Congrats @readingclaygirl
That is interesting how good college presentation can change the order of schools on the list. All of the sudden now we have one of the east coast reaches moving all the way up and sharing the spotlight with all time favorite. The all times favorite was represented poorly this week. The guy didnât even try to tell anything about the school since all kids are in love with this super reach anyway.
@ballerina2016 My sonâs number 2 choice was initially on the bottom of his list after a very poor first tour until he was invited to an invitation only presentation. Thatâs why making several visits has been very important for us . We are lucky that only instate schools are on my sonâs list.
I am relieved that there is no strong order on my sonâs list. He has one Ivy and one might as well be an ivy that are simply not on his list. They donât count unless he gets in, then the will be considered. He is not holding his breath. If you ask him which school he wants to get into, he will tell you three in no order. The Ivy and other are not mentioned as favorites.
Is it appropriate to send a thank you note to the school representative who had presentation at DD school today? Not too many people attended this presentation and representative asked for DDâs name and gave her his card. He also said he will be talking to alumni who will be interviewing her soon.
My daughter does not have any strong order in her list. She did not want to visit schools nor to sit any info session. I am a little worried but thatâs what it is.
D doesnât have an order either.
Her brag sheet and packet is due to her GC tomorrow if she wants a LOR in time for her EA schools, so sheâs suddenly been very busy compiling all her information. It seems that this entire process will be tackled in short (last minute) bursts of activity. One of her close friends seems to be very much on top of everything college related. Iâm hoping it will rub off on D!
Good presentations make a huge difference in generating interest for D, especially since weâve only been able to visit a few of the schools on her list. A few bad presentations knocked schools completely out of the running.
As @grldscoutmom mentioned, a bad presentation can knock a school completely out of the running. S16 visited a very few schools so far (in last two years) and those visits happened because we were in the area for another reason. With limited resources, we are not able to visit all âpossibilitiesâ early on before application season in order to finalize a list. Is it preferable to visit schools first, then apply? It certainly would streamline the application process if son determined a school was âoff the listâ prior to spending the time applying, and then possibly doing honors apps, scholarship apps, etc.
I would hate for son to spend countless hours applying to schools that he may ultimately cross off the list if he visits at some point and has a negative experience, or worse still, if he applies and is accepted but we donât have the ability to visit before a choice needs to be made in the spring. It is so difficult to know the best way to proceed (to narrow down choices, or develop an âorderâ to sonâs list of schools). We will be traveling to the southeast in late November, so will visit schools that son already applied to in that area, so by the time we visit we know he has applied and been accepted to most (and I was a little pushy about doing those apps since I knew we would have the ability to at least visit those schools since we will be in the region anyway - they were on his radar anyway!). Not sure what to do with the rest of the schools on his listâŠI do not even know if we will have the ability to visit in other areas of the country if he does get acceptedâŠboth a financial limitation and the limit of how many days of school son can reasonably miss this year.
We live in the northwestâŠbut all the schools son has on his list (this week) are in the southwest, midwest, northeast or southeast (and one maybe that is two hours from home). I thought I was on top of this process, and now feel totally frantic at timesâŠ
@Ballerina2016 â Would send an email, as opposed to a thank you card. An email can be forwarded, or put into an electronic file.
And yes, itâs appropriate. Thatâs especially true if the representative is the regional admissions rep. This is the sort of personal contact that in many cases can make a difference. And there is certainly no downside.
She might consider including some comments about specific pieces of the presentation. Frâinstance, âPrior to your presentation I didnât fully understand the core curriculum. Now I appreciate that it is one of the strengths of the school. Thank you so much.â Blah, blah, blah.
Head bang.
Who knew that recently telling my D16 to check on the status of her LORs at each of her college app portals would not trigger her to ASK HER TEACHERS to do the LORs she arranged last spring during junior year?
Head bang.
I had ASSUMED (and you know what they say about âass.u.meâ) she had been in close communication with those teachers about LORs since August when she started submitting for Early Action. O.M.G. I assumed she had thisâŠbecause apps, and LORs, have been a major and constant topic in this house. How did she not understand she had to steward the LORs?!?
Head bang.
She might have just flushed a full-tuition grant away due to missing LORs.
We will see, I guess. Unbeliveable.
College visits: Donât Southwest and Amtrak both have deep discounts for kid and parent travelling for college visits? I know I saw the Amtrak deal. Not clear about a SW deal.
We received some disappointing news today that my sonâs current number one choice of schools has started a pilot program offering auto acceptance to any student who is ranked in the top 10% of his class in 6 counties surrounding the school ( not our county) will be granted auto acceptance making it more competitive for my son to get admitted even though he is ranked in the top 1% of his class. What really makes it hard to take is it is a public state funded school . 
Sorry to hear! It feels awful to get closed out.
@dyiu13 Yes, exactly! How can we talk about letters at home constantly, and STILL D did not ask her teachers for them! We got that fixed earlier this week, but there were a few steamy hours around here. Sorry.
Thank you @AsleepAtTheWheel I think this is what she is going to do.
@dyiu13 I had very interesting conversation with my DD on the way to school today. I asked her to follow up with her GC on NM portion that school needs to submit. My DC told me that she personally knows how frustrating it is when somebody doesnât believe that you can follow deadlines and she doesnât want to upset her GC. I will give it one more day and then contact her GC myself.
Iâm calling National Merit (again) on Monday to make sure that they have gotten what they need from the GC. I all ready called to confirm they had the SAT scores.
@ballerina2016 Listen to your gut and follow up. If GC didnât want to have to answer questions like this , he or she shouldnât be working with seniors. Donât miss out on important opportunities because you donât want to offend someone.
@carolinamom2boys This is only my naive child believes that system will always works. I just want her to own the process. But I will definitely follow up.
We have visited about half the schools D is applying to, she visited others without us on an organized college tour, and her in-state safeties are places sheâs stayed for various academics. But honestly, most of her friends cannot afford trips all over the US and quite a few are at colleges they didnât see before move-in day and are doing fine.
She has three top choices, one above the others. Itâs one where we met and became friendly with the now-former admissions director, so sheâll definitely let him know itâs her top choice. But we told her from the beginning that she can only apply to schools sheâd be willing to attend, so even her safeties are places she actually sees herself going.
What she did as she visited schools is take detailed notes that sheâs since referred to as she works on her list. She actually added some schools sheâd written off after a not-great impression of a tour guide or such, because her notes focused on the programs or the facilities, etc. and not one person. For anyone whose kids are still touring, I highly recommend this. Once you get some distance from the personalities, the actual school itself comes into better focus.
On another note, we booked the senior photos today. Theyâll be taken at a lovely local park famous for its beauty. A good friend whoâs got some training in make up application is doing her face and the dresses sheâll wear came today. The best part is that the photographer is the guy whoâs been taking our âSanta photoâ of D for many years, so he has watched her grow up.
I donât believe it makes it harder for anyone in top 1% if they are auto admitting students in top 10% in other schools. He has it made with the admission part already if rank happens to be a major consideration in the pilot program.