Well we finally have the GC’s complete attention. She threw a little hissy fit yesterday about turning in D’s scholarship app. I had to turn on the charm then I sent D to see her and they sat down together, made all the necessary calls and such and got it in. D now has a standing appointment with her every week to update her on where D is in the process and what she has coming up.
All but 5 apps are now complete, and the rest should be complete by Friday. Then D just needs to work on 6 remaining scholarship apps. There may be more of she gets an invite to a couple more Stamps competitions.
I would encourage everyone to sit on the GC to get transcripts submitted early. Some colleges using Naviance only pull transcripts once a week. So if the college has an all materials received deadline, get them sent early or they’ll be late.
Poor D. She is very stressed right now. She is handling everything wonderfully though and is having a fantastic semester. She is juggling everything. And though esssay fatigued, her essays have gotten better with all the practice she’s been getting. She’s also learning a lot in this process about time and people management.
Ok, maybe this would qualify for the joke of the day…on FAFSA, I used my D’s birth month, day, but my birth year. That is why SSA can’t verify her information, and we got EFC of zero? They probably took pity on a 40 some year old trying to get undergraduate degree!! I know I might be making a mistake when I hurried up and ran out of door for a run/walk with a girlfriend;)
Both of my kids (D15 and S17) have one of our credit cards issued in their names. They use the cards for gas for non-school related driving and emergencies. D15 had to open an adult bank account and give me access when she turned 18. She also got her very own credit card linked to that bank account (which I also have access to so I can pay it if she can’t. It is a card specifically for college students and she gets money deposited back into her bank account if she pays it on time. Our family philosophy is only spend what you have, so all of the cc’s get paid off every month. We got her a car for sophomore year and put her on the loan, so she is building more credit.
Frustrated with the LOR process. My DS approached his teacher in early August (we start early here) and got a yes. In September, when the recommender glitch was fixed (naviance? Or CA?), my DS reached out through the system and confirmed. Then, just 3 days ago, my DS received an “about me” survey from the teacher. That could have, should have been done earlier.
I’ve been on DS to write his essays - they are all complete now! He’s got a final meeting with GC next Thursday to review CA prior to sending apps. I asked him when the GC will send transcripts, etc, he said as soon as he gets the LOR. UGH!
(Of course, DS won’t delay in sending his apps. I know they’ll get matched up. But 2 months later DS gets this survey??!!)
@Dave_N Thanks for that UKy review. I visited earlier this year when D20 was down there for a meet, but D17 could not make it. I did a quick self-tour of campus and came away impressed. The science building and student union/dorms were all still under construction. The cafeteria I saw was the best of any school I’ve seen. Good to hear about the Honors Program. We’ll see if it stays on the list, but I have my doubts. Weather would be just about right, though (i.e., no pants )
We continue to adjust ‘our’ rather lengthy list of remaining schools. With some regret and apprehension, she has removed her former #1 choice from her list. Dropped it totally off. It turned out to be too remote, and after seeing lots of schools since her first visit, she really likes schools with more hustle & bustle and access to ‘stuff’. Something a little bigger.
So, with the recent pairing, there are only 2 more EA apps to get in. Totally doable. Of course, then there are about 4-6 more RD. Oh, well.
I must say, I’m struggling with ‘letting go’ of schools on the list. I’ve been looking at this stuff for 9 months, so they’re like my babies!
@Dave_N …yes, thanks for the great review of UK. I think we need to add it to the list. Looks like the engineering department has had a huge revamp and some nice $$ rolling in.
@hadmeathello …Lots of schools have fallen off the list here. It’s an exhausting process and I never predicted how hard and time consuming it would be for both of us to keep up with transcripts, LORS, supplemental essays and the like. For the kids who win those majorly competitive scholarships I can now say wholeheartedly “you EARNED that $$…congrats!”
Learned something yesterday - the school sent out an email that they had an extension for sending in the NMSF info because there were so many to do. I don’t know if that’s common when a school has a lot or if it was because they had some extraordinary issues this year with a new schedule, new administration, etc.
Well my email to GC seemed to help. She replied this morning and said she took care of 1 item and then stated that all of son17’s LOR and transcripts will soon be sent. She did say they had until the deadline to get them all in though, uggh.
I’m not going to push it anymore I guess. I feel better knowing that she is aware of what needs to get done now and I thanked her for her help.
Now we’ll just twiddle our thumbs for the next few weeks and hope it all gets done.
@MotherOfDragons I teared up for you on that! Ds read me an essay he had to write about a recent challenge and what helped him overcome it and it was about researching and visiting colleges and college applications and essays and he credited me with helping to keep him motivated and look towards to end goal and getting what he wants. I wanted to frame it!
