@texaspg Wow that is a huge number. Is it a local school? I was looking at the numbers at our local CSU recently and found that there were 133 students from my son’s high school attending. I don’t know how many were actually accepted. I assume many many more… What is the typical number of students that your school sends to that specific college?
@mugglemom, I am already stressing the associated costs with my daughter’s somewhat lengthy list. Besides sending scores, she has a college transcript (just a couple of courses) that has to go out. Some of the apps are turning out to be free, but certainly not all.
@asleepatthewheel, excited for your son, but hoping you stick around (once all is said and done) for the remainder of the year handing out advice to the rest of us. And I agree about discretion in regard to potential schools; I have wondered about college reps browsing this forum. Though I am quite interested in where everyone is applying!
@ballerina16, ugh, no good that the gc quit! We are dealing with a new gc/academic advisor here too (our school setup is unusual, as it is a homeschool charter); so far, so good, but of course she doesn’t know our daughter at all. I sent over a resume, hoping it will help with the required references.
Ha, @Crowlady, sounds like a good plan!
I wish I knew how many schools D is applying to. 1 done–so there’s that. Somewhere between 1-15 I’d guess.
Fall sport started today, so MY goal that CA would be done prior to that was not met. She will be insanely busy now until November 15, so getting apps done is not looking good. I keep telling myself “it’s her life”.
@momofzag It sounds like this interview could be a wake up call. My S14 had a surprise “interview” and was not prepared. We missed an orientation group session during a spring break visit, so they offered to have him talk one-on-one with an admissions counselor. It was awkward. But it is now where he’s going to school! Good luck to your son, and may he learn not to depend on luck 
S14’s first interview for a summer internship was a disaster – they tripped him up by starting with “Why are you interested in this internship?” But by the third internship interview he’d learned his lesson, did well, and got the job. So there clearly was value to being embarrassed due to his lack of preparation. @momofzag – you’ll have to give us follow up. And good luck getting his older sib settled back in.
@AKFirefly – thanks for your kind words. S16’s recruitment has along way to go before it’s a done deal. We won’t really know until early October whether the coach will support him or not. Plenty of time for the coach to find a kid he prefers. If it does work out and he’s in by mid-December I’ll certainly stay on this thread. Too many good parents and great kids to root for. And any opinions I share here are just that, not expertise, and are biased by my experience from the first go-around w S14, who is a bit of a knucklehead, albeit a lovable one.
@Booajo – it’s reassuring to know that my son is not alone having fallen far short of the goal of getting his common app and a couple of supplemental essays done before school starts back up.
All of this, exactly.Though I think there might be only one or two kids from S’s high school applying to his first and second choices, there are enough in our general area that he’s got some stiff competition locally. If he’s in danger of being denied to a school on his list (and if there are lottery schools involved, that’s an automatic yes), I’m more worried about how he fares against Jacob from one town over. I’m kind of hoping to meet people from this board at convocation somewhere!
@Booajo , S’s “fall sport” (marching band) started a couple of weeks ago with band camp and leadership camps, and mercifully there’s a two week break before school starts. Of course, what’s he doing with it? Texting girls he met at camp. :facepalm:
I think mine is more worried about sports/senior year/boyfriend stuff than colleges. Oh well, I’m apparently the planner in my family. My spouse also drives me nuts with the focus on the present instead of the future. Guess they are more “zen” than I am.
@lknomad There are many kids usually applying to several of the lottery schools because top 40-50 kids think they got a shot at any of the schools. My older kid’s class had 38 national merit finalists but that number might be smaller in my younger kid’s group.
4 years later, the school district now has a low income help program which trains a lot of the kids to apply to top schools and lately that program is placing more kids at top schools than the schools themselves.
@Booajo I too am the planner in the family. Someday they all will thank you. You just have to wait VERY patiently.
I am counting on the school’s application workshop to spark some further progress before school starts. [-O<
At last, got her to at least consider college for 30 minutes today (trapped her in the car driving to practice!)
Her goal is to apply to 10 schools max. 5 already chosen, so a few spots to fill.
