<p>Are there any parents, whose kids submitted all of their apps, but wouldnt get any decisions til at least December? Is the waiting grueling? </p>
<p>I dont feel the burden of waiting yet, but I am attributing this to the fact that S did not submit all of his applications yet. Usually patience is not one of my virtues.</p>
<p>Actually, 3 of my D’s schools downloaded the supplements first – seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.</p>
<p>I do love Lawrence’s online system that lets you log in with passcodes they give you. Two columns: We’ve Received and We Have Not Received. It’s current (updated daily, I think) and I wish all schools did this.</p>
<p>Ds got one from Rutgers which has an online app and then a diff app where you self report the entire transcript (pia pure and simple) so fine, both were submitted separately, both online, one right after the other. Day later ds gets email telling him thanks got the self-reported grades and here, log on with this link to see your status and what else might be missing. So dutifully, his exec secretary signs in and guess what they list as missing? the self reported grades. Duh!!!</p>
<p>amandakayak, S had a similar experience. He received an e-mail that his application file was complete, then the next day an e-mail thanking him for submitting his application and reminding him to submit scores, transcript, etc. Probably happened because they had the scores, transcript, and recommendations before he finished the application.</p>
<p>Regarding the essay on why the chosen field - that was a good one for S because he has always wanted to do this, so he could write a decent essay on that topic. The same essay could go to all 3 schools he is applying to, but he still needs to write one “Why school X”. It’s difficult because he has not visited, so it is simply because they have the field he wants to pursue.</p>
<p>Only one school on my son’s list uses the common app. It’s the last one he’s doing. Super! I am dreading it. He has the account and is working on the essay, has an academic resume so it will be a ‘matter of finding out what goes where’. I’ve told him the common app is not hard necessarily, there are just ‘better’ ways to fill it out. Although he’s actually done one of the two supplemental essays, he hasn’t even looked at the supplemental application. Urrgghh!</p>
<p>As I sit here in my PJs I at least feel like I’ve had a somewhat productive day. We finally got housing information for his school with rolling admissions so we got that nailed down. They don’t guarantee housing for first year students so it felt good to get in line! He’s now got a university email, etc. which was fun to scoot around that part of the site. I’m sure the idea is to make the students feel a part of the university community early and identify as a student. All I can say is LOVE THY SAFETY!! 
</p>
<p>My high school freshman had a blast looking at food services of all things finding out what was one the menu all over campus. ‘OMG Mom!! All you can eat tacos tonight with a pasta bar, and ice cream!!’ (Never mind that we are 14 hours, several states, and a time zone away). Good thing my kids are skinny With three teenage boys there are rarely leftovers and while there is always plenty, all you can eat seems to be an exciting prospect no matter what it is…</p>
<p>I plowed through the ‘FAFSA forecaster’. We fall flatly in the ‘donut hole’ however one school requires it for merit aid. Thirty minute worksheet my ar$e!!! I’m embarrassed to say, although I handle every aspect of our finances, I don’t touch the taxes…it’s the one thing I ask DH to do. Looking at it makes my head hurt!! It estimated what I had anticipated, but at least it’s done…for now.</p>
<p>Principal told our son today that the transcript, school LOR and two teacher LORs for his EA application to the extreme reach went in the mail today. That’s it for applications for us. Three are in; one rolling admission acceptance–and now the wait. Oct SAT results should be posted Thursday.</p>
<p>Since Sept., he has “given” me one hour a day on college-related task. This week and next it is prepping for the SAT II tests a week from Saturday. Then he can slack off all he wants for a while–until time to churn out some more essays for local scholarships.</p>
<p>As others have said, I don’t know how those of you with more than a handful of applications handle this semester. More chocolate to you.</p>
<p>My D has 2 “Why this school” essays. They are very similar schools, and they’re the most competitive in her major. I’m thinking it’s at least a way to weed out kids who are applying for the heck of it, since they wouldn’t want to put the work into the essay. </p>
<p>But I agree that on the other end they would get boring to read. I don’t know why they have to be so LONG - I would think 50-100 words would be plenty, but these schools want at least a full page.</p>
