Little bit of a go around with GC yesterday about teacher rec & evaluation s for Common App. Teacher has had recs done since August and completed evaluation on October 19, but were still not showing received by schools because GC did not upload them…GC’s excuse she was done with her upload on October 14 so she did not check back about the teacher stuff. Teacher sent me a screen shot of what she sees on Naviance & Common App, which was EXTREMELY informative, too bad this is the last kids for me because it explained a lot.
Now the Common App is only showing the teacher evals are uploaded and not the recommendations, which showed before for some of the school. At this point I am over this GC and DD is over tracking stuff down and trying to straighten out what goes where. So we are done. All DD’s Common App schools are showing that all necessary documents are received.
@amominaz you just need to apply to the college. I’d contact the college to make sure there isn’t anything else. OU was amazing, expedited acceptance and arranged for early advising for dd16. For ds18 we plan to attend National Merit preview day at UTD, he’s already applied and has been accepted
S18 was working on getting in the last of his 11/1 deadlines on Common App last night and well…you know the result if you’ve read this thread over the last 12 hours. But he is an early riser and was able to submit everything this morning. Apparently the fear of having to submit apps on Halloween night was strong out there! LOL.
Common App back up, the straggling LOR has finally been uploaded…geez nothing like waiting til the eleventh hour. We are not a procrastinating lot here, so waiting on this last one has been totally nerve-wracking!
Taking stock, D has 5 apps submitted with 5 to go for a total of 13 schools. UC app is all done will go to 4 campuses once she can send on 11/1, so really just 4 apps left to complete, and just the supplementals need to be done as they are all CA schools. So the bulk is done. For a girl who was stuck a month ago, D18 has really hit the gas pedal.
Reviewing her submissions for one of the schools… she’s submitted 8 essays (4 for the main app, 2 for the honors app and 2 for the scholarship) Does that seem reasonable to ANYONE? X_X About halfway through, D started to question whether she even wanted to keep it on her list - the extensive app was part of the turnoff - but we were too far in to abandon ship. But sheesh.
Got a peek at one of her LORs yesterday; the teacher gave her copies for merit scholarship apps. It was 10/10, almost brought me to tears. Teacher knows D very well - D had her freshman and again junior year for a big AP class so she had many personal antidotes and insights to share. She talked about her development as a scholar over the years. The letter was so personal and detailed; I was really touched that she put that much effort and thought into it, definitely not a cookie-cutter LOR. Such a nice boost for D, came at the right time as she’s trying to get over the hump of the last batch of apps. Full steam ahead! :D/
@JerseyParents, ED is binding but EA is not, so the student can apply to one ED school and still do multiple EA submissions. Some schools have restricted EA which limits the number and type of EA submissions (Harvard and Stanford for example) but the student is not obliged to attend if admitted.
D pulled the trigger on her Indiana University app yesterday afternoon (California time). No problems with the Common App site then. Glad we did it early! Two more Common App schools to submit by 11/15, and the rest are UCs or CUs so it should be easy. Then we wait
Great to see all the submissions! @veronica02, I hear you about the crazy essay count for one school; my S was auto admit to his school and didn’t have to do any essays at all to get in. Since he’ll be NMF he’ll also get automatic entry into the honors program so no essays there either. He decided to apply for the school’s most prestigious scholarship though and I think it was 11 or 12 essays! All were short, thankfully, but each required careful consideration and took him forever to craft!
So happy for @bearcatfan (it’s nice to have direction!) and @MACmiracle (so very glad your D is feeling better, and that she came out of it refreshed!). So unhappy for @labegg - that GC is unbelievable! And I was starting to get jealous of @traveler98 for the autoadmit until I saw the number of essays for the scholarship (that’s crazy!). Have a good day everyone!
Um, I think I’ve just used up my quota of exclamation marks and parentheses for the day.
DD does not still have 11/1 schools to apply to, but does have a couple scholarship essays due tomorrow. She is also going to a birthday party tonight. I have no doubt that she will get them submitted by 5:30 tonight so she won’t miss the party. She has more deadlines 12/1 so I’m really hoping Thanksgiving is not too stressful. She has already put in her work availability saying she could work any 2 days over the break, but not more.
Do you think there are a good number of people who apply ED knowing they may have to decline for financial reasons? D18 would LOVE to apply ED at her 1st choice but won’t because the FA package is too iffy. We have a complicated FA situation (with a one-time income situation that hit on the base year in addition to a family business) which could go good or bad, and D18 doesn’t feel right applying ED in case it doesn’t work out.
While I commend her integrity, I also can’t help but wonder how many kids apply with no qualms about declining. Is her moral compass going to prevent her from getting into her dream school? What if the FA was a good one?
Btw, I did send in for an early read at the school and the FA officer basically told me that it would take a review panel to give a decision on our situation and that he can’t really say. So it was no help.
D’s REA school stands above all other schools in her mind, so she didn’t mind that much not being able to apply to ED schools or other REA schools. It’s a reachy-reach, but she really wants to go. REA also allows her to apply to public schools like UC’s, CSU’s and OOS publics.
Hi Friends, I have a question for you - do you think colleges’ financial aid offices only work on files that have been accepted? I’d love to hear your takes on this. Just curious because an office of a school that she applied to EA needed to clarify something this morning and emailed my D about it and copied me.
@kayak24, if your D has a clear #1 and wants to apply ED in her heart, and if the only hold up would be the university doing their part to figure out your financial aid offer, I would apply ED. Your situation typifies the situations that are allowed to back out of and ED agreement because of the finances not matching up. You have no way of knowing that now through a NPC. My D has applied ED to a school, and before she did, I called the FA office. On her own, the worker told me that it is not up to the school to decide if the financial aid offer if sufficient (even if they think it is). That is up to the family to determine if it’s acceptable. Which is why people do get out of the ED agreements. We have no intention of playing games. My point is just that at times, there are situations that cannot be pre-determined.
Best of luck to all. Haven’t been reading this thread closely, but lots of CC friends on here.
@Winky1, just from anecdotal evidence on this board through the years, communication from the FA office does not mean the student has been accepted. Apparently they work completely independent of each other at this stage. I have no way of knowing if that’s true, but that’s the response I’ve seen here to that question.
@Kayak24, if the ED school really is the strong favorite, I think it’s OK to put in the app if the finances are uncertain but look to be in the ballpark. My older D’s FA awards differed by around 10K at different schools, so it’s just so hard to predict, particularly in your situation.
@Kayak24 I’ve read (on the Internet, so there’s that) that an ED can be declined by the student and family on one, and only one, condition and that’s if the FA aid offered by a school isn’t enough. And then you can always bargain for more. I’d read up on the ED process of the specific school that your D wants to apply to. But I’d think have your D apply ED and wait and see what the FA will or won’t be.
yes @mommdc , everyone you mentioned all sign off on understanding what the ED Agreement means, however, it is not a contract with specific facts and figures. That’s where people get their wiggle room. We have an EFC and we’ve sent in the FAFSA and CSS Profile. To me, if a school guarantees to meet demonstrated need if accepted, the figure needs to be pretty close to that EFC. Now, I think at times, having need at a school that guarantees to meet it could work against getting admitted. Let’s hope that’s not my D’s case.