Interesting. Selected random sorority at Case Western. 20 out of 30 girls were brunette. 1 redhead. 5 Asians (total guess based solely on grainy photo). A quick look at some others confirmed they included AAs too. Phew.
Case has a requirement of 2 semesters of Phys Ed! =)) Uh oh.
Daughter has her interview tonight, so I was perusing their website for some good questions. If anyone has any killer interview questions, please send them my way!
A few of my son’s deadlines are in February because they are essentially rolling admissions. But they will give an answer as soon as the app is complete. And they will get the financial aid process going as soon as he is accepted. I really hope they don’t wait until February to “press the button” for those apps just because they can.
Quick question for you guys (as I prefer to stay in this nice garden within CC these days ; )
My D has subject test scores of 750 US History and 730 Chemistry - do you think those are worth sending to Swathmore? They don’t require them (will consider if submitted), but I’m not sure if these help or not - I’m not as well versed in the world of subject tests. Thoughts?
PSA about Naviance or CA glitch with LOR when college only wants one LOR.
GT only requires one LOR, so son ‘invited’ his STEM teacher to submit the LOR for GT. Well…STEM teacher has not written his LOR yet, and that is OK, as GT allows documents to be submitted until Dec 1st. Humanities teacher had written and uploaded his LOR to Naviance, but son preferred to use STEM LOR for GT.
I am guessing the problem is on the Naviance end as I assume Naviance forces documents out to CA…the Humanities’ teacher LOR has been sent to GT. Guidance can attempt to email the correct LOR to GT, but odds are poor that GT will ever manually update the file to remove the submitted LOR and replace it with the intended LOR, as they have thousands of EA applicants.
So in case anyone else is in the same position with a school that only requires one LOR…hope that both teachers have submitted their LOR before the info populates CA. I hope they fix this soon, although I do not know if any of son’s others schools only ask for one LOR. Triage basis here with Oct 15th being the only thing considered right now.
@hadmeathello oh man! I FORGOT to add mandatory PE to the spreadsheet and program summary docs. UGH. Need to do that as it could be a factor.
Then again it depends on what the PE offerings are I suppose. I am not sure if any of his schools require it but it’s possible.
It is a bit hard to let go of some schools. I don’t think I’ve had a real heartbreak (for me) school yet but there are some that make me a bit sad. It’s freeing though, I’m really content with the final list. Doesn’t stop me from revisiting things and checking random new ones out but overall, content.
@RightCoaster that would be very frustrating. None of ours have been sent BUT the school will not send until Naviance is updated to “applied”. Which hopefully will change on 3 schools this weekend. Of course only 1 of 2 LOR’s is ready and I doubt the GC letter is ready. On the positive side, the one LOR that is ready, was shared with S17. It is so wonderful I think/hope it will make up for the brand new to the HS this year, brand new to counseling and uber young GC who is covering 300 kids. I can’t imagine her “letter” will have an ounce of insight or personality or even what she will say. It will be the dreaded uber generic letter. Not that he knew his previous counselor much better but at least she’d been “with” him for 3 years and might have a bit of a clue.
If it makes you feel any better, I emailed the registrar 2 days ago to ask about a copy of his transcript (requested almost a month ago now). With no response on that I emailed the main College/Career counselor with the same request and additionally did email aforementioned green GC to see if she might like a copy of S’s resume. Because frankly I don’t trust the kid to have filled out the form (no clue what they asked for on the form, never saw it, would bet money he filled it out while he sat with her) with any real level of detail that would help her.
@MotherOfDragons that is the best feeling! S17 said something similar a couple of weeks ago, very much along the lines of “I don’t know how I would do this without you” and he was feeling really proud of himself for being ahead of some of his friends as they worked on essays in AP Lit this week, he said he felt less stressed than some of them and he was glad I was pushing him early. He even went to far as to express concern that he hadn’t started scholarship apps yet and was worried he was late on those (he is not).
@CT1417 that’s frustrating. In theory we “invite” teachers to each school in Naviance and so it’s possible to select only one teacher at one school and 3 at another. We are not to request recommenders through the CA. I have no idea though what would happen in your scenario but for all our schools that take LOR’s that are on the CA, they all have the option to recieve more than one even if only one is required so I assume that the 2nd LOR will go through just fine even though only one actually requires 2. We will see though I guess. Only one LOR is uploaded to Naviance and thankfully it’s the one we want going to all so if the 2nd teacher is late S should be ok. I think.
As I sit here looking at D’s checklist (spreadsheet) and check it against each school’s applicant portal, I cant imagine how kids are doing all of this with no help.
@RightCoaster and @STEM2017 D’s GC had the same attitude re: apps … that so long as they were in by deadline it was fine. She intended to submit close to the deadlines. I had to set her straight on my expectations.
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