He had many follow up emails to colleges and the teachers for clarifications, but with persistence it all worked out. I think gently nudging teachers never hurts as acceptances and scholarships depend on them.</p>
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<p>I don’t think this is necessary at our school if the colleges use CA. Our teachers just submit the recommendation online through Naviance. S had to store CA username and password onto Naviance in order to match the recommendations up when the teachers submit the forms. Very handy!</p>
<p>Even though the specific directions for each of his schools specified that the LOR must be sent electronically with the transcript, my son was instructed by his GC that he was to give his teacher a list with the envelopes addressed and stamped. Two are in-state that we know she must deal with on a regular basis so we will just have to trust (for now) that it will happen.
We know one teacher is done and they have been sent. They preceded his application so we will have to make sure that everything matches up in admissions and finds it’s way to the same file. Another teacher was to write them over the summer. I’m assuming she was waiting for the envelopes. The third stopped my son in the hallway and offered the recommendation so I would hope it wouldn’t take too long. He got them in last week so that should be plenty of time. Again, we will have to double check with all schools to make sure that everything has matched up in admissions. I do anticipate some adjustments necessary…perhaps even resending. I’m not sure why they aren’t sent online. It seems much easier.</p>
<p>SDMomof3, this is exactly the system our school uses. all S’s apps are CA but for one (the rolling school i discussed in my post #4876) which also had an online LOR submission option. he asked his teachers if they would prefer to do it that way and all responded positively.</p>
<p>S’s school does everything manually even tho we have Naviance. The system seems to work great. </p>
<p>Yesterday my S met with his GC and came home with five sealed envelopes. They include LORs from teachers & GC, official transcript and school profile. She also included an unofficial transcript from a summer college course with a note from my S saying that IF they want an official transcript to contact him and he’ll send it. No point spending $50 if we don’t have to. As each application is filed, we will send the envelope by snail mail.</p>
<p>^^
Wow our hs will absolutely NOT give any LOR , GC rec etc to a student even in a sealed envelope. They will only send them by email or snail mail directly to the school.</p>
<p>We are still trying to figure out exactly what our student needs to do in order to Send the apps- and the school/GC requires they go out from the school system. Not sure if thats so the teachers stuff is attached/linked there in one file or what…</p>
<p>Morning All</p>
<p>Everyone buckled up? </p>
<p>Feels like being on a rollercoaster doesn’t it. That slow tick tick tick as the rail cars are being hoisted up the hill and we are trying to decide as we (and they–our dear teens) brave enough to through our hands up in the air and enjoy the ride on the other side…or…will we be clenching at the bar snuggly clamped down across our laps!</p>
<p>We look around, trying to discern if others are strapped in more securely…and wonder if we are waving our hands in the air perhaps SHOULD we/our teen be holding on for dear life?
Or, If our teen is desparately holding onto the bar like this journey is all happening TO him/her as opposed to he/she choosing the ride, we wonder if its normal, Shouldn’t they have their hands in the air and be enjoying it more?</p>
<p>Some teens, who seemed so confident, accomplished and ready to take on the world in the not do distant past; now are dragging their feet to write essays, “forget” to make GC mtgs…and in their apparent lack of excitment to embrace the process, show signs of fear of the unknown.
