Thanks for all of the welcomes! I have some things in common with a few of you…older DD was interested in Arabic major and we visited U of Oklahoma, and Ole Miss, etc…Ended up changing her mind about wanting Arabic as a major and went with Alabama, where she is taking Arabic and enjoys it, but no major available. Also, we are waiting for SAT score tomorrow for 2015 daughter! Younger daughter needs to choose some more colleges to visit, we keep putting it off! Will be looking into NJ for deaf ed, thanks for the tip, @kac425 !
@2muchquan - fortunately, I wouldn’t need to worry about a freshman app ever again for my own kids. 
Neversay never on worrying about a transfer though but it sounds like whatever my kid entered last year will not be available for transfer purposes based on what the link said.
I am just trying to see what the app will keep for you when they start updating for 2017. Since it is the first year they are not going to jettison everything, I wouldn’t assume collegeboard can deliver on their promises without glitches when they try to drop some data but not all.
@texaspg I agree about guarding against glitches. DS will do his essay drafts in Google Docs, so that they can’t be lost. I’ll be sure to save a PDF or whatever of any Common App work that gets done before the Aug. 1 rollover.
Is that 3 or 4 Arabic majors we have here? Wow! Welcome @2kidsinky !
DS met by phone with his college counselor yesterday by phone. She is happy with his list (17) and didn’t suggest removing any. She suggested adding Rice just in case as less reachy than his other private colleges, but I don’t think he will add it.
He looked over the prompts for the Common App and new UC prompts, and has selected which ones he plans to do. He wrote a line or two about what he thinks the general topics will be for the Common App, UC prompts, and Brag Sheet. That’s all in the same Google Doc he used for summer program essays. It will be a very big Google Doc by the end of this! Of course, as always he’s working on other projects, so I’m not sure when the next progress will be. But, coming up with topics for essays felt like progress.
She suggested that he next work on ways to fit his activities into the 10 slots on the Common App plus describing the ones that are really categories of activities in more detail in the Additional Information essay. She wants to review that.
I’m hoping he doesn’t get too many essay prompts where he has to answer “Describe an event that has had the most significant impact on your life,” because he gets really emphatic that “development is a process, not an event or series of events” and “it’s about the journey,” etc… Maybe, given time, he’ll decide on something.
Welcome @rolshan @2kidsinky B-)
@jeepgirl I am in the same ACT/SAT boat. Hope it’s smooth sailing
Sitting at my D16 college orientation for the next two days. I gotta say it’s quote overwhelming all of the info they throw at you.
Waiting for four!! SAT I tomorrow, ACT next week, APs in early July and SAT II in mid July. Whatever the results are, she is done testing.
@greeny8 do you mind me asking where yourD16 is going? How exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.
Just waiting on AP results in July in our house.
We’re also waiting on four, SAT II tomorrow (Math 2 and Physics), ACT, APs and SAT I in July. He’s done, unless he does apply to the one school on list that requires two SAT II test, in that case, he may need to retake one of the test.
He wanted to get all of the testing done before the Fall, as the cross country races conflict with the Sept-Oct Saturday test dates. Heaven forbid we do anything that conflicts with X-country… [-X
DD is waiting for AP results in July. She took two (USH and Lang - she took World History last year and did well). She is planning to take two SAT Subject Tests (Bio and Lit I believe) in November. She’s only taken USH so far and one of the schools she’s applying to “recommends” three. Otherwise she wouldn’t bother. She was going to take French but decided to do Bio instead. After that, she’ll just have AP tests next May.
we’ll just be waiting on June 4th SAT and June 11th ACT. I’m interested to see if son did any better on SAT second time around, and I’m hoping he did a better on a few sections of the ACT so his superscore composite goes up 1 or 2 points ( it would be helpful).
I don’t know if he’ll take the tests again in the fall. Soccer season will be in full swing and the boys are hoping to make a run at the title. Might be hard to focus on testing, we’ll see. Plus, son17 will be taking 2 AP classes and I think they will challenge him along with a full workload. Might not be any time for extra studying.
