I will go a step further than @Mom2aphysicsgeek suggested and admit that I will be the one monitoring the portals. There is absolutely nothing I can do in this process now that the trip visits and interviews are (mostly) behind us, but I can play secretary, and log into his portals. I can’t write an essay or a resume or even help with the CA other than providing biographical info, but I will check the portals once he files the apps.
As to essay fatigue…yes, but still nothing completed. How nice it would be if the CA essay were written so that it could be edited for the NM essay, but no. He is getting a bit testy with me when I question him, but this is truly no one’s fault but his own for not having written the essays this summer.
I dread to think about the MIT maker thing. Haven’t looked at it, and I doubt he has either, but will be a long Christmas break.
I agree with @longwood that the app process is like taking another class. I feel the same way about my college Jr who is in the thick of things attending career fairs, info session nights, roundtable presentations, submitting resume in the hopes of being selected for an interview, etc, all in hopes of landing a summer internship. This has been going on for two weeks already and runs through October.
Essay fatigue is real in this house. D has been working on her Common App essay and the scholarship essays for one school. The CAB essay is in need of editing, one scholarship essay is done, the long and difficult scholarship essay is roughed-out, and another shorter essay has been started. I really would like her to have the four (?) easier scholarship essays done by this weekend, leaving the difficult one and the Common App for next week.
Q re clothing: D is attending an info night tomorrow for a faraway flagship currently in the running for number one. I have no idea how long it will go or what format it will take or even how many students might be attending. (Actually, just thinking now, a large number may be attracted by the strength of the business school. Hmm. D may be the outlier.) What should she wear? If it were cooler she’s wear a fitted blouse, black slacks, and tall black boots. It’s going to be 85!
@traport
This is going on at our house. My D recently said I am pushing her oos. I knew her favorite safety was in-state, but I thought her top choices were oos. :-/ With regards to that in-state safety where we would be full-pay, I haven’t refused to pay but I am pushing her to at least consider some oos merit alternatives.
Essays - I wish we had fatigue, what we have is essay inertia.
@nw2this We are having discussions about a safety too. He can’t picture himself at the safeties knowing the types of kids from his school who go those schools. Although a mid-tier UC should be one, after what we’ve seen the last couple of years with engineering admissions there seems to be too much randomness to consider any of them a true safety. It was easier a couple of years ago when we didn’t know any better - it ended up working out.
Re: SLEEP. Kids manage to get to bed by 10:15 every night, up at 6am. If they don’t get sleep they get grouchy and perform worse in school and sports.
Re: Siblings… 2 sons are best friends, I don’t think they have ever fought 1x. Miraculous. They have a lot of the same interests but son19 is more social and likes social media. Son17 doesn’t do social media and has a smaller circle of friends. At home they hang out 24/7. They usually play video games, watch movies, or play sports together.
I guess we are pretty lucky. 2 kids that get their sleep and like each other, lol.
Yes, we had trouble last year with D16. It can be difficult to parse out what is the influence from the general teen narrative about college, influence from the college counselor, general stress highjacking their young brains, etc.
Our D16 told me several times that discussing college with me was very stressful for her. It’s hard to wrap my brain around that assessment because I am so NOT a prestige seeker or pushy parent. Our parenting style is quite hands-off.
She also accused me of pushing certain schools on her and not letting her have the freedom to pick herself.
She had a VERY hard time accepting our budget, and in fact, she is STILL having a hard time accepting it. The budget came up recently when she broached the subject of possibly transferring next year to a school closer to the boyfriend she left behind. This is a complete turnaround from application season last year when all the schools close to home were dead to her.
Our experience with D13 was smooth as silk. Our experience with D16 has been all over the place. Not orderly and logical, but emotional and all over the place.
Move over on the crazy bench and make room for me. Spykid is all over the place regarding college. He’s changed is major five times and is dropping potential schools off the finely honed researched list compiled by me. Spykid gave me a list of perimeters and I dutifully followed his lead. It’s all changed now. sigh.
He had a list of 8 or so schools, including a couple safeties. He’s down to 3. Yes, three total. One is a reach (18%), one is a match - but selective (23%) - and one is a probable (39%). He thinks that since his stats fit the middle 50% or higher at selective schools that admission is a shoe in. Not sure what changed but I suspect the class he took over the summer with the school CC and listening to friends has convinced him that I am a pessimist . Or in my world, a realist. I filled the kitchen table with the mound of college mail that I’ve saved over these last few months and am insisting he comb through it again and find some realistic choices.