Perhaps signaling they are not ready to leave the nest and at the same time our gangly baby birds are clearly too big to stay where they are, we consider that he/she is needing a living shove over the edge to fly!</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Fogfog, you are so right!</p>
<p>S2 had his MIT interview (lasted 2 hours) yesterday after school and I thought he would come home all psyched to work on one of his essays. I guess not. Okay then…maybe he could share with me what he and the interviewer talked about for so long. I guess not. This morning I asked him if he had made the appointment with his principal who generously offered to write him a recommendation. I guess not</p>
<p>My son is suddenly complaining that 17 colleges is too many. Does he have any idea which ones he wants to drop? No. Would he consider dropping any of his reaches? Of course not. But why not drop all the safeties? Arggg. Explain patiently the lottery aspect of the whole thing and need for safeties. Sigh.</p>
<p>Fogfog’s rollercoaster description is perfect. My daughter has been making progress with her applications and working hard on her school work. We have a new stress involving NHS. Our school has a pretty difficult application process. She didn’t apply last year because she was intimidated by the application. When we met with her guidance counselor in August, she told my daughter that she was sure to be accepted this year based on her resume. The application is due in a week and now she doesn’t want to apply because she won’t hear before she sends her early appplications and doesn’t really want the committment. The only thing that appeals to her is the sash that NHS members wear at graduation. I’m not sure whether to push this, or to let it go. The application will take time and energy away from her college aps.</p>
<p>Aniger - Good luck to you. One way to deal with that is to insist on some rolling/EA apps to his favorite schools ASAP. If he gets deferred or rejected, he might understand the safety question better. If it’s for financial reasons, you are entitled to insist.</p>
<p>momjr - Wow, that’s a rough one, too. Sometimes it’s for their own good to say, come on, just do it, you’ll be glad. But actually I think your D has hit it on the head - she won’t benefit in any real way from this. It might smart for a moment not to have the sash on grad day, but that is such a teeny, tiny, thing in the long run, and by next September won’t matter in any way. If it feels like the “one thing too many” right now, she might be right, and it does seem like it doesn’t help any of her real goals (like apps). It could become a major albatross, especially as NHS can be the activity that never stops asking for more.</p>
<p>There is always something senior year that seemed like it was important, or even an obligation, that really wasn’t, and that everyone regrets they didn’t drop. Like do that one last season of a sport that they really weren’t enjoying, or this kind of activity with lots of tasks, or staying with a job that’s exhausting, or being a thankless leader of something. I do think that seniors can get a lot of satisfaction from being at the top of their game, and in giving back, but I also think they can feel really burdened. It’s hard enough to get through it all, and even harder when the joy goes out of it.</p>
<p>I saw my D1’s senior year go kind of flat in activities she always thought would be “the best” when she was a senior, and she regretted sticking with some of them, especially when she got to college and realize that for her those moments were forgotten, and that for the people who supposedly would have cared or been angry if she’d pulled out, they’d probably forgotten, too. People don’t care or remember as much as we fear they do - and I mean that in a good way.</p>
<p>D2 isn’t as overly responsible as D1; I think if she’s not getting something out of an activity, she will stop. She’s trying for a few pinnacles of experience this year, though, that I do fear will disappoint her. But as long as she’s not completely stressed out by them, I’ll let her handle it however she wants. I’m anticipating these kinds of discussions, although she’s deliberately not a type-A and rebels against too much pressure … and she doesn’t particularly mind if people are mad at her.</p>
<p>D1 did do something interesting her last spring of HS - decided to play the sport she dropped freshman year. I couldn’t believe it, on top of everything else. But it bothered her that she’d stopped playing - she wasn’t any good at it, but she enjoyed it - and she also thought the exercise and a different group of people would be nice. So she offered to play JV; much less commitment, a better schedule (early games meant no conflict with concerts or other rehearsals), and just fun. She was touched that the girls actually remembered her on Senior night.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1009714-should-students-full-pay-parents-get-tip.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1009714-should-students-full-pay-parents-get-tip.html</a></p>
<p>Your thoughts?</p>
<p>Momjr…I tend to agree–if there is no benefit during the apps process, its probably not worth her time at this point with the apps coming due…However if she has the time, then having done it “for herself” would be worth the effort. kwim?</p>
<p>Here’s the transcript mistake we found: D2 took Spanish 3 last year, and for the second semester it noted (TA) after the class which suggested she earned the grade as a Teacher’s Aide. Over the summer, the school did change software it uses to produce transcripts, so maybe that was part of the issue. When D2 brought it up with GC, he had already corrected it.</p>
