Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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Visits: We have visited all but two of the eleven schools on the final list.

One of the two was off the list when we planned our big lower-48 college tour summer before last, and so we didn’t visit even though we were almost literally within spitting distance of it at one point. After the tour we learned that the school policy that had turned my daughter off hadn’t been policy for a few years, and so it went back on—but with no visit.

The other wasn’t on the radar yet when we did the big trip, but my daughter found it at a college fair the following fall.

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Confirming SAT score for NM You all are not going to believe this, but I tried calling National Merit about the confirming score. They will not have one in time to tell anyone to retake the SAT before the deadline. They are waiting on FALL test score results from College Board to see how the new test is shaking out. ~X(

So, their advice was to calculate an SI of your existing SAT score. Whatever the confirming score will be, it won’t be below a 209 SI. So if you’re close to 209, anyone’s guess on whether you need to retake it before December.

To calculate your SAT SI based on the new SAT, add the 3 two-digit section scores (writing MC, reading, math) together and multiply by 2. The example he gave me on the phone was if you have a 20 for each of those scores, your SI would 120, which isn’t anywhere near 209.

/:slight_smile:

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Happy or unhappy with the list? I’m as happy as I can be. It’s been a long, hard slog to this stage. She has some concerns about her best auto merit school, alas.

Spreadsheets make me hyperventilate :))

Visits The final list stands at 6 schools. She has visited 4 of them. One of the others looks more appealing every time she peruses the website. I would love to have her visit the two before applications. She wants to visit two of the previously-visited schools again, but that will wait until November.

Deadlines D and I just sorted her applications/essays by target deadlines, not the official deadlines. She has one for 10/7, three for 10/21 (dh and I are going away for our anniversary 10/23-10/27 lol), and two for 11/11. The last two have RD deadlines in January.

That was fun.

Not.

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visits Right now we have visited (or will visit by Nov) 6 of the 11 schools on the list. She will probably only apply to 8 or 9 schools. We also have 6 schools on the B list that may be considered later (depending on upcoming visits, new ACT score, and essay burnout) We also visited a couple of schools that never made either list.

There are 5 schools that it looks like right now she will for sure apply to before being able to visit. We will just have to visit in spring if she gets accepted to any of those.

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Thanks for that tidbit @IABooks! I guess I am glad S took the old SAT and exceeded that confirming score. Yikes, they (NMC) should know what score they are going to use well in advance of the last test date…unless they are reserving the answer to be able to cull the finalists to a managble group (I am only a little cynical.)

I think what NMC means is to add the reading and writing score together and multiply by two. Then take the math score and multiply by two. Then add those two scores together to get an equivalent SI for the SAT.

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We only visited schools that are within 4-5 hours driving distance. And most of the them fall off the list. So more than half of the schools on D’s current list are un-seen. That makes me a little nervous.

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Visits - Of the 15 schools on D’s list, she has only visited 2, the auto merit school and our local flagship. She is visiting another soon only because the school is paying for the visit. She will only visit other schools for scholarship interviews or if they otherwise show her the big money. She will definitely visit every school that is in contention before she makes a final decision, but given our application strategy, I didn’t see any sense in visiting every school on the list before merit offers are in hand. We visited a number of nearby schools to confirm type of school, etc.

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I guess I have the best record for college visits - 0% We attempted 1 college visit but Southwest airlines had different plans (mechanical issues caused 4+ hrs delay). May be they wanted DS to go to other end of the country :))

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Happy with the list? I guess so. We had a list crisis earlier in the week and decided to try to add a safety school or two to the list (which currently stands at six). We looked at about 20 more schools - but ended up adding nothing because of their lack of his intended major. We decided instead to visit the 6th school on his list which is the only one we haven’t visited (because of distance). It should not be hard for him to get in to this particular school but it has “demonstrated interest” as important on the list. We are worried they will think he is not interested in attending because his stats are well above their average but he is very interested so voila - one more college prep expense for us! After that visit in November, we will just wait and see the acceptances and whether he is selected for any merit scholarship weekends. Looking forward to getting past this part of the process and just watching him enjoy his senior year!

