Transcript fees: Our school uses Parchment. From when my S15 was applying to college, we found most were free to send, but some had a fee - it depended on which college it was going to. Not sure why there was a difference in price. So far, for D17, the one sent so far was free.
College visits & school: I have no idea if there is a policy in regard to absences for college visits. My D17 hasn’t wanted to really take a school day to do visits because there is too much to work around & the 2 colleges left to visit are 5 hours away.
FIRST: D17 is on her robotics team. Their team does a local county competition in the fall & then FRC in winter/spring.
ACT: Hope everyone’s children did well yesterday. D17 took last December & is not planning on taking it again. She took the SAT at school in April (week after spring break - a horrible time) & didn’t do well. But luckily her ACT is good enough for where she wants.
Common app essay is done, and S let me read it. I like it a lot, it has just enough humor and self-deprecation, and he wrote it completely on his own. It’s his voice, loud and clear. My only suggestion is about a comma placement, but both of my kids ignore me when I rant about commas.
S has mostly completed the common app, but is still waiting on transcripts. One school came off the list and another might soon. Progress.
No transcript fees for D15 before, and none that I have heard about for S17.
FRC: D’s team has about 15 kids, after the high of 30 kids. They had to conserve resources and built only one mean robot last year.
Age: I am somewhat youthful looking, and love to wear workout clothing almost all the times. One time, at Home Depot, the customer service thought DS20 and I were a couple!!
Transcripts: Currently they are free.
Guess I have to work fast once CSS is open, as D has some school with applications due Oct 15th. Thought I get the ball rolling now, well, well!!
@SincererLove Check the school website for FA deadlines. CSS deadlines are usually later, most by at least 2 weeks or 1 month later than the application deadlines. So you will have about a month after CSS/FAFSA opens on 10/1 to complete them.
I’ve only checked a few sites with early application deadlines, and they still refer to the FAFSA becoming available Jan 1. It doesn’t appear they have updated the FA websites with the new FAFSA deadlines…or maybe the deadlines haven’t changed. It’s not clear. I don’t think we have any CSS schools…are those deadlines typically earlier than FAFSA deadlines.
Daughter has been talking about her CA essay for weeks now, but will finally put finger to keyboard this week. I hope.
Our transcripts are free for the first 3 (or if it’s for a scholarship), then $5/each after that. Yes, the school takes in some money on those, but I imagine the subscription costs of Naviance are not insignificant, and I’m sure there are associated transaction fees. The submission of a transcript request in our HS triggers the moving of a school from the “Colleges I’m thinking about” to “Colleges I’m applying to” within Naviance. A manual process. The submission of the Common App to a school then triggers the ability to submit LORs by recommenders. If a school is not on the Common App, but still accepts electronic docs, then there is no gate restricting LORs from being sent out from Naviance. I think this all varies by school.
I learned this because my daughter was the first to request a LOR using the new module in Naviance, according to her counselor’s office. Her teacher submitted the rec about an hour later, and things worked as hoped. I guess we were the guinea pigs this year. (And, in case you’re wondering, her first Common App school did not require the personal essay…which as I said, is not completed/started.)
Act test over and he feels really good about it. Reading he answered up to the last minute. There were math questions that he never learned in regular class but he kind of remembered it from Math team. When he came home to check they were all right. It pays to be on math team. Writing seemed better. I guess we will see in three weeks. Is it too late to take advantage of the 4 free scores to send?
Thanks all for the PItt info. My D did do the Self Reporting Academic Record. Maybe all will look fine if she logs in later this week otherwise I’ll have her email Admissions.
@Dolemite … My Ds portal is still showing “applicant” and completed but not yet “accepted.” So hard to know but I guess it is early in the game and we will find out soon enough!
Dang—that was fast. My daughter submitted her U of Alabama Honors College application Saturday afternoon, and emerged from her room this (Monday) morning at 5:30a saying she’d checked her email, and had gotten her invite to apply to University Fellows. Given that the timestamp on the email was (quick timezone calculation) 6:19a Alabama time, I’m thinking they have a computer programmed to spit those out based on stats—I can’t imagine they have people working 24-hour weekend shifts in the Honors College, you know?
Maybe the AO is an old (middle-aged) lady who wakes up at 3:30am (for no reason at all - coffee the day before, wine, anxiety, no reason at all) and when that happens, runs loads of laundry, mops the kitchen floor and does literature research and sends out emails to colleagues and the students.
I am not in Alabama though.
To fellow CASPers,
I just came across this writing by Gretchen Schmelzer.
I cannot link here I think but it can be found by googling
Over the weekend, I upgraded myself from Mom the cook, maid, chauffeur & secretary to Mom the application project manager.
And created a Spreadsheet with 5 tabs for DS19. =))
DS is celebrating a victory that was 7 years in coming!
When he was in 5th grade, the elementary school district removed chocolate milk because of the high fructose corn syrup. He put together a petition and got >300 signatures from students and teachers. He spoke at a school board meeting. He even researched and found a dairy that made non-fat, non-HFCS chocolate milk (but didn’t deliver to our area). 3:-O
This year, they added chocolate milk back on the menu, and are getting it from the same supplier he found way back when. I guess the dairy got big enough to deliver to our area.
He texted “Vindicated!!” to his elementary school friends. <:-P <:-P
@Ynotgo – LOVE it!!! Kids can make change occur. Must feel good. And yeah maybe he can get an essay or supp out of it - but we know that’s not why he did it. Way to go! ^:)^
@srk2017 Haha–from 5th grade…? Probably not. He had to take the 8th grade science fair project on vacuum airships off the resume, so 5th grade chocolate milk petition is certainly not coming back.
He doesn’t have much luck with speaking to school boards. Perhaps they will restart the school-based FRC team in 6 years.
FYI, if any of you folks have an Alabama applicant with a 4.0 (or higher) GPA and a perfect ACT or SAT score, the deal gets even better. Take a look at this post…
