No transcript here yet either - or LoRs - not likely for awhile I think. Just need by mid-Oct. for GATech as the earliest EA deadline for DS though. Still working on CA essay though and many supps to write. It is a “process” for sure - some days I think we just move sideways (or backwards) rather than forward. BUT as compared with 6 months ago at least DS is now much more engaged and seems to be more interested in what various colleges have to offer and what would be a good fit for him - seems as important as all the paperwork I wish would “just get done.” 
Good luck to all still muddling through college list compilation & redos (or kids totally changing their minds about types of schools or possible majors), spreadsheet mania (I confess I just started a new one to track what’s been done & what’s left to do with deadlines).
Yes, that’s right, that little piece of paper called a transcript. The school sent me S17’s transcript about a month ago. It’s a new format and I checked to make sure there were no errors. I need to speak to them about when they will be uploading transcripts to naviance so we can capture first trimester mid-term grades for the EA apps.
S17 asked late last week if we could meet for an hour to discuss college apps on Saturday. I was intrigued as to what he wanted to share because I knew he was on common app, naviance and CB this week. When I asked him yesterday what time he wanted to meet he said he’d like to having a working lunch. ^:)^ He found a way to avoid my excel; good for him. I told him I needed to bring my note pad. I think S17 was surprised at how thorough my notes quickly thrown together would be. :)) It was very productive. H joined us and has mostly received information on the college process from me or being present in the room while S17 and I touched upon various aspects of the process. S17 cut 3 schools off the list and is now down to 10. Strangely, I was okay with it. No anxiety about it and very comfortable with the decision. The 3 schools cut were schools that he did not visit. I’d intended for us to get to those schools this summer but we didn’t get there. I told him we could go visit in October but he said he didn’t want to so I’m good with his decision. Two of the three were lottery schools anyway. He said that his LOR are in the works, he has his next meeting set up with the college counselor for Tuesday after labor day and he updated us on discussions they had in the past week. The best part was that because H has been more removed from the process, he asked pointed questions about why S17 wanted to apply to the schools he left on the list and it ended up being good interview practice. S17 needs to take two more SAT subj tests so he decided on the two, went to Barnes and Nobles to get practice guides and he’s set.
@CA1543 I created a new copy the spreadsheet this morning to track what’s been done and what’s left too. I realized as I did this that despite all of the progress we seemed to make, there are still interviews to be scheduled. Only one interview request has been submitted so far. :-S
Applications Submitted None here, but we have a plan. S17 says his list is finished @ 8, but I expect there will be a bit of movement amount the state schools. (Not change in applications, just which buttons are checked.) I’m still trying to push Colorado State @ Fort Collins. And suggesting he keep his eyes & ears open to schools that come to visit this fall.
More than 1/2 of the schools S17’s is applying to are in-state CA states schools. The UC’s the submission window is Nov 1st- Nov 30th. And Cal States’ Oct 1st - Nov 30th. You can get into the UC’s application but can’t submit till Nov. Because DS is involved in Marching Band that takes up a lot of his time till mid-Nov I have resigned myself to a Thanksgiving weekend submitting those Applications. It would be helpful if the CA Essay questions were at least started by then.
S17 will also be applying to Oregon State U. EA by Nov 1st. And UofO and U of Colorado Boulder by their Jan 15th deadlines. Both are the only schools that ask for letters of rec. and a traditional college essay.
As for transcript. Looking at DS’s unofficial transcript a few days ago after school started I got a pleasant surprise. He got bumped up to an A in spring semester of a class because of a 5 on the AP. (I didn’t know our school allowed that but I’ll take it.) So he has a slightly better GPA!!! That was a wonderful surprise.
Our school grades bumps for social studies 5 scores, but none of the other departments do.
Be careful because the UC website has been known to slow to a snails pace and sometimes crash the final week of November.
We will be touring UK schools Thanksgiving week, so I really, really, really want the UC apps don before then.
Did I say really?
