Very stressful day trying to set DD’s schedule. Actually she did not want me anywhere near school, she was trying to fix her schedule and I was trying to push her in the right direction. To make it more fun, our HS GC just quit. This should be interesting.
We didn’t do any tours with 2016 kid but interestingly enough, I noticed some of the college forms do let you list 2010 as the year of the visit (we did a big east coast tour for the older kid back then). 
One thing did change since the partial schedules started going online a few weeks ago. The leadership class was supposed to have been taught by the former digital arts teacher who had kids redoing projects 20-30 times to even get a passing grade. But it turns out he has left the school and they are bringing in someone new. Except for this one guy, their record of teaching hires is great so we’re relieved.
DS19 has visited 4 of the 5 schools that DS16 has toured, and was more interested than we expected him to be. He’s also built quite the t-shirt collection.
We have exactly two t-shirts. One is from a school S won’t be applying to and the other is the ubiquitous UChicago shirt. S wears both, but is afraid to buy any before decisions are out for fear of jinking himself-- and D won’t wear them, though I’ll probably end up buying her one to wear on Decision Day next spring.
I think there are currently 11 schools on my son’s list. One up-side of his relatively low engagement in the process to far is that I can tell him everything is due in November and he doesn’t know any different. He will leave it to the last minute – for EA if they have it.
Our goal is middle to end of September to make sure all of our components are in in time to count for merit and Honors programs.
Last year S14 went to an admitted students day at Tulane. He was sold. Talked Mom into buying him a $75 sweatshirt. Two admitted students days later (at other schools), Tulane was his third choice. Tried selling the sweatshirt on EBay, but ended up giving it away.
Great, now I find out I shouldn’t list schools. Oh well, at least the schools I listed have over 100,000 combined applicants who will be applying. It didn’t even occur to me that no one else was listing schools. Do adcoms really look through threads like this to see where our kids are applying? Seems like a terrible waste of time. What would they be hoping to gain?
I wish I had the chance to go through this process again because even though so many things have gone so well, there are still so many things I messed up on.
On another note, S started Senior year today. We are on our way
I find it hard to believe that adcommes will try to trace incoming students on this forum. It is possible, but very time-consuming and why would they need to do that?
LOL, @crowlady – I was thinking of doing the same thing!
@Mysonsdad , @ballerina16 I don’t suppose they would go hunting through for specifics. But at this stage of the game, it makes sense to me to err on the side of circumspection.
Or not. I don’t know. It’s not like I could identify any of y’all from what’s been posted thus far.
@mysondad – I didn’t mean this forum, but rather the specific school threads. For instance, I know that on some of the Tufts threads admission reps will occasionally chime in with answers to questions that some parents pose. And the threads of some of the small LAC’s receive so few posts that it would be easy for someone to follow the discussions w very minimal time or effort. I think that for most schools there’s little to no risk.
But I still wouldn’t go on to CC after a bad interview and write “My son just had the worst interviewer ever at Oberlin. The guy must have had ‘small man syndrome’, overcompensating for the fact that he was 5’4” by being a total a**hole". That’s enough specific information to be identified on a thread that doesn’t have a lot of posts. That said, one gets what one deserves for applying to Oberlin.
Similar issues on some of the athletic recruiting threads. I wouldn’t write a note on there that your kid just met w the Yale coach who is desperate for a second baseman, and might sneak your son in despite borderline academics. That’s a call to all second basemen w good academics to speak to that coach ASAP.
As @mugglemom wrote, most of us on here follow the notes closely enough to figure out where many of the kids are applying. But no reason to make it too easy for an interloper to know.
Finally, here’s a link to another article by Frank Bruni who writes a lot about college admissions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-a-prudent-college-path.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=MostEmailed&version=Full®ion=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article
Ahhh, thanks for the clarification @AsleepAtTheWheel. That makes sense now. I guess I am just a little paranoid. I enjoyed the humor of your post btw. It surprises me as a high school teacher how many things I don’t know.
@Mysonsdad I wouldn’t worry about posting where kids are applying on a thread like this as long as you don’t make comments like the awesome example by @AsleepAtTheWheel. As long as you realize that your child may be competing with another child of a parent on this board it should not be a big deal. That being said, we should all make sure that we are grown up when we realize that our kids may be in competition with other kids here and to not stress if we share stats.
I think it is important as parents all going through the same thing to pledge to be positive toward other parents whose kids may in competition with yours at top schools. Mine is applying to a couple of lottery schools and I would hope that anyone else here would cheer us on rather than discourage us if they learn that we have a similar list. I think that is more the issue than adcoms browsing the forums.
I would think the 50 kids who are applying to the same schools as my kid from the school are more of an issue…
@LKnomad, count me among those who will be cheering your son on, even though my D will be applying at many of the same schools!
My S16 will have his first college interview at a local college (that should be on his list but isn’t really since it is, well, local) on Wednesday. He visited the college last fall and liked but is pretty sure he doesn’t want to attend because too close to home. I asked him to reconsider and to interview since it will be good practice. His cousin who is a rising junior is in town and will visit the college, tour and do info session. S will have interview during same time. They will do this while H and I are busy taking older sister back to college. Now I am thinking that this may be the worst idea ever…as far as I know, S hasn’t prepared at all. Not sure what if anything he remembers about the college from last year and he doesn’t even have a resume drafted. I can’t decide whether I should force him to finish up the resume tomorrow so that he will have something to give interviewer or just let it alone and have this be a trial run…ugh.
Considering how many students apply to those lottery schools, I don’t feel any competition here in CC. We exchange our ideas and thoughts regarding admission process building positive input for us.
Completely agree with @NYDad513.
I’m excited/hopeful/nervous for all of our kids. Wishing only good things for all!