Parents of the HS Class of 2013

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
12761

<p>Walker: We are having the same problem. My D is really, really interested in Purchase, but dang, that’s in NY! They only do their interviews/portfolio review on a couple of random Tuesdays. She could Skype it, but I’m worried that her portfolio and prompt books won’t come across well that way. At this point, I’m looking at a February date, but we would both have to miss school. Now, if they would agree to interview her a week later, that would be great because we are out that entire week. </p>

<p>All these interviews/portfolio reviews are difficult to schedule and super expensive, too!</p>

12762

<p>Sounds like everyone (almost everyone) is in full application mode. I’ve been reading everyday but don’t have much time to post. </p>

<p>I have a question for those who have been accepted to Pitt. S received the letter stating he was automatically qualified for honors. Then last night he received a call from someone at Pitt congratulating him and asking if he had any questions. He asked when information about merit scholarships would be coming and was told that if he hadn’t been asked for an interview he didn’t qualify. Have any of your kids been contacted for an interview? S’s stats are high and he sent in essays and LOR. His only chance at Pitt is with great merit. S is sure the person didn’t know what they were talking about but…</p>

12763

<p>Happy Tuesday! October 15th deadline for two schools are quickly approaching, with November 1st deadline right behind. Still no headway on the essays – another weekend wasted! I don’t know what he’s thinking.</p>

<p>CSS PROFILE – does that need to be done now? I thought that was a February/March thing!</p>

<p>Wherenext – I would love it if all S’13’s work was done and all that was needed were transcripts/LORs! Frustrating that things aren’t moving, but it will get done. LOL about Oxford – I bet that’s a fun crowd.</p>

<p>Our2girls – Congrats to your D! She did them all last night???</p>

<p>YDS – does Rice have good public transportation with easy access to cultural stuff (theater, museums, etc)? I’ve never been to Houston – looking at Google, it looks like campus is a ways from downtown. What doesn’t your S like?</p>

<p>Reeinaz – Glad your S had a good time and has a favorite – I’ll be crossing my fingers for him!</p>

<p>Carimama – mommaof5 is talking about U of Michigan!</p>

<p>Napalm – PM me if you want another critique of your essays/statements – apparently I give good feedback (at least that’s what I’m told). Amen to being done with testing – I can’t even imagine!</p>

<p>Swizzle – have you tried malwarebytes . com? Their instruction are really easy to follow. I’ve had that happen twice where it only affected one user name. It’s better that way so you can log on to another user and clean out the virus.</p>

12764

<p>CBG–D2 got that call too. When asked, she said she didn’t have any questions. Grrrrr. I never heard anything about an interview preceding merit awards.</p>

12765

<p>CBGMass – it was probably a kid that didn’t know anything about it. We also got a call from 412 area code last night – mystery solved! I called Admissions last week because they accepted S’13 before they got his essay and an LOR (I was afraid they wouldn’t be included in his file for scholarship review.) Admissions said that they wouldn’t be reviewing for scholarships for about another month (and that anything that came in before then would be included in his file.) My understanding is that they give the half/full tuition scholarships, plus any departmental scholarships, out first, then they invite some candidates to interview for the Chancellor’s scholarship, which is the full ride including room/board, etc.</p>

12766

<p>Thanks Vitrac and MommyD - S will have to get a full tuition for it to work for us.</p>

12767

<p>Same here, CBG. Did you S apply to engineering? I don’t know about the other departments, but in the past engineering gave out a lot of $4,000/year scholarships on top of the full/half tuition. </p>

<p>Yesterday, S’13 received a letter that said he was an auto admit to the MS in engineering program. One thing at a time!</p>

12768

<p>MommmyDearest13 - D submitted the state flagship in August at her “jump start” college app class before school started, two on 9/29 (using the school’s online app) and two yesterday using the common app…at 10:30 pm, beating my deadline by 1-1/2 hours. Nothing like waiting to the last minute!</p>