<p>While she’ll say some little specific tidbits about the schools and what she likes, I think the bulk of the essay will be about what they offer in her major. For that she’ll mostly talk about her interest in that field, and the essays will be pretty similar, since she likes the programs, and the schools in general, for much the same reason. </p>
<p>She has visited them, but I’d say it’s not so awful to write a “Why this school?” essay without visiting - there is plenty on the websites that would help you say “I like schools that are this size, with these offerings, this kind of curriculum, these ECs,” and some specifics about the major. </p>
<p>Tonight we’re finishing the basic tasks on everything and writing an essay plan! WOO! She’s actually kind of excited. And she doublechecked everything with her recommenders today. And I got an e-mail from her GC that was very happy. He’s surprised at our sense of urgency because of the theatre auditions, but he’s going happily along. I’m sure they are so appreciative of kids who don’t louse up their winter break with last minute requests. We’ll certainly not be doing that.</p>
<p>I love the engineering reply UT! Picture Perfect.</p>
<p>For us, Marching Band season was extended Sunday Evening for at least another 10 as D’s Band advanced to State. </p>
<p>Keylime…as for patience…I have ZERO. I have taken the liberty of checking D’s online status check to see if her application has made it from “submitted” to received. They say 24-48 hours. It has been less than 24 but it doesn’t keep me from checking. lol.</p>
<p>I’m expecting quite a wait. Even though D’s applied EA to all schools except one (where she has to apply RD because of their late music auditions), I still don’t think we have any that commit to giving an answer before Jan 15.</p>
<p>You’ll think I’m crazy, but I’m actually fine with everything being “on hold” through the holidays. I think we can finally relax a bit, though still gearing up for January auditions, but not have to be in decision-making mode.</p>
<p>I like nice, relaxed downtime at Christmas. No big decisions, just chill.</p>
<p>The college to which my D has applied so far says that students can check online to find out which parts of the application have been received–but that they should expect updates to take 4 to 6 weeks to be posted!</p>
<p>Morning All</p>
<p>^ Schokolade…that is a royal pain isn’ t it! </p>
<p>Our student sent an app to the # 1 choice…and the school had the app, GC stuff and tests scores in less than 48 hrs because it was sent electronically
…except for the teacher recs which went snail mail. </p>
<p>So here we are -more than a week later–and are told–yes the teacher recs are somewhere in the piles of mail—they can’t do anything with the student’s app until they have all of the parts!
The online system assigned our student a login in–and that system says NONE of the apps will show anything about teacher recs for 4 weeks +</p>
<p>Our student has finished five apps last night. Had been dragging the feet to get a jump on it–and frankly it took very little to complete them since essays were done and only needed tweaking … 2.5 hrs and five done…
Those “why engineering” types…
or Why here…
Are those any better or worse tha the ones that ask the kids
“what would you want to be, a table or chair”
…ha ha…</p>
<p>I am not convinced a great essay is an “in”, however I am convinced that a bad essay may seal a “no”…
kwim?</p>
<p>I think my ds could get into “why a chair” more, it would spark more creativity. Penn St honors college has 3 essays that are interesting, maybe another thing I’ll be pulling my hair out to get my son to do BUT they are thought provoking and if I had to answer them, I would have fun with them. One says something like you are given the opportunity to study abroad in either Costa Rica, Madagascar or an Indian reservation in Wyoming…which would you choose and why and what could you study there related to your major. Again engineering rears it’s ugly head. The next refers to a novel about soldiers going to Vietnam and the tangible (army issued uniform, rifles, pic of the girl back home…) and intangible (fear, guilt) things they bring with them, it asks “what tangible and intangible things would you bring with you to college?” The deadline is 11/30 giving him a full 30 days past the other essays to do these (but will he…)</p>
<p>^ I agree…more fun and more thought provoking…</p>
<p>My vote also goes to the chair/table topic.</p>
<p>We got the login/password to check the application status of S’s EA school. Interestingly the web site shows that they received the supplement, though the status on the common app site is not showing that it was downloaded. </p>
<p>I used the free SAT score report option when S took SATIIs in May and this school was one of the colleges that I selected. S also put this school as the one school to receive AP scores for free. Now, their app status is showing that they received the AP scores (who cares?!), but not the SAT scores (important!). Would they not show either score, I would think that they didnt match SAT scores with the application yet. Should I worry about it, considering its an EA application?</p>
