Some colleges require homeschool students to take them.
Just a reality check: this is College Confidential world - there are a lot of over-achieving students and hyper organized parents. I think it is a good idea to get college essays completed (or almost completed) during the summer because school work piles up in the fall and nobody wants a Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday ruined by the stress of racing to meet college application deadlines, BUT nobody is behind on their respective college apps on July 11th. There is plenty of time from August - January to get these applications completed and submitted.
If you are a lurker or just new to this, do not freak out at all the progress you are reading about. Most applications are not even open yet. You and your DDs and DSs are not behind. That is all.
@crazy4info, if you think your D might like to apply to a school that requires or encourages the SAT subject tests, it’s good to have that conversation with her now so she can plan out her test dates and study plans accordingly. You can google a list of colleges that require/encourage SAT subject tests (I know I’ve seen a couple articles like that but didn’t save any links, sorry), and if your D isn’t interested in any of those she’s in the clear. Though definitely check the sites of the colleges she’s interested in just to make sure.
@glido Good reminder!
@crazy4info My D will be applying to schools that require or recommend submitting the SAT2 tests. So, D has taken them. I drew the line at 2 subjects, so Georgetown, which requires 3 subject tests is OUT. But who cares about them anyway.
@glido =D> excellent reminder!! Thank you!! My D is planning on doing several EA apps which have Nov 1 or Nov 15 deadlines which compresses things a bit more, but still. The mantra really is DON’T PANIC! There’s still plenty of time, and even plenty of summer left! B-)
Actually @glido it’s important to look at deadlines on the website of schools that students are interested in especially if looking for merit . Many schools have deadlines of Nov or Dec to be eligible for merit. I agree that it’s early in the application season, but each school has their own deadlines. For many, if you wait to apply in January, you’ve missed the opportunity .
Very true about Early Decision, Early Action, Merit Aid, etc. There are several advantages to getting applications in early (not just merit aid, but regular FA - the early bird gets the worm as some schools simply run out of aid even if you qualify), but everyone is cool on July 11th.
NC State’s big competitive scholarships had the earliest date I have seen so far. October 15th.
https://studentservices.ncsu.edu/your-money/financial-aid/types/scholarships/
I could see a date that early catching a potential merit chaser with their pants down.
One school on S list (UK) historically had a December 1 date for honors college and competitive scholarship apps, but then recommended getting it in early because the limited spots in the honors college may already been filled by the deadline.
Hi,
Just want to introduce myself. We are in Texas and I have an average child according to CC but he is beyond spectacular to us. I know our college process will be different from most here but it will be no less stressful or anxiety ridden. I have learned so much from the boards here and I find it so interesting to learn about schools that I would never even think about. My son has a mind of his own and sometimes his head in the clouds. This could be a reality check for him. He knows that we will pay for a state school in Texas but he would like to go out of state. This is where it becomes a numbers$$ game. His unweighted grades vs. weighted grades. (We are taking a different route with son 2020), He went into a STEM academy at his High school and it has tanked his unweighted GPA. What he has learned from the Academy will without a doubt let him succeed in college but not so good for scholarships/University’s that want unweighted GPA. He has started on his first Application so it has begun!
@LOUKYDAD Georgia Tech is Oct 15 too.
So, I have a bit of a quandary. We have toured 6 schools so far. Depending on the process for signing up to visit, the tour can be great, engaging and relevant, or it can be very vanilla. So sometimes we walk away saying, it’s pretty, the dorms are nice, etc. but don’t really have exposure to things that would draw my child in. So after 6 tours, I’m really no closer to narrowing down a list than I was when we started.
How do you ensure your child sees what they need to make a decision on fit? I am starting to believe I may have a kid who will"bloom where he’s planted," but I’m not sure if I should be going about this differently. He is very introverted until he warms up, but having mom call and schedule extra activities doesn’t really seem like a good idea.
I told him today that he needs to look at the programs he’s interested in and the options and determine what the best fits were, because as far as I was concerned, the best fit was the least cost! (Not sure I believe that, but it might be a good motivator and he’s not on CC to see me waffle.)
@ChattaChia, has your S been excited about any of the schools? If so, were they also a fit with potential majors and affordability? Does he have a safety where he’s sure to get in, would be happy to attend, and you can afford to send him? If so, maybe you can let him drive the process from here.
My S wasn’t interested in researching colleges. Like, zero interest. He knew in early sophomore year that he wanted to major in CS and that he liked UT Austin but didn’t like Rice or TAMU and didn’t want anything in a major city. And that’s about all I had to go on. I offered to set up some visits if he didn’t want to look into it, and he gratefully accepted. Based on my research and our visits he ended up liking a safety, three matches and a reach. Once he had that good list (around Thanksgiving of junior year) I told him I was done with my college research, although I’d happily arrange visits for any more colleges he wanted to put on the list. He’s absolutely a bloom-where-planted kind of person, and he never added another school to the list. Now of course his safety (UTD) has eclipsed all the others after he spent a lot of time on that campus, and he might not even apply to any other schools.