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The list is at 14 with the possibility of Rice being added. We’ve visited all except WUSTL, USC and Rice. The hope for USC is that she gets semifinalist for one of their big schollies and they fly her in otherwise we’ll see what happens if she gets in - she could get Tuition Exchange and National Merit and be fine with cost as apparently they can stack.

We visited many places and I rather enjoyed all of it.

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@STEM2017 What I meant by 30 tabs was 30 columns on one tab of one spreadsheet file.
Actually, I am not a big fan of the tabs so I have multiple spreadsheet files.

Maybe this time only I should add a tab to the Application Checklist for a Simplified checklist.

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I love spreadsheets but do not like multiple worksheets. I prefer seperate documents.

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For our list, I guess I’m kindof happy. She has one school that she loves which I think is very likely she’ll get in to (Rose Hulman). What I’m wondering is if there are any reasonably within-reach schools that might be “better” / more prestigious / whatever that she should be interested in - e.g. RPI, WUSTL, Case Western. If she’s accepted to others, then obviously she can visit in the spring and try to decide then. But the main thing that I need to know is if there’s anything that she should be doing now to increase her chances of acceptance. Or more specifically - how hard should she work to try to improve her chances. Obviously she will go to local info sessions. Should we fly out to WUSTL? Take the ACT again? Etc.

It feels kindof weird to push and strive to increase your chances at reachier schools - when it’s not even clear if you’d choose them over your great-fit school which is likely-admit.

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@carachel2 sorry I’ve been out all day. Rice is very close to the med center. A mile or 2 is my recollection. Houston is very hot and humid from May to Sept but then it’s not bad the rest of the year.

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@thshadow Since Case Western has EA, applying early would help?

Well, kids change over a few months, so I figure having more option cannot hurt as long as it is not adding too much stress/trouble.

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One spreadsheet, lots of tabs…
Tab 1 - Main worksheet (cost, deadlines, ACT data, school size, etc)
Tab 2 - Usernames
Tab 3 - Essay prompts (probably won’t need this one)
Tab 4 - Scholarship info (auto and competitive)
Tab 5 - Other notes
Tab 6 - Binghamton (specific info on Bing)
Tab 7 - GPA calculation worksheet for UF and others (ok, now I’m off the rails)

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The Spreadsheet of Serendipity (SOS) has the following tabs, from the front to the back, more or less in reverse chronological order:

[ul][]Junior spring: The results of the final cull, giving the current list
[]Data: This one keeps moving forward, it’s a selection of spreasheet data for Google Sheets’s mapping add-on
[]Completion: A back-of-the-envelope workup on whether it would be possible for her to finish her intended double major in four years at the colleges on the next one
[]Post-tour: The cull after the big college tour trip summer before last
[]Big cut: After the massive cull, basically
[]Peers list: Which schools list themselves as “peer institutions” of each other
[]Qualitative review: After a cull based on non-quantifiable factors
[]Info requests: After culling the list down to schools that information could be requested from
[]1st cut: What it sounds like, mostly narrowing it down to schools offering a major in both of her fields of interest
[]Long list: Every school that offered at least a minor in one of her fields of interest
[li]Visits: Some qualitative information about campus visits taken before the big summer trip[/ul][/li]There are 123 columns in the “junior spring” sheet. I think I need help.

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D’s first deadline is Nov. 1st. Since school has started just yesterday, there’s not so much she can do except for the supplimental essay writing. We sent all the scores and filling out the common part of the applications. Common app essay is done and waiting to receive feedback from AP Lit teacher.

Next step is contacting the two teachers who agreed to write the recommendations.

I wish D has more target schools on her list. She has 2 high reaches (one’s acceptance rate is 13%, another one D is not in their top 75%tile), 3 reaches (D is in their 75%tile but the acceptance rate is 20~35%), 1 target and 2 safeties.

She got a half-year elective she didn’t ask for. Jewelry and Metal Making!! D is a little worried that it doesn’t look in the transcript. I guess it’s OK because other electives she got was Creative Writing and Contemporary World Problems. I’m just not happy that she was assigned something that she didn’t ask for.

