You gotta love those safeties! The one snafu that can potentially happen is overload on October 31 (Halloween betwitching hour) so I would recommend anything to avoid that stress. The beauty of EA and rolling is that once they get that first admittance under their belt, they are a helluva lot more nice to be around! go2boy just got his 3rd acceptance with some adequate merit $$ but frankly, it needs to be higher for him to attend. Once we have all of his acceptances in, he may have to learn quickly how to negotiate. I’ve promised that we will visit the schools he’s gained acceptance to that are really in his tippy top realm of possibilities. He’s a kid who can be a bit unsure of himself so this has been wonderful for his self esteem. And clearly a lot of these schools are looking for boys!
@ak200008 It is good to know other parents may be hitting the exponential stress point this weekend too?! DS18 had been spending much time on the main common app essay. This week it was slowly getting through “dream school” supplemental essay - and this leaves a lot of supplements/150-250 words for the 4-5 total he was hoping to submit to Nov 1. Now he is grousing about all the details to enter on Coalition app. He could have done all this ages ago. I won’t have any fingernails left, biting them too down too far!
I believe the current tally is 12 schools. Several lottery types for sure. If he gets into REA with enough financial aid, then list may shrink, but I doubt it goes less than 10.
Number submitted? Zero
First acceptance in! WVU, it took less than 10 days. She checked in and there it was.
It’s a good school, a little further away than I’d like, but a possibility. Have heard great things from some engineering grads.
It’s just nice to get that first acceptance! Five apps in, one more possible EA and a few later apos.
Nice to see the process can actually work. It all seems so mysterious!
S18 is applying to 12 schools. Two were safeties, but now because of the whole application error debacle, that has turned into a “reachy-match”. So one safety, six that he has every right to get into, but is out of state so you never know, and five pick-a-name-out-of-a-hat schools.
I wish he had an acceptance somewhere. His first app was submitted to a rolling admissions school three weeks ago. Still crickets. I’m definitely on edge with the whole admissions thing.
Adding that nine apps are submitted (early and regular decision. He just wanted it all done) and three are ready to go once the app window opens. So that is nice. I just hate that for early reads, you still have to wait three months!
We have 6 of 7 submitted. Top choice (big reach) will hopefully be submitted tomorrow. She has been accepted at 2 safeties (rolling). We expect to get an answer from her #2 choice next week. To clarify, her #2 is my #1.
6 submitted, 7 more to go. Only two are rolling and she should hear from them anytime. ED school submitted tonight! 2 more that need to be submitted before she hears back from ED school December 15. She will have the rest ready to go in the event she doesn’t get accepted ED. Exciting times for all our kiddos!
I felt funny that my DD will end up submitting 18 schools now but I’m reconsidering. She wants to stay in CA, and wants to be considered for UCs, so since all UCs are in the same apps, she would apply to all campuses except Berkeley (don’t like any majors plus very slim chance to get in) and Merced (don’t like location). DD has 3.54 Weighted UC GPA (1430 SAT) and pretty solid ECs… But she heard from couple friends last year who have 4.0, similar SAT, strong ECs denied from all UCs “Biology major and engineering major” and only got accepted to Riverside. Plus her counselor also told her UCs are very hard to get in now, so she should keep her options open with CSUs. So she really worries that she won’t make to any UCs. Based on her GPA (not SAT), all UCs seems to be far reach or reach schools for her.
She also applied to CSUs, and since CSUs are so easy to apply (no essay, LOR) she wants to apply to all 5 impacted CSU campuses (SLO, Pomona, LB, Fullerton, SDSU) plus SFSU and SJSU with impacted major that she likes. Her GPA is match for those schools but her SAT is above 75%, so she wishes to get some merit scholarship or get into the honor programs.
I also encouraged that she added some private schools as we won’t be eligible for merits or financial aids in UCs, she will apply to far reach USC, Pepperdine, Chapman, LMU and USF. She just finished application for USF and working on LMU, its so much work for private schools! After reading from yesterday on how many schools people applied, I am going to discuss with her whether we should drop Pepperdine and Chapman to save some time and work. (And work to lower # of schools applied from 18 to 15, but in her mind she is applying to just UCs, CSUs, plus 5, so 7 applications). Anyone can chance DD for UCs? With her GPA, we just have no ideas what’s reach, match and safety anymore.
Dang, you people in California have it tough with college apps!
Knowing nothing about California colleges … where do kids in California go if they don’t go out of state? What is the difference between the UC and CSU systems?
UCs (9 campuses) are intended for top 9%-15% of CA students, larger schools, more research basis, with graduate programs, founded by federal government. You need to have minimum 3.0 in order to even apply. Holistic approach, need to answer 4 essay questions, need higher SAT/ACT, strong ECs, But not guaranteed to be accepted, depending on major. Higher tuition about $13000/year for residents. Most UCs are in the top 100 rank of USA schools, higher reputation among students and communities. And many California companies know these UC students are top CA high school students.