I’m impressed by all those who have apps in – congrats! And I know a couple of kids even have acceptances already – holy cow!
We don’t have any apps in yet, but made a huge push forward this weekend. D had already asked two of her teachers for recommendations and they told her to email them when she finished the Naviance LoR section. She had filled it out very half-heartedly and I insisted she fix and finish it this weekend. The two teachers she’s getting LoR’s from are the two most popular recommenders at her school, so being early is imperative. After much hedging and moaning (plus the whole family binge-watched the last three episodes of Agents of SHIELD on Netflix yesterday…), she finished late this morning and did a great job. The only changes needed were to the “adjectives that describe you” and “strengths” sections. She, H and I talked it over and nailed that part down together. She’ll email her teachers tonight and I can breathe a sigh of relief!
I also sent ACT scores to all her EA schools and we officially moved 15 of the 16 schools to “schools I am applying to” on Naviance. I also filled out her current year schedule in CA, so now she just needs to fill out the activities and finish the essay (which she says will be absolutely done by the end of September). I think she has 5 non-CA colleges, so there will be more of filling out the same info over and over.
@VickiSoCal, very cool that you’re looking at UK schools – which ones (if you don’t mind sharing)? The furthest any of my D’s apps will be venturing is Canada! (University of Calgary)
Just heard that two of son’s classmates have been accepted ED to Wake Forest. School has not even started yet for the year. Needless to say, not even one essay completed over here.
@ct1417 were those Wake Forest kids athletes?
@ct1417 I’m a bit jealous of those kids with Wake forest acceptances already. Wonder if they’re athletes? D and I both think WF would be a great fit for her but man their app is a monster (8 writing supplements!). I’m not sure she’ll decide to even apply because of it.
D and I have agreement that most (all?) apps will be completed by the end of fall break(10 days off school mid Oct). I won’t nag now, but if she chooses to procrastinate until then, then she will spend her break at home working on apps and essays.
She has already filled out nearly all of the CA and asked 2 teaches for LOR. However, essays are non existent as of yet.
Wake Forest app is a tough one with all those essays but they advise of decisions on a rolling basis. ED decisions are basically based on everything through junior year so if a kid gets it all together and submits their app, they can be done nice and early. May not be athletes at all. Congrats to those early decision acceptances.
@stlarenas If your daughter is interested enough in WF to put herself through their app, maybe she sets labor day weekend as the time to knock out those essays. It is so early and if it works out, she’d be done and if it doesn’t she probably can use those essays and tweak them for use on other applications. Kids who apply to WF have to be really interested to do that app and an early app would demonstrate interest.
^^^^ I wish my son’s guidance counselors would hurry up and update the new transcripts and update Naviance for us. My son is pretty much ready to submit all of his apps. One teacher said he was getting his letter of rec finished this week. So we should be done in the next week or so. My son had to send some scores,resume, and transcript to a coach, so he should have those by tomorrow. We will have to decide if we want to ED there or not I suppose. We’ll have to see if they award son any merit money. That might push us to make a decision quicker. His other matches and/or slight reach schools won’t award him any merit. His safeties might, but he really would like to stay in Boston area if possible, and his safeties are OOS state schools further north.
@RightCoaster and others who are waiting on new transcripts before apps are submitted…We homeschool so I don’t have any knowledge of how Naviance works (our public school also doesn’t use it).
My son was able to submit his part of the application without having to wait for me (wearing my guidance counselor hat) to send in the “school” part of the application - the school profile, transcript, course descriptions, etc.
Does the process work differently with Naviance and both the student’s info and the school info have to be submitted at the same time?
Good luck to everyone working on essays. Back in the dark ages, I completed my app with a pen while sitting in the guidance counselor’s office. All that was required was for me to fill out my name and address and other basics information. No essays required. The application process today is brutal.
We are waiting for early Oct for S17’s transcript for submitting with apps so that mid-trimester senior year grades appear on the transcript. Are you waiting for the counselors to update the new transcripts with the senior year courses or are you waiting for them to update the transcript through junior year on Naviance, @rightcoaster? Hope that take care of that for your son quickly.
