<p>Not much to report here. Still waiting on the important tests to come back. I think I want to open a lab/reporting service that actually cares that 99% of irritation comes from WAITING. Hopefully today will be the day.</p>
<p>D is still feeling crummy, but at least she is eating her body weight in rice and is back in school. Seems to be the only thing that makes life a little bit happy. She hit submit 43 minutes before a major scholarship deadline and it was the application from h*ll. Eight free response questions and 4 essays. She has been working on the application the best she could over the last month, but during all the uploads on the essays last night the system kept going down. Guess that is a good lesson for all the “to the wire” folks out there. Had no right to complain, yet frustrating nonetheless.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone who have gotten some acceptances the last few days and to all the kiddos who have the thrill of a submit in the “done” column. Also, good reminders on privacy. Makes me want to rewind a bit…lol.</p>
<p>My ds (oblivious to most stress) comes home yesterday and laments, “everyone at school is so stressed about college, am I doing something wrong?” I’m so glad we front-loaded this app process thing. Now if I could just get my act together and finish Profile. And get a job. And do Christmas shopping.</p>
<p>That is what cured me from multi-tasking while buying plane tickets. Three members of the family were flying to Paris on frequent flyer miles. I had to buy two tickets. I noticed the next day I had bought the two tickets for the wrong day…yes, fixed at $100 per ticket.</p>
<p>Since you bought only 2 tickets, did the 3rd person get left home alone?</p>
<p>Couldn’t resist …</p>
<p>Amanda, your son is cool. I wouldn’t say my D is oblivious or not stressed - she says she is quite stressed with all she has to get done - BUT I do appreciate that she is taking a “one day at a time” approach to the college stuff, and she definitely isn’t in the “freaking out about college” camp. </p>
<p>I also think that if asked she would say that my handling the lists and the deadlines and the basic e-mailing and all that is very helpful. She really doesn’t crab at me, and she appreciates hearing the “task(s) for the week” that I give her. Thinking too far ahead is what makes them - and us - so crazy.</p>
<p>collegeshopping - congrats to your D on a lot of hard work. I’ve started making a few noises about scholarship apps … that’s a tough sell to an overburdened kid. I’m impressed with all of these kids who are completing them as well. Hurray for reworking a stable of essays whenever possible!</p>
<p>collegeshopping: I hope that you get good news soon from the testing – a clear indication of the source of the problem with some quick relief for your daughter would be nice! I’ll be thinking about you both.</p>
<p>fogfog: I have one of those here, too. S3 is a very, very bright kid who feels that he can’t live up to his “superstar” older sib, so he tends to coast along doing the minimum required to get a good grade. He has soooo much potential and is a “superstar” in his own right, but it is hard to live in the shadow. For him, it will probably be a good thing when older sib leaves for college and comparisons at school stop. Frustrating!</p>
<p>The little picky college app requirements drive me crazy, and I have to believe (for my own sanity) that although these are for adcom’s convenience they really have no impact on admissions chances. Some (only some) examples - Stanford requires use of the preprinted labels from their website on any mailed material! Harvard and Pomona each have a “secret” required part II to the School counselor report that cannot be submitted online and isn’t emailed from commona app! Yale wants the Common App essay to be no longer than 500 words, although common app discourages people from creating alternative versions and most people’s common app essay is quite a bit longer than 500 words as Common App does not have this limit! I am sure there are others I haven’t turned up. As I said I trust that none of this REALLY plays a role in admissions and you certainly hear of people being admitted who did not respect these “requirements”. But still, drives you crazy in these days of applying to many schools…</p>
<p>Having a superstar sibling is difficult…I was the youngest in a family where the oldest was an athlete, a debate star, and a very popular person. I am not any of those things and probably wouldn’t have been even if I’d been an only child. I hate to sweat, loathe public speaking, and am pretty much a loner even to this day. Being so different made it a little easier…coaches tended to stop saying ‘we have another So’n’so star’ as soon as they saw me move. I kind of feel sorry for their shattered hopes, now…not at the time. </p>
<p>We are still so different that people continue to ask my mother if we had different fathers. But we are starting to look more alike as we get older. How weird is that? </p>
