S18 is finishing up his Furman essay today. He hopes to start hitting "submit " tomorrow to some of his colleges.
Thanks for all the well wishes concerning our common application dilemma. We’re back in the game now! The common application tab is pretty much done (she finished her main essay as a final project in AP Lang last year) & the goal is to complete (or at least get as far as we can on) the questions and essays for the colleges D18 will apply to before school starts on 8/14.
She was going to be a student leader at a camp this summer, but that got cancelled so she’s had a lot of time to write essays & she’s done a ton of them along with all of those “name your favorite books & movies” types of questions. So, her hardest work is over & it’s mostly just recycling some of the essays or rewording parts of others to fit the questions being asked & there might still be a couple she has to write if a different type of question pops-up.
She actually admitted to me that she is so glad I encouraged (cajoled, bribed, forced) her to get all of this done during the summer and not have to worry about cramming it all in during the school year. We’ll wait to add the results of her Aug 26 SAT Bio test & NMSF results, and then it’s just fine-tuning a few things & sending applications out!!
With 3+ years of participating & lurking on cc threads under my belt, I feel so organized this time around!!!
Last week we went to visit Occidental College. DD had an interview, followed by a tour and info session. We are alumni of Oxy, so we were hoping DD would like it.
There were a zillion people there for the tour - maybe 70? There were 3 tour guides who described their backgrounds and then let us sort ourselves with whichever guides we wanted. The tour guides were pretty far on the quirky side, which I appreciated. That matches our memory of Oxy way back when, but there was a post here on CC that described everyone at Oxy as being shiny LA people so I wondered if it had changed that much. Not so, we our impression based on the guides. Since we were there in the summer, we didn’t see many other students.
The tour covered mostly the lower part of campus. We went into one dorm room that was made up as a demo and we went into one academic building. The dorm they show is in an average dorm - I know from attending that there are both nicer and scruffier ones there. Some freshmen are in triples which the students themselves can choose in exchange for a housing discount.
We were able to go into several other buildings on our own after the tour as most were open.
They have some neat programs – a summer internship program where you work at a paid job in LA and can live on campus – a semester-long program where you can work on a political campaign – a program at the UN and of course study abroad programs. Apparently 93% of this year’s graduates have job offers or grad school offers.
My daughter is interested in singing in college and we selected a tour guide who is in the glee club (the premiere singing group). The guide gave a flavor of the Glee Club when she described how they sing at nearly every major school activity, so they are really visible.
The tour guide gave the impression there are only two academic buildings, which we thought was strange. There are quite a few more, some bigger than others.
Obamaness: According to the interviewer, Sasha Obama was there for a tour the week before us. They have a big Barack Obama photo display on the front of the dorm where he lived.
Ack! We have maybe three more essays to write.
One of her colleges finally provided questions to the Common App and there is the “why us and what will you offer us as a student” essay. It shouldn’t be difficult, since she really likes this program. Another college uses its own app and “highly recommends” an essay but has no information on what topic they’d like or how to get it to them (there is no place on their application that I can see). We need to email to see what they want. Another college won’t populate the Common App until August 15, but maybe they will just take the Common App essay on its own.
So definitely two more, maybe a third. It was a bit of a bummer, but at least we have a little more time.
@bearcatfan “Ack! …3 more essays to write” I wish we were so lucky!!! My D hasn’t started at all yet. And I don’t know where she is going to get the time because her Fall is packed to the rafters. I see a train wreck in the making.
I’m with you @melvin123 nothing here on essays either. So jealous of some of the progress people are reporting! But I have faith. She’s a good student, gets her work done on time routinely, she’ll get this done too, in her own way. It just might add a few extra grey hairs to my head in the process 
Thanks for the Oxy report @daffodilpetunia we haven’t visited yet, but I hope to get there this fall.
Can not get my daughter to start essays or anything to do with college. She says she does not care what college she goes to… with psat si 223, sat 750e 800m, and act 35c. I am thinking just send her to our local community college out of parental frustration.