<p>Btw, I was searching on CC to see if anyone was having trouble with previewing the CA, and ran across an old thread where kids were applying to Yale, Princeton, and were hitting “submit” on the last day. They were getting messages to the tune of “your application will be submitted when your application fee clears” kind of thing. They were freaking out, wondering if they really sent their apps in time! I know I’m preaching to the choir, because the students on here are on top of deadlines, and the parents on here are helping their kids stay on top of deadlines.</p>

<p>Suggestion – if you are still waiting to submit some common apps for schools with fees, you can PAY for the application PRIOR to actually submitting the application. This will avoid a possible delay (so the common app site says) when submitting apps, as to when a school can download it, I believe. Of course we paid last night around 10:00 pm and already her two common app schools downloaded her app this morning!! I’M KINDA EXCITED for her to get an acceptance soon…thank goodness all her schools have rolling admissions :)</p>

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<p>Our2girls - I warned my son about the payment thing and applying in the 11th hour. I didn’t realize you could pay early though - good to know! Most schools require the supplement to be submitted first before you can send the app. Looks like a couple will let you apply, then submit the supplement later, so that’s a possiblity too.</p>

12770

<p>MommyD, I’ll PM you.</p>

12771

<p>MommyDearest13 - You’re correct about the supplement having to go first. One of D’s schools didn’t have a supplement, and no fee if you did the common app or their school online. Since D’s #1 also had the common app we opted for those two to be submitted with the common app. The no fee school was easy. No supp, no fee - submit! Her #1 was the pain! We couldn’t preview it at all until we paid…then we STILL couldn’t preview! Never did preview! Tried to finally submit and it said you had to send the supplement first. We could finally see the app after submitting, when it’s actually too late, really. But both of her common app schools were for the same major, so she sent the same to both. We saw a preview of the no fee school and finally said (you know what), and submitted to her #1. Criminy sakes!</p>

12772

<p>Good morning from a very sunny California.</p>

<p>We have made progress!!! The “Cal State” applications went up yesterday and both of the Cal States (Cal Poly SLO and SDSU) he is applying to. Two down nine to go. The University of California application went up, and he started on that, but you can only submit 11/1 to 11/30 so no real hurry there. He has made progress on the essays, but they still need tweeking and editing down, but he seems to be buying into the whole process. His common application is filled out minus the essay, so I am feeling much better. If he applies EA, it is to a HMFR, so it will not be the end of the world if it doesn’t happen. </p>

<p>The problem we are having with my “late bloomer” is that now that he is in Physics and Calculus, he loves it, so is changing his mind on what he thinks he would like to major in. I think he will need to go somewhere where it is easy to change majors, because it seems he changes his mind daily.</p>

12773

<p>CSS Profile - I looked up the CSS Profile and FAFSA deadlines for the 5 schools DS is applying to (he added 4 more “possibles” this weekend - oh joy). U of Michigan said to begin on Oct. 1 never giving an actual deadline. UChicago and Yale wanted it by Nov. 1 if you were applying early - of course you can’t apply to both of them early - but depending on which one he picks we will have it done - hopefully!</p>

<p>Carimama - U of Michigan. Which he really enjoyed. They got to be on the field of the Big House and see the locker rooms. Definitely the highlight for him. He likes the school a lot more now than he did before the visit which is kind of the opposite of what happened at Michigan State University. DH loves MSU and hates U of M - so DS was a little biased before.</p>

<p>SteveMa - you are so on top of things - can I hire you to keep DS on track!?! LOL</p>

<p>GC emailed me that she got all of the paperwork done for NMSF - she also told us that he is the 1st ever from our hs :eek:</p>

12774

<p>CSS Profile
Due date is not only school dependent, but can also change based on type of app. DS is planning to apply EA to a school. The CSS for anyone applying ED or EA is the same as the EA date (11/15). His other schools meet full need and do not require the CSS until 1/1. </p>

<p>@Walker - Skype/phone interviews. My son actually did one with a College Counselor as practice. The best advice he received - phone interview - STAND UP. His voice projected much better and he sounded more confident. Skype - position the computer so that there is nothing distracting in the field of vision (like a clock or window)</p>