<p>I can’t imagine how hard it would have been to be good at the same things she was good at. Blazing my own trail did a lot for me…and now there are so many programs and gifted opportunities for things beyond math and science that there were not in my day. Maybe finding something that your younger kids can do that the older ones cannot do would be good for them.</p>
<p>As if anyone cares, three were with FF miles on the correct date. Since there were 5 of us, I have to purchase the other 2 tickets, but I did so for a day too late. If we had not wanted to pay the $200 to fix them I guess three of us would have had a day longer in Paris than the other two.</p>
<p>Yeah, we have also run into this. One school S applied to did not use common app and had very specific instructions on how to submit forms. Teacher rec must be included with transcript, only one rec would be considered, if you submitted 2 they would not be considered at all. There were a few other things about apps that annoyed me, but I can’t remember what they were now. </p>
<p>Now it is the merit apps. One school has many different merit scholarships and most have their own application and deadline. First though you have to click on the link for the scholarship and see what the requirements are. </p>
<p>I have cc to thank for ensuring the CA essay was not cut off. Word count was OK and It looked OK when uploaded, it wasn’t until I print previewed that I noticed it was in fact cut off mid paragraph. We made some adjustments and got the whole thing in.</p>
<p>collegeshopping, I hope you get good news soon. I’m glad your daughter is feeling a bit better but I hope true health is around the corner for her.</p>
<p>I think I am in denial about picky app stuff. D has finished the three non-Common App schools and I really, really, really hope all the ts were crossed and is were dotted.</p>
<p>And yes, I try not to think about the $65 here and the $55 there adding up for apps. And then the score reports. And the travel and audition fees on top of it. Most of D’s audition schools do charge a fee for the privilege (and there are 8 of them!) We are lucky to mostly be able to crash with friends when we go for the auditions and we can drive most of the places but its still going to add up to a lot of time and money. And there are still a few campuses she won’t have visited which means additional visits if she is accepted.</p>
<p>What it makes me realize is how damn fortunate my kids are. My Ds will have opportunities few kids get and I hope/expect them to take full advantage of it, whatever happens in this process. Just this ride through auditions will be an amazing experience in itself.</p>
<p>I don’t think my ds is cool, he is more on the Zits end of clueless. I agree about all the various stipulations of labels, and secret part IIs of apps, etc. If the common app was indeed common with everyone processing LORs and GC stuff, transcripts online and no stupid supplements, then it would have been great. It’s the customization that each school demands that takes the common out of it. My fav was Rutgers where you had to enter the entire transcript bit by bit, quarter by quarter on their proprietary system because they don’t accept transcripts any other way until you are accepted and then they take the final from the school. And that system didn’t synch with their admissions system for a couple days.</p>
<p>This has been a great place to blow off some steam. I hear all your comments regarding picky apps. Even though I consider myself pretty alert to system, my mind was mildly blown by the RISD reaction to non-folded pictures. Oh man. At one point S2 had RISD on his list (my brother graduated from there) and we looked at the requirements. I well remember their very interesting demand (yes, that’s the word) that the custom drawings requested must be on a certain size paper. That size is NOT standard. It does, however, fold perfectly into a 9 X 12 envelope. We puzzled over the very specific nature of these specifications and deduced it was part of the “test”. I found that odd, too, since they are after all admitting very outside-the-box, creative thinkers who may not feel “creative” in someone else’s idea of a format. Or is that the point? They don’t want kids who are so independent as to create anarchy (even artistic anarchy) at school? Who knows!</p>
<p>In general, I have a sneaky suspicion that colleges have added supplements, extra essays, short answers to the common app, and added other outrageously picky special requirements in order to gauge student interest. I imagine they may sit in their final admissions meetings, all championing certain wonderful candidates. If they simply took those with highest stats, fabulous honors, president of stuff–kids likely coveted by most top universities, they know many will not attend College X. My thinking is, they know these top kids are not going to give as much effort to the College X app if they are truly in love with Harvard or Yale (or fill in other highly selective school). I believe they are trying to read the tea leaves–and if the student does a sincere job answering all their Why College X? and other custom requirements, they feel that’s a level of demonstrated interest and perseverance.</p>
