@mugglemom they are getting done in drips and drabs as the deadlines approach. She still has a lot of essay work ahead of her.
D’s supposed to send in an honors app and an EA app this weekend. Turns out the honors app is still missing a LOR. It was a case of her GC needing to upload the letter to the honors college. The letter had already been written and submitted to her common ap schools two and a half weeks ago, but this is not a common ap school. D should have checked her portal earlier in the week to make sure all her ducks were in a row and then she could have reminded her GC. Sure hoping GC checks her email today! If not, the honors ap will miss the priority deadline and we’ll have to wait for the later notification date.
Regarding bike theft, while at UCSB our tour guide said invest in an excellent bike lock and buy a crappy bike. Bike theft is very common. When I was student at UCLA, I had a moped. Best thing ever! It is a quite a schlepp to get around that campus, especially up the hill to the dorms and around town. I even drove it to the beach.
@MuggleMom It has been a struggle here. Many apps submitted before Nov 1 but still four more on the list. Two must be done before Dec 1. Too busy writing for NaNoWriMo (and beating himself up for falling behind on the 1666 words a day goal), keeping up with classes, and going to soccer games. I’m alternating between “If he doesn’t do any more he’s fine” to “What if one of these four colleges is really the best one for him?”
Most of S16’s schools do not require two teacher LORs but if they accepted LORs we sent them. All transcripts, scores, and all but a couple of letters appear to have been received by all schools. So now it is just up to S16. I now am worried that the LORs will hurt him and we won’t find out until after all the applications are in. I also worry that he’s still a major procrastinator and do I really want to pay for a high priced college before he matures? Yesterday he suggested I stop using caffeine, as he learned in Psych AP that caffeine contributes to anxiety. I told him my worries are NOT related to anxiety, they are reasonable concerns and it is too bad certain members of my family do not show reasonable concern. At least he’s concerned about me
@AsleepAtTheWheel I will have to look into putting S14’s key items on my homeowner’s policy.
D has two more to send. Both are “personal statements” but with different word counts. She has already written one, so it’s a matter of tweaking it. The nuts and bolts of filling out the actual applications seem to take longer than necessary though. If only one could get into college with just one essay-she’d be very happy!
My older D took a bike to college and it wasn’t stolen, but she didn’t use it much. She preferred her longboard-which also helped meeting guys, lol. I don’t guess the young one will bring a bike. Most of her schools have pretty small campuses.
Congratulations to everyone’s acceptances. I just got back from my overnight at my top school. It was so much fun, I love the school even more now. It’s so small everyone knows everyone and I really like the family feeling. 8 of us(hosts and prospects) hung out and talked for like 3 hours. Only a month until I find out.
My D is in her 4th year at Northeastern in Boston. Bikes get stolen all the time. She kept hers in her room and didt’ have a problem. Cities like Boston and NY (and many others I’m sure) also have bike share programs. The one in Boston is called Hubway. You pick up a bike and drop it at your destination - no dealing with locks etc. And they are putting more and more stations in the city. I think it’s great, but she didn’t like the bikes as much as her own (fewer gears, heavier). They have at least 2 stations on NEUs campus.
Other than bikes, I haven’t heard about much getting stolen from the dorms. Laptops left unattended, in the library or other public places, are stolen quickly. So a lot is paying attention.
readingclaygirl, with one exception, all of the schools where D is applying are small. She’s attended a very small HS and likes the support and friendships that grow where everyone knows everyone. Her top choice is one of the smallest schools on her list. The students really get to know each other and the professors too-at one of these small schools, the president has “TV nights” with the girls! Good luck to you!
@MuggleMom@petrichor11 boy, do I empathize! Since The Great Halloween Miracle (when S pulled off a last minute app for an EA school), he has not completed any other essays. NADA. He has two important app deadlines by the end of this month, and I have a sinking feeling that he will once again procrastinate until the eve of the deadlines. ~X(
I am thinking of stocking up on clearance Halloween candy and hiding in our bedroom until the deadline passes! [-O<
British schools give two kinds of offers - conditional and unconditional. Conditional offers often depend on the results of upcoming AP exams. For example, d has a conditional offer from UCL, requiring her to achieve three 5s on AP exams this academic year. Edinburgh gave her an unconditional offer based on her exsiting AP results and ACT/SAT II scores. Unconditional offer means that she is admitted and no further qualifications are required.
Hello - Not new to CC, but this is my 1st time posting in this thread. I felt like I didn’t have much to add early on as we didn’t have to go through the college app madness - my son applied early to his top pick and was notified in September. It was a nice surprise to find out so quickly. He had planned to apply to at least 4-5 other schools, but felt that he didn’t need to.
The comments on dorm shopping got my attention. I’m a bargain shopper and I’ve been collecting items for my son from consignment shops, estate sales, garage sales and clearance racks/sales since last year. It keeps my mind off the fact that he’ll be leaving in less than 10 months! He is my 1st.
Quick question - does anybody know if committing to a school early affects chances of receiving merit aid and scholarships? We are not applying for financial aid. Just hoping for a little something from the school.
@RyanG1207 – It’s a question that I’ve thought about, but all I have is some anecdotal stuff.
Of course intuitively one would think that schools would only offer merit aid if they think it will be a factor that will tip the decision to attend in their favor. However, I remember reading last year (?on the Miami thread) of a kid who had gotten accepted thru binding ED, and was still given merit aid (which violates the above concept). Some schools are more generous with merit aid in the EA round (and if fact many have earlier deadlines for merit aid than their RD deadline), likely hoping that getting that merit aid offer early will lead to a matriculation early (before the other offers come in).
I guess my question back to you would be why would one commit to a school “early”, which I assume means before all the other acceptances are in, and before the school’s deadline? What advantage can there be? The only one that I can think of is getting at the head of the housing priority list. . . Also, as you probably know, you can back off a decision to attend (if a better offer comes in), with the price being loss of your deposit. But you have to let the school know, i.e., can’t have more than one school thinking that your child’s matriculating.
Regarding Fordam University, when I was a younger my grandparents lived on the corner of Fordham Ave. and University and my sister and I used to play in Devore park right across the street from their apartment complex. I will always have always had a little bit of Fordham in my heart. That being said, I am curious if it is a good school for kids interested on working on Wall Street?
My son did send his first quarter grades to his top choice school but it is probably too late anyway as decisions come in a month. He’s taking an extremely difficult schedule with 5 APs, 1 DE, and an advanced engineering class so he wanted to show he was able to keep getting the good grades. 2 of his APs are not his strong areas and show how much he has progressed to be able to be so successful even in his weaker areas.
