<p>Holliesue, that makes sense. In other words, if a teacher hands Janie a piece of paper and says, “Here, Janey, I thought you might like to see what nice things I wrote about you,” Janey is free to read it.</p>
<p>But in this case, I think alwaysbelieve’s D was given sealed LORs and transcripts to send with her app. The fact that they were sealed says (to me, anyway) that the writer was specifically not inviting her to read them, no?</p>
<p>collegeshopping: As one of the stragglers who feels as if we are just getting the ball rolling here, I am in awe! Done! What a great feeling! Congrats to you and your daughter!</p>
<p>OWM: What an honor for your son! Congrats!</p>
<p>amandakayak: Hugs to you and your son. And for sure, I’ll be hugging my kids a little tighter tonight.</p>
<p>Collegeshopping - can we now call you DoneCollegeshoping or SurvivedCollegeshopping? That is great news. Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>OWM - what a fabulous honor for your son. I’m glad someone will be joining me on my new eating plan adventure. I’m finishing up day four. So far, so good except for the frequent bathroom breaks and missing sugary snacks.</p>
<p>Collegeshopping - can we now call you DoneCollegeshoping or SurvivedCollegeshopping? That is great news. Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>OWM - what a fabulous honor for your son. I’m glad someone will be joining me on my new eating plan adventure. I’m finishing up day four. So far, so good except for the frequent bathroom breaks and missing sugary snacks.</p>
<p>^ I like the suggestions for a new name…and congratulations collegeshopping. That is fabulous news. also owm, congrats to you guys too. a cotillion sounds very civilized!
amandakayak, again I am really sorry for your loss. what a horrible way to have to say goodbye to a friend.</p>
<p>MOSB- definitely should NOT open sealed LOR!!!</p>
<p>Congratulations CollegeShopping</p>
<p>Nothing makes me happier than to read about anyone’s kid getting into their number uno primo choice school. Especially when it’s early! Congrats to alwaysbelieve’s resilient daughter and collegeshopped’s daughter. Ever since I learned about the Plan II program, I’ve thought that it sounded just fabulous. </p>
<p>We’ve talked steaming open envelopes. I’ve actually done that, years ago, can’t even remember what it was for. Let’s now talk what you do when there’s a juicy email that you’d like to look at. 
D1 has an email address used just for college matters. We both have the password to that account. She knows that I have the password to that account. I take a look once a day. OK, or maybe twice 
She can’t read email during the school day, so I don’t open up anything that she hasn’t already looked at. I don’t even comment to her that there’s an email about such-and-such sitting in her email box. But now I see that there’s an email about an interview for her ED school. Yikes, and we’d done such a good job of pretending to forget that she’d applied there! Nothing I can do, I’ll just have to wait for her to get home. </p>
<p>I’m thinking forward a year to Thanksgiving 2011. More likely than not, D1 won’t be home for Thanksgiving. I wonder how much it would cost to air-ship her a homemade pie? :)</p>
<p>collegeshopping–big congratulations! :)</p>
<p>OWM, wow on your S’s great honor. With so few spots offered to students from so many schools, I believe these 20 are the top of the top in your district. So so nice that your S is included. And if he doesn’t already have a cute gf, this sounds like a smart (and soon-to-be well-mannered) bunch from which to select? </p>
<p>Slithey, the suspense during app season always kills us. And having access to that email account must be a tantalizing. It’s amazing how time flies, though, and all answers come in eventually. Just imagine next year…what will we all do to keep on the edge of our seats? All answers by then will be revealed!</p>
<p>madbean: Hadn’t thought about cotillion in that way! Son has no GF, but a cute, smart girl who spends a lot of time at our house and will be attending prom with him for the second time this May. She did not apply for cotillion because she is in show choir and several other choral groups that have conflicts with the required meetings and activities. She probably would have been selected if she had applied.</p>
<p>And in the interest of full disclosure, the schools included in our two counties range fro 16seniors to 408 seniors and everywhere in between. Not all big schools. It gets pretty rural outside our city limits. So, it’s a big deal here but not as big a pool as 12 schools might seem in more populated areas.</p>
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<p>WOW! Congrats to your D!!</p>
<p>Thanksgiving is at my house this year so I have taken the entire stack of college stuff off my kitchen island and put it in a box in the pantry. This is scary because there was organization to my ‘stacks’ and I am fearful something will get overlooked. On the positive side, I had forgotten what my countertops looked like!</p>
<p>First, congrats to all whove had such early, happy results. Picture handfuls of confetti being thrown and bells ringing (although maybe Im getting mixed up with the wedding news which has dominated headlines here for three days solid …). And, alwaysbelieve, count me in with those whod happily stick pins into a GC doll for that LOR. I only weigh in here when Ive got something to add and I did want to follow up on that conversation a few pages back (this thread moves so fast!) re ordering SAT score reports early. I had to call the Collegeboard yesterday as Ss account was showing scores were sent 1 November but rolling admissions college was emailing 17 November to say scores were missing. The nice CB lady explained that a 16 day gap was perfectly normal because scores were often downloaded onto a disc and then the disc was sent through the mail. Through the mail! As in US post office! Here (in the UK), if I put a firstclass stamp on things, I can be pretty certain it will be delivered next day. When I mentioned we were waiting for scores from the November sitting before ordering up reports to be sent to Jan 1 deadline colleges, nice CB lady yelped and said to order ASAP, as in last month.