CSUs (23 campuses) are serving local communities students, in the nearby cities, more hands-on, career basis, professional development. I think CSUs have more diverse/practical/interesting majors. It’s funded by state governments. With local CSU, you can almost guarantee to be admitted with 3.0 regardless SAT scores, and the lower GPA, the higher SAT required, but overall welcome to top 50-75% local high school students. Tuition about $6000/year. CSUs are strongly supported by local companies and communities. More telecommute students who live from home. In my DD’s HS, 1/3 students got accepted to local CSU and commute to school. Save lots $$. She considers local CSU is her safety and can meet with many friends, but she said she knew students with around 2.0 GPA got into CSU with poor SAT and no EC, that really turns her off and felt she worked so hard and should do better.
However, sometimes top students who can be admitted by UCs chose to go to impacted CSUs (merit and honor programs) and impacted major because they want to live at home, or later find job in the local cities. There are more opportunities to stand out. Many major companies wanted to give back to local communities and will partner with local CSUs.
https://www.campusexplorer.com/college-advice-tips/734681AB/CSU-or-UC-What-s-Right-for-You/
@MDSparkle you hit the nail on the head about hitting stress point.
S18s essay was all ready and he was reconsidering adding a title (I said no - never going to find one clever enough.) Well… he must have pulled out the thesaurus because the perfectly wonderful draft is now filled with words he would never use and is 15 words over the limit! Thanks goodness he saved the new version in a different file. When he wakes up, I may just kill him. I really want it submitted today.
Wow, I am amazed by how many schools some students are applying to! My D submitted her last two applications a week ago, she is just waiting for access to the UC Boulder tracker to submit her application to the college of music there. Because she wants to be a music major, which involves two applications for each school, and an audition she decided to only apply to 4 schools. But we’ve visited all four, she’s had a lesson with each potential instructor, and she says she’d be happy to attend any of the four. She’s already been admitted to her “safety” school, but the audition for music major won’t be until January.
Good luck to all the families facing down those EA deadlines this week! I look forward to posts regarding admissions decisions over the next few months,
@jjkmom I’m kind of in the same boat with my D. We are CA residents and she really wants to stay in state. She has a 3.7 UC GPA, but only scored 1330 on her Oct. SAT (still waiting for the Essay scores). We toured UCSD in the spring and loved it, but later realized it was out of reach, so she’s set her sights lower. As of now she’s applying to UCSC, UCI and UCSB, the later two being reaches, and will also apply to SLO, SDSU and CSULB. She’s not interested in any of the other locations. While I think UCSC, SDSU and CSULB are possibilities, it’s all a crap shoot here in CA. She did agree to look out of state - primarily because we plan to move OOS once she’s settled in college. Would your D consider other schools in the West? Mine has been accepted to ASU already, and we’re going to take a chance on applying to Barrett Honors because, why not? She’s also hitting send in IU Bloomington this weekend, and has UNH (our original home state), Willamette and Syracuse on the list. Our EFC is too high for financial aid, so I continue to look OOS for schools that offer reasonable tuition and merit for her stats. It’s stressful. By the way, we toured UCSC this past weekend. Neither of us expected to like it but we had a really good tour and the campus is beautiful! I think it’s moved up a notch for her.
My daughter intends to apply to 14 schools, and I can’t talk her out of any of them. None are true safeties, but at least four are statistical safeties (and she is trying to show them a lot of love). I’m hoping to talk my son down to 10. He has one admission already, to a rolling-admission school that would be fine for him if it turns out to be affordable. He is not interested in showing love. When reps from colleges he is applying to visit his school, he signs in and then goes to class instead of staying and talking and making a connection.
In case she goes there, start learning that it’s “CU” not “UC”. :))
D has 10 on the list now, but she has a strong EA application in to a school that I think is a great match and has a strong merit possibility. We have not visited it yet, but will this month. If that one pans out, I expect 2 other schools to be dropped for sure, maybe 3. If she’s meh on the visit, or the result of the application is not good, then 10 applications will go in.
I guess we are in the minority here. D has applied to 2. Has acceptance at one, the other we should hear in Dec. or Jan, but not really worried about it. She is most likely applying to 1 more that’s not due until Dec. 1st so we’ll see. She is really only applying to safeties. We really looked at NPCs and if they didn’t show love with merit or had a low sticker price she didn’t really bother. D16 only applied to 3 too I think.
@katstat1 : minority here too. My S will be comfortable at any of his 3 colleges, and we’re just waiting on aid packages and a decision from the other 2.
Average number of colleges applied to nationwide is 7. DD’s list GOES TO 11.