<p>Now that this school year is finally almost over I’d love my D to start working on her Common App essay, but does anyone know if there is still an additional short essay (not the individual college supplements)? When my D13 was applying, there was one main essay and then a short one about an extracurricular activity.</p>
<p>@daisychain, from what I understand there is now only one essay. The CB increased the word count on the essay from 500 to 650 words and dropped the other, smaller 150 word essay you’re thinking about. This is what we heard at “Junior” night awhile ago, but please someone, confirm this for me.</p>
<p>@twogirls – I’d love to get some of the “administrative” stuff out of the way, like sending the test scores out now, but I’m concerned that until they open the common app and start a portal on the college website there really isn’t a “file” for the kid and the scores may get lost or misplaced. Maybe it’s not the case, but it’s making me wait to send out the scores (that, and the realization that that is the easy part).</p>
<p>@shoboemom – I hope you have a great day at Tulane! Can’t wait to hear about it. </p>
<p>@daisychain – I have heard the same info as @mtrosemom. There is just the one big essay now and they removed the second one about ECs.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info @mtrosemom and @mamabear16! </p>
<p>D2’s early app school will open a “file” for her whenever she sends any of the required materials. I spoke with their admissions office directly just to make sure test scores, etc. wouldn’t get lost in the “ether” before their app goes live in August and she sends it in. I’m going to have her create an account for online submission of her app, and she should be able to monitor through that account to ensure they show her transcript, test scores, and LOR have been received prior to her app closing out the process.</p>
<p>It’s only one of several schools she may eventually send apps to…but it’s a start!! I’m actually looking forward to her starting the process, because it hopefully means she’ll have her admissions decision, merit offer, and final decision made that much sooner. I really hope she’s “done” (for all intents and purposes) before Christmas and only have her AP tests left to worry about for the second half of senior year. <:-P </p>
<p>Mamabear16 I tend to agree with you except part of me wants to get the tests out. Usually they are sent in a timely fashion and there are no issues, however my friends kid had an issue where it took a long time- but who knows as the family is not very organized with these things. </p>
<p>I just called Emory and was told it’s fine to send the tests before the common app is sent. I keep using Emory for my examples- wishful thinking LOL. </p>
<p>A funny thing about senior pictures in front of barns…or makeshift barns…</p>
<p>DH actually grew up on a farm and his parents still live there. DS spent some memorable childhood days on the farm, the cornerstone of which is an historic red barn - just like in the children’s book The Big Red Barn. So DS could quite rightly have his senior picture taken in front of that barn, because it belongs in the family and it’s a special part of his growing-up. But every-other-kid has a “barn” senior picture. And I know we live in Kansas, but - trust me - most of the people I know have never set foot on a farm. In fact, I hadn’t even seen a farm, cow, horse, etc. up-close until I met DH! Plus, there’s the expense of dragging a photographer out to the farm for a photo-shoot. We would probably have to hire someone local to that area, though I’m not sure we could find anyone around there who’s a professional photographer. It’s fairly isolated.</p>
<p>Personally, I think senior pictures should be taken in the Spring of senior year. To me, that would make more sense. But our yearbook ad deadline is something like August 1, so we need to get this done. We’ve gotten lots of photographer brochures in the mail this week and DS was laughing at them w/his younger bro this morning at breakfast. I’m pretty sure the “spread-eagle-on-the-Cadillac” photographer sent us a brochure, because the boys were really laughing at one of the brochures in particular. </p>
<p>@GoAskDad: Okay, now I’m going to re-read all your senior photo posts with this on in the background.</p>
<p>[Dwight</a> Yoakam – “Guitars, Cadillacs”](<a href=“Dwight Yoakam // Guitars Cadillacs (1986) - YouTube”>Dwight Yoakam // Guitars Cadillacs (1986) - YouTube)</p>
<p>We spent a hot and humid day visiting Johns Hopkins today. It was hands down the fanciest campus we’ve seen. Everything from the admissions visitor building to the library to the gym was shiny and clean and new-looking, yet picture perfect old brick buildings and green quads. The info session was well done, and the admissions officer very young and seemingly transparent about how they assess applications. The walk around the neighborhood was nice, although there is a lot of construction. The impression we got definitely changed kid and my attitudes for the better. It was much less cut-throat/hard core than we predicted, fantastic facilities and safe feeling campus/neighborhood. My only complaint was having to pay for parking. </p>
<p>How is it that some people are so uninformed… I realize that we on this forum are not the norm… researching every little thing to get our kids where they want to be. But I have talked to two people lately with smart capable kids who had never heard of National Merit??? Then another who didn’t understand why the ACT score couldn’t verify the PSAT score for finalist status. The same one had no idea what a subject test was… and thought I was crazy for allowing S15 to take them. </p>
<p>Need to stop talking to people… need to stop talking to people…</p>
<p>@VSG – Thanks for sharing info about your visit! The cutthroat reputation at Johns Hopkins was not appealing to my D at all. What about your visit made you think that it’s not really like that for the students? I’m very interested to know, since it’s strong in D’s areas of interests, but I would hate for her to be in an ultra-competitive environment.</p>
<p>@wrights1994, it’s a shame, isn’t it? If I hadn’t found CC when DS was in 8th grade (somehow stumbled upon it in relation to a search I was doing on Duke TIP), we wouldn’t know <em>anything</em> in this house. Our HS kinda/sorta prepares most students to attend in-state schools, or perhaps junior college - and I understand there are limited resources and lots of students - but still…</p>
