I was granted access to DD’s gmail this summer. she also uses the same login for the majority of her portals. I keep track of the portal logins on my phone too. Which has saved her booty more than once, when she couldn’t find the login. Sometimes she asks me to look. I look on my own too, a lot. I try to let her discover the acceptances on her own, even if I already know. 17 app was/is a lot to manage and I have definitely played the administrative assistant primarily because of our previous experience with DD’GC, which required quite a bit of strong arming that DD was ill equiped to handle, but now if fully capable of navigating. It is sort of like giving her driving lessons, eventually you give them the wheel on their own, but there is some training that needs to take place first. She has been completely at a loss for the financial aid stuff and needed serious hand holding to even begin to understand that process.
We did the same as @gclsports - set up a new gmail account just for college apps. I check it daily - she seems happy to let me do that task & just let her know when there is something important. That way I’m not privy to her regular email, which is preferable to both of us 
Wow, catching up on this thread and I’m exhausted! Congratulations to all the families that have acceptances in hand! I am really enjoying reading everyone’s experiences.
congrats on the Pitt scholarship @zomaya99 !! :D/ $-) Fingers crossed for everyone else waiting for Pitt merit aid!!
So glad the interview day went well @bearcatfan! I thought getting the apps done was the hard part, but you’re right, the waiting is going to be hard too. Of D’s 6 EA schools, 3 will notify in December, and 3 in mid-January, of course her 2 favorite are in the January batch so we’re :-SS right with you!
So odd @AmyBeth68 ! But maybe the mailing will come this week and clarify things. When my D was accepted to NAU we found out by accident when checking her portal, and there was no confetti, just a very small print: accepted at the bottom of one screen. A few days later she got the big envelope (with confetti) in the mail.
I have access to D’s college only gmail account but she hasn’t shared portal access yet for any of her schools. I think she would if I asked, but so far I’m using it as good exercise in me stepping back. I positively itch to have that access, but I don’t think I really need it. She lets me look over her shoulder and she lets me know when everything shows as all checked off, so we’re communicating. This way I’m not tempted to get any good news before she can see it. 
(I should emphasize this is not a judgement on those who do have portal access and check regularly, I’m jealous!! More a commentary on my own attempt to set boundaries for myself 8-} )
I have heard good and bad stories about overnights and I agree it’s like a tour, a bad guide/host can ruin the school. But I almost think a bad host on an overnight is worse, because they are stuck with them for a longer period of time. I’m always glad to hear the good stories though, they give me hope that things will go well when my D does them!!
@1822mom - that’s almost what happened with my D18. She has loved a school since she spent a couple of summers at the gifted summer camps. Pretty sure it was her top choice and went to do a tour “just to make sure” since she had only been there in the summer. She spent the day shadowing a student and came back very disappointed and disillusioned. Thankfully, we had great tour guides on the actual tour the next day which solidified her choice. I don’t really think it’s a good idea to have freshmen be the shadow leaders since they really don’t know e
Well, dang.
Big storms came through here tonight and damaged the high school. From what we can piece together, the roof is off at least part of the fine arts wing, and the band room and its instruments are water damaged. Dozens of windows are blown out around the building. Lots of surrounding neighborhood damage, and at least one gas leak as of this writing. There is no school tomorrow and, possibly, Tuesday depending on the extent of the damage and if they can figure things out.
But, in the midst of all that, no one was hurt. And, thank God, it was not during the school day.
@bearcatfan Oh my goodness. Glad no one was hurt. So glad that if it had to happen it was on a Sunday.
I told my kids that tornado drills are no joke. Not sure it was one, but the sirens were going off during that time.
I’ll bet they all get reminders when they go back.
@bearcatfan , how terrible! So happy to hear that nobody was hurt. What good fortune that it was a Sunday if something like that had to happen.
@bearcatfan so glad everyone is ok. We were predicted to have those storms, but thankfully they went south of us. Sorry they hit your town.
Congrats on all the acceptances!
@zomaya99 Woot! Woot re merit $$ from Pitt!
@sushiritto Neither of my kids wanted me anywhere near their portals! They mostly just let me do money stuff, yippee.
@zomaya99 My older D is at Pitt (huge draw for her was the merit–nice to feel wanted!) and she is very happy there.
@Booajo it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one wondering around “in the wilderness.” At least I’m sure I’ll know where she goes to college, because I’m the one with the checkbook. No housing deposits for community colleges, right? =))
Rookie question here. Do I need to send my physical, hard copy business tax returns to schools for FA evaluation?
@kayak24, the schools will probably let you know what they need.
@zomaya99 WOW big Congrats
We’re not declining anything until I can play one offer against the others to get the best price from the school he wants the most
Has anyone ever heard of a school extending their ED deadline? D applied to a selective school RD and received an email giving her the option to change her status to ED if she does so by Nov 8th (even though they recognize that their ED deadline was Nov 1st). Nothing like more big decisions to make!
This is her top choice school and it’s only for financial reasons that she applied RD. So I called the FA office and it turns out our EFC would be lower than I thought. Interestingly, he was not aware of the extended deadline and asked if it was universal or personal. I did not know the answer to that, I only know D received an email.
I saw some schools extending deadlines for EA and ED due to the common app being down, maybe? My D had received an email too.
@Kayak24 When would your D have to decide whether she accepts ED offer or not?
Would she have her merit offers from the other schools by then?
@Kayak24 - yes, I have heard of it under two scenarios: 1) when there is a technical problem or extreme weather event that prevents easy access to the websites by the ED deadline, or 2) when the admissions committee sees an applicant who fits the profile of an early admit and the school really wants her to commit and improve their yield. If it is truly your daughter’s top choice and the only reason she is applying RD is to wait for FA, I would consider applying ED because you can always turn it down if the FA is way off realistic expectations. JMHO. Best of luck!