@Mom2aphysicsgeek That would be awesome if your D could translate her own LOR! O:-)
D asked yesterday for a LOR from the guy who runs our annual service trip to Kentucky. He will write a great, interesting letter that will be good for schools that don’t require teacher recs, or are service-focused or have an honors LOR requirement in addition to the regular app LORs.
Thanks @carolinamom2boys. I did try to list not only app requirements, but just what you said. I’m sure the count was conservative because some lines are blank because I wasn’t sure, but it had a later date, so I was less concerned. Plus, an app or two will drop out I’m sure.
I may attempt to categorize them a la @Mom2aphysicsgeek /collegeessayorganizer.
The translator is the president of the local Alliance Francaise. She has the letter. But her tutor read her the letter, so she already knows what it says. 
@2muchquan Correction…ala my daughter. Not me. I have finished my part. Course descriptions, counselor letter, and transcripts are done. College list has been created. Deadline has been established. The only other thing I do is provide the credit card for submission or take her on tours. From this point on, it is one her.
If she likes a school well enough, it will get done. If she doesn’t, it will be the last question answered. It is really a good way for her to start sorting through what she really thinks by herself. (And she is not the type of kid who would just not do it bc they are there. She knows what she wants and needs. She is going take ownership over her final choices bc she knows her budget and the onus is on her as to how much effort gets put in.)
JOTD: An amnesiac walks into a bar. He goes up to a beautiful blonde and says, “So, do I come here often?”
@Mom2aphysicsgeek That is some good parenting!
@carolinamom2boys Very true. D is thinking hard about dropping 1 school that won’t release the scholarship essay topic until 9/1. She won’t know the tOSU Eminence topic until she submits her app (after NMSF announcement), NC State Honors, Nova scholarship, and UGA, so unfortunately she will be writing some essays in September. That’s why she has to get all others done before school starts. And hopefully there will be some overlap with topics she’s already written.
If they call the number associated with the scholarship, they can ask about the questions. Dd has done that already with 2 and was told they are the same as last yr’s and where she can find them (one was on a PDF on their website.)
Mini Friday rant. :)) So I’ve been noticing a trend in the writing styles of many top students, which unfortunately, I believe is being taught in schools. They think they need to throw in lots of SAT words and use long convoluted sentences to sound smart. But it has the opposite effect. Not only is it not effective in conveying their ideas, but it’s just simply bad writing. I have no doubt many think their essays are great and don’t realize it’s actually hurting their admissions chances.
One of the hardest “essays” my son had to write was a “tweet” of 140 characters or less describing why you are right for the program. Another one required him to develop a class, and one was describe what you tube video would you make and why. Most were so random and unable to be reused. Just something to get creative juices flowing for y’all this AM. The tweet assignment was used by 2 different schools, so that may be something for your students to ponder. Good luck. It’s about to get nuts.
I will say, however, that many ‘essays’ on our list are in the 150-word count range, and don’t require a ton of work. :-bd
Joke: A man walks into a bar. You’d’ve thought he’d’ve ducked.
Common app supplements: My daughter and I took some time last night to look through the non-essay supplemental questions required by her common app colleges. Some things are truly strange—like, for example, why so many schools explicitly ask what start semester is preferred when there is one and precisely one possible response (fall 2017)? Like, why even bother? Some are unique, though, like the school that asks for her t-shirt size (one of the three that handed her a t-shirt after the tour last summer, though, so it wouldn’t be a new one).
Essay writing styles: My daughter’s one of those who uses a lot of big words…but that’s also the way she speaks. (She simply has a large working vocabulary.) It’s frustrating to think that some adcoms will (understandably) see that as pretentious rather than her actual voice, but so it goes, I guess.
Joke, to make up for the bad one above: Another guy walks into a bar. You’d’ve thought he’d’ve seen what happened to the first guy.
@2muchquan Easy for you to say those 150 word essays are not a ton of work. Bet your daughter, the person writing them, disagrees with you. :)) I can understand how the short essays will be challenging for some students because it’s not easy for everyone to express their thought to the prompt with enough impact to stand out. My son is fortunate enough to be able to write a succinct essay with enough depth and detail that I’m always amazed.
@dfbdfb I imagine AO can tell when it’s forced and when it just rolls off naturally. I’m sure they will realize it’s her natural style.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – wow - impressive work by your DD!! And also others here on our thread whose kids are humping in responsibly. Wish we could come anywhere close to that. Focusing on the EA apps here, using Common App & the College Essay Organizer a bit to create some deadlines. Submitted an app to Pitt due to rolling admis. and not bad engineering ratings. DS just finished his Physics course at a local college- liked it and did well. Now off to a computer security conference & then a little family trip to California. I am nervous though bc no way all needed essays will be done by Labor Day & 2-3 schools still to visit plus summer school work, wisdom teeth to be removed, etc. Summer is too short! Grateful that several schools on the list though do not have big supplements.
@dfbdfb A large vocabulary is great. And certainly a student should use their vocabulary well. However, what I’ve been seeing has not been an effective use of vocabulary. My philosophy is, why use a $5 word when a $.50 word will be more effective. My D has been showing me some of the writing of the students that were at the seminar with her and it’s bad.
Bad writing is one of my pet peeves. :)) I’m actually thinking about getting an adjunct position teaching a writing class/seminar at one of the local colleges. Most people just aren’t good writers, unfortunately, even very very smart people.
Colleges are looking for those kids who aren’t great writers, too, to fill out their class profile. 
@Mom2aphysicsgeek ugh! That doesn’t sound good for the coalition app. I think ds was going to try to start that one today. Would hate to have to apply to them all individually. I think he has 3 schools on there. Oh well, it is what it is.
Going back a few QOTD: I would attend Wake Forest if I was going back. Ds didn’t like it but my husband and I wanted to know if we could attend instead.
Worst case scenario-I’ve been wracking my brains and I’m not really sure on this. I guess really it would be ds going to a state school here with little to no Russian and figuring it out from there. Boy I hope that doesn’t happen!
Never answered this vaccine question. S17 had HPV around 13 but I IDK on the the meningitis. Took him the get a checkup this past spring & I know he’s up to date on all his vaccines.
Ds finally opened up the CA and starting adding schools, filling in profile info, etc. Got some feedback on his essay so he will be working on revising that soon so we can move forward. We also discussed his list of schools. I see 6-7 on his list which are his real schools, the others are outliers (very reachy, financially reachy, etc) so I am focusing ds on those 6-7 “real” schools and then he can decide how much he wants to work on the others. Once the 6-7 are done, my focus will be on him completing scholarship apps. If he wants to continue to to apply for those outlier schools that’s fine but they’re not on the priority list. I have a feeling some won’t look so appealing once he’s being asked to write another essay. LOL.