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QOTD I am relatively happy with the list. I think it’s a solid mix. I would like it finalized and to be done. He’s cut 2 this week though so it’s 4 left to hammer through and call it good. And, while I wish there were more than one true financial safety, it is one we can both live with and be quite happy about so it will do for now. With a 100% EA list, there are options should he really not know what he wants. This is a kid who is pretty definite about a lot of things though so I am not overly concerned.

QOTD2 nope, we have not visited most! Only 2 out of the current 5 and the list may grow a bit more. I can’t justify the money unless a work trip for me turns into a happy coincidence. Which while not impossible, may be unlikely. Our biggest challenge even if money were not a concern is the timing. Schools are closed over winter break so that doesn’t work and given the distance, we would ideally see multiples. Which means spring break. And that is at the END of April for us. It could be nail biting just based on that! There is the outside chance I take him out of school prior to an NYC trip I have that overlaps with a NYC drama trip over presidents week and we visit schools before his school trip starts. I’ll need to see what the flight details look like on their end and chat with the teacher to see if that is even a remote possibility to pull off. While none of his schools are in NYC, we could springboard from there easily enough. Maybe. In the meantime I’m hoping I get called east in Oct or Nov, that would be so much better lol!

@MotherOfDragons ok, 8,000 might be a slight exaggeration. :)) 26 with 13 of them active, though really about 6 that I really use.

Of course we aren’t talking about total files and file storage structure as that’s an entirely different animal. Folders by school with NPC’s and other data, cheat sheets for S to help him cull the list, his new weekly checklists…

And nope. it is safe to say we have had no issues with my.mit. Never will either. LOL!

@STEM2017 and @dfbdfb you are my people

Active unhidden tabs are as follows

  1. App Status. This only has data for the 5 schools that have made it into the "will apply" category and is specific to status updates and the due dates for the application type we've chosen.
  2. Master List (inactive schools that made it deep enough are hidden but preserved). This one might um be considered info overkill although dfbdb has me beat at 123. There are 79 columns of data for the now 9 schools (there are 30 schools worth of data on it but not all were ever populated fully lol). This also has a "fit" ranking that is a numerical scale based on the data in the sheet and is "my" take on the fit for these schools for S. It remains to be seen how accurate it proves to be but it's a nice sorting feature.
  3. Costs over time. This shows the projected total COA for all 4 years accounting for inflation and shows best, and worst, case scenarios for each school and then categorizes them into financial buckets. Basically it breaks down how much skin S will need in the game, over time both during the year and summers, if any.
  4. Application info. This is different than app status, it delves into what is required for each application and it's relative importance. It also tracks the fees to apply, test scores sending fees etc to see total application cost and lists all application due dates offered as well as notification dates.
  5. Tuition Comparison. This is different than costs over time although the data from here populates the basis of costs over time. This shows all baseline assumptions using 16-17 costs, has a few different merit scenarios and then shows the delta between target amount and what the schools actually come in at, or have the potential to.
  6. GPA matrix. This has all of the GPA info. As our school does not weight and only shows all classes I've created a spreadsheet that shows all, all weighted, core, core weighted, the same but 10-11 only (when we were looking n CA) and then the UC/Cal EI info.
  7. Test scores, this has superscore info as well as all tests taken
  8. Our school acceptance and yield data for the last 3 years, all colleges
  9. 529 and other related info
  10. CSS Profile school list so I can see where I'll have to deal with NCP aivers

And then there are about 14 hidden tabs/worksheet that is mostly junk at this point but historical info I may want at some point.

I’d have so many spreadsheets if it wasn’t worksheet tabs and I’d lose my mind. I am a toggler. That said, I do have archival versions. I re-save every so often with the current date in teh file name as things get cleaned up and hidden from view. It has come in handy a few times when I’ve deleted a school (stopped doing that) and couldn’t recall why.

I may have a problem. At least I’m not alone.

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@STEM2017 I probably should add Username and portal link tab.

What I do is when I get the email saying “Welcome! your account is set up… blah blah,” I reply to it only to myself and write the username and password hint in the text so that I can search for it within gmail.
I do NOT delete email ever (I sometimes delete only attachement such as large photo files or sensitive PII) so I can use Search to access that info from an email that is 10 years old.