I had a three-speed that was ancient/used when I got it as a girl in about 1979, and I had a really heavy bike chain that I used for years afterward. Never got stolen despite my best efforts. 
I doubt DS16 will have a bike for campus, but I guess itās possible, so Iām reading with great interest!
Thank you to everyone for sharing their stories with me. Her online math lessons are going surprisingly well. Her college stuff, not quite touched yet. She is getting a little weepy when her friends say things like that they got into their top choice already with great aid so the deposit is in and theyāre done, or that all 14 of their apps are in and now its just a waiting game, btw, what are you doing tomorrow, lets hang out. Oy. We have a date for this afternoon to pick the schools that sheās telling her high school that sheās applying to and to put them on the common ap. Once that happens, she can be sure all the recs and transcripts went, and do her stuff in her own time frame ā whatever that may be.
Out of curiosity, does anyone have an opinion on how long it will take ACT or SAT scores to arrive on time for a Jan1 deadline? How late do you think we can safely send them? It sounds like October was a nightmare for college board. Do you think December will be any better?
I do love the Halloween candy idea. In our house, its single serving size boxes of chocolate milk. (I bought 6 cases last week) Iāve been known to receive a text with a picture of half a dozen empty cartons with the caption ā its a 6 pack kind of dayā.
@MuggleMom Iād like to be positive and say Dec scores would make it by the January deadline , but given my sonās experience recently with his ACT and SAT scores, I highly doubt it. Does she have any other scores to send ? If she does , Iād send them now.
@MuggleMom DS is still working on honors applications for 2 schools; otherwise all of his apps are completed. He is getting somewhat discouraged that he has only heard from one of his choices. He has also received provisional acceptance from a school last Spring, but hasnāt received his official letter yet. We know some letters have gone out because of a thread on CC, so he has been even more discouraged. I thought that the waiting game would be a piece of cake compared to the application phase, unfortunately I was wrong. Good luck to your daughter.
@carolinamom2boys Thanks for your kind words. The waiting game can be very tough. S19ās experience taught me that you canāt expect anything. It doesnāt matter what everyone else got, or what the website says, if its not guaranteed, its not guaranteed. The waiting game is hard. Getting results for us was even harder. Nothing worked out as planned. I can say that beyond a shadow of a doubt, it worked out EXACTLY how it was meant to be and S19 is probably the happiest he has been in his whole life, the road to get there was incredibly long and convoluted.
It all works out. We found distraction to be a wonderful tool when things are tough. Best of luck to your S. Let him know that there is no rhyme or reason to why results come out in the order that they do. it could be regional, or alphabetical, or by major, or phase of the moon you were born under. No one but the admin office knows. It truly is that random.
Best of luck getting those last 2 in.
DS13 had an inexpensive, beat up bike that he bought used stolen last summer while on campus. I am surprised there is such a market for stolen bikes!
@MuggleMom brings up a good point about sending scores in December. Hereās what Iām thinking now: it took over two weeks from date of order to date of receipt for most peopleās scores in October. Maybe weāll send scores to the schools where DD plans to apply if she doesnāt get in to her EA choice. Otherwise, if we send on Dec 15, weāll only have two weeks with holidays in the middleā¦
ā¦though I do hate to reward CollegeBoardās inefficiency by giving them money that may not be necessary (fingers double crossed and repeating lucky chants over here).
@EastGrad I had similar thoughts. We should hear from EA sometime in Dec too. If she gets in, quite a few schools come off her list. I was hoping to save a few bucks, but it looks like the pressure and stress of College Board not doing their jobs correctly just isnāt worth it.
@RyanG1207 - that is a great question about ED and getting a little merit aid. We are going the same route, as the chances of getting in to my sonās first choice are much greater by applying ED. Unfortunately, we are planning to pay the full ticket as a result, as we also wouldnāt qualify for aid. BUT, I have heard from some friends with older kids that after acceptance, many schools then offer grants/scholarships and opportunities for some merit $$, and you will be notified as to how to apply for such things after you are accepted. I am hoping that they are correct. Good luck to you!
Yes, @MuggleMom, I can just see DD checking and rechecking the portals all day on January 1st and me trying to convince her that nothing will change because itās a holiday, when sheās supposed to be helping me take down the holiday decor!
Thanks for that info, @Suzima!
@RyanG1207 Congrats to your S for the acceptance to his early applied school. Just curious was his application EA or ED? Reason being, if it was EA I would encourage him to apply to a couple other schools. My S was āabsolutely sureā he only wanted to go to one of the schools where he was being recruited to play lax. So he did his overnights and more than five visits to the campus of his top choice and felt so confident in his decision that he only applied to that one school in early January and was accepted with a great package two weeks later. Fast forward to June and all of a sudden second, third and forth thoughts were creeping in right before we went there for orientation. Orientation went very well and that renewed him somewhat but those unsure thoughts were still lingering. By August he did not want to go but went because we all thought it was last minute jitters. In the end he last minute gut was right. It was not at all the right place for him but he stuck it out for the semester and transferred home. The downfall of his path was he had no idea of the possibility of acceptances anywhere else because he never applied anywhere else. The knowledge that maybe he could have re-applied as a transfer to one of his prior acceptances would have been very comforting to a 17 year old that just had to live through a semester (that he was absolutely sure a few months before he wanted) at a school that was in the end not really what he wanted but did not realize eight months earlier. This realization came mostly because he came to realize that he did not want to sacrifice his academics to play a varsity sport. Long story shortā¦a lot of growing up and changing does or can happen in the 8 - 10 months between applications and actually going off to college. I would advise on at least having knowledge of optionsā¦it would have helped in our situation.