I’m a planner, I just am! Right now I’m planning our Spring Break vacation. We are renting a large beach house with another family four adults 7-8 kids (D might be bringing a friend) and a spoiled rotten dog. So far I’ve booked the beach house found a hotel that meets our needs for lodging on the way there. Complied a listed of local activities complete with pricing info and additional info. I’m waiting to see if anyone wants to add anything I missed to the list and then both families will vote on what they want to do. We don’t have to do the same things but we need to have transportation worked out since we only have 2 mini vans for 12 people. I’m working on a list of restaurants too. Once I know which activities everyone is game for I’ll figure out which meals we eat out for and where. I have to get this done so we can start working on a menu and a shopping list!
My family is used to me, this is just life in our boat but the other family is not detail oriented, thankfully they say they thrilled that I want to take the lead for this. Their oldest is taking a gap year partly because of lack of planning. There will no gap vacation year!!
Not to derail the current train of thought, but this really helped me when someone posted it on the parents of 2015 thread, so I thought I’d post it here. If your student isn’t done testing, Here are registration deadlines and testing dates. For the September ACT, you can still register if you pay a late fee.
The ACT National Test Dates in the U.S., U.S. Territories, and Canada
2015–2016
Test Date Registration… Deadline…(Late Fee Required)
September 12, 2015… August 7, 2015… August 8–21, 2015
October 24, 2015… September 18, 2015… September 19–October 2, 2015
December 12, 2015 … November 6, 2015… November 7–20, 2015
February 6, 2016* … January 8, 2016… January 9–15, 2016
SAT Date … Registration Deadline… Late Registration Deadline … Deadline for Changes
Oct 3 … … Sep 3 … … … Sep 18 … … … Sep 22
Nov 7 … … Oct 8 … … … Oct 23 … … … Oct 27
Dec 5 … … Nov 5 … … … Nov 20 … … … Nov 23
Jan 23 … … Dec 28 … … … Jan 8 … … … Jan 12
Of course, all this info is only as good as my copy and paste skills. Please check with the official websites for actual dates and info.
This may have been previously mentioned, but if you want to take the fall SAT, don’t wait to sign up as there may be a lot of people trying to get it done before the new format.
Son got back from his trip to Michigan on Sunday and went right back to work on Monday. He said NOAC was amazing and is already planning to attend in 2018.
On the college application front the common app account has been opened and some data has been entered (by the secretary- me). Son’s first priority is applying to a fly in program. After he gets that done he needs to start his essays for the common app. So far he wants to apply ED to one selective school and we have a short list of other schools he is interested in.
Big discussion today about the CA essay. Most of the CA has been filled out and S has been reading books on how to write a good essay. We talked about his idea today and he is ready to start writing. Can’t wait to read it. I think he ended up with an interesting topic.
He has asked me to help him make a spreadsheet with all his college choices on it along with average SATs, GPAs, etc so we can get an idea of how safe or reach a school is. I consider this a step in the right direction. Now I have to remember how to pull data from IPEDS. I used to do this for a living. Suddenly I am doing it at home.
@Dragonflygarden, I had to smile; we were joking here about my secretarial role just tonight. That’s nice that your son has a strong desire to attend one school. My daughter’s done some fly-in program apps too (along with the scholarship apps…though she keeps getting turned down for those! I hope this is not predictive of how her year will go 
)
@lknomad, your son clearly has a logical engineering kind of thought process! Love that he wants a spreadsheet.
Volunteered at freshman orientation with D yesterday. There is a program at school where incoming freshman can sign up to get an upperclassman so they have someone to help them get acclimated, as the academic program and school culture is very unique. I had to laugh watching many moms sign up their kids, even though their kids were visably mortified.
I think D’s senior class schedule issues have been resolved. Her GC has been very helpful. As a result of all the shuffling, she picked up a forth AP class which she hadn’t anticipated. The trade off is she may get two of her very favorite teachers (hello letters of recommendation)! D needs to turn in two rough drafts of her college essays tomorrow (online) as part of her summer assignments, so progress will be made.