<p>@Mumto3 – I paid the enrollment & housing deposit to Bama AFTER verifying with the schools on my son’s list that it would not violate any “double deposit” issues. The catch - We forfeit the enrollment deposit if he opts to not attend. Also, we must send notification he will not attend before he makes a deposit elsewhere. The pro- I don’t have to worry about him getting on-campus housing. He has no concerns. He thinks I’m wasting money, but it helps me sleep better at night.</p>

12775

<p>I better check if we need CSS for any of the schools the kids applied to–I never though of that–yikes. I know we will have to send something to DD’s schools already but never thought of checking DS’s schools…off to research.</p>

12776

<p>Anybody going to University of Rochester on October 8th?</p>

12777

<p>Quick question: on the CA where the teachers are invited. DS invited 3 teachers to do LORs. All 3 are listed with the date they were invited. One teacher has nothing next to that, the other 2 say delete or resend. Does that mean that the 2 haven’t submitted their LORs yet?</p>

12778

<p>MD13, I hope you are correct about Pitt reviewing for scholarships in about a month, although reviewing and awarding may be two different things in this case. My daughter is a junior in Pitt Honors, and she is telling us that Pitt will not start sending out scholarships until January. When she was accepted, she knew about her scholarship in November.</p>

<p>On another note, our younger daughter just submitted all of her college applications last night! I know this is supposed to be about the student, but I’m sure you can identify with the relief I feel that they are done.</p>

12779

<p>@mommaof5 - how awesome that your S enjoyed the visit. I’m a bit freaking out about my D’s upcoming visit clear across the country. U of Michigan was on D’s original list, but it fell off at some point, if I remember correctly the OOS scholarships were hard to come by. (I asked which U of M because umiami is down the street and we’re huge fans, lol)</p>

12780

<p>mommaof5 - I’m not much help, I think…D’s has the name, their title (counselor, teacher), the date they were invited, then “Delete | Offline Provider”. The “delete” selection is clickable, but the "offline provider’ is not. Needless to say I did not click on ‘delete’. Offline provider means our D’s recommenders will be mailing the LOR via snail mail…really? Wouldn’t it be easier to do these online? Oh well…</p>

<p>Longhaul – GREAT suggestions for the telephone interview and the Skype interview!</p>

<p>FlyMeToTheMoon – happy for you! Our D finished hers last night, too :)</p>

<p>I know when submitting the common app we had to “agree” not to send a deposit to multiple schools. But having checked the box (no other option anyway) I have a number of questions:

  1. What if a student really won’t know before all FA offers, including merit aid, are in, but in order to secure better housing they need to get their deposit in?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Will withholding a deposit until mid-spring suggest to the school you are not serious about them being the #1 choice?</p></li>
<li><p>Will sending a deposit appear too eager, such that they think they “have” the student, and won’t increase merit aid if it is available to sway your student to selecting their school?</p></li>
<li><p>How close do you keep the information about your child’s #1 (from the colleges), to see if that helps with merit aid…or when it gets further down the road, do you say, “Hey, college A, our S/D is very interested in your school, but the merit aid is not the same as college B. Is there any way you could match their discount percentage, this year and subsequent years, like they are offering?” In running some numbers for us, this approach would make sense from a calculated comparison, such that if college A offers $5K and tuition is $25K, and college B offers $20K and tuition is 35K…college B is discounting so the student pays about 43% of the tuition rate, and college A is paying at 80% of the tuition rate4000. If college A would match the percentage discount from college B, tuition would be $10,715 at A versus the $20,000 with a 5K merit scholarship. Has anyone had any success in doing that for their older children? Does that seem logical? I wouldn’t think going to college A and asking them to meet colleges B dollar for dollar would be at all feasible, given the difference in tuition cost, and felt schools might be more welcoming about approaching it this way…thoughts? Ideas?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>** For the questions in the above scenario I’m pretty confident that the schools we would be comparing are quite comparable for D’s major, as I know that is usually important.</p>