Has anyone here actually had the experience of test scores arriving after an application deadline, and therefore the application wasnāt considered since it was āincompleteā?
S11 and D14 both applied to over 10 colleges. Many times during the process, right after applications were sent they would get a postcard, an email, or a status on their portal for that school saying something was missing (usually the test scores). We would follow up and within a few days of the notice the school would verify that the test scores were received. The schools my kids applied to seemed to be okay with getting the additional pieces that trickled in a little after the deadline (as long as the students actual application was submitted on time). So far this year I am finding that to be the case with S16s applications as well.
I guess in our household we are a bit more laid back about it, and quite often send the test scores only a couple/few days before the deadline, and have been known to order them on the day of the deadline (waiting that long because kid was on the fence about finishing an application - so only ordered scores once submit button was pushed on deadline day). We never had a negative outcome from submitting in those time frames.
Does anyone have a different experience?
@AsleepAtTheWheel @Suzima @lvmjac1
Thanks for your input! He applied regular decision for a rolling admissions school. I guess there is no advantage to committing early since housing is not 1st come, 1st serve. It would just make us feel better to know we are set.
I forced/encouraged him to complete an application to a safety that was already in progress when he received the acceptance in September. He was accepted with a large merit aid package, but the 1st choice school has a better program and overall fit.
Weāve visited his 1st choice school 3 times in the last 5 months (5 hour drive). It was the last school we visited and a last minute contender. Northeastern was originally his 1st choice because Boston was comfortably familiar to him. My husband and I are BU alums and weāve been back to visit with the kids many times.
We all changed our minds about which school would be best for him after that 1st visit. We were back last week (3rd visit) to explore the town and campus, talk to reps and reaffirm his decision. He said he was sure and I truly feel it is the best fit in terms of the quality of the program, type of campus and location of the school. Iām hoping that I can help my daughter find the same type of fit - sheās 2 years behind my son.
@RyanG1207 ā ?Has your son been accepted at the 1st choice school, or are you still waiting to find out? And if he has been accepted to that school, when do you hear about merit aid?
Itās only November. As Iāve posted here before, with my S14 there were a lot of things that were much clearer in April than they were in the prior November. Your son sounds like heās more mature than mine was (and possibly more than he is now, two years later!) and is farther along in the decision-making process. But even so, is there a reason NOT to apply to Northeastern and see what happens? What if they come through (even unexpectedly) with a large/better merit aid package? Just throwing that out there, realizing that it may be totally off-base.
It will be very interesting and enlightening in the spring when all the matriculation decisions have been made, and the names of the schools are revealed. Itās striking (and wonderful) that so many kids can feel like theyāve found such a good fit at what will undoubtedly turn out to be so many different schools.
anyoneās kid becoming more ornery as this whole process continues??? :-?
Once āsendā was hit on all of the applications, things got much better! 
@EastGrad Are you saying that some decisions that your D is waiting for are supposed to be released on Jan 1st? If so, they could have an automated release date/time - even though their offices would be closed that day. I know MIT has traditionally released their results on Pi Day 3/14 @1:59 p.mā¦so I assume that is preset automated āreleaseā time (although I can visualize a staffer in admissions at MIT with their hand on the ābuttonā watching the clock intently and having to push it at the exact second required!)
Hi Everyone! Iāve read all 544 pages of the thread. Whew!
Iām sitting at the airport. D16 and I visited 2 universities on the west coast this trip. Our flight is delayed 3 hours which means weāll get home around 2 am. Yucch.
D16 has 10-12 universities on her list. She is no longer enthusiastic about her previous chosen major (computer science). She took comp sci last year in high school and liked it, but this yearās teacher is horrible. Sheās also lost all enthusiasm for the schools on her list. Most have acceptances in the range of 5-25%. Hereās hoping that things will be all sunny and bright in 6 months.
I know that many students are planning on going for interviews soon. I have the added challenge of locating dress pants for my super thin son( 30x32) I was able to find some at JCP, just in case anyone else is in the same boat .
No, @4kids2graduate, I am saying that I can imagine DD checking the portals every 10 minutes on January 1st to see if the scores she sent on 12/15 (after receiving bad news from her EA school) that didnāt arrive by 12/31 are now posted. Of course, we are instead hoping for good news from the EA school! 
To prevent this, @MuggleMom and I have considered sending scores to the schools our kids are considering if they donāt get into their EA choice/s. But it is galling to send more money to College Board, especially if we donāt have to. I have always loved that MIT releases on Pi dayāa little bit of ācharmingā in college admissions.
Hey, @MuggleMom, assuming you are a big Harry Potter fan, have you seen this:
http://www.bustle.com/articles/123103-the-heartbreaking-truth-behind-snapes-first-words-to-harry-in-harry-potter
Strong work, @bouders! And you too, @carolinamom2boys.