I agree @itsgettingreal17. We have been incredibly lucky, too, with a great GC. She had trouble submitting her portion of a scholarship app, and had to call the school and get it fixed. She’s gotten her LOR done early, and been on my kid’s teachers’ cases to get theirs done for the 10/15 dates (which they are not used to). She was totally excited when I told her about the 'Bama President’s Scholly, and the other acceptances.
I love my spreadsheet with all the portal logins. It’s so handy. My kid just doesn’t appreciate spreadsheets enough yet. It’s a crime is what it is.
@itsgettingreal17 – Our Naviance works the same way that you describe, which is why I said this was a PSA.
I ordinarily would not even have ever seen that son had correctly selected the STEM teacher’s LOR to go to GT had it not been for the fact that he hadn’t completed any of the LOR requests until the GC followed up this past Sun afternoon (after following up Fri evening—two thumbs up for brand new GC!!)
So even though son chose teacher #1, LOR was forced out from teacher #2 b/c teacher #1 had not yet written his LOR. Hence the glitch. Just wanted others to know in case they are in the unique situation of having a child apply to a school that only requests one LOR AND where one teacher has not yet uploaded his LOR.
@eandesmom – I don’t know if that second LOR will get through. I just went and logged into Naviance and I can see that GT only allows one LOR, and under teacher requested, I can see that it is teacher #1. I think our head of guidance has escalated this to Naviance, but doubt they will fix it between now & Saturday, and even if they did, not sure teacher #2 will have written his letter by then, or how the first LOR would be excised from CA.
Naviance had an issue last month with the LORs going to CA. They fixed one problem and created a new one, albeit, one that affects fewer students.
Happy for your that the ‘good’ LOR is the one already loaded. I have no idea what either LOR says, but STEM teacher has known son via ECs since 9th grade and now two consecutive years of AP science, so probably a more appropriate LOR for GT. Oh well…
As it is, GT is not going to know what hit them from our HS as several students from the very top of the class are all applying there EA. The stats of these students are noticeably above our Naviance stats. Probably the same STEM teacher writing the LOR for all of them also! You just have to laugh at this point…
We added one school to “our” List today and took off 3 schools after having a required Senior counselor meeting.
So I just ordered the SAT/ACT score reports to the new school. I don’t know how long the “regular” service takes but I hope it makes there by Nov. 1st. Any ideas on how long non-rush service takes?
** FAFSA: ** So we just “removed” the 10 schools that we originally had our SAR sent to and then added the rest. This is what most people suggest doing when you need to send your report to more than 10 schools.
@payn4ward — no bets after last year’s debacle, but my opinion is that you should be fine, especially since you are requesting at a slightly non-peak time. The students requesting after the Oct scores are released may end up waiting longer, but I would feel comfortable in your position.
Also, schools are generally more forgiving about arrival of documents other than the CA and the app fee. I think, but may be wrong, that Michigan was an exception to that policy. Should not say anything as I am questioning my own recall on that.
Thank you @CT1417 I would imagine the schools would jut pull scores off on-line after 11/1 so I figured 2 weeks is safe. The tests were done by June. I sent scores in June and August (including to the ones that fell off the List today.)
Michigan is not on our List.
Submitted FAFSA last night. EFC came in about $2K higher than what I had estimated. CSS Profile is ready to go - but since we have to pay for the schools it is being sent to when I hit submit, I am holding off until I have a better idea of schools on Ds FOR SURE to apply list. Also waiting until the day of the month when we are the most broke
Day 6 of fall break and still no apps ready to submit…
Wake Forest interview this morning. I texted “how’d it go” and she replied “eh” Maybe I will get actually words tonight
Meeting with GC went well. She said “Thank you for helping DS with applications - she knows I am the executive project manager on his app Also, it is great that you have a realistic list of schools, not 20 reach schools!”
CC educated me to do better than that :))
About that F and C in your progress report… DS is staying after school for office hour. =))
One of my daughter’s LoRs (finally!) shows up in the Common App as “started”, so that’s good, but nothing yet for the other LoR or the GC report. They all know her first deadlines are 1 November, so hopefully it’ll happen soon…
In other stuff, I have an ethical question of sorts for the collected mind here: None of my children have ever taken a “mental health day”—any time they’ve missed school it’s either been for a district-approved field trip or actual sickness. In fact, they may have gone back to school before they were properly recovered a couple times—basically, my family have an intense Protestant work ethic regarding academics.
