Well, I was hoping to report triumphantly crossing the app finish line with great fanfare and excitement, but I think instead this is headed toward limping across, bleeding in a few places, begging for water. b-(
D announced last night that she is done working on her common app essay. For better or worse, how it stands now is how it stands, she can’t look at it anymore. I stopped being able to look at it about a week ago, it just became too difficult. We got some outside perspective, she tackled it again, got a couple of friends to look it over and is now turning it in to her English teacher (they were assigned to write an essay for class but didn’t really work on or discuss how to do it 8-| ). Who knows if she’ll get feedback from him in time for her EA deadlines, or if she’ll even try to make changes if he gives her feedback. She feels completely burned out by this process, and so ready to be done. She just wants to hit submit, and get it out of her hands. She’s got about 5 more essays to complete, 2 are only max 50 words which she seems to be able to handle pretty well, 1 is max 100, another number very much in her wheelhouse, the other 2 are 500, and I think if she can get them to 200 she’ll be pretty happy and call them done. We’ll see.
Of course, she still has 2 essays to write for the honors college at her safety ~X( and then there’s the 4 essays for the UC app @-) :-" I would lay good odds that sometime in November she makes the argument for not completing the UC app.
It’s good to see a lot of progress being made by all the kids here. We’ll get there! This ride is just a little rougher than I like. Wheeeeee!
For a little comic relief: My younger D22 was watching my D18 work on her common app yesterday, filling out the various sections for each of her schools. D22 later remarked to me that “That common app thing looks like fun” I was like, what?!? She repeated that she thought it looked like fun to fill it out. I remarked that it was a lot of work. But she was not put off, and insisted it still looked like fun to her. I kept a wary eye over my shoulder throughout this exchange as luckily D18 did not hear it! Pretty sure we would’ve had a complete sister meltdown if she had. #:-S
Bonus: In four years I get to remind this kid she thought the common app would be “fun” >:)
@1822mom That’s hysterical! But I sure do feel for your older D. It must be really hard for you to watch her struggle with it, too. It’s so tempting to swoop in and rescue them, but we know that in the long run it does not help them. With SO MANY essays, hopefully she’ll be able to repurpose some.
So, I touched base with D this morning, as she was taking the train to USC from Santa Monica. She insisted on doing it herself, leaving H at the hotel. Makes this Mama Bird proud. She’s visiting three classes today. She was only planning to see two, but the German prof she connected with yesterday convinced her to visit another of his classes. D says all of the students she’s met have been friendly, laid back, and curious about her. She’s been warmly welcomed into the classes she’s visited and feels very, very comfortable.
Okay now, what if she’s not accepted to USC? Or worse yet, what if she IS? She’s really feeling the weight of the decision. I keep telling her she doesn’t have to decide yet. But she’s my daughter, so she will analyze it to death.
@Pri930 , my DD submitted the Coalition app and it shows submitted but her SAT score date pre-dates the date she first took it, lol. I think their website takes a while to process. I would wait a day or two and call, or if you’re like us, you’ll want to call right away.
@1822mom Some forms can be fun! It’s like filling out facebook quizzes. If you take away the stress of college admissions, it’s really interesting to think about yourself and answer questions.
@Pri930 My DD submitted her UMD application on 10/8 and as of this morning her “application status” still says “not received”. I think this may be because the academic rec section is still empty. Her GC uploaded all of the required docs (transcript, GC rec, teacher rec) on 10/12 (according to Naviance). Just this morning, the checklist updated the transcript received date as 10/13, as well as TWO GC recs received on 10/13. Pretty sure he only uploaded one. However, no academic recs are listed, so I am pretty sure that one of those recs mistakenly got noted as a second GC rec due to the way it was submitted.
@3CollegeMom There was an issue with Naviance on one of our uploads (GC letter and Transcript). It took us a few weeks to sort out between the GC, my D, myself and the college. I hope yours gets settled soon. The college said they were having issues with Naviance this year, it seems to be a theme
Okay - back from the trip to the Pacific Northwest. DD’18 ran well in her race and was approached by the coach of a local small college afterwards. Then we drove the entire cross country team up to Eugene to see the University of Oregon. Wow! Beautiful campus in a beautiful state. (None of our team are fast enough to run for the Ducks). Several of the girls said they were going to apply to UO. (Oregon had been on DD’s list for about a year, along with 3 other schools in the Pacific Northwest.) She told us in May of 2016, during a trip to Boston, that she did not want to go to college on the East Coast. She loved Oregon and Washington.
So walking off the campus in Eugene on a gorgeous afternoon, I ask DD, "So, are you going to apply to Oregon. “No, I want to go to school on the East Coast.”