She has six ap classes with class starting at end of month, so the time crunch is almost here…
Hope the rest of you are having more stress free summers than we are at our house.
@sekere62 I’d hand her a list of full ride/near full ride schools for National Merit and tell her to pick one and be done with it, it would likely be cheaper than your local CC.
@LMHS73, isn’t that a good feeling? My son has thanked me too.
No stress free summer here. We’ve had contractors since early July, demolishing and rebuilding a bathroom that was never built properly in the first place. Someone has always had to be home with the contractors, plus secure the dogs. I would rather have just dealt with college stress.
My husband is changing jobs after 19 years in retail sales. He’s going to be a custodian in the school system. Better benefits, less stress, and more family time: not working nights, not missing family events.
@sekere62 I can relate. It has been a very slow go getting S18 on board with the process, and we have had a frustrating summer. Last week I had a meltdown, which is out of character for me, and I had to step back and really look at what was driving that. I had been looking at everything S18 has on his plate this fall, plotting out deadlines etc, and it was stressing me out. My way of dealing with that kind of stress is to get my ducks in a row and make steady progress in order to complete things way ahead of schedule. And I kind of expected S18 to feel stress and deal with it the same way I do. Then I realized, S18 is just not like me in that way. He is better at taking things in stride without getting too worried about any of it, and has always managed and met multiple deadlines without much trouble. I just had to resign myself to the fact that his approach was going to make me uncomfortable, and also just had realize that I need to have faith in his ability to get it all done. I’m sure I’ll have a few more “moments” before this process is over, but this last week has felt very freeing. Hang in there and don’t let it make you too crazy!
I hear all of you about letting them do their apps on their own time. I guess I have my own agenda, though. I want to take a couple of weekend trips with her this school year, and I know that her schedule is getting so filled up, there won’t be any time for mom. I’m very cognizant that this is our last year together, and this chapter of my life will be over soon. 
@melvin123 I’m there too. It already feels like the time left with them is short and only getting shorter. Wish there was some way to make time go more slowly!
Those of you who have received the Ole Miss acceptance @labegg and @crazy4info do you recall how long between application and acceptance? Ole Miss was our 2nd application submitted.
@TexasMom18 once they had all of her documents, it was about 5 days. But we could have easily missed it because when she clicked on application status, nothing came up, and she just assumed there was nothing there. Then we realized there was a pop up blocker. Once we fixed that, we saw the statement of acceptance.
@Texasmom18 it was same day for us once they matched up the transcript and the app. Check your status and see if they have received everything. Overall it took about 18 days.
@apraxiamom we have been dealing with contractors all summer too. Remodeling our master bath due to necessity after we had a major shower leak. Let’s just say it has added to my stress and I am actually looking forward to school starting so there is some sense of routine again! My DS was also admitted to Ole Miss. it took about 5 days to show up under “check my status” but they had our transcript and test scores when we applied. I hope we get something in the mail too as it was kinda anti-climactic ;). Nonetheless it is pleasing to have one final.
Thanks. He just submitted it late last week so maybe we will hear something in the next week or so.
@melvin123 Part of the reason I made her do the essays over the summer is that she is a SLLLOOOOWWWW writer. I mean, she can sit in front of the computer for 45 minutes and she comes up with one paragraph. It’s frustrating, because I am a very quick writer (comes from 30-plus years of reporting, lol).
To be honest, we are recycling some themes she’s written about before. She had a three-page Siddartha essay that became the basis for Common App Essay #2. Her honors career mentorship reflection paper is the bulk of her nursing essay. And so on. Every time she’d write something for school that seemed useful for the future, I’d save it. It really helped.
So it’s not been puppies and roses here, but we haven’t argued. And that’s something. =D>
Giddy with excitement here! D17 is off to college in a few short weeks and we just finished final college tours with D18. As expected she loved UNC-CH. Anybody have any magical answers for OOS applicant? She’s interested in their highly ranked pharmacy program.
Just wanted to let y’all know I requested a moderator to open the Class of 2022 Results/Acceptance thred. It seems to get earlier and earlier every year.