Really, the only school a student MUST have on the list is a true safety, as I described it above. Anything else is gravy.
Welcome @Texas1820. I’m new to this game as well, but the people here are wonderful and offer lotsa help.
Ok, I know what @glido said, but I am starting to freak out a little. In 8th grade my son switched from Spanish to French, because it was being reintroduced - but it has become the bane of our existence because not many kids take it yet, it is always a scheduling issue. Sophomore year it was worked around by having him take an elective as an independent study. This year he is taking French 4 honors over the summer through an online class. But, that means he is working full time for 6 weeks as a camp counselor, doing this online class that is beyond time consuming and doing the summer work for 5 AP classes, including reading 3 books he has not cracked yet. And he needs to start his essays and applications. I had no idea you could start to apply at this point. I am literally stressing now. Oh, and his guidance counselor had an emergency situation - she left in May and may not be back at all next year. His reassigned counselor is the 9th grade (only) gc who has never done the college process. On the upside, for some reason he decided to check naviance tonight and they already put his USH SAT subject test in and he got a 770 - he was thrilled. He had gotten a 4 on the AP test (which is amazing) but he was REALLY disappointed - he was convinced he got a 5. (actually, he’s convinced they mixed up his Macro and APUSH scores because he says he should not have gotten a 5 in that!)
So, where do we start. I know he should be working on his essays, but he’s already crazy with this class. But it needs to get done. He plans to apply to UPenn for ED as well as some state schools (some here in NJ but also UMD, UD). His next two choices would be GWU or Lehigh. He would love Georgetown but I think $$ may be an issue. Anyway, thanks to you guys, I did create an account for the common app and started plugging in some info. But in regards to the rest, I’m suddenly feeling like a deer in the headlights!
@ChattaChia Getting a tour that is specific to what your kid wants to see takes some work, I’ve found.
I keep saying “we.” In our house it’s a team effort. My daughter, too, would never be arranging these visits on her own, and that’s ok. I don’t think I would have, either, at that age. As the parent, I pay the bills and, sometimes, she values my opinion lol.
My daughter’s criteria was an in-state, direct-admit school. Not too small, with some kind of campus life (like sports). We ended up with 7 she wanted to see.
So far we’ve been able to meet with nursing faculty at nearly all the schools we’ve visited, even though it’s summer - at the very least, we walked through the sim/skills labs. Maybe nursing is different, but most schools seemed open to at least trying to accommodate us. My daughter has lived her life in a basic sleeveless navy blue cotton dress and white Keds when visiting - one step above shorts and a t shirt - because we are face to face with her potential nursing peeps.
I started early … I was booking these things beginning in May for June/July visits. I’m not ashamed to say I took the lead in things. I reached out to admissions and said we specifically wanted a nursing-centric tour. The biggest school on our list had “close ups” twice a week for each popular major, including nursing. Others we were lucky enough to arrange to talk to a nursing prof. At one school we rescheduled about three different times, but we ended up talking to the head of the school in between her meetings. At the last school we visited (two more to go!) the tour was led by a sophomore nursing student, which was good.
And by the way, if you are offered a chance to talk to admissions as part of the tour take it! That’s where we are finding out detailed options for merit and scholarship days that could be very lucrative. I told my daughter money isn’t the only thing, but it’s an important thing.
Getting detailed info is doable, even in the summer, but you need to be flexible in scheduling. Remember: Admissions is the sales department of the school. 
Welcome @Texas1820 and @MomtoCon!
@MomtoCon, I’ve been through this once before and I swear you are not behind. Promise. My D15 did not have a solid Common App essay done until some time into the fall. If your son is buried this summer (and it sounds like he is), then don’t sweat the apps yet. You can have him start to think about some topics for his Common App essay, maybe just free-write some of it, whatever he can manage. He has months to get this done. Hang in there!
Welcome to all the new members!
Yes, we reached out too and asked if we could meet with someone in the music department.
To me the campuses we have seen are very similar, library, dining halls, suite-style dorms on all of them. We talked to students who like their school and the major department is accredited.
For engineering ABET accreditation would be important, how difficult is it to get into the engineering specialty of choice, is there a coop program, etc.
If merit is important for affordability, find out the GPA required to keep it.
@suzy100 Thank you! That was just a total middle of the night freak out on my part. At times I feel like we don’t know what the hell we are doing. It feels like such a fine line between being prepared and being overwhelmed.
To my shock and delight, I came home to find that S18 had created a spreadsheet with schools, essay requirements, common app or no, average stats for acceptance, and submission deadlines! Who are you?!!
@MomtoCon I hear you on waking up in the middle of the night, lol.
I often say no one in my family worries because I worry enough for everyone. :-SS