Hey @eandesmom can you explain your essay math? Trying to figure out the mechanics of all this. For all CA schools you will have just the one essay prompt, plus any supplement for each school, right? Not sure what you meant regarding the 2 additional schools? Is it like an honors program supplement that is done outside of CA?
@2muchquan. Yes, the CA counts as 1. CA schools that have a supplement (not for a separate program but just an additional supplement they require, which may or may not be the the “why xxx” type of essay) mean 1 more. That’s 3 total. Then for the rest, one school has 2 and another has 6. Yep, 6. All relatively short but it’s still 6! So, 11 total for 10 schools. I said 9 above but that’s because I keep blocking one from my mind as I’d like to drop it but it’s on at S’s request. LOL!
There is some overlap in the info for the 2 and 6 schools versus sections on the Common App so hopefully it isn’t really as bad as it looks. Until we get into the CA though I won’t know.
@2muchquan I am guess what @eandesmom is saying that, by writing the CA essay that will only take care of 3 of the 9 schools on the list (meaning, 3 of the 9 schools does not have supplements). The other 2 schools, she meant these 2 schools (out of the 9) using CA, but have supplement. I am guess the last 4 (out of the 9) must not use CA at all… Maybe my guess is totally wrong:))
Son17 is happy to be done with ACT, at least for now. He thinks he did better on science which would be great. Thinks he stunk on the writing.
Home now relaxing, but has to get ready for school finals coming up. I am happy he feels relieved for a bit. :x
@whataboutcollege is right, except it’s really 10 schools and 11 essays. I keep trying to block one lol.
5 are common app. 2 of those have supplements. 3 total there.
5 are unique apps. 3 have no essay at all, one has 2 and one has 6.
11 total. Hoping much of the common app work will be usable for the 8 remaining but it seems different enough that it won’t be simple cut and paste.
I hope all the ACT takers blew it out of the water!
D and I decided on which colleges to visit summer and fall. There won’t be any other visits unless she’ll want to do any accepted student days to help with the final decision. We’ll head to Rochester at the end of this month to look at RIT and UofR. Poor D leaves the day after we get back to visit her grandparents, but that’s the way it works when you’re looking for cheap flights! Gonzaga and Western Washington U have special visit days one right after the other in October, so we’ll be flying into Spokane and out of Seattle with a fun six hour drive across WA in the middle. The nice thing is she only has to miss one day of school since WWU’s visit day is a Saturday.
D plans on finishing up the common app by the end of summer. All she has going on are two online summer classes plus her regular non-school activities, so she might as well finish the app and maybe some test prep for fall SAT and ACT as well. She’s going to have a really challenging senior year schedule with AP Calc BC, AP Physics, Engineering senior project and two college classes (TBD, as HS students register last). I’m a little concerned, but at least she’s only doing five classes (seven is the norm at her school).
@eandesmom, wow you’re down to 9 and D and I just added one back so we’re up to 16! If her ACT or SAT scores don’t improve I’ll highly encourage her to take off the two or three reachier schools; it seems highly unlikely they’d offer enough merit even if she got in. For now I’m not going to calculate the app/score prices. X_X
Retroactive good luck to all ACT takers!
Well, in spite of being sick with a rotten cold all week and reviewing nothing, D reports that she thinks ACT went “actually pretty ok!” and she definitely thinks she did better on the science section this time (it was her weak point in April). Fingers crossed she’s done with that! So hopefully it’s just Math 2 subject test in the fall (unless she’s not happy with her Chem subject score, which thanks to CB, she won’t know until July. Grr. Have I mentioned lately how much I’ve come to loathe CB??? >:P )
@snoozn it’s really 10, I keep trying to drop one and S won’t let me lol.
I need to figure out the tour thing, his schools are so spread out its crazy. Gonzaga makes me sad. While I liked some of the ones we cut and didn’t care so much about others that is one that really never made it on and I still think is a huge miss on S’s part. Oh well.
All 10 offer something. There isn’t one that offers it all. But I do think it’s about as good as it is going to get and am happy to have a workable list to move forward with.
Congrats to everyone who is done with standardized tests today! We may or may not be satisfied with DS’s one SAT; hopefully they’ll be prompt on Wednesday. Still considering whether ACT should be tried next year. None of DS’s schools require SATII so that’s a relief.