<p>There is so much I feel I still do not know, but I do try to help other parents & students if the situation arises. I can at least point people in the direction of resources.</p>
<p>To my mind, the best thing that school districts could do is conduct annual seminars on college financing…when students are in elementary school. So much has changed since DH & I attended college and, until I found CC, we really did not understand how the financial landscape has changed and how we would have difficulty affording college for our kids. Now that DS is approaching his Sr year, I know many who are completely clueless about college financing, not to mention testing, subject tests, etc. It’s unfortunate.</p>
<p>Wrights I find that we have the opposite problem. People are super informed about all of the testing and are competitive ( not everybody). What I find going on where I live is that people have very unrealistic expectations and get mad at the guidance counselor when it is brought to their attention. One of the guidance counselors told us that she recommended a school to somebody and was yelled at because it was not a top 20 school. </p>
<p>Thanks for the the JH update!! </p>
<p>@wrights1994 I knew nothing about those subjects until I found CC four years ago and I only found it by Googling the PSAT score and only because my friend who homeschooled knew what it meant. Believe it or not people do not know this I thought it was a practice test because that is what we were told. Subject tests never heard of them until CC. I am a pretty well read and educated person but I never gave college much thought until that PSAT. I figured my kids would go to the State U and they would be fortunate since my husband and I were both commuters when we went and thought them going away would be a big deal. </p>
<p>I made the mistake of counting on the GC for information and if you didn’t go to a private school or one of the top public HS you didn’t get this type of guidance. </p>
<p>@twogirls – our school is like yours, but we also have friends with kids at different schools and some of them look at me funny when I mentioned that D was taking subject tests in June. They don’t get why anyone would take them I guess. I’m trying to just not talk about it.</p>
<p>@pixleyyy we had the same impression of Gonzaga when we toured with S11. The campus does not have a cohesive feel at all, especially with the use of many small houses in the neighborhood as campus offices. When I asked, our tour guide said that the school wanted to grow quickly, and so it started buying existing houses for office/administrative space rather than build. We were also underwhelmed with the faculty member we met. (It may just have been an off day for him.)</p>
<p>@GoAskDad your trip report on University of Tulsa tipped us into visiting so thank you! 
We liked many things about it but D was pretty sure ahead of time that she wanted a big school and the visit confirmed it for her. We visited University of Nebraska some time ago and D vetoed it. </p>
<p>Is there anyone else here who’s wrestling with arts supplements? I am so at a loss since my son doesn’t have a clear idea of what he wants to major in. And slideroom is still a mystery to me, since when my oldest son applied, things were totally different.</p>
<p>He’s been a cellist for 11 years and has done many, many cool things with it–like right now, he’s the only musician (he gets to drum, too, for an extra $50-woo hoo) for a production of Romeo and Juliet at a local professional theater company this summer. And he <em>might</em> possible major in music…but maybe not? Or maybe at some schools that don’t have some sort of design (game, product, art, miniatures, etc.) he might?</p>
<p>So, does he submit a cello supplement?</p>
<p>For most schools potentially on his list, I think he’ll submit animation projects, since maybe he’s leaning towards design. But I am so confused.</p>
<p>Can he submit something different for different schools on the Common App slideroom? Like, could he submit animation to one school and a cello recording or live audition to another school? Can he do both for some schools?</p>
<p>Honestly, his supplement and LORs will be a big part of his application, I think, so I want to understand it better.</p>
<p>Well, I actually want him to decide on a school to apply to first…urggle.</p>
<p>@sbjdorlo, S14 is majoring in Visual Arts (Film). When he did applications, each school had a slightly different requirement for the art supplement. Most used slideroom and the common app directed us to the appropriate, already set up, slideroom submission page for that school and the specific requirements. If he had chosen a second choice major, he would have been able to submit a different art supplement for that major. I would expect the animation project to be very similar. I believe at least one school had him submit a link to his video instead of uploading the actual video.</p>
<p>Hope that helps. </p>
<p>@MamaBear16 re: Hopkins. we had one undergrad in the info session and two giving the tour. Two of three were premeds and the third an engineer. The consistent answer to questions, both from some angsty premed applicants and other applicants and parents was that while the premeds are ambitious and want to do well, the spirit is cooperative more than competitive. The message we got was that the undergrads are very integrated into the university and farmed out to find their niches. Everyone emphasized unique paths and most do 2 or more majors. So they aren’t generally competing against other undergrads in their same track. The kids there today were obvs. Hanging around for the summer, but all mentioned that they had multiple offers of summer research jobs and similar. It really seemed that there was enough opportunity to go around and they supported each other. </p>
<p>D has her last Regents tomorrow- physics. She has been studying and taking practice tests for a long time and she is more than ready. I think D spoke to me tonight more than she has spoken to me all year because she is essentially done with studying. She knows her notes and has taken every single Regents exam from 2003 until the present. We looked at my wedding album, my college yearbook, and sat on the couch laughing. It was nice to see this side of her. Tomorrow afternoon at about 3:00 she will officially be done with junior year.</p>
<p>D12 is blowing through money like it’s water. Just told her that she can’t eat out every single day. Thankfully it will get easier once her camp job starts in another week. </p>