It’s September, he hasn’t completed a single essay, and I am freaking out.
Of the 7 schools D16 applied to, 3 were my picks (solid safeties + merit aid). She picked 4. Her 4 were all selective schools and even with merit scholarships or FA awards, were more than we really wanted to pay.
I don’t see anything wrong with having a few parental choices on the final list. It will almost certainly help with your nerves!
We’ve reached the no rhyme or reason portion of the college search.
Me: Have you considered U of Colorado at Boulder? They have real winters in Colorado (he likes cold weather) and more days of sunshine than we get here.
Spykid: I don’t like sun.
Me: Um… then why are two of your top choices in Southern California?
I am going to try to find comfort in the fact that the list is not changing. Of course, schools may be cut from the list if he cannot complete their apps…
I will say that the one thing we have not done is visit the safeties. And truly, nothing is a safety (OK, once you leave off the auto-admit schools) but the schools where one’s stats are clearly above the accepted students’ stats are the schools that will wonder if they are being used as a safety.
I feel a tad bit guilty taking so much comfort in the recent post of crazy confused kids and frustrated parents. I felt for a while here everyone was in super productive and cooperative happy zones - while my D and I were still arguing about the (in)significance of that one “weird” girl that goes to what looks like a perfect safety school - and why that rules that school out.
My D was binging on Netflix this summer while others here were crafting their essays. Oh and the Sept ACT score was her worst yet So we have to come to terms that her reaches are likely out of reach and her matches are probably more like reaches. AND we had better find a safety soon that she likes (even if there is some girl there that posts annoying pictures on Instagram)
She has, however started to at least throw some words on a google doc for a couple of the essay and short answer prompts. They need lots of work still…but it is something.
Oh and just this week she asks if I think she has a chance to make the Lacrosse team at any of the schools on her list??? This is new, as playing a sport in college was never a consideration up to this point. Auughhhh…
QOTD- dual enrollment. S signed up for a class at the U this semester, but needed to switch to another, more challenging 300 level class and that didn’t fit into his schedule. Next semester he will be enrolled in two classes at the U.
QOTD - essay fatigue. S has essay fatigue after the CA essay. It is a good thing he isn’t applying to reach your schools. It might take until 2017 to finish all the essays and supplements! He has ~4 or so essays to go unless he adds more schools to his list.
Sleep My D’s schedule is erratic with 6 APs, Marching Band and work. Band is tough with away games and not getting home until mid-night followed by Saturday morning activities. She uses a sleep app to monitor her sleep patterns and catches up when she can. So it is often 6 one night and 12 the next. She said yesterday she used to think staying up late was fun, now she just thinks it is painful.
Essay Burnout Complete burnout with out a word written yet
Siblings They are 11 years apart and get along great. D gets a little aggravated when her older brother “goes into dad-mode” with her. Maybe I should have him bring up college essays with her ;))
sweet baby J…we have total process fatigue. i can see just how overwhelmed my kid is with all this, combined with the start of school with a somewhat rigorous schedule. her eyes glaze over regularly. she has a GC meeting yesterday which was a colossal waste of everyones time…she had no prior knowledge of it so she wasnt able to check with me if anything in particular was important (YES, YES, YES!) so evidently he just babbled on about ferpa’ing and linking the CA and Naviance::headdesk::.
her portfolio is only halfway done. according to her, the flash drive containing 4,938,038 images (and a portfolio folder!) stinks and she has no.good.submissions and she is a failure and on and on and ON. ::headdesk::
but the CA essay is done.
and as of today, we both have FAFSA id’s. hopefully both will be verified asap.
of course, we also have the Oct 1 sat scheduled in hopes of a bit better math score. it sounded like a fabulous plan at the time. umm, yeah…probably shouldnt be poking the hornets nest either.
and then there are those three open houses we still have to get to in oct…(i’m starting to question the wisdom of this too at this point–it might be worth spending the money to just apply and look later if they are contenders, but, umm, i’m sort of cheap and want the code)
sigh. i honestly cant wait until all this applying is done.
@traport You are not alone. I have twins, both are 95% done with common app essay and that is with nagging from the consultant we hired. Haven’t even started the supplementals or UC app. One knows what they want in major and college, the other is floundering with no idea of a major or school. She keeps taking schools off her list because she doesn’t want to do the supplementals.
So we have to come to terms that her reaches are likely out of reach and her matches are probably more like reaches. AND we had better find a safety soon that she likes (even if there is some girl there that posts annoying pictures on Instagram)