<p>Our GC said to check with her and she would give suggestions on who to ask for letters. The kids were supposed to set up a meeting a couple weeks ago to do that and have not yet. I think DD is going to ask her World History teacher, not sure who else, maybe the Lit teacher. DS will ask his math teacher from last year who he will have next year as well, not sure who after that.</p>
<p>The GC knows who does a good job and who doesn’t.</p>
<p>SteveMA, that’s a good point to ask the GC. When we met with ours and DD suggested one teacher (a class that she struggled in, but went in for extra help and has maintained As) the GC shook her head and said “no, not him.” I assume that she knows that he is either unreliable about getting them done, or he doesn’t write positive ones…
Our GC also told us it should be someone who the student has as a teacher junior or senior year, or one who the student has had at least 2 classes with.</p>
<p>Managing the process: DS is disorganized anyhow, and he applied to 11 schools, so I was the “admin asst.” One thing I would definitely recommend for essays, after our experience this year, is to write a few that can be easily reused. We sort of fell into these by accident:</p>
<p>1) experience that changed you (this is one of the CA prompts anyhow)
2) experience you’ve had with diverse people, places, etc. (several schools have a version of this as a supplemental essay)
3) 3 learning experiences (this was originally a Miami U essay but he ended up tweaking and re-using for several)
4) an influential book (I can’t remember which school originally asked this, but again, he ended up re-using it)</p>
<p>There are a lot of essays to write, esp. if your DS/DD is applying to honors programs within larger schools (btw, I’d say that’s also a good reason to take the SAT2’s, unless the honors college is an automatic admit with a certain GPA and/or SAT/ACT score).</p>
<p>Perraziman…at our school juniors were given forms and had to ask 3 teachers last month to write their recommendations - if the teachers have any questions they meet with the student before the end of the school year. Letters are done over the summer by staff and ready to go when school starts back up in August. They have done it this way for a long time so apparently it works well.<br>
Thanks to everyone for such helpful information above.</p>
<p>Morning all!
LOR’s: D1 asked her teachers in May of Junior year; I’m sure D2 will do the same. Not sure what current teacher she’ll ask (although I have a strong suspicion) but I’m sure that she’ll ask her freshman year English teacher as well.</p>
<p>So last night I ran our 2011 tax info through the Net Price Calculators for each of the schools on D2’s lists (including the couple of new ones that I’ve suggested she consider) and made a new sheet on the college spreadsheet. Columns include: tuition, room & board, tuition+room & board, Cost of attendance, scholarship/grant per NPC calculator, extimated net price per NPC calculator, actual based on scores/merit. I’ve posted a thread about the NPC reliability to see how much weight there should be for those numbers. Talk about making things real…</p>
<p>Great news, YDS! D took her first AP practice last night at home. Not sure if they are going to grade them at school today or what.</p>
<p>Blueshoe, congrats on the Gov. School admit! Great accomplishment for your kiddo!</p>
<p>D is finally solidifying her summer plans- taking Statistics at the CC, taking a dance class or two for fun, and doing some volunteer work. </p>
<p>I have a question: it is fine for kids to take classes at a CC before they go to college right? That doesn’t affect their standing as a freshman/ merit scholarships etc?</p>
<p>vandygrad, do you mean while they are still in high school or during the summer after they graduate?</p>
<p>vandy–I think that is a school by school question about CC’s. There are many states that have dual enrollment for HS/CC that don’t affect the incoming status of the school but taking classes outright at a CC very well could–not only for admissions but for scholarships sometimes too.</p>
<p>A few months ago I printed out some of the common ap supplements for schools S3 is thinking about for him to look at the kind of essay questions he should expect. </p>
<p>I think he will ask his teachers for recommendations in late May or early June. Previously the teachers have asked for some sort of resume from the kids for their recommendations. I think YDS even said her school asked for the parents to fill something out. Likely he will ask his US History teacher and his Bio teacher (who he had for AP Bio and Honors Bio and is his tennis coach). His junior year English teacher is crazy, his sophomore year English teacher loved him, but I am not sure using a teacher from sophomore year is advisable.</p>
<p>Yes, we are given a questionnaire to fill out, things like “List five words that describe your student and why.” We found out quite by accident years later that the GC had quoted my writing word for word in some instances in her letter! So make sure you do a good job on whatever the school asks you to do.</p>
<p>Ds1 didn’t give that info to his LOR teachers (and I’m glad now because what if the teachers had used the exact same language that th e GC did!). In fact, we didn’t share with ds1 what we had written until well after the fact. I don’t know why, but it just felt so personal. He did give the teachers a resume.</p>
