@payn4ward …thank you!
Not much scope to game the GPA @ son’s full IB program and school stopped ranking at after his freshman year. I think there are one or two kids with higher weighted GPA than DS since they skipped 2 math classes in middle school where as DS skipper one.
College chat today yielded portal checks and logins for the schools she’s applied to (UMDCP is mysteriously opaque-all they say is “you’re done!” without the checkboxes of stuff).
I sent in two more transcript requests to her school, she has two teachers that STILL haven’t done req’s (argh), and she’s going to pester them this week, and UMDCP got her ACT score.
She also made a little mini spreadsheet with the name of the schools, if a portal was created, if her application is complete, and when she should hear back from them yay or nay.
She still has one RD app and the UA CBHP essay to do by Nov. 1, then we…wait.
@CA1543 Our Naviance shows 2017 row now, so we can see the application stats. I guess our GC chose to show the info.
It appears to me class 2017 is applying to a lot of schools. Many of the schools on D’s list (I normally just check these) have applicant number close to previous year (full year vs. only before EA now) if not more (Rutger’s application # exceeds the whole 2016 already). Some kids from D’s school are applying 20+ schools. 10 seems a norm…
@MotherOfDragons D’s UMD-CP’s portal shows a list of items. The status of each, there are “not applicable”, “not received”, then “received”, something like that if I remember correctly.
Can you blame them? It’s been quite the shite show for this poor class this year with all the wackadoodle testing and scoring going on.
I confess to feeling serious free-roaming frissons of anxiety about D’s 6 schools. Then I remind myself that she can only go to one and to settle down. Doesn’t work very well, like Alice in Wonderland, I give myself very good advice, but I seldom take it.
@MotherOfDragons D’s UMD portal shows everything received.
I feel for the class of 2017. So many changes they have to navigate. On the other hand, the kids seem handling it quite well. I actually didn’t feel much anxieties from D and her friends. At D’s FH senior day, only one parent asked me about D’s potential college list. No one else mentioned anything. No kids talked about college or anything either. D had 2 classmates come over today for the AP Euro (or English?) project. They were laughing the whole time (they were recording their poem in a rap format) . D made her signature cupcakes before the girls showed up, and they ordered pizza for lunch. After 3 hours of “fun” project work, the girls left and D went to work ( I was taking a nap so hopefully they completed the project successfully :)) I think I am creating stress for her sometimes. I need to really back off…
Trying to get D to decide if she wants to put $$ down on dorm fees for Texas A&M and University of Texas (accepted to both, waiting for engineering decisions). She said “you know…don’t do it. Even if I’m accepted to both I think I’d rather go to U of Alabama.”
Well, that saves some deposit fees.
(Now trying to figure out if I go behind her back and just do the deposits anyway?? That’s a lot of months between now and March!!??)
beowolf by chance? mine is finishing up lyrics set to tenacious d for their music video. =))
doesnt anyone just write a paper anymore???
@carachel2 D and I had the same conversation today and she said not to deposit. But I’m not so sure. If this admissions season turns out to be a total bust, I’m starting to think I’d encourage her to go to UT at full cost given the strength of the B school, especially if she gets into honors, and it’s an Arabic flagship (though I’m not crazy about the breadth of offerings), and its close (being selfish).
@payn4ward Reading your comment about your concern about same paragraphs ending up in the essays for the same school gave me a little jolt of anxiety so I can imagine your fear. Once I was able to convince S17 to stop writing new material and start recycling, I named each essay because I couldn’t keep them straight. It’s been really helpful! Each essay is named with 1 or 2 words and that is what we refer to them as now. No recycling of portions of essays. Otherwise, I can see it could get very confusing and lead to trouble. The other thing I have asked S17 to do is to finalize any essay that can easily be tweaked and enter it in rather than completing full applications. For example, one school had the activities the student found most worthwhile essay. Another school asked the same question but with a much stricter word limit of 150 words, then another asked the same question but permitted 250 words. I am sure everything will work out just fine but wanted to mention naming each essay as it was what kept me sane.
Well, she got her first rejection email.
Harvey Mudd said thanks but no thanks to their Fly In program for D. She’s currently out on a date but forwarded me the email with a 
face. I don’t think she’s going to apply to them now. Which is sort of ok for me because wow that is a looooong way from home.
@MotherOfDragons Sorry to hear about the fly-in. She’ll have lots of great options. If she likes it she should still apply. The decisions are likely independent.
Most of the fly-ins target URMs, first gens or have a need component, so those may or may not have been factors. Harvey Mudd’s a great school - she shouldn’t not apply based on the fly-in.
@kac425, S’s English class just finished up papers for Beowulf and Grendel. Still waiting to see how he did on the paper. :>
@MotherOfDragons, Sorry about the rejection from Mudd, but at least she didn’t spend a boatload of time on the app. Rejection practice. Most of our kids will have that.
@MotherOfDragons D17 had a rejection from a Grinnell Diversity Weekend. And, she’s diverse! Totally not applying there now, mostly as a result of the rejection. But also b/c of the cornfields. ~:>
Back from USCar Top Scholars dinner. Didn’t learn anything new that hasn’t been mentioned here already. Also about 25 kids in attendance. Pretty well done. The regional admin was great (D had met her, I had not), and they had 3 recent, very accomplished graduates (1 just out of med school, 2 PhD students at Northwestern) who did a Q&A session. They were really excellent as well. Then, the steak was good, and very good dessert 
We were the last ones to leave, after chatting some of the alums and AO.
The biggest result of the night is that D is dropping UofMich from her list (my alma mater). She is fatigued, and just can’t see going there over some of the other options she will have, including USCar. So, that’s 3 short essays she doesn’t have to recycle/write now. I think she is done with all her 11/1 schools, but still has a 11/10 EA.
@MotherOfDragons CBHP isn’t due 11/1 is it? Hopefully that’s your date for completion? I guess I can go to the site 
One of my biggest worries is that my daughter’s applying to safe enough schools for the most part, that she might actually end up getting rejected nowhere. I don’t think that would be a completely positive outcome for her—disappointment in controlled doses can, I think, be useful.
@dfbdfb Rejection is overrated. :)) Seriously though, it can come in many forms. D’s rejections will come from scholarships, not admissions rejections.
GPA padding. Our HS ranks, and some kids play the game, but in general it’s not as crazy as others I’ve read about on CC. We decided to pass on the game. I would rather he spent his time over the summer training for his sport and doing some ECs (and having some fun) than cramming in two AP classes.
The Val this year will be a student that transferred in as a junior (from a charter school). Whatever his done, it’s allowed him to have a few B’s his junior year and still keep his #1 ranking, beating out other students, taking the same classes but getting all A’s.
@payn4ward We had the same issue with Chinese! Son had to start off with Spanish 1 in 9th grade (with Spanish 1 and 2 being “standard” classes) after they cancelled the Chinese series in middle school. He’s also had to take a “gifted” class, each year, which is treated as a “standard” class for weighting, strangely enough…and then his journalism classes were “standard”…and I’m sure a few other classes.
At the end of the day it’s not going to impact anything to do with college admissions. But I do wish he could have kept up on Chinese, he was getting good at it!