However, this has presented some issues, ranging from teachers expecting them to have worked on stuff while they were out sick (when for one of them to be out sick often means they’re not quite completely lucid enough to do any schoolwork) to just not having enough time to properly deal with the occasional crazy confluence of deadlines.
With that as background, I’m somewhat considering suggesting to my oldest that she take a day off next week to finish up at least her first round of essays (she has two due 1 November, another one plus a short one due 15 November, and another short one with no firm date but earlier is better). Is this an ethical slip? I suspect it is, but possibly not a negative one. Basically, I’m conflicted on it. Y’all’s thoughts?
@dfbdfb – I would do it, but then again, I took a mental health day to finish my college essays back in the day! So beware the source.
Fine line between burning these kids out and ethics. We all know what we ‘should’ do, but just how far do you push them, especially when the student is otherwise hardworking and dedicated?
I had my son skip the XC meet the night before the PSAT last year. I actually struggled with that a bit, but he is never the runner who scores points for the team, so his absence did not affect the overall team.
Check back here on Halloween to see how my ethics have crumbled!
@payn4ward --I think I commented yesterday or the day before that schools vary massively in how they pull scores. GT has already written to my son saying they received his scores. (No portal yet!) I requested scores for a couple of other schools at the same time, and no word from those schools. I don’t think it is typical for schools to report the receipt of scores, but I may be forgetting from three years ago.
@CT1417 I seem to recall hearing folks as having that issue last year, that whatever teacher uploaded first, went to the CA automatically to all schools. I don’t know that the 2nd LOR will be “bad” but that teacher is notoriously late and a bit dramatic. He’s had a 4 year relationship with S which is both a good and a bad thing. Both are humanities teachers so not sure that part would make a difference. But the one that did upload was amazing (he gave S a copy, didn’t have to) and it completely syncs up with the kid represented in the personal statement and activities and his character/personality comes across loud and clear. It actually made me cry. Which for a non stellar stats kid is huge as his “hook” (what little he has…which isn’t any really) is far more about what he brings to the campus as a whole.
Ten years from now, looking back, do you think you will be questioning your suggestion to take one day off from school to catch up on incredibly important college essays?
@dfbdfb, I agree, make the suggestion to take a mental health day, unless, of course, she has a test coming up. My kids didn’t do that in HS, mainly because the actually love(d) the school, but we used to pull them out before HS for family trips, with the permission of the school. That is one of the perks for being an “A” student.
@dfbdfb Absolutely take the day. I actually think it’s a valuable lesson about priorities and time management. In my experience, real life involves a daily juggling act on so many levels. As long as you catch all the balls before they actually hit the floor (or in my case, manage to grab at least most of them as they bounce back up), and you’re not inconveniencing or letting someone else down, it’s ok. In your case, I suspect your school would rather have your D be admitted and attending a college that will help her achieve her life goals rather than demanding that she be there to warm a seat in class for one day. A perk of being a good, committed student is the ability to make such choices, I think.
@dfbdfb - My DS missed ONE day of school last year and it was to do a college visit. He filled out the form and had all teachers sign PRIOR to going on the trip. Then, a teacher posted a homework assignment at 6pm on the day he missed. DS checked the website before we got on the plane at 5, but not again when we got home at 8. He received a ZERO on that assignment. Teacher said, he should have looked. My DS will NEVER speak up. I see it as to total injustice. The zero took a LONG time to dig out of.
My DS refuses to miss ANY school days. (Luckily, he’s never sick.) He has a cousin at his top choice university and I offered a weekend trip to visit. It would have meant missing a Friday. NOPE! He won’t do it.
I’m never opposed to a mental health break, but the school is very punitive!
P.S. He almost got a detention for being 2 minutes late for 1st period, with a doctor’s note in hand. (8am appointment with a 9am school start time.) I think all of the other kids who miss, come late, etc. make it VERY difficult for the other kids. He DID fight this injustice and got it taken off his record.
@thermom, we did send 760 US history and 760 Math 2 (which has bad percentile as the other poster pointed out) together with her other 800s. I did it since it is the same price to send 3 vs. 5 and I like buy 3 (with SAT) and get 2 free – feel like such deal!
