@Mysonsdad Question. CSS asks for your monthly mortgage. We pay our taxes and insurance (TI part of the PITI) ourselves. Most people pay PITI to the mortgage company. I think most people don’t separate those amounts and assume when they ask for the mortgage amount, they have to put the whole amount they give to the mortgage company. DH thinks that we should not include the TI. What do you think?
@lonetreegrad - I believe I read that it is ok to include the taxes. I don’t know about insurance.
@lonetreegrad, if you notice just to the right of the square where you put in your answers (in this case you mortgage) there is a letter and a number, if it us underlined you can click on it and it will explain what they want. In this case, it will tell you to only put your principal and interest.
In regards to the numbers, yes you guesstimate to the best of your ability and then put in the real numbers later.
@Mysonsdad Thank you. Very helpful. I didn’t realize they wanted information for 3 years (2014-2015-2016), but mostly for 2015!!
@Dragonflygarden, I am imagining that
boat full of rowers in costume! Fun. Hope you get lots of good photos. Best wishes to S16…sounds like he has an ambitious and exciting list.
The CSS Profile had become my nightmare. We own a business and the school that S is applying to for EA requires the supplement and our taxes. I have no way to estimate the business amount because I am only up to May in our P&L! I will be happy next year when we will use the finished last year’s taxes instead of the estimated taxes for next year.
@LKnomad I can imagine how CSS Profile can become a nightmare for business owners. We just finished ours and it took a long time to gather all the required information. It is funny that it asks the student to fill out the form!!! There is no way my DD can do any of the parent’s sections!!
@fretfulmother As @Mysonsdad mentioned in his post, I checked the link next to the mortgage question. It asks you to just add your mortgage and interest, not insurance and taxes.
@lonetreegrad - thank you! I’m not sure where I read it then. But thank you!!
Congrats to all who have received acceptances since I last checked in! I just asked dh about the CSS. He says it gives him a headache, but it’s going well. He’s making progress.
D seems to be re-evaluating her college list (dropping schools, adding schools, suddenly has a new top choice). At the same time she’s doing homework (she has so much … now, really?) and she is finishing up her EA supplements. I think she has two interviews this week and her driving test.
@fretfulmother Sure. I am sure most people don’t even think about PITI and just add their whole monthly mortgage payment.
For common app: Are you allowed to change those essay in addition information section for different schools? Do you have a limit how many times?
Were there significantly more parents posting in the Class of 2015 thread? By this time last year there were about three times as many posts. (Yes, I have way too much time on my hands this evening.)
I think the reason CSS was easy for me is I have nothing, just some retirement accounts and pensions, no extra real estate, no money from a rich eccentric uncle, no child support, S doesn’t work, my salary is set by a salary schedule, no side business, wife retires in 19 days (40 years to the day she started all with the same company) and I know her monthly pension to predict 2016 salary. I also explained the decrease in her salary on the explaination page.
It appears that there are many of you DC that have had multiple interviews already, or have several of them scheduled. Is my son applying to a totally different set of schools than all of your kids, or have we missed something in the process? So sorry, but panic jumps in periodically during this process!
Another question: When the essay prompt is “why our school”…can the essay just be very straightforward with sufficient details to show a student has done their research about what that school has to offer? All of the “how to write an essay” help online and in college guides tend to give examples of really unique and creative essays. I didn’t know if the “why our school” essay needed to have that unique and creative bend as well. Major writer’s block continues to be the theme of the day/week/month in this household! Hoping more concrete/factual will work for this type of essay, but not sure?
“Why us” essay can be an explanation of how the student sees himself fitting the school and benefitting from the resources while enhancing the student population.
@Ballerina2016 – I’ve seen conflicting answers to your question. The most common answer that I’ve seen is that there is a limit to the number of revisions, with the revision count occurring for revisions made to a submitted app. This article is a year old, but states That there can be two revisions for a total of three versions. For S14 we did tweak the essay one time, with one version going out to all the schools that offered a marine science major (all sent in one fell swoop) and another version for the schools that did not.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeannie-borin/what-to-know-about-the-common-app_b_5781478.html
@petrichor11 – yep, the 2015 thread was more prolific than us or the 2014 thread. At one point I figured we’d need 60 posts a day everyday to catch up. But of course quantity is not the same as quality.
As @dyiu13 pointed out it’s worthwhile to point out what an applicant will “bring” to the school, but as you alluded to it’s very important to mention specific programs, both academic and non-academic that the applicant is “excited” about in that why us essay. Shows you did your homework and have really thought about ‘fit’. Also avoid non-specific stuff like location, size, etc.
@4kids2graduate I was surprised that DD didn’t have any interviews as well until I checked her application accounts at 3 of her colleges. All 3 mentioned interviews on site or with alumni. So, I reminded her to check the accounts and set up interviews. She has already done 1 and has 2 coming up next week. If you haven’t done already, I would recommend checking DC’s application accounts.
DD is a great writer but she has the hardest time with those “why our school” essays!!
@ballerina2016 Yes, you can change the main essay for different schools, and starting this year there is no limit: https://appsupport.commonapp.org/link/portal/33011/33013/Article/2696/Is-there-a-limit-to-the-number-of-edits-I-can-make-to-my-personal-essay-once-I-ve-submitted-an-application
I think the idea is that you can change the essay, submit to a school, then change it again and submit to another school. My S14 had two different essays depending on his preferred major at each school, and had to plan carefully the sequence of changes because at that time you could only change it twice. But it is apparently not a problem now. My S16 wrote an essay he is happy using at all schools so we haven’t tried it.
@4kids2graduate AFAIK none of S16s schools offer interviews. S14 had one alum interview for an Ivy League, and one interview because we happened to be on campus and he missed the info session. Must be that they are more common with top tier schools.
My S16 has two more applications in. One was a switcheroo at the last minute. He swapped one LAC for another, because he’s leaning away from them in general now but Eckerd lets you have cats in the dorms. No pain to submit: applying early meant a fee waiver and there were no additional essays. He’s worked hard and has another application with multiple essays drafted & ready to submit by Nov 1, so I am fine with a bit of whimsy and kitty love. Especially since it is a CTCL school we had been considering earlier. I guess I must now order scores, transcripts, and letters, however.
Thank you @AsleepAtTheWheel and @crowlady
Another question is on LOR. Some schools require 2, but allow 3. The dilemma I have right now is that I just checked common app, and I see one science teacher recommendation in. DD requested 2 science and one humanities recommenders. The humanities LOR was supposed to go to all schools and science teachers recommendations were for specific schools each. Is there a way to take out this LOR from specific schools? Also when they say 3 LOR allowed, do they allow all 3 to be from the teachers?