Congratulations to your D @lonetreegrad
@readingclaygirl Thank you. I am very happy for her. One less thing to worry about. 
@lonetreegrad The āadd a teacherā was my sonās wording, and the actual wording is āinviteā and āassignā a teacher. It turns out the site I looked up with the tutorial and screenshots was for the 2013-2014 common app (didnāt realize it initially, sorry!)ā¦ but I just had my son look at it tonight and he said the screen looks the same on this years common app (although the tabs on the left are slightly different). Anyway, it may help for you to look at it anyway since S says it is almost identical, just know that this link is to a tutorial for the 2013-2014 common app. See page 21-22:
http://www.paly.net/sites/default/files/Common%20App%20Instructions%202013-14.pdf
@4kids2graduate Thank you. D just checked a few schools that she applied through common app and all of them have received the teacherās recommendations. I am pretty sure D hasnāt done anything in CP regarding the teachers recommendations. So, I wonder if this information was transferred to CP through the Naviance.
I just checked CP screens again below each college and compared them with the screens shots above. Dās CP screens are a bit different. I think these recommendation letters were transferred through the Naviance.
@lonetreegrad Refresh my memory please, I canāt remember what CP stands for.
We do not use any system like Naviance, once the student lists emails for GC and teachers, they are sent links by common app to directly upload their information into common app. After reading other experiences with Naviance and similar, I think I am glad our school is small enough that it does not use an additional system. I like how straightforward things are for my S for this part of the process.
Oops! sorry! 4kids2graduate. I was just too lazy to type in common app, so I was using CP.
There are almost 500 kids in Dās class. Actually, Naviance hasnāt been too bad for D. It has some good features (eg, acceptance history, college match, scholarship match).
I guess I should have used CA!! Typo! Too tired. 
S16 clicked āsubmitā on his binding ED application yesterday. Heās played it very close to the vest with his common app essay throughout this whole process, and when I read the final iteration I gave it a āmehā. Didnāt share that with him in those words. His high schoolās college counselor wants him to complete all his back-up RD apps so he can simply submit them on Dec 15th if he gets deferred or rejected. Iām not sure thatās going to happen. Weāre not going to push him on that, as weāre all pretty confident regarding the ED school. Yes, thereās risk there, but he will get more out of doing his school work and learning some stuff like Calculus and English.
Iām off to Atlanta this weekend to visit S14 (and my 95 y.o. mother and my sister who live there). As Iāve posted on another thread, S14 has hit a sophomore slump ā the novelty has worn off, his courses have gotten much harder, and all of his freshman dorm buddies are now scattered all over the campus. Heās also tired of going to parties on the weekends where the only activity is to get stinking drunk ā he has frequently ended up walking/dragging one of his friends back to their room to put them to bed, and itās gotten old. Iām sure that there are a lot of kids who are not drinking and are out doing fun things, but heās not connected with them yet. I think that he hit his (tearful) nadir this past Sat night, and he appears to be doing better, but the timing of this visit (planned a while ago) is good. I canāt wait to see him.
S16 and my wife were impressed with Temple, and liked Philadelphia. Theyāre staying for the film festival the rest of the weekend. He says he just needs to put the finishing touches on his essay, and the GC has sent transcripts and recs. Hopefully it will work out financially.
@AsleepAtTheWheel my son went through a similar experience with being weary of the partying and having a heavy course load. It was hard to see kids who were doing virtually no classwork excell in easy classes while he was working so hard. He was an RA so he also had the pleasure of cleaning up after those kids and sometimes accompanying them to the hospital. It does get better. It takes a while. I think my son finally felt better about the social scene junior year. In the meantime, is there an internship he could apply for? Maybe associating with older kids who have moved beyond the party scene will help him?
@Themommymommy ā Thanks. I think that heās too overloaded to even consider an internship. Some of this psychic trauma coincided with mid-terms, which included phone calls of āIām not driven enough to do this. Iām not smart enough to do this.ā Or my favorite: āYou wouldnāt believe how the the combination of procrastination, easy distractibility, and the need to ultimately produce a perfect work product all conspire to handcuff me into inaction.ā He doesnāt have all his grades yet, but it appears that he did just fine. Not stellar, but fine.
My wife and I feel so fortunate that he can talk to us about this stuff, although we also appreciate the need for him to get through some of these crises with less drama. But as you said, this is likely another stage of the journey, and he should eventually get past it.
@mstomper ā Have only heard really good things about Temple. And despite the legendary epitaph on W.C. Fieldsā tombstone (āBetter here than Philadelphiaā), Philadelphia has a lot of good things going on. Fingers crossed that Temple will end up as a good option for your sonā¦
@AsleepAtTheWheel Sorry to hear your S14 is going through a rough patch. Neither of my sons likes to party, though they find their own ways to let off steam. I wonder how it will go in college for S16, who spends hours every night playing pool with his father. I wish he would spend that time working on the remaining essays for his EA applications but neither of them seems to think thatās a priority. I suppose playing pool is a useful life skill. Could give him something to do when everyone else is drinking, and if he plays for money maybe it will help with tuition.
@AsleepAtTheWheel, as you know, sophomore year was exceptionally tough for my D13. You are wise to go and touch base! Super exciting about the ED schoolā¦one and (probably) done! Nice!
One of D16ās schools is in Atlanta; hoping she is chosen to interview for a scholarship there, so holding off on visits for now (though my family is there too )
Got an unexpected acceptance from one of her RD schools a couple days agoā¦unexpected in that we didnāt expect to hear until January. They are offering half tuition now; she should get full tuition with NM. However, itās not really doable without a competitive scholarship that she will interview for. As it goes!
D got her first acceptance today. Itās not a selective school-we werenāt especially surprised, but she screamed, I cried and it all seems really real. No word on merit yet, but should be good. mstomper-D LOVED Temple and loved Philly. It is the only large school sheās applying to outside of the home-state safeties, and the only northern school. The lady running the tour she was on had relatives in Philly, so she got to see it from a localās POV rather than as a tourist and came away excited to go there.
Tomorrow is her birthday-she turns 16 and weāre giving her a driving class as one of her gifts. Weāve been telling her that itās too expensive and that she never has time so sheāll have to wait until spring. Iām curious as to how many show up at this party-she keeps inviting more and more friends and she has so many!
Congrats @sseamom 's D and Happy Sweet Sixteen!
Congrat@sseamom. It has become very real at our house too this week. No formal acceptances yet, but we ordered announcements and cap and gown yesterday.
I have made it through two senior milestone events without tears but it is starting to feel more real here as well. When the fall sport ends I know there will be tears, from both of us.
Those application due dates are looming. I hope he feels them so that I do not have to be the reminder or the one adding my credit card info at the last minute.
Congrats to all on the acceptances and merit offers!
D just got accepted to Purdue University! Yippee!
Congrats@cakeisgreat.