We made it home from state T&F championships. DS’s team missed their goal of qualifying for nationals but they did get on the awards stand and they brought medals home. They’re still sad that they’re not going to nationals but there are no seniors on their relay team, so maybe next year.
Two weeks left of finals and then we can start doing summer visits! I’m excited for this 
.
@2muchquan - Thanks for mentioning zeemee website. unfortunately none of schools in our list use that site.
Def applying to UChicago here with an older brother there she has visited a number of times. She was actually excited by a few of the prompts BUT then exactly 1 day later was talking about applying ED to an Ivy. She definitely needs to think about it a lot this summer. She loves the possible ED school and it has the exact major she wants where at UChicago the major doesn’t match up as well. She is definitely working on all her essays over the summer though as that saved my son when he had some huge assignments in school at the same time apps were due.
@saillakeerie re:7097 Interesting point you raise. It’s surprising that some schools get away with making it hard to find the profile. The profile is submitted as part of a kids college application. I’ve read my son’s school’s profile right before schools starts every year. Sometime in August they will update with the metrics from the most recent graduating class. Parents should be able to easily find the profile which accompanies their child’s transcript. College admissions rely upon the profile to understand the context of the applicants transcript.
@srk2017 I went to a panel on med school admissions at one of the parent things at UChicago this past year and the grade issue really doesn’t seem to make a difference. The give every kid that is interested in med school an additional advisor to help with that process and be sure they are taking the classes they need plus building a respectable resume. UChicago does an amazing job of getting these kids great substantive research opportunities and paid internships that help with med school admissions. My son decided to segue into a more techy area but after seeing the presentation I felt like even if grades ended up a tiny bit lower the other opportunities would far outweigh that. The kids who need or feel very strongly about grades quickly learn the classes that are more and less conducive to getting A’s.
@eandesmom Re: AP test scores. I think it’s self reporting only. No school requires the AP exam scores for admission, so you are not required to report them at all.
When S matriculates to a college, he will send the official scores to the chosen school to earn course credits or placement.
@srk2017 Regarding grade deflation and medical school…S15 was advised by more than one doctor who sits on his medical school admissions committee that, contrary to what I read on this site, that the college one attends is definitely taken into account when reviewing a student’s gpa. S15 was told that UChicago, MIT, Princeton, and JHU are well known for grade deflation.
Seems odd to me that med schools wouldn’t take into account known grade deflation schools. But maybe not. Do they adjust for major difficulty? To me a 3.5 GPA in engineering is more impressive than a 3.5 in biology. But maybe med schools ignore that as well? I would expect that MCAT would be something way to differentiate.
Is it really grade deflation or just “real” grades, but we aren’t used to that now because of grade inflation?
Regarding dress expectations (if any) for on-campus interviews…I think it’s pretty laid back…especially for summer. On campus interview last week by son was interesting on a couple of fronts. The interview was scheduled by the admissions office, but it wasn’t clear with whom exactly it would be (staff or student). I saw kids coming for interviews in suits, kids in khakis, and kids like my son completely casual in dress shorts and a t-shirt. The day was hot (close to 90) and was full of a tour, an info session, and meeting with a coach. As it turned out, interviewer was a student and took place sitting outside on a bench. Surprisingly (a nice twist on the usual), my S received a handwritten thank you note in the mail today from the student. Nice touch…and I suppose not a bad idea on our end to return the thanks in kind…will see if I can encourage DS to do so.
Tomorrow we drive to Cornell for a look see…perhaps a good time to encourage the correspondence will be during our drive time…we’ll see
D is done with ACT no matter what her score. She thinks she did well but not the 34-36 range that she was hoping for. However even with a 36 it probably wouldn’t get her into her first choice anyway. 
I always make my kids send thank you notes to anyone on a campus that spends one-on-one time. Writing notes is kind of a lost art and I think it is good manners and courtesy.
Congrats to all of the kids who spent the morning In yet another test. Special congrats to those who are done with testing. Now we wait for scores. We are waiting for the May SAT subject test scores, the June SAT test score, and all of the AP test scores. We owe our college future to the CB! :)) :-??