<p>Hi all.</p>
<p>So much has happened here since my last visit. Not much progress to report here. Spirit Week this week on top of the “Show” being in two weeks combined with end of quarter Friday. My son for one of the rare times in his life told me he was exhausted and stressed out-to which I asked why he is running one of the Spirit Week events this week? Meanwhile his father is pretty upset about the boy’s priorities-to which I replied-“he’s just a kid”. I am trying to keep him focused and keep an eye on the process but it’s hard. I am one of the sandwich generation-my father is 91, my MIL is 90, and my mother even though the “baby” at 83 has been very ill for going on 7 months with so many different issues it is almost a full time job to deal with.</p>
<p>Oh well…I did want to respond to the topic of “info sharing”. I used to tell people a lot more because I was trying to be helpful. When it came time to reciprocate and I heard nothing or their kid doesn’t like people knowing such and such info I wised up. Now the answer I give is “S prefers to keep that to himself”-which works well. I only discuss this college stuff in an anonymous setting like here where you can get some honest feedback without it turning into some type of contest or with a few long time friends-that’s it. Now if S is going to tell people he is going to apply to Harvard (which he did) and I have people acting like he’s already been accepted (which is very doubtful) all I can tell them is he’s got some big plans! When he has to answer in the spring why he didn’t get accepted to all these great schools maybe he’ll learn to keep his mouth shut? I think though he’s learned his lesson and hasn’t been discussing things in quite the same details though. :)</p>
<p>He also told me he is now considering three new essays for the CA-did I mind if he didn’t tell me yet? Gee, what am I going to say? Yes I mind-or no please spare me the gory details until you figure it out? </p>
<p>I did tell him though before he left for school today he is to come right home and he cannot attend whatever the event is at school tonight. We are going to all eat together and then he will catch up on his homework and go to bed! It felt like I had a first grader again-I liked it! He willing agreed!</p>
<p>how do you know if the supplement has been downloaded?</p>
<p>^^ If college is using CA, you can see if the CA and supplement were downloaded by the college at commonapp dot com. You would go to ‘My Colleges’ view to look at the status of the application and the supplement. If your teachers are doing LOR online, you can also see if the rec was downloaded, but that status is showing in the ‘School Forms’ view.</p>
<p>^^ As far as downloaded etc…
on the Common App, if you click on the specific college, it will show you a date stamp of when the college downloaded the app and also a date stamp for the supplement download etc.
This is assuming you paid for it etc…
It takes a couple fo days for the payment to clear and the school to be able to access it …</p>
<p>For example:
we paid for scores one night, and could see that they were sent electronically right away…
For the CA and supp, we also paid that night-- our student pressed submit the next am with GC and the school had already downloaded it the following morning (about 48 hrs total transit time)</p>
<p>By the 3rd bsuiness day of the following week, our student had an ID in the admissions and could see the profile of what had arrived…except for the teacher recs --which as I mentioned, went snail mail and are in a pile of paper somewhere…</p>
<p>^^ cross posted w K.L.P. :D</p>
<p>Looked at the common app last night after reading here that you can check on status. One of the teachers recommendation is in - but not the second. Asked D to check with him today - sigh, with just this week to go before EA applications, I thought this would have already been taken care of. She spoke to him and sent him the email invite close to three weeks ago!</p>
<p>She still has a list of things to do before she can hit the Submit button for these EA apps this week - here’s hoping this week will be productive apps-wise. Last week, she was completely overwhelmed with the fundraiser work. </p>
<p>I am getting a teeny bit panicky thinking of all that’s got to be done - she seems rather unfazed.</p>
<p>I am a little baffled by something at my son’s HS. He said that yesterday the GC called him down to the office and they went over some things on the yet-to-be-done school profile. That means that less than a week before the EA deadlines, the school profile is not finished!?! Why would the GC want/need the assistance of a student on the profile? Could it possibly be that virtually no one else in the public school (with 375 in the graduating class) is pursuing OOS EA?)</p>
<p>More than a little unsettling on several levels.</p>