Best of luck to all the Northeasterners! 
We have a Google spreadsheet with all the login info for the portals, so both of us can check. As far as I know, Iâm the only one checking. I asked tonight if he minded, and he said (with sincerity) no. I donât open snail mail. And I ask before sharing the news except for CC. The other night I shared with him my CC posts and responses â he was not displeased. I wouldnât dare video him getting any news. My son is like @petrichor11âs: deadpan. With the occasional happy dance after things have sunk in.
@crowlady I also have a Google spreadsheet with everything. Iâve shared with him and I donât think heâs ever looked! My son also wouldnât show much emotion in a video or in general. I wish he would but he doesnât. 
I wonât be checking my sonâs portals for him. Heâs a bit hands off at this point. I nag him to check portals once a week, in case they request something further. Heâll hear from one EA school next week, two EA schools in January a RD in late February and two RD in late March. Heâs already in at his safest safety. Their big envelope was colorful and splashy and accidentally got tossed into the stalker school pile of glossy mail. I noticed it after it had been here a day.
He says NO ONE talks about college or where they are applying. One of his friends got into W&M ED the other day and announced it on Facebook. I was so surprised at their decisions being so early. I canât wait for this to be over.
@OspreyCV22 My goddaughter was accepted ED to William and Mary and she found out last Friday. Iâm a bit envious too. My sonâs received 3 admits so far, but we wonât find out about merit for all schools until Feb., so I donât theyâll be any decisions until then .
W&M is a great school @carolinamom2boys
S16 has applied to a fair amount of schools to date. I have been the primary parent to research schools, have ongoing conversations with son about the process and his options, and to make an effort to glean helpful information from various sources online (including CC -thanks to all of you!!!).
H mentioned to a relative while we were visiting (across the country) over Thanksgiving that it is ridiculous to apply to a whole bunch of schools, there is no reason to apply to more than three! S16 is applying to quite a few (more than H thinks reasonable) due to the unknown of scholarships for merit (automatic and competitive) and need based aidâŠand also because S is still making decisions about what criteria he feels will help him find a good âfitâ. Is applying to a larger number of schools (to have more financial options) unreasonable?
H perception is that I âpushedâ son to apply to many of these schools, whereas my perception is that I helped do research, gave S information so he could make informed decisions of where to apply. Not sure how to resolve this difference in viewpoint (and one that H didnât share with me early on).
My perception is that I cannot wait until this crazy, stressful time is over for S16 and our whole family!
D ended up applying to 8 schools, 5 for 5 on admissions so far. We did spreadsheets of all kinds and in total she ended up visiting 16 schools, not all for official visits, some were just walk arounds on weekends with a campus map, but some others we have visited multiple times and three that she applied to we didnât visit ahead of applying. Some of our visits happened in her soph and junior years as I sometimes travel to schools she was interested in for my work. A few schools we visited as a family didnât fit D, but our youngest S is already interested in a couple of them despite being in middle school.
It took a while to really figure out what she liked in a school, urban or suburban near an urban center, medium to very large, not into big football schools for the most part (there are some exceptions), strong biomedical science departments and clinical programs/internships, etc. She is very frugal and is thinking of med school, so she doesnât want loans as an undergrad and for tuition, R&B our deal is for every dollar we pay, she matches it with loans or a job. She is NMSF, likely NMF and targeted schools that gave really good competitive or automatic merit for NMF or high stats/ECs. The large number of school visits was to find the right combination of merit awards AND schools that she really likes. Based on the schools she applied to she is likely to go 8 for 8 on acceptances, so for us the real excitement comes when scholarship letters and competitive scholarship applications come in.
The best thing is that our last visit was to a full ride NMF school that she really liked. It isnât her top choice yet, but is probably in her top 3 or tied for number three at least now (distance from home is the biggest issue there). That has taken a ton of pressure off, and yet there is still excitement about the two or three other schools on the top of her list when the letters, notices and invitations come in. CC has been an awesome resource, and despite a few battles along the way, DD has been really awesome in the way she handled the process and pressures. Good luck to all, especially those awaiting the ED dates to arrive!!
There were a lot of factors that needed to be searched through in order to find schools that might fit our son. With his enthusiastic agreement, we let him focus on his studies while hub and I did the research. We had a check list of everything he needed and wanted in a college. We brought the results to him and with one exception, he was okay with them. That one exception (state school he really doesnât want to attend, but he could commute from home if FA only ends up covering tuition,) we found an alternative to. Itâs very much a safety and around the same price as the big state school, but offers some courses he hadnât considered before and thought theyâd be useful to his career. All total applying to: 7. Itâll be 6 if he gets accepted to his first choice.
@Dragonflygarden My goddaughter is very excited. She has the benefit of being instate as well. That wouldâve been one of sonâs choices had he we lived instate.
@4kids2graduate I couldâve written your post. DS16 only applied to 5 schools ( all instate) , but husband has been fairly removed from the search process with the exception of attending initial tours at a few schools. My son and I have been lucky enough to make several visits to all of the schools on his list with the exception of one. These repeat visits have helped to clarify his choices. Given DS16 's stats, he will most likely be accepted into all of these schools on his list, but we are waiting to find out about merit and honors admissions. Husband went right into military after HS, so this is unfamiliar territory for him , so he stays fairly removed from the process. It would be nice to have someone else onboard to help with some of these deadlines,but probably not going to happen. So now we wait.