Oh, and I guess I do have something else to add. This is back to the unhappy experience of alwaysbelieves D and that LOR. Somebody wrote something along the lines of surely GCs would always lean towards the positive. Maybe they should but I know they dont. Friend who is a GC says writing those LORs are the most important part/time consuming part of her job and one she takes absolutely seriously. Its not like in first grade where theres a code to it all, ie. Suzy shows leadership qualities really means Suzy is bossy. Instead, she is totally honest, eg writing about one very high achieving student that behind the stellar grades and scores was someone who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, no matter the collateral damage. She pointed out she could have written something along the lines of so and so is very determined when it comes to achieving his goals but that she was actually questioning this students ethics and that the colleges respect LORs that pull no punches. I came home and told my S to be s ure to be very very nice to his counsellor actually she is brand new, temporary AND part time so obviously theres been no chance to establish a relationship. OK, last handful of confetti flung storing up more for future good news…</p>
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<p>A few weeks ago I had company for dinner. I have been working off the dining room table and it was piled with stacks of college stuff (and middle school stuff for 10yo D). Having no choice and needing the table for dinner I reluctantly moved everything to the top of the hope chest. While getting everything ready for dinner I went to put a tablecloth on the table only to realize they were in the hope chest now inaccessable due to the stacks of stuff on top. We ate dinner without the use of a tablecoth because I was not moving the stuff again.</p>
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This is disturbing. My son is waiting to request SAT2 test scores until Tuesday when the scores are released. I wonder if scores are received at some schools faster than others? I rushed scores around 10/28 to Virginia Tech for SAT1. He didn’t apply ED, we just wanted it out the door! They show receipt on 11/5. Was this only a result of the rush? I was under the impression that the scores were sent electronically. Sending on a CD via mail seems counter to everything college applications have gone towards. Don’t misunderstand me, I am NOT questioning what you were told at all. I am just surprised at the method. I hadn’t worried about the November tests arriving in time since December tests are accepted. We will certainly cough up more money to CB for sending the scores ‘rush’.</p>
<p>I think samuck has brought up a great point regarding sending scores. I went to the CB website and found the following regarding rush scores. It might be useful for those of us that have students that tested in November.
It does address my question that some schools use an electronic method of receipt while others receive theirs by post. I can understand wanting a hard copy back up, but waiting for the postal service during application season (not to mention the holidays!) seems antiquated at best!</p>
<p>Thanks for bringing this up samuck!</p>
<p>The nice CB lady told me to check with the college if they receive rush reports before ordering one. I urge everyone to follow that advice. I would be raging mad, if I ordered a rush report and it took 2-3 weeks to get to the college.</p>
<p>In my case, the day after I ordered the rush report the CB site showed that it was sent and the next day the college’s application status page showed that they got them. </p>
<p>However, I still haven’t heard about what happened to the SAT report that was sent in May.</p>
<p>Interesting about the score reports. I sent D’s ACT scores on Wed, received an email on Thursday from one of the schools thanking us for sending the scores!! How’s that for a quick turnaround?</p>
<p>D has to still get the envelopes ready for her RD schools to give to the counselor. H insisted she add one of the tippy top schools and since she hasn’t decided which one, she’s procrastinating on the envelopes. Told her she needs to decide and hand in the envelopes by Monday. </p>
<p>One of the teachers she asked for a recommendation (way back in the beginning of Oct), didn’t put his letter online in time for the EA apps. She gave him envelopes too. Now, he told her he has the letter updated - but when we check the common app, it shows his status as “Started” and not “Submitted”. I asked her to check with him again today - if need be, she can give him envelopes again on Monday - but at this time, it is beginning to look like she is harassing him 
The common app is not very intuitive - and obviously, this teacher is having trouble with the site. Hopefully, he won’t be irritated at her asking…</p>
<p>Based on that SAT info I just sent three reports to schools with December 1 deadlines-regular not rush. They certainly will need to justify to me if they can’t get them there on time why 11 days isn’t enough to electronically send a set of test scores.</p>
<p>I will wait on the Subject tests for scores since he doesn’t think he did very well and he is taking them again in December. These schools I sent the scores to today do not require Subject tests.</p>
<p>Essay finished! English teacher proof read it and said she recommended one change in a clause or something-said it really needed nothing from her. We saw her at parent-teacher conferences yesterday and she brought it up. She loved it! She told us she used to read application essays and thought this was going be one that gets put in the “interesting” pile. It’s kind of scary how she described the process at the admissions office she worked at-I have no idea what school and didn’t ask. The kids with the “stats” got the better essay readers assigned to the application-then they read them and put them into piles. Pretty scary, she said, when you think of your college future getting it’s first cut by someone making minimum wage. Well the best news is it is done, he can type it in the CA, that will complete the CA, and then I will proof read for typos only-even though I want to edit that essay myself-and poof it will be submitted along with the supplemental apps he is working on.</p>
<p>She also mentioned the book he wrote that she has been reading for him for a while. She said it is actually pretty good-she isn’t an editor but it is well-written and entertaining. It needs work since he was a sophomore when he finished it and his style has matured since then. She is going to spend some time with him in the spring working on it because she thinks it has potential-I didn’t have the heart to tell her book #2 is being written!</p>
<p>I will say my experience with the HS has been almost uniformly excellent. He has had some great teachers, ones who not only know the material and can actually teach it so kids can learn it but people who have gone above and beyond to work with the kids who want more. The GC has been great-very on top of things and never has an attitude-she really has been there for him. Is it the highest academic setting possible-no it isn’t but all the other reasons he wanted to stay there rather than going to a more well-regarded academic HS were important as well. I have watched him grow from a very shy and not very confident kid into a self-assured, confident young man. </p>
<p>It was, in short, the right “fit” for him as I have seen mentioned earlier in this thread. If it had been a pure academic decision he wouldn’t have gone there, but for all the other reasons you choose a school it was the absolute right choice. That the academics ended up being pretty comparable was just icing on the cake. I had faith it would work out-it has indeed worked out beyond my wildest dreams.</p>
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<p>With the help of a couple cocktails, we could come up with a conversion chart for these codes!</p>