<p>Or maybe I’m just loopy after helping S2 cross so many t’s and dotting so many obscure i’s.</p>
<p>BTW, reading about all the worries and aggravations on behalf of our Ss and Ds application process, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the help you offer to your kids. This process is fairly impossible to do fully and well for seniors with demanding school programs and heavy ECs and work commitments. I honestly worry how kids without some assistance can possibly keep up with it all.</p>
<p>“I honestly worry how kids without some assistance can possibly keep up with it all.”</p>
<p>That’s exactly what I was thinking as I helped my D enter (for the umpteenth time!) each individual class she has taken since the 9th grade into yet another “app” (this time for a scholarship). How on earth would a kid with little or no parental support find the time to continue doing well on their homework and in their ecs, while filling out multiple college and scholarship apps? Kudos to those who can do it. Condolences to those who wish they had the help, but do not.</p>
<p>guys, this is exactly how I’ve been feeling, thinking for a while. i think amanda and madbean nailed it. i can’t stand reading articles and posts, such as those in the NYTimes Choice blog, describing about how parents/kids have ratcheted up the craziness when it seems that this process could be substantially ameliorated if the common app became common. As i said in a post the other day, in the UK they think we’re nuts w/ all these supplements and essays. and i do think that many of the supplement essays are really about two things: demonstrated interest as madbean mentioned, and wishful thinking on the school’s end that by doing extensive research to answer the why U question, the kid will fall more for the school. I’ve noticed this w/ my own S. Each time he returns from an interview or writes one of those why essays, he’s more inclined toward that school. it seems like marketing genius to me.</p>
<p>Why did I think the maximum number of words for the common app essay was 500?? is this wrong? how long are your kids’ essays? (I told mine to keep his at 500! he can use his longer draft if that’s okay!)</p>
<p>I know some of the questions on supps have limits but not the CA. My son told me he knows some kids whose essays are 7 pages long!!! I was gobsmacked when I heard that.</p>
<p>“In general, I have a sneaky suspicion that colleges have added supplements, extra essays, short answers to the common app, and added other outrageously picky special requirements in order to gauge student interest.”</p>
<p>I agree with this statement.</p>
<p>We too have just been through an exhaustive portfolio process where each school has a different set of requirements, special drawings and extra essays. In some of the schools, D has had to apply to both the University and then again with separate apps, transcripts, letters and portfolio to the program. In addition to the application fees, it has cost approximate $50 to produce each portfolio and another $50+ each to send the portfolio. One school highly recommnded an “in-person” portfolio review. After a 13 hour RT drive, overnight at a hotel, the reviewer barely looked at her work and just pontificated for 15 minutes about why she should choose their program. Ugh - even if she gets in, she was so upset about the “big waste of time” that I doubt she will give it any consideration. And frankly, I cannot blame her. There were 8 families in the waiting room during this review process…some kids were in and out in less than 5 minutes! And everyone had to travel to this school. None of the staff smiled or greeted students or parents…Parents were flabbergasted. So, what is up with that? All tohave the pleasure of paying $50+K per year…YIKES. (done with that rant ;-)</p>
<p>D has been accepted into one university but we don’t know yet if she has been accepted into her major and we won’t find out for a while yet, she has been invited to the honors program but it doesn’t even make sense if she isn’t admitted to her program of choice. But this particular school has a housing issue so even though we don’t know if she is in the program, we have to apply for housing and put down a minor deposit of $30. (and this one ;-)</p>
<p>I have said this before but I think this whole process is crazy…at least I have received GREAT advice from all of you and this board has really helped in knowing we aren’t the only ones struggling through the process. </p>
<p>As someone mentioned, I feel really bad for the kids that don’t have any assistance.</p>
<p>The doctor’s office just called. Results are in, but they have not been reviewed by the docter. She will try to review and call today. Its like a big fat envelope on the counter and no steam in site…lol.</p>