<p>Everything I’ve read regarding LORs said that teachers from junior and senior year are best. It had something to do with the rigor of classes. But if you think an earlier teacher can speak about something that no other teacher can, then it might be ok as an extra LOR. I’m thinking my son might get extras from his drama teacher and the head of his current internship. But they would just be submitted if really necessary. They say “the thicker the file, the thicker the child” lol.</p>
<p>Truman State Junior Showcase is this Saturday. We will be attending and hope that they put on a good program. Truman is such a value for OOS students and will probably end up being about $10,000 per year cheaper than comparable private LACs. It could make for some interesting discussions next Fall.</p>
<p>We have decided against summer visits and will do 2 quick Fall visits. We do not live near a major airport so tickets are quite expensive for us, $400 is a cheap ticket with most around $600-$800.</p>
<p>I think we will visit Centre College. The second visit will probably be either Rhodes or Hendrix. Although if S really loves Truman, we may not visit any more LACs.</p>
<p>OK. I just had my first crazy parent moment. My son applied for a summer program and was late with all of the supporting documents but the program had contacted his school to let them know they were waiting on them. Then it turned out that he hadn’t even submitted his personal statement which he assured me that he had. He finally emailed it to them with a quick note apologizing for its lateness. Today he got a response from the program director saying “Thanks. You’ll be hearing from us soon!” Am I crazy to think the exclamation mark is encouraging?? Now I get all those posts that ask “I received an email that said XYZ. What does that mean??”</p>
<p>Haystack–I think it was you that turned us on to Truman. It is high on our D’s list of schools. It’s a great campus too. The OOS tuition is a bargin–especially since it is less than our IN STATE tuition–just something so wrong about that. We won’t be at the Junior Showcase though.</p>
<p>reeinaz–we missed the early deadline for a program DS was invited to attend. It’s a 4 day program and the school that sponsors that gives at least a $13,000 for kids that attend the program and attend that college. He needs to have a “school official” sign the form that he is in good standing…still waiting for him to bring it to his GC…</p>
<p>Hi, everyone, I think that giving the teachers who will prepare the LOR’s a resume is a good plan (we even had to tell one DS12’s mark in his class!). The GC had requested a resume as she doesn’t have much contact with the kids unless they want to change courses, etc. so we sent them to the teachers as well to help to remind them about DS12. One of his teachers remembered several anecdotes from class but I think it helps if they have the whole package! We had to contact the teachers in September as they had to upload the LOR’s to the common app and school doesn’t start here until after Labor Day. That was our first time around but I expect I will bite my nails just as much with DD13!</p>
<p>Re: taking a class at a CC- I meant before HS grad; as in, the summer between Jr and Sr year. </p>
<p>Ugh, SteveMA, I guess I will have to ask her GC, but honestly, I don’t have a great deal of faith in her. So that makes me really nervous. :-(</p>
<p>vandy–I would have her call a few of the schools she visited and have her ask the ad comms there—or even email them. Just make sure she puts that they are not part of a dual credit program with the high school. See what they say.</p>
<p>vandy, I agree - those are questions for the specific colleges. </p>
<p>I know what you guys mean about Truman being such a bargain! It would be cheaper for us than our in state as well. I wish it was closer (and that they had DD’s sport.)</p>
<p>DD is going to have one of her LORs from a teacher she had sophomore year, even though it isn’t “ideal” because this is a teacher who worked closely with her, and wrote her recommendation for the NHS. She’ll also have a very strong, comprehensive rec from her GC.</p>
<p>anniezz–we are lucky that they have DD’s sport and the coach is great!! I think it is #2 on her list right now, hard to say though. She has about 4 schools that are all on the same level but all for different reasons. Just got recruiting info from about 8 other schools but I don’t think DD will like them or not like them as much. She hasn’t seen them yet so who knows.</p>
<p>Anyone out there looking at Tufts? What did you like/dislike about it? We visted Tufts today and well, S liked the feel of the campus. It is a need blind school, and we may not qualify for fiancial aid- which we need to think about. It is still in my S’s list, but he is not sure if he will apply. I would like to hear from people who visted Tufts in this group.</p>
<p>Lot of good ideas about LOR etc… Thank you all for such wonderful excahnge of ideas about the application process. One thing I have book marked is TO SET A SPECIFIC TIME TO TALK ABOUT COLLEGE ONCE A WEEK…This will keep my sanity and my S’s. Also- working on the essay’s summer. I liked the idea about the girls day at the beach for reviewing the esaay. I have to come up with some thing like this to make things work. </p>
<p>We also went to MIT and ofcourse all of us loved it!!</p>