I wonder if my D is the only one who is still working on apps. The next few weeks are going to be very stressful around here. 3 apps in. Supposedly 13 to go. No way will she finish all of them.
Hubby finally caught on and ran some net price calculators for her most hopeful schools last night. It looks like letting S15 take a gap year was a good move financially in addition to his success. I really wonder how accurate these things are. Does anyone have any experience with them?
@FarscapeFan My D likes the âresearch monkeysâ moniker! They are so lucky to have us! Wait til they have to be their own administrative assistant or research monkeyâŠthey will really appreciate all we have done. My S14 keeps telling meâŠâdo you have to make me do my own stuff?â âCanât you be my administrative assistant forever?â when I do not anticipate his needs and take care of them anymore (now that as of yesterday he is 20 years old!) This came up when we reminded him he had to check in for his Thanksgiving flight home. He was incredulous at the thought of having to do it himself! Not his usual flippant âI got this Momâ.
@4kids2graduate We have a similar situation at our house as you have at yours. H is constantly saying âin my dayâŠâ which has translated into that you should only apply to no more than 3 or 4 schools or you do not have to do all these ECâs or you do not have to take all theses AP courses to anything else that seems to be contrary to what D or S previously have done. We just laugh (lovingly) and say âbut its not your day anymoreâ. He has come around in the last few months (and gotten âwith the programâ) but prior to that it was sometimes a stressful situation.
@MuggleMom no your D is not the only one still working on applications. My D has two more to finish and 1 scholarship app to do. I was hoping to be done by now but the timing to get these things done has not always been doable. One application is just about all finished and just needs final review but for some reason D is dragging her heels. Not sure why (whether she is too nervous or losing interest) but scores and CSS profile are already sent and she has a fee waiverâŠso in my mindâŠjust finalize an hit submit and move on. I think she is just mentally done with the application stage. It is definitely time to move on to the decision stage but I have to get D to finish the former so she / we can moving toward the latter. The duties of an âExecutive Administrative Assistantâ are never really over. I have just given myself a big promotion for a job well doneâŠand @FanscapeFan please let your S know that you and H have been promoted to âExecutive Research Monkeysâ! I / we deserve it!
@MuggleMom My son has a lot of schools left to apply to if he does not get into his ED school. He has only submitted 2.5 other applications so far ~ one for possible merit, one because it had no supplement and no fee, and the last (only the common app part) so that his counselor could approve the fee waiver before break. He claims he didnât want to have to pull back his applications to the other schools if he got into the ED but really he is a huge procrastinator. Iâm ok with it because it may save me a lot of money if he gets in ED but I wish heâd work on the supplements at least a little.
@lvmjac1 - Congratulations on your promotion lol! I think I am going to give myself one too!
@MuggleMom - while D is done applications per se, she has 2 more honors essays to write which are due Jan 10. She has assured me they will be done before Christmas, but I have not seen much progress.
Thanks for the support. Her EA school results come out next week. Getting in there might take her safeties off the list but other than that nothing changes. I am finding this whole process overwhelming. Last year S15 had some learning issues so everything took him sooooo much longer to do. With him there were essays being worked on daily, for hours each day. Sheâs a whole different kind of animal. I know that sheâll get in places once she applies⊠She just has to apply. Jan 1st just feels so close.
Three more applications for D to complete - one due 1/1 and two on 1/15. Theyâve been shelved for now as D has finals coming up and quite frankly she deserved a break from the application process (and nagging) for a while. These are for schools D is very interested in and they did not offer EA. Sheâs applying to 12 or 13 in total (3 are UCs). List long because we need merit $ and has everything from big schools to small ones. My H hasnât been very involved other than attending a few tours.
@MuggleMom my S is also not finished with his apps. He applied ED to one school, which for him is a reach, and one EA, which I guess if he gets in there, he might also take off the couple of safetiesâŠbut heâs waiting to âhearâ first. I am afraid, that if he hears badlyâ, then heâs not going to be very motivated to write for the othersâŠon the other handâŠheâs not too motivated now⊠
7 RD schools are in DDâs list. I asked her to finish her RD school apps before early results come out, but I donât think thatâs going to happen. Unless she gets accepted into early school, it will be busy winter break.
My D has started, and not yet completed, a few more apps. At my suggestion.
So far, sheâs applied and been admitted to three state schools. I want her to apply to a couple of different types of schools, just in case she changes her mind between now and April⊠One thing we all agree on - she, my husband, and I - is that a huge state flagship is not a good fit for herâŠ
So, over Christmas break, she plans to submit apps to two LACs we looked at earlier, and one small university with around 4k students. The latter is one sheâs been very interested in, but not had chance to visit yet⊠Itâs not safety, but a match, I believe⊠So weâll see what happens.
So, no, @MuggleMom , yours is not the only one!
I am happy, though, that she sent those state school RA apps in early and had acceptances before Thanksgiving. I think that took a lot of pressure offâŠ