Ack @ShrimpBurrito they must have just raised it! I sent scores to one school on 8/20 and paid $12! X( Dang it! I should have just sent them all, but I thought it would be better to wait until it was closer to the time she is actually submitting them. I guess in the grand scheme it’s pennies, but I would prefer to save them if I can.
Good luck @Astro77 it can be absolutely hair raising. But I always like to point out to my D that some of these ramps are challenging no matter how experienced you are. I’m not sure if that’s comforting or not, but I did find repetition helped. Over the summer my younger D22 had a camp that required a drive through a particularly nasty interchange twice daily, everyday I wondered if we’d make it through when I was driving, but I also had D18 do the drive at least 2-3 times a week. It was scary for both of us, but each time she navigated it successfully, she grew in her confidence as a driver. Sometimes you have to grit your teeth and do the scary thing (assuming you feel she’s ready for the next step of course).
Common app is in. It took DD a month and I think she rewrote the essay 20 times. We ended up touring four schools, she only applied to two of them and also one we haven’t toured. All three schools are safeties, we found out quickly that the sweet spot regarding merit aid with her high-ish grades and ACT score were LACs where she was slightly to considerably over their top applicants. This whole process has been a ton of drama and I’m glad I only have one kid
DD has no desire to drive, she is afraid of it and I’ve pretty much given up. She uses Uber, her friends and us. Now that all the friends are gone off I’m hoping she will get over this and realize that she needs to learn to drive.
DD’18. completed the Common App. yesterday. She submitted one application via the Common App and one that has its own application. There are 3 more Common App schools she is considering - just has to complete their specific essays.
I just want to vent because a situation that I have no control over is giving me anxiety. And, really, it’s not our problem: it’s the counselor and teacher recommenders’ problem.
Our school district has decided to use Naviance for electronic recommendation submissions, EVENTUALLY. But, the Common App seems to think it’s happening now. So, there’s a note on the Common App that suggests getting the instructions from the counselor or having everyone fill out paper recommendations. There are no instructions from the counselor because the district is not using Naviance NOW. It was supposed to be fixed a week and a half ago, but, I assume it won’t be fixed this school year. Oy, this is not the first time the geniusness of our school district has been on display and caused great anxiety and a letter from the Superintendent for Common App applicants. This is no small school district, either.
For the UNM application … are there two parts (initial submission and a follow up?) DP Jr. did the first part list night, and it took 3 minutes (not an exaggeration - it took me longer to enter the payment information ). He says he has no email to go in and complete or add items. It did not ask for scores or grades or … much of anything.
Not Diotima, but I am sitting here smiling because we had the same questions after filling out the University of New Mexico application. It seemed too easy, like we were missing something. We followed up with an email and were informed that my son was accepted w/in a couple of weeks.
Trying to do deep breaths here. S’s essay is NOT good. He is scheduling time with the Hack the Essay author to get it together.
Also,our school still doesn’t have the NMSF names (and our state hasn’t been confirmed here or on Compass).
Also, our son’s counselor left at the end of the year and he has a completely new person. He had spent three years cultivating an awesome relationship with his counselor so she could write a great recommendation for him and now he has someone totally new to the job in charge of that part of his essay.
I have no idea how he is supposed to get the recap from his teachers that he asked for last spring - how does that work??
He is changing his mind on colleges to apply to - thinking of removing Michigan and Illinois and adding on UCSD, Berkeley, Dartmouth, and Cornell.
We have let him lead on the app stuff over the summer, but I’m feeling the crunch of stress and the unknown. I have no clue how this is all works and am worried he is going to mess something huge up because we don’t know any better.
At the very least, he has the “easy” apps for Cal Poly SLO and the “golden” app for CO School of Mines. So he will probably get in somewhere.
@PAclgmom - congrats on the common app submission & for getting your D nicely positioned at the top of the applicant pool for the best chance to get merit awards. Well, that’s got to feel good - one less thing to stress about!!
We have everything pretty much ready to go & were waiting on NMSF results & a last subject test score to include before we hit the button.
@SnowflakeDogMom - same with us, D has no interest at all to learn how to drive. She hasn’t even taken the test to get her permit yet. I haven’t pushed her about it though as a part of me just doesn’t want to deal with any more drama on top of everything else that’s going on.
My D is a bit late to the game in terms of driving. We weren’t going to push the process, because junior and senior years are already hectic and stressful. She has her driving permit and now wants her license and a car to drive to school, like RIGHT NOW. She picked up driving fairly well, but is still learning those nuances necessary to survive around our area. As for accelerating onto the highway, we just started practicing on Sunday mornings on a nearby freeway.
We still have two more visits planned for this fall, and I’m thinking they both are likely contenders for number 1 choice, so those apps (one would be restrictive EA and one ED) will have to wait until after the last visit which is scheduled for mid-October. D can’t apply to both early. Until then, she will work on getting the safety/match apps in and then there will be a sprint for the apps due November 1. Once those are in, I think things get much easier.
@bearcatfan Yes, three years ago, the superintendant had to send a letter out to many of the colleges and universities in the country (and I sent it directly to all of D15’s schools) explaining why transcripts from the district were unavailable or wrong. I called her schools right away to ask how they wanted us to handle this and many had already heard all about it. It ended up being fine, but it was quite stressful. This, by comparison, is less stressful for S18 and I personally, but definitely par for the course.
@RoonilWazlib99 I feel your pain. S had promised to spend Labor Day weekend doing his Common App essay, and he did work on it. He showed it to me Sunday night. It was a great piece … of marketing literature for his high school. But not a single “I,” “me” or “my” or anything that reflected on him, other than whatever it says about him that he chose a high school he loves so much. For whatever reason, my boy just does not like to talk about himself. Major reworking needed. I was so looking forward to having the Common App essay out of the way after this past weekend, so S could at least apply to his safeties (no writing supplements required, literally the only thing we are waiting on is the Common App essay) and then move on to supplements for other schools.
On a separate note, I have to learn not to read threads other than this one and maybe the “Say it Here” thread. In browsing last night, I came across a thread about fancy college mailings and stupidly clicked, thinking it would be fun to see what intriguing things kids are getting from various colleges. I figured it would be a variation of the thread about which colleges are bombarding kids with mail. Turns out, the thread was intended just for NMSF / NMF parents to crow about what their kids are getting that “run of the mill high school seniors” aren’t getting. I’m probably overreacting because I’m just so darned stressed right now between this process and some other stuff that’s going on, but the tone and the reference to “run of the mill high school seniors” really got to me. I certainly don’t think of my kid as being “run of the mill” simply because he isn’t NMSF / NMF, and I found that offensive. For some dumb reason, I am having a hard time letting that go today. [I know there are a lot of NMSF / NMF parents on this thread, and I am not looking looking to pick a fight with any of you. It’s not the mention of NMSF / NMF that bothered me; it was the part where that poster looked down on kids who don’t have that designation. None of you have ever done that, and judging from the helpful and reassuring posts you’ve all written, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing any of you would ever do.]