One week now until end of school, yay.
Take good notes, I am hoping I am sitting in the same spot as you in one year.
As far as CA Essay prompts, I don’t really think the prompt needs to be followed as closely as people think. There is no right or wrong answer to a prompt. I think it’s there just to give a general guideline. A well-written essay is a well-written essay. I just don’t see the AO sitting down on their couch with a nice hot cup of coffee (it will be November-January after all) and saying…“OK, which prompt did Sally Joe answer here?..Ah, that one! OK, let’s see how closely she stuck to the topic!” Nah. Not buying it. I’ll bet they don’t even know which prompt is the one being answered.
I’m in an ornery mood today…too much caffeine. >:)
regarding CA prompts …for common app schools I feel like I am missing something. Why would one even need a different essay? Shouldn’t the essay reflect the kid and why the school should want the kid? They aren’t major topic specific unless I suppose you default to the first one (allegedly the most popular) and change what that identity, talent or interest is to better fit a school but it seems to me the rest, if done well, should truly be able to be “common”.
I’m all for having the best possible essay but wonder at the extra work. It seems schools that want more, the “why xxx” or ask specifically about the major area of interest will get that info through the supplements.
I suppose in our case it is irrelevant. S17 will most decidedly write only one essay and while he has not chosen a prompt I will be surprised if it is #1. Still I am curious as to why students/parents would push for multiple essays or versions of the same one and if there is any documentation that it actually helps. The application process seems like enough as it is.
@eandesmom I agree. D is only writing one common app essay.
One CA essay here as well. I guess I could see a situation where you may try to ‘improve’ upon it in some instances after some apps are already submitted.
@CT1417 @2muchquan
Here are the CA “unlimited” edit links. This is again NEW this year.
- The link is hard to find. Why relevant important information cannot be found on its own website. I can never understand. [-( thanks google. rant over *
I wouldn’t want kids make infinite changes but if they notice mistakes, they can correct them for the next school.
https://appsupport.commonapp.org/link/portal/33011/33013/Article/2696/Is-there-a-limit-to-the-number-of-edits-I-can-make-to-my-personal-essay-once-I-ve-submitted-an-application
https://blog.commonapp.org/2015/03/31/2015-2016-essay-changes/
I don’t know if Common App blog is not allowed or not, oh well.
If not, I’ll repost.
@eandesmom There is a possibility that S will tweak the CA essay for some schools. There is one school where he plans to apply for computer science and the rest for physics. So, he might change the essay a bit for that one school. He is planning to do #4, the problem to solve one. He might emphasize the CS aspects of the solution more for some schools.
And, agree with @2muchquan on incremental improvements. S’s summer program essays improved (to my eye) in the 1/2 week between the 2 program deadlines – mostly from editing while fitting answers to similar prompts to different lengths. Since his Common App deadlines vary from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15, I’m sure he’ll make modifications over that time stretch. So, I’m happy that multiple versions are allowed this year. One of the few good changes for Class of 2017.
Thanks @payn4ward !!
@CT1417 @2muchquan
Here are the CA “unlimited” edit links. This is again NEW this year.
- The link is hard to find. Why relevant important information cannot be found on its own website. I can never understand. [-( thanks google. rant over *
I wouldn’t want kids make infinite changes but if they notice mistakes, they can correct them for the next school.
This post is “blog-FREE” per CC rule.
You can google
“2015-16 Common Application Changes” to read summaries from various Prep entities.
as well as search
“common app 2015-2016 Essay Requirement Changes March 31”
Notice 5th item from March 31st CA post.
Waiting for Results: We have three dates marked on the calendar for scores. Tomorrow for three subject test results. July 5 for AP results, and mid June for SAT scores. As long as the subject tests are good, we should be done with testing!
Aaaargh… college board… what a mess… :-&
Maybe I will do CoalitionApp for DS19 (it’s not CollegeBoard thing, is it?) ~X(