@2muchquan , that’s a great goal!
I’m shooting for 4 apps totally done by Sept 30.
In August we are going to crank out all essays and gather all info needed. When son gets back to school he may need to get the LOR from teachers, so 9/15. 2 weeks to review with GC, and then just submit them and be done with it all in early October. Hopefully we’ll get some early acceptances and relax and enjoy holidays/winter with little stress. That would make me very happy.
Note because I was too late to edit - WWU is a WUE school (western university exchange), which make it a financial match.
@2muchquan Just teasing b/c of the TBOD. 
@mtrosemom It sounds like a really nice campus.
@RightCoaster and @2muchquan Agreed, excellent timeline goals. Aggressive, but will be well worth it.
Speaking of Apps, my son’s “early days” list has about 20 schools. Among the 20, there are SEVEN different Apps. Of course, the Common App is most, um, common, but there are 6 others at last count. Not looking forward to this.
@MotherOfDragons it will be fine. Touring can light a fire and well, if it doesn’t, it will still be fine. Is she freaked out or just overwhelmed? It is a lot of info to process and I think hard for some kids to figure out what is important data, versus what is just noise. S and I looked at 5 schools together last night. He really has a hard time evaluating schools by just reading information and looking at pictures online, he want to see them, which just isn’t always possible. But he gets overwhelmed with all the info easily. He wanted to review them together versus on his own but then look deeper on his own after that. Whatever that means lol.
One school came off the list. I have no real idea why and it’s not one I thought would have. The others stayed on but I can’t say I felt he had strong feelings about any of them. More of an aspect liked here and there, or disliked elsewhere. He did make an interesting point which I thought was valid. I’ve been looking at schools that also have decent music and theater programs so he will have those as non major opportunities. He wants a school that isn’t SO good in either, he won’t have a chance at playing or at tech work. Which makes sense.
I think for me, financial fear is pushing me to push him to really look at a larger list. Right now he has 3 solid options that we know he will apply to. He loves 2 of them and could be happy at the 3rd. 2 safeties, 1 match and 2 of those are financial safeties. The match, which I think for both of us is holding the number 1 spot by a slight lead, may or may not be affordable. It is possible. It is also not and there are a lot of moving pieces with that one. So I would like him to have similar options that are at least as possible/not possible financially or preferably, with a higher degree of financial probability.
There is something to be said for debt free and Podunk U doesn’t bother me so much. But if a school really feels like a better fit and your kid would thrive there more than elsewhere…it does make you want to make it work.
@snoozn YAY for beating the sweepers!!!
@mtrosemom I am so glad he liked it! S17 is very interested in Fairhaven, we will actually be going back to check it out and possibly go through that interview/app process which, like the honors program is separate. I do like that they can do a traditional WWU major (or double or minor) with the Fairhaven program. We will also meet with Huxley at that time. The WWU classes would still be graded as normal but the Fairhaven core, which replaces the WWU core is evaluation based. The social justice aspect is hugely appealing to S. For me if he did that kind of combo I could probably be ok with it. The whole design your major entirely idea…I am not so keen on. I want him tied into Huxley and the Energy center for employment reasons! At the moment it is in the #2 spot but I think we need more info on both schools to confirm that.
Bus to Seattle is $5, $10 to Portland. Amtrak to Seattle is only $15. The main part of downtown is walkable. You would definitely not need a car. I would agree that the interiors of the dorms are standard but some of the settings are really gorgeous and the exterior nicer than some we have seen. My S actually preferred the Ridge area to the Honors dorm but the Honors ones were bigger and definitely more central. Fairhaven does have it’s own dorms as well but if S ended up there I think he would choose the Ridge.
Ah, you all have been too active again!
@eandesmom Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your S - good thing for the resilience of youth, eh?
QOTD: Zoiks, that is not something I even thought about. Keeping it vague and talking about the types of programs/atmosphere sounds like a good approach. D has not yet progressed to the interview phase. Ah, more research. Yay! 8-}
Belated thanks to everyone who chimed in with thoughts and advice on the “laid back intellectual” approach. Collaborative and hands-on seem to be the words to watch for.
I think D will definitely be putting RIT on her list as a “likely/reasonable” option (our terms for safety/match) even if we don’t get the chance to visit beforehand. There’s a really nice variety of programs in both engineering and art, plus they give pretty nice merit for her stats. So, miracle of miracles, I think we have “definite non-SUNY likely/reasonable” school #2, next to Smith. Around here, we call that progress, lol.
