Perhaps I am just being naive that I can protect my children, but I am not allowing my son to apply to UT-Austin b/c of the Texas Open Carry law. GT was on the watch list until the governor vetoed the Open Carry law the GA House had passed.
I have not seen the sorority rush video but have talked with a friend’s D who went through the process this year. I don’t think I would ever have joined a sorority if the process had been anything like it is today at Alabama. You can never say never…
Son met with GC this morning and she gave her blessing on the look and feel of his Common App and essay. She’s pretty experienced so I have faith in her judgement.
Hopefully tonight he will submit his 4 or 5 Common App applications. At that point he’s finished but for the waiting.
Very helpful to have Alabama and The Honors College in his pocket.
@RightCoaster We are specifically targeting large universities for diversity reasons. Even at 70%+ white, there will be lots of kids that look just like her at most large universities. As comfortable as she is in a predominantly white school and city, diversity and community support is very important for URMs in college. Going to any school where she will be 1 of 10 black students in the entire class was never on the table. She really liked the fact that at Bama and Ole Miss she looked around and saw many African-Americans.
@CT1417 — we live in Texas. I won’t get political here but I’m not a fan of the open carry law and we have been on the lookout since it was approved.
I’ve had zero sightings. Zero. Stores, campuses, etc. I’m always looking for someone with a big assault rifle slung over their shoulder or a Glock strapped to their hip---- but I’ve never seen it.
Not to say that it isn’t happening and won’t happen— I just haven’t seen it.
Have had 3 interactions with S’s GC, and all 3 times she has gotten my son confused with another kid in his class. They are friends and happen to have the same first & last initials, but the same error three times sends up red flags!!
I am truly worried that when she does his GC rec she will write about the other student and we’ll have no way of knowing. Should I just politely be up front with her about my concern and hope this keeps her aware?
In addition, she had previously provided instructions on how to submit the teacher LOR for a non common app school, but had no recollection or notation in the file. I’m not feeling very confident here!!
I guess a FB private group is a good idea for those who want to make personal connections once the application season is over and hose who wants to be anonymous can continue here. I can be an admin for the FB group.
@christygb Hugs for you and your son. My D17 has had on and off issues with anxiety but not to the degree your S is dealing with. In our case, D’s anxiety has definitely been a factor in the creation of her application list. She has stated pretty plainly that she doesn’t want to be more than a reasonable day’s drive from home (6-7 hours tops) “just in case.” My best wishes to your family, and I hope you work out a good solution, whatever form it may take!
@snoozn Yikes! What a scary experience. That is the stuff of my nightmares. I grew up in NYC in the bad old days (the 70s) and have deep-seated fears of random gun violence.
@picklesarenice Best wishes to your D on her recovery! What a stressful time to have to go through that on top of everything else. If it makes you feel any better, my D has made very little progress on her applications and she doesn’t have anywhere near as good an excuse as yours. I think the CC gang here is way more up on the application game than most people, anywhere. I try to keep this in mind when I start feeling timetable anxiety of my own…
Actually, I need to remind D to put in her transcript request for SUNY Binghamton tomorrow - their EA date is 11/1 and the school requires at least 3 weeks notice to process. We’ve gone back and forth on Bing (a lot of kids from our HS end up there, so it’s not very attractive haha) but being able to get at least one EA answer, I think, is important. Most of the other EA apps she’d been thinking about have evaporated since her “College Fear” experience a couple of weeks back where we scratched most of the larger universities off the list. I might nudge her to look at Dickinson which has a nice late EA date of 12/1.
@picklesarenice, I hope your D continues to recover well and quickly. That is a very difficult surgery to face any time, let alone senior year.
And don’t feel too behind, because you’re really not in the real world. My S also has made relatively little progress on his apps considering the time he has had to work on them and the fact that he has no impediments besides himself and his time management. He is at the point where he is ready to submit one app for ASU (yay). I will note that this app is relatively easy because it only asks for basic info and doesn’t require an essay until he starts on the honors college app. He is probably one draft away from his CA essay (whew!), which will also be his NMSF essay. We are moving along, but at a slower pace than I was hoping.
@nw2this I have not seen any judgmental assumptions about reach school applicants on this thread and hardly any at all on CC. I hope you aren’t misreading my posts as judgment. It would be very hypocritical of me of all people to judge those applying to reach schools as I attended two elite schools, one of which has always been the undisputed number #1, and for grad school, I didn’t even bother applying to a single safety. I do, however, find most of those who think it’s elite or bust to lack a real understanding of the correlation between educational background and professional and overall success. That’s been my experience.
I hope every student applies to and is accepted to schools that are a great fit and affordable for their families, whether that school is ranked #1, #201, or unranked. I wish every student is happy with their choices and decision come May 1. I am equally happy for every student that attains their goals and am not impressed by one acceptance over another. That’s just me.
Prestige drama: I asked my daughter where everybody in her class (of 27, so everybody totally knows everyone else’s business) is applying. My daughter’s chasing merit, and so applying broadly, mainly in what’s best described as the USNWR #65±30ish band. The one student with a GPA above hers is applying to MIT, but whatever he does it’ll be engineering, and he figures he’s most likely to end up attending one of the two in-state publics that have engineering (probably Fairbanks), since he’s guaranteed a scholarship from the state that’s basically full-tuition+. Everybody else? She said nobody’s really focused on it yet. About a third are unlikely to go to college (most of them will be going into the trades, including a couple who are already on their way toward getting ship captain’s licenses), and most of the ones who do plan on college will be going to the local open-access university. A few of the ones looking at out-of-state possibilities are considering public universities (mostly non-flagships) in Washington and Oregon, but that’s all hazy.
