@snoozn and @Atyraulove wow that’s creepy on the imposter. I’ve been part of a mom’s group that started on a message board (similar, due date by month) that transitioned to FB. We didn’t transition until maybe 4-5 years ago though and many of us had met live over the years before that so perhaps any imposters were long gone. That private group is a godsend to me, something about being able to whine about kids to other moms that aren’t in your school district of family is really freeing to all of us. LOL!
Sharing in the ‘completed CA essay’ joy. It’s been pasted into the CA (directly from Google Docs, no issue. Kept text formatting and everything.) Did a Print Preview and all looks good. I’d say it’s about a 9/10, but probably totally acceptable/great for the remaining EA schools. We’ll readdress when it comes time for RD schools, and any non-CA scholarship opportunities.
Daughter met with a rep from College of Charleston at her school today. Said it was not helpful. I’m hoping she finds a reason to complete the app…it’s such a cool city (and after all, it’s all about me). I’m hoping the school didn’t wash away.
My daughter had gone dormant on essay-writing (due largely, I suspect, due to the rehearsals for the community theater production she’s in week after next taking up a lot of her time and energy), but this past Friday she finally looked at the U of Alabama’s Blount Initiative application, and the essay prompts there actually got her excited. She realizes she has to finish the George Mason general and honors essays (due 1 November—the next ones with a firm date aren’t til 15 November) before filling that one out, though, and so she finished a rough draft of one of GMU’s and started work on the other—basically all so she gets a chance to write about *East of Eden/i for Blount sooner rather than later.
I will admit, I never saw that bit of motivation coming.
My D has all of her supplemental essays started in one google doc. She shared it with her HS eng teacher this weekend as asked nicely if she would mind looking over them over fall break if she had time. He teacher responded “Are you writing all of these? I looked through them. Do they not all take the common app, so you can just work with one?” I am beginning to believe my D when she says that no one at her school applies to anything other than the state schools … ughh
D responded (nicely again) that she needs to write them all but if she could just look of the first one (CA one) that she would appreciate the help.
In other news - D visited a small LAC about 2 hrs from home with H this weekend and the reviews came back pretty positive. I think we may have found a true safety she would be happy attending! She didn’t even mention the fact that it was so small (less than 1000 - smallest on her list by far).
@dfbdfb I’d never heard of the Blount Initiative before. It looks very cool. I’m going to avoid saying ‘Bama’ so the alarms don’t go off…Oops! Dang it!
@stlarenas yay for finding a safety! That always lowers the pressure.
Just received word from my daughter, she received word about her acceptance to UMinn CBS. Yea! I like choices.
Great news on the acceptance @hadmeathello
Congrats to all whose kids are finishing essays. soon we can all sit back and hope our kids get into their dream school
Hi Everyone! I’ve scanned the thread in the past and have decided to join in and introduce myself. I have a feeling a wealth of information and support is here - particularly as time marches on ever closer to HS graduation!
My daughter is a Senior. She has applied and been accepted to Univ. of Missouri, Univ. of Iowa, Univ. of Alabama, and Michigan State. She is finalizing her supplemental essays for the CA for Ohio State and Univ. of Kentucky. For all the schools - she is interested in the honors programs. We’re now trying to gather information, attend information nights and scholar weekends to learn more as it seems as if honors programs vary quite a bit from school to school.
As soon as she finishes the supplemental essays of the CA, she’ll need to dive into essays for some competitive scholarships at some of the schools as well as essays to gain admittance to other programs/groups within some of the honors programs. She is not thrilled as writing essays is not a fun activity for her. And honestly, I wouldn’t like it either – some of the questions/topics are just goofy! It looks like most of the applications requiring additional essays will be done by January so I try to encourage her to keep focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m looking forward to getting to know more about everyone here, their kiddos, and pick up additional ideas and helpful hints. I’ve already gleaned so much from College Confidential - ACT study resources, PSAT information, the notion of a spreadsheet to track applications, passwords, due dates, etc. I don’t know what parents did before the internet!!!
Welcome @123field - that’s awesome for your daughter! Very impressive effort. I love this thread - can’t always keep up but so helpful, interesting and supportive!
@greeny8, I am very jealous that you are now a “nag free mom”. I am hoping to be one soon, so I better get nagging to make that happen.
Welcome to all of you new participants and de-lurkers!!
Welcome @123field! We have some school overlap, so I obviously think your list is fantastic! What does your daughter hope to study?
Hello and Welcome @123field! Congratulations on D’s acceptances! <:-P <:-P
Before the internet… would be 1980s.
Parents did… nothing! =))
As we did not apply >5 schools then.
Well, parents did pay some money towards tuition/dorm in 80s but not as much as we are expecting to contribute ! 
I have a created a secret FB group called CC2017. If anyone wants to join the group and/or wants to be an admin please PM me. I was thinking of waiting till application cycle is over so that it’s more about sharing kids college experiences, but if there is more interest to have FB group going from now itself we can do it.
@mtrosemom I’m moving toward “nag-free” mom, but not quite there yet as she still needs to churn out more essays! Soon…I hope…soon
@payn4ward So true, so true - I went to college in 1981 in Michigan and applied to three schools - the two biggies (U of M and MSU) plus a directional (at my mother’s assistance). I toured the big ones with my high school – didn’t like the tons of concrete and lack of green at U of M and loved the green and river of MSU – so that was that and I became a Spartan. No thoughts on anything else.
It is really different now!! The college world in terms of choices is so much bigger now for kids. It’s exciting and a bit intimidating at the same time.
We went to a local USC presentation this weekend. Never in my wildest imagination did it occur to me that there would be nearly 500 people there. I guess I’m a bit naive in that regards. Best line of the day when someone asked about the percentage of kids from California “We don’t care where you from, we charge the same exorbitant tuition to everyone.”
Congratulations to everyone on the essays completed and the progress made! <:-P <:-P
We do not have a long weekend and DS17 went off to school.
It was very quiet during the weekend in the Land of Proscrasti-nation :)) :((
no progress on the application made, [-(
while clicking sound of keyboards did not produce sentences but the aliens on the screen were blasted. ~X(
After two miracles, we are on hiatus.
Somehow, one way or another,
Submit button will be pressed
So until that 3rd miracle comes around the end of October,
Until I need to enter my creditcard number,
I will go into hibernation. I-) I-)
In the land of procrasti-nation. XX XX
I have a D16 at University of Kentucky if you have any questions I can help you with. We know people at MIZZOU, Iowa and MSU who have kids who are very happy.
For those who have kiddos stuck at the essay writing stage, I wanted to share two books that my daughter found helpful.
“Escape Essay Hell” and “Heavenly Essays - 50 Narrative College Application Essays that Worked” both by Janine Robinson.
The Escape book outlines a process to use to discover a viable and personally meaningful essay topic and then offers instruction on how to develop the idea into a fruitful essay. The “Heavenly” book was helpful as it provides many examples which my daughter enjoyed reading and was able to “get” that her essay needed to deviate from a typical 5 paragraph school essay.
Moving beyond typical school writing into a more personal - yet engaging writing style was challenging for my daughter. These books helped her review her ordinary life experiences that she had previous discarded as too mundane to use for an essay.
The author also has a website called essayhell.
Welcome @123field ! Congrats on 4 acceptances so far!
I don’t think my DSes would recognize me if I were a nag-free mom! Maybe submit will be pressed by Oct. 31 and I can go as nag-free mom for Halloween! :))