I think the grid is helpful as an overall guide, but once you can actually start the CA for the 2018 school year, you will be able to clearly see exactly what each school requires as far as supplements and recs.
More schools than we thought did require supplements, extra essays, etc., These take TIME to complete, more time than your child might expect! My D was so happy she got her common app essay done over the summer only to discover many more essays she needed to write for the different schools. Then of course, state schools typically aren’t on the common app, so that’s additional work as well. Not to mention honors college essays, scholarship essays etc many of which she just decided to skip because it was too much.
Once you are able to start a common app for the 2018 year, you will then add the schools you want and will be able to see the requirements for each.
@glido - mail from coaches was my favorite! I loved getting called down to the office at school to see which school had sent me more mail! It started freshman fall and didn’t let up until after senior fall!
Just wait until she starts getting calls from coaches this summer. I had NO idea coaches would call (I was a first generation college student and definitely the only athlete in my family) and was shocked when I answered the phone July 1st and there was a college coach on the other end of the line!!
Dropped D & H off at the airport today for the 1st round of visits! They’re off to Oregon to see 2 schools, one tomorrow, one Saturday. The Saturday school sent us an email letting us know they have a “record number” of visitors planning to come that day, so show up early… and I guess plan for crowds? Not the ideal visit situation but it is what it is, and at least they know so they can mentally prepare. I think I went over my instructions and “what to look fors” about a thousand times, H finally asked me if I wanted to go instead. :)) The answer is yes and no. Yes I’d love to be there, but no I know he’s the right parent for this job. I’m the facts, forms, numbers, and research person, he’s the in the trenches, kick the tires, explore every nook and cranny until they kick us out person. I will look forward to hearing all about it and looking at the pictures(&video) I told them to take, as well as reading the notes (which I also told them to take). ;))
Headed to Portland with D to attend Reed’s Junior Visit Day on Monday. Anyone else going? Should be interesting. I heard Reed is a Love It or Hate It kind of school.
University of Michigan Ann Arbor was a big hit today! He loved the campus and especially the Wilson building. He said it was 10x the Ware Lab at Virginia Tech, which he was incredibly impressed with. Think he will definitely apply there!
No college visits planned yet…waiting on the first test score to come back. I offered but D18 declined. She recently did request a “drive by” visit to UTSA when we were in San Antonio for a cheer competition. It is an auto admit/safety school for her.
Right now she is completely fixated on U of Washington-Seattle and I am not completely sure why (we have never visited the Pacific NW, she prefers warm weather, is not outdoorsy/alternative/socially conscious)? Their low OOS acceptance rate makes it highly unlikely she will be accepted and even though I keep stressing that point, it is hard getting her to refocus on somewhere else.
Found with my D16 that she wasn’t truly engaged in the college tour process until summer before junior year and then only as a way of narrowing down broad ideas like city vs college town, size, etc. Which probably contributed her applying to 12 schools, which was too many! IMO she really didn’t completely focus until acceptances starting rolling in and reality hit.
It was a “tale of two campuses” over here. Willamette was a definite hit. They spent nearly a full day on the campus, with only an hour and a half the scheduled tour/info session. The rest was just them wandering around, poking their noses in, talking to people, eating, etc. Both came away very impressed with the campus, the community, the food, everything except the town, which they were both willing to overlook because everything else was so positive. It checked pretty much all the boxes.
Then there was Lewis & Clark. Pretty much the opposite in every way. D & H tried hard to give the campus opportunities to overcome numerous negatives (they visited on a Saturday, the tour guide was a sick freshman, who was really bad at her job), but unfortunately the school just kept disappointing them. They didn’t stay nearly as long, but I believe they made an effort and did find students other than the tour guide to talk to. D was really unhappy with the vibe she got and will not apply.
Honestly, though I was surprised by the vehemence of her feelings, I wasn’t really surprised at the outcome. I had a feeling L&C wouldn’t really be a fit for her, but I felt it was worth a visit for her to see that for herself (and also because I could be wrong! She surprises me all the time)
D18 got the wave of physical mail from elite colleges this week that others mentioned up-thread. Williams, Yale, Chicago, CalTech, Naval Academy, etc. The Williams mail was a large 11x17" catalog in a plastic wrapper. Very nice. However, she’s completely fixated on USC right now … which is actually a good thing because she’ll get the 1/2 tuition scholarship if admitted (admission definitely isn’t a sure thing because USC is below 20%). We would be full pay at all the non-merit elite privates and I would only feel comfortable paying full price at HYPMS.
BTW, I continue to receive email from UChicago about the wonderful undergrad experience I could have there. I dropped out of UT-Austin 30 years ago! Does UChicago send admission messages to every email address they have on record or something? And how did they get my email address, anyway?
February ACT pretty consistent with my son’s SAT score. Got a 34, so am relieved because based on his report of not having enough time to finish I thought he might have scored lower.
@bearcatfan , stay the course! My older child took the ACT 3 times before she got the score she wanted but the end result helped her tremendously.
@bearcatfan Same here. This was actually S18’s second time. He took it once with no prep whatsoever and got a pretty respectable score. This time around, he actually lost points. Even after taking a prep course. So I’m not sure if he was overthinking it, or what. I’m just glad we didn’t have the scores sent anywhere. I’m glad he’s not applying anywhere that requires all scores to be sent. And I hope this doesn’t kill his confidence for the next time around. [I don’t know how he’s taking it, because I leave for work before he gets up for school, so we haven’t talked since the scores came out.] Here’s hoping to better luck for our kids next time!
Congratulations to those who are happy with scores, and sorry for those who are disappointed. This really is nerve-wracking business.
D got good news and is done with standardized testing, although she may take some subject tests. My next task is to see how I can get her out of taking the state-funded test in March. That is new this year, so my older D didn’t have to worry about it.
Son’s score was what to be expected knowing he did not do well in the science section. We now wait for the SAT score tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be what he’s looking for and he will be done with one test. Between AP’s in May and 2 possible subject tests there will be no more SAT or ACT testing for him this school year.