@shuttlebus It is absolutely brutal. We were lucky because, for medical reasons, I vowed that S17 would get the big standardized testing (SAT/ACT) done in junior year. This would leave only Subj Tests to knock out now. With so much to do I don’t know how kids are doing it but my hat is off to these kids. Taxing course loads because they are expected to demonstrate rigor, multiple essay supplements because writing the Comm App essay isn’t enough, schools that don’t accept common app, testing, ECs. When I was a senior, life was so much simpler. The good old days.
True, the student portion can be submitted and the transcript/ LOR/ scores from testing agencies catch up with the app but @rightcoaster probably wants to check the transcript before it’s submitted.
@shuttlebus I think we could submit the common app right now. However, Naviance gets updated with latest official transcript, class rank, class schedule etc. When you select the school you applied to it triggers the guidance dept to submit the docs from their end ( teacher recs,transcripts etc). Our guidance counselor needs to send some stuff to the ncaa clearinghouse too. I think the coach just wanted to make sure son verified with school his act/grades. In division II before a coach can offer an overnight visit you have to get that paperwork in. I just want to know asap if coach will make some sort of official offer and what that entails. We will know soon enough I guess.
Congrats and best of luck on submitted applications @shuttlebus @rscgrad @STEM2017 @srk2017 and more! =D>
No apps even close to ready here, but none due until Nov 1.
I asked the person we plan to have comment on his essays to give him a deadline for submitting EA essays and activity lists to her; she said Sept. 17. That’s a week before his UC classes start, so a good time from my perspective. I hope it’s helpful to have an outside person give him an earlier date.
I’m starting to realize how much he needs to do!! :!!
– 12 essays or short answers for Naviance Brag Sheet for his recommenders (most have 1st drafts)
– Common App essay (draft maybe half done; I haven’t seen it)
– 18 essays or short answers between his 2 EA schools (none started but there’s some duplication)
– 2 supplements in Slideroom or whatever (not started)
After that, he has the UC application during November and then the EA applications.
Ack!
I think his transcript is ready. I asked them to fix one thing over the summer about a dual-enrollment class that wasn’t shown as a math credit. His GC says she got the registrar to fix that.
He’s still waiting to hear back from the UC professor whose CS class he’d most like permission to take along with the Linear Alg class. Fingers crossed for a positive response. It’s summer for the UC until mid-September and the professor’s summer office hours aren’t listed online.
@RightCoaster & @stlarenas – I only know one of the students, and no, not a recruited athlete. Do not have any info on the other student.
I don’t think that our HS has sent athletes to WF, and I do not know why, as athletes have gone south: W&L, UNC-CH, Duke, Richmond. I know of Wake as a basketball powerhouse and that may be the only team we have that does not have anyone recruited.
Wow, I am impressed by all the industrious kids who have apps in, essays written, etc! Congrats!
We are still in list building/finalizing stage here. D17 just received a app fee waiver from Fordham, which I hadn’t really thought too much about before but looking at the Rose Hill campus on their web site, if they threw her some merit $$ this could be a nice “anxiety escape hatch” option alongside Stony Brook (it’s been a while since I mentioned it, but D17 has pretty serious worries about leaving home, and if she were in the NY metro she could come home or to a close relative pretty much at will.) Will have to investigate further, especially as they have unrestricted EA! So I guess sometimes those app fee waivers do what they’re intended.
D17 does have her 2 teachers for recommendations picked out, and she’s already talked to one of them and got enthusiastic agreement (her AP Lang teacher from last year who is also her Key Club advisor.) She still needs to talk to her Calculus teacher (he was her precalc teacher last year as well) but will do so during the first week of school - she goes back Sept 7th.
CA essay still not done. Not sure if it’s even started. I mean, she has it for school assignment, so I know something will get done by Sept 7th because she always does what is assigned, but she’s definitely living in Procrastination City right now. 