@RightCoaster I salute your ambition!
I’ve been thinking I should suggest to D that she just start journaling/doodling possible writing topics, even if she doesn’t try to formally tackle essays until later in the summer. I know she’s going to need some genuine decompression time after this whirlwind of a school year is over.
We were talking a while back about how to help our kids keep up with what is going on in the world, and some people posted some great resources. I found this, and watched bits of a couple shows over the weekend. It may dumb things down too much for some of your kids, but I think it has some potential for mine:
http://www.cnn.com/studentnews
Unfortunately, the last issue is today (what? students are only students during the school year?), and they will start up again in August.
@STEM2017 20 apps? I’d have a mental breakdown. I guess it would be fun to get acceptances and financial packets from a bunch of diverse schools. It would be fun to compare. I just can’t get son interested in too many schools. Unfortunately for us, we don’t qualify for any financial aid. 2 schools on his list are appproaching $70k all in.
The other 2 he might get some merit money from and would probably be $40-45K I think, but less selective schools than the other two. So, I will be happy if he gets into the pricey top schools, and I won’t be upset if he goes to the OOS schools and I save some $$. I think it’s a win either way.
@thermom don’t be impressed by my aggressive schedule, really. I just want everything done so I can go skiing as soon as possible next fall Last winter kind of stunk with the weather, and we had some injuries and other plans that kept us from getting to the mountains as much as we’d like.
Here is my overall life plan for the next 6 months.
@RightCoaster 20 is his early list. I’ll make sure he pares that down to 10 or less by September. Point is, there are lots of different Applications, even with Common App.
^^^^
That is kind of brutal. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary on my son’s list. I should double check again though to be sure.
We are going to start working on Common app stuff in a couple of weeks after sat/act is done.
Does anyone know if the SAT subject tests still have a guessing penalty?
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – I do not know, but I didn’t think CB was changing subject tests, other than minor content tweaks they have made to exams. (And it may be the AP exams that had content changes. I just recall reading that USH SAT II and USH AP exams no longer dovetailed as well as they used to.)
I have always wondered how one even knew his actual # correct, incorrect, etc as the only thing I can ever find on the score report is the final score.
The rest of you are frightening me with your organization so I am reading along but not responding as I do not have a handle on any of the things you all have organized in binders or files. I was much more hyper the last time around, and hope to kick into gear soon. Only vague strategy is to apply SCEA and then EA where allowed. I suspect there will be many RD apps and he does not have an ED he wishes to pursue.
Carry on! It is all good reading.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, SAT subject tests still have the guessing penalty. Sigh.
I believe SAT Subjects still have penalty points. I always advise DS to answer all questions. He is taking Biology this Saturday. Finals ending on Thursday, so 1 1/2 day prep
Yes thhe SAT subject tests do have a guessing as confirmed by S who took the subject tests in May. Lucky boy gets to take the SAT w/writing (why his counselor wanted writing I do not know) this Saturday.
Googling around, it looks like “experts” say it makes sense to guess if you can eliminate even one choice (and usually a couple can be eliminated). I tell my D not to fill in if she doesn’t have time to read the question at all (as long as that is just a couple of questions). It’s hard to have a strategy beyond that IMO while you are in the middle of the test. Good luck to all kids taking SATs this Sat!
Waving hello.
Time to catch up!
@MotherOfDragons: “She wants to visit Drexel (because their mascot is a dragon…” My rising sophomore has Drexel right near the top of her list for precisely that reason. (And she already even has a t-shirt from them, which I bought when I was in Philadelphia for a research conference a couple years back.)
@mtrosemom, @eandesmom: Thanks for the WWU report and discussion! Good to hear a car is likely unnecessary—we’re pretty emphatic about not providing any of our kids cars, wherever they go to college.
@RightCoaster: I’m going to be similarly leaning on my daughter to get as many apps started and out as possible before senior year begins. I figure that if she at least has the couple or three that don’t require rec letters in and complete, that’s totally doable. (And I’ve had her start on the bits of the Common App profile that will roll over.)
I am surprised my daughter doesn’t want to visit colleges with purple as official color. Its how she picks NCAA basketball tournament brackets.
Regarding SAT Subjects, if kids can eliminate 2 answers quickly, then it’s 50-50 chance and worth answering. DS is good at that (Science Bowl experience).