@Astro77 and @3CollegeMom
Thanks for sharing your experience with UMD. Its so frustrating. We have submitted all the documents even before submitting the app yesterday. Good thing D didn’t wait till the last minute to submit the app. I will ask her to call the office and let you guys know what she finds out.
@glido
Nice that your DD was approached by a coach!
My Mother was a Duck - My DS was convinced he wanted to be a Beaver so one beautiful fall weekend in October that just happened to be the weekend of the Civil War, he and I hauled off to Corvalis, OR. Beautiful campus and crazy football fans all over the entire state!
The food sucked and the dorm rooms we toured smelled like Pee - He never applied, off to UNR he went :))
I agree @daffodilpetunia and I think that’s what appealed to D22. Unfortunately there’s no removing the stress from it for D18. I feel like my updates are always such downers! I look forward to the day I can come on here and report good news and happy times for a change! Fingers crossed all this trauma now leads to good news in December!
Has anyone applied to The University of Washington Seattle? We have not receive anything from them really that says the application is complete/in review or its status. We applied via Coalition app they do not requires official transcripts and just go with the student self reported grades and they do not take recommendations. So we are just sort of hanging here assuming all is in order…
@ShrimpBurrito After writing your name just now, I’m going to go to lunch and find a shrimp salad or shrimp paleo plate. I don’t eat tortillas, but I love the name. Hence “sushiritto.”
Anyway, if she’s accepted to USC, then she goes. And you’ll be saying “fight on” for the rest of your lives. If she’s not accepted to USC, which I highly doubt, then she has excellent backups north of the border. Simple to me. :D/
D hasn’t visited USC yet, but she’s applying. Maybe they’ll be roomies? Uh, maybe not. My D is a slob. I’m sure it would be a “Felix and Oscar” kinda dynamic. :))
@SnowflakeDogMom - DD’18 has been contacted by about a dozen coaches, mostly emails and letters, but a handful of phone calls. She views her running as just a tool that may or may not help her get admitted into some colleges in which she has interest. I suspect she would prefer not to run in college, but will if it gets her where she wants to be.
She made great friends and got several really nice OOS trips, including the National Championships sophomore year. But, she has been getting up at 4:30 am to run for the past 4 years and has battled some injuries along the way. She has learned a lot about fitness and nutrition that will serve her well for life. She wants to study Engineering and knows it would be tough running 80 miles a week. I told her to keep an open mind about it.
What? Did this parental bribery just work??? S was chatting away about how he’d like to get a Nintendo 2DS XL. I guess DS is still popular? His friends apparently all have either 2DS or 3DS consoles and he is still - somehow - using his old DS that he’s had since he was maybe 8 or 9 years old. Anyway, his grandmother always likes to buy him physical presents for Christmas and his birthday (as opposed to cash or gift cards) and we were discussing whether that would be appropriate for his Christmas wish list or if the console is too expensive for a grandparent wish list and he should just ask for DS games instead. S casually mentioned that if he could find a gently used 2DS he might buy it for himself “now, but not until my McDermott app is done”. I immediately jumped in with “kid, if you are ready to hit the submit button by the time I go to bed Sunday night I will buy you a brand new console and three games to go with it!” I added caveats that the video must also be done and that I have to be allowed to watch the video and read (but not edit) the entire application before he submits. Guess where he is now, 20 minutes after my blatant bribery offer? Busily working on his stats homework so that he can get down to work on McDermott essays! If he comes through it will probably cost me $250 and I’ll consider it money well spent. Heck, considering that he only applied to one college instead of five or six I’m still coming out ahead on “application fees”…
:)) @sushiritto you always make me laugh. OBVIOUSLY you haven’t seen my D’s room! Our Ds may be more alike than you think!
That’s generally what H is telling D. USC is more expensive, even with the NMF half tuition deal, but we have it covered with her 529. It would be hard for her to justify spending that money, though, when there are cheaper alternatives she likes almost as much. We have time to figure it out. Or maybe she’ll get a full tuition scholarship at USC. That sounds like a good solution–we should just do that.
We lived in San Diego for several years, so I have a history with shrimp burritos. Actually, that’s what H and I used to call D, when she was a newborn all swaddled up. Our little Shrimp Burrito.
I was like, what?!? She repeated that she thought it looked like fun to fill it out. I remarked that it was a lot of work. But she was not put off, and insisted it still looked like fun to her. I kept a wary eye over my shoulder throughout this exchange as luckily D18 did not hear it! Pretty sure we would’ve had a complete sister meltdown if she had. 
I feel like my updates are always such downers! I look forward to the day I can come on here and report good news and happy times for a change! Fingers crossed all this trauma now leads to good news in December!
Actually, that’s what H and I used to call D, when she was a newborn all swaddled up. Our little Shrimp Burrito.