<p>Fogfog, I’ve often said mine will be leaving with my foot in her posterior. She often makes me want to take the “loving” out of that shove! </p>
<p>I think out process is very different from that of most folks here. Od’s schools are all rolling admissions, all academic safeties, and we’re not waiting with clenched teeth for admissions decisions. Our hands are clamped to the bar as we wait on financial aid and exchange decisions. And it’ll be a long wait.</p>
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<p>we are trying to decide ARE we…brave enough to throw…</p>
<p>you get the pt :rolleyes:
ahh typos…</p>
<p>OK, haven’t posted much here but curious as to the group’s thoughts.</p>
<p>Son has 2400 SAT, 4 800s on SAT Subject tests, 99.26 GPA, USA Math Olympiad 2 years running, etc., etc. At the same time, continuing his religious studies is a critical goal of his. Local religious university has an honors program which provides up to full merit scholarship. They have a unique ED process where you are only bound to attend if they offer you full merit scholarship - and they have said their goal is to give out virtually all full rides to ED applicants. The school (my alma mater) has a full dual curriculum - religious studies all morning and secular classes in the afternoon. The school is a good school and the honors program is rigorous, challenging and respected, but this is a kid who would certainly have a legitimate shot at any top school in the country. He has decided, somewhat reluctantly, to apply there ED.</p>
<p>The process has him absolutely depressed. He has learned that wonderful life lesson that you can’t get everything you want. Met with chair of the Math department at this school for over an hour to go through where their Math dept. is headed - much better than when I attended but still a far cry from Columbia and Penn (his two fav local top schools) and a further cry from MIT, Harvard and Princeton. He is so upset that he has, for the first time in his life, started procrastinating. Essays he has written are weak and uninspired. He doesn’t want to move forward with other apps until he hears back on ED - if he gets the full ride, decision is made. If he doesn’t, he says he will apply to other schools.</p>
<p>Here is the question - do we push him to either (1) not apply ED and assume that he will get awarded a full ride regular decision if he decides to attend given his qualifications; (2) apply ED but also apply to at least Columbia and Penn (and maybe one or two others) so that he is not scrambling if he doesn’t get the full ride (unlikely, I think, that he wont get it); or (3) support his decision and cheer him up? I can’t tell if he is just being lazy (NOT a typical trait of his) given his workload (4 APs, online Math Olympiad training course, leadership roles in extracurriculars, etc.) or if he has made the decision rationally and is just upset that there is no perfect answer? Decision needs to be made within the next week or so.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>njdadof5-this is a difficult question to answer without knowing if you can afford his top choices or if you might qualify for financial aid at some of the very generous private schools.
For us, the full ride schools just did not offer the experience that my dd wanted. If we had said that we could afford zero, she would have gone there, of course. But, we qualified for some financial aid at a fantastic school that she was excited about, and will get more aid during the two years we have two kids in college.
I would suggest not applying to any school ED if your son is unsure about it. With his scores it sounds like he can wait for RD and still get the merit aid. Do the financial aid calculator on the Yale or Princeton sites, just to see what your actual cost might be at a very generous school. I’m guessing you have 5 children-you might be surprised at how much aid you would be qualified for, even with a high income, at a full need school.
Has he made a list of qualities that are most important to him in a school? This was helpful to us because, although price was one criteria, it didn’t have to be the only criteria for us. Then we could look at the full-ride offers and see if they met most of the other criteria or not.</p>
<p>njdadof5: tough to answer your questions because i’m not really sure what it is. is he depressed b/c he’d be applying ED to a school that really isn’t his first choice? depressed b/c he really wants the religious training but wouldn’t get it at Columbia/Penn/MIT, schools he prefers, and therefore there’s no perfect school? are you in the financial situation where if he’s admitted to one of the ivies/MIT, you would qualify for a full ride, (because with his stats, he’d probably get in and get the money too)? or is your financial situation such that you wouldn’t qualify for need-based aid? </p>
<p>if full ride isn’t necessary, then i’d say have him apply to columbia or Penn ED and your alma mater RD. did you see UChicago? It’s got an amazing math dept, attracts kids like Columbia, is urban like both columbia and Penn, and unlike the ivies, awards merit aid and is EA, non-binding. it might be a great match in many respects. </p>
<p>as far as religious training, he could always find courses elsewhere if they’re not offered at his school, could do it in the summer and life is long. he could take religious courses at any point in his life. my husband, a history major/law school grad, went back to school (Columbia in fact) when our children were toddler/infant for biochem. </p>
<p>it’s important to tease these strands out w/ him because it would be a shame for a kid who’s so gifted to go thru this process unhappy and end up dissatisfied with his college.</p>
<p>good luck.</p>