My D fantasizes about Stanford, too. We’ve explained to her that for her anticipated field of study (Linguistics), prestige doesn’t really matter at the undergraduate level. It’s not worth the $250K investment. But, if she wants to pursue an advanced degree at Stanford, the money spent, even for a two year Master’s program at full pay, would make more sense. It’s a good lesson in ROI.
Well, two colleges fell off the list yesterday. She took me at my word when I said don’t even bother visiting or applying if you can’t see yourself being happy there.
One because the male to female ratio was wildly lopsided. As my daughter said, “I want boys on campus,” lol.
The second, and I knew this would happen, is because it is local. There are other issues, but that is the main one.
So now we are down to eight visits, and probably that many applications. A reasonable amount.
One more visit to schedule. We just don’t have time in the fall to do this, even though the high school allows four excused absences for visits (with a form). There are definite drawbacks to visiting in the summer, but this works for us.
Next week a last review push for the June ACT, and then start working on essays.
Yes, we explained to DD that it would be better to save $$ at the undergrad level with a good in-state public school, then if she makes the most of the experience she should be able to enter a more selective graduate program and cover the costs either through a tuition reimbursement program (if she’s working) or with a graduate assistanceship. Her plans to go to school in NYC eventually shifted over to only looking at the 2 strong in-state options. She doesn’t want to have to deal with a student loan after graduation, and we’ve saved enough for in-state public for 4 years (even that seems like so much $$!)
DD’18 asked her English teacher for a LOR. She said yes, but you need to give me a resume of H.S. interests and activities. She put it together last night and handed it in today.
It is a reminder that students can really help your teachers by handing them some sort of resume, so the teacher can write something more specific.
My D’s high school has a large packet that must be completed for LORs and it includes the student resume, transcript, list of schools needing the recommendation, a parent letter of recommendation so they can see the good things I have to say, etc. We have lots of work to do before a teacher gets to the point of writing a recommendation - maybe a good thing. We really aren’t at a point to definitively list schools requiring LORs so this will likely be a fall activity but she is asking 2 teachers for their recommendations before school ends tomorrow.
I would prefer that teachers write LORs and have the GC add school names/addresses as we are ready which gives us some added flexibility to add schools to apply to ongoing vs needing to go back to each teacher - I can see why teachers must get totally inundated with this process.
Our school has a really long “survey” on Naviance that the students have to submit before teachers will do LOR.
@Booajo , my D15 was initially prestige driven. We let her apply to a few reaches but were clear that absent a hail mary they were not financially feasible. She was frustrated as she saw some richer, and poorer, classmates apply to lots of schools we would not be able to afford. In the end though, she got into USC with the NMF scholarship. USC met her prestige requirements, and she has been impressed by all the top, driven students there. Now if I can only get her to stop negatively commenting on the free or almost free rides I keep dangling in front of my S18! U of South Carolina is on his prelim list. I joked to D15 that if S18 goes to USCarolina, I can say both my kids go to USC and not even have to buy another hat! You never saw a nose get into the air so fast, as she launched into a summary of her school’s superior qualities. Got to love sibling rivalry!
@vistajay (and anyone else who may be interested), I just checked with USCarolina and the app and essay prompts for the Honors College won’t be up until August. BOO!
@suzy100 , seriously doubt my S18 is going to do much essay work before then anyway. But thanks for the heads up!
Quick LOR question: D18 has a broad range of schools to apply to as I am sure most of you will have as well. Some are Common App, Coalition, UC, and direct apps with individual schools. Can a teacher write an LOR as a standard letter format and have it be applicable to all these various application options. So for example, I know Common App has their format, but is it OK to upload a format that is acceptable to all.
Are there schools that require Coalition or direct apps? Personally I’d keep it as simple as possible and do all Common App plus UC unless you have to have 3rd/4th application method.
Out of a dozen or so on our list, 5 are direct application. For example, I’m pretty sure ASU, Bama, UofU, are direct/their own app. I’d love for it to be one or two approaches but not looking that way for us.
S has turned in all of his textbooks and taken his last remaining final. He says he’s feeling pretty good about everything, like he’s closed out the year well, and he can already feel that “fresh slate” feeling setting in.
Of course, he still has 9 school days left, but I guess all he has to do is show up. Most of his classes were senior classes, and seniors don’t have to report after this Friday. S says he’ll be watching a lot of movies on the days he has left. 
We still haven’t visited Michigan State, and S is toying with the idea of letting that one go. We’ll see how he feels over the summer. We have it penciled in for Columbus Day weekend, but S is saying that he feels so good about his two faves that it’s hard to see another school competing, especially one that’s so far away and has real winters.
@bearcatfan, a school with not enough girls is a no go for our S18. In principle I would have liked a school with way more girls, but if I’d gone to one and still not been able to get dates I would have been scarred for life. 
^ this is probably the one thing that has surprised me the most - the fact that girls outnumber boys at most schools. Sure my D will like engineering schools which seems to even things out to some extent.
@my2caligirls Some good friends recently went to visit CO School of Mines with their son. The male:female ratio is something like 70/30. Apparently the saying amongst the female students is, “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.” 
@my2caligirls Five direct apps plus common app, etc sounds like a lot of work! Our school has one LOR Naviance-based process for all common and out of state apps, but I don’t know how that ends up affecting the formatting.
My daughter spontaneously booked her tours and interviews for the three schools she is going to see in July. That was cool. I think she’s procrastinating from taking her finals.
One miracle school is about 50/50 - the rest are some version of girls outnumbering boys, but it’s relatively close to the general population. The one she wrote off was 70/30 girls versus boys, and it wasn’t a women’s college.
She’s already spent a high school career without dating. There’s currently a thread on Cafe that jokingly talks about using CC as a matchmaking service for the boys and girls who are nice, attractive and smart but don’t get asked out. I’m thinking to myself, hmmmmm. 
(Although part of me wonders if in our backwards town it is a subtle form of racism - she is an Asian adoptee. I don’t want to think that, but the few Asian girls and boys at the school tend to gravitate towards each other).
@ShrimpBurrito When we visited with my S15, the saying among male students was “It’s like a parking lot - the best spaces are always taken, and nobody wants to park way in the back”.
Some of the Direct Apps I mentioned are supposed to be pretty straightforward and will be safeties w rolling admissions so worth the minimal extra effort for us - I’ve heard here on CC that UA and ASU are real quick apps (30 mins). I would love it if they were all that straightforward.
Our approach to pretty much all apps is to do as good a job as possible but we are not going to spend a “summer” on a common app essay! I hear that statement all the time around my area and really don’t get it but to each their own. Thankfully D18 finished her’s in AP Lang last week. Anyways, we come up with the target list and deal with the apps even though it would all be simpler if the same app.