TL;DR: Nope, pretty much no prestige race here.
That Alabama sorority video: Ugh, I hear you, @Testingearly, and I’ve managed to keep my (brunette) daughter from seeing it, I think. I would suggest, though, that a video like that isn’t really the best spot to gain insight into a college (or even its Greek life). I mean, I can go on YouTube and find all sorts of embarrassments for all sorts of colleges, even those one might call “elite”—it’s the nature of a system where there aren’t any real gatekeepers to publishing anymore.
A 2017 parents Facebook group: I probably wouldn’t join one—I use social media in different ways depending on the forum, and this sort of discussion doesn’t actually fit the way I use Facebook. I like the semi-anonymity here for these sorts of discussions, too.
College swag: My daughter just got her best bit of college swag so far: An incredibly sturdy, heavy metal bookmark from the University of Alaska system (engraved with their logo, of course). Nice to have gotten something useful, you know?
Based on our experience this week, if you let your kid handle all the brag packet/application/etc deadlines, know them all yourself too, even if you don’t constantly use that info to keep your child on target. There was an internal one for the HS that I wasn’t up on and it almost cost him any chance of having a shot at one of his top choices. A simple mistake in dates could have ended any chance at a scholarship he’d need to attend. This will probably be the most contact the GC has ever had with our son, so it could be good or bad for her recommendation depending on how their interaction goes. Bottom line, know the dates yourself so you can rescue close to the deadline if needed.
@mtrosemom – once again, I could have written your post, but I am tired of writing about the lack of progress on the essay front. NMSF has to be submitted to school by Monday and I imagine it will be late Sun night. Next deadline is Oct 15th with college-specific essays, so the you-know-what is truly hitting the fan, since the CA essay is still a WIP.
@christygb …Prayers for your S. It is hard on kids these days with all the pressure Senior year. It really doesn’t help that everything has moved up 3 or 4 months. My S is trying to figure out life and then he has all the college stuff on top of it. I have had to back off a lot and let him do his thing. Being a teenager is way harder than when I was one. With social media and the high standards put out in the world for them to be held up to. Please know you and your S are in our thoughts and prayers.
@itsgettingreal17 I feel the same way you do. No judgement on any schools your kids are applying to. I like hearing where the kids are getting excited about going and why. I don’t care what school it is. If you can get into a tippy top, good on you. If you feel like going to CC because it’s 2 miles from your house, cheap, and has an awesome cafeteria- good for you. I’m rooting for all the kids to find their spot, and I hope it all works for your kids in the end. It seems like all the kids in here have a decent shot at doing that.
My son is applying to a range of schools from New England state universities up to Northeastern level as a reach. I’ve told him he can go wherever he feels best. I think he’ll get into some schools and rejected at others possibly. It will all work out!
I’m rooting for your kids.
I went ahead and purchased that $8 download for merit scholarships. It is clunky and not user friendly, but it has a lot of schools I have never heard of before. Dd and I spent a couple of hours yesterday going through the first 500 (I haven’t looked to see how many there actually are.) We skipped some states bc she just doesn’t want to be there. However, she does have 3 schools so far she is going to look into more closely. Even 1 big MAC is worth the cost.
I have a question for those who applied to KU. it looks like NMF does not really give much and that $10,000 is their max award. Is that correct?
I haven’t updated in a while. Last weekend was Homecoming for my kids. First time my D17 has ever attended the dance at her school. Neither kids brought dates. Both complained the dance was horrible this year. I guess in an effort to crack down on the “nasty” dancing (grinding and such) the administrators went all Footloose on them and didn’t let the kids dance at all. At least that is the story I am hearing. I also broke down and agreed to let my D17 have some kids back to the house after the dance. Never again A few friends turned into way too many…we survived but it was too stressful to do again. The oldest always ruins it for everyone else
Now that HC is over D is feeling much better. Student council members have a TON of extra work HC week - she was very stressed. She has school this week - where they are working on college essays in English class - and then 1 week off for fall break next week. Hopefully we will be able to get lots of apps submitted then. (none so far - still working on the CA essay)
She is visiting a nearby school that recently got added to the list as a safety this Sat with Dad. I am crossing fingers the report comes back good. We are also supposed to visit another one on Monday but we may put it off as I am not sure I can get off work.
Three interviews are scheduled for next week also - two in person and one via Skype. She also needs to follow up with teachers about LOR as we haven’t had confirmation that any are done yet. I told her to wait until after fall break. Nov 1st is the earliest app deadline to have so I think we are ok - but cutting it close.
Oh and D needs to try to take the drivers test next week too.
FAFSA - I tried to start it this week but couldn’t link to the IRS data due to the false tax return in our name last year. So I am having the tax transcripts sent to me and guess I will tackle entering the data manually next week. I know I also need to figure out how to fill out the CSS Profile as well since some of our schools need that too - and we need the aid.
I think the CC gang here is way more up on the application game than most people, anywhere. I try to keep this in mind when I start feeling timetable anxiety of my own…
A few friends turned into way too many…we survived but it was too stressful to do again. The oldest always ruins it for everyone else 