@Kona2012 - Loved your Lafayette story! Sounds like it’s a good contender given that he’s still interested after such a terrible tour.
S 19 has all 4 of his AP exams next week - actually on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It would be crazy of me to ask him to do a college tour this weekend, right? Talk me off the ledge. Lol.
I feel like interviews are so important. It’s unfortunate that they aren’t integral to admissions at many schools. But I guess when you receive 35,000 applications, interviews for all students aren’t really practical.
One AP down, one to go for my D. Her first one yesterday was her easiest and favorite, Spanish, and she felt good about it. Hoping she does well because she’s thinking of a Spanish minor so a 5 here would be a great start for that. I’ve been trying to find a good way for her to keep up her Spanish formally next year since there is no course she can take at her school. And get this – I emailed the chair of the foreign language department at our feeder community college to ask about what course D could take there next year, and I told her her background. This woman’s response? “I don’t know what you mean by ‘the AP Spanish course.’” SERIOUSLY?! How can you work in higher ed, even at a community college, and not know what I mean by “AP Spanish”? I was flabbergasted.
D felt entitled to an afternoon of total leisure after her test, but I made her go to her final two periods of the day and then to her Tuesday volunteer gig anyway…and she enjoyed it like she always does. Silly kid. Next up APUSH, which will be the beast. Thankfully this is actually not that hectic of a week for her since classes are mellow and she’s not studying anymore at this point.
@Kona2012 Informative review! How do people out there feel about Lafayette vs Dickinson? I don’t have great perspective on schools in other regions. Dickinson sends D cute mailings so it’s on our radar somewhat, despite its tucked-away location. And interesting about interviews. Hmm.
@homerdog Whoa writing the college essays as a class exercise with peer review. Hmm. Yeah seems a little debatable. I agree that your S needs to make sure his essay is about him, not his friend. I wrote on another thread here recently about my Harvard grad brother in law. When applying to law school, his first essay was about how he admired his friend’s life credo of “Do what is hard.” He tried to be bold I guess, and had statements like “I know nothing of the law.” This was tied into his “do what’s hard” thing. He didn’t get into his dream school. So, being a persistent and motivated guy, he decided to instead take a year off, which he spent working on political campaigns and voter registration drives. He tried again the next year, and his essay was all about his efforts that year. He got in on the second try. Law school apps are likely read differently, but I think the point is relevant – write about YOU.
On essays, is anyone poking around the Common App yet? Can you upload more than one essay and select which schools get which essays? Or is it a one-and-done for all of them? D would prefer to write different essays for different schools (i.e., write more boldly for a “go big or go home” approach to a nothing-to-lose mega-reach school). Thinking maybe it’s time to have her open an account on there and poke around in it a bit. Summer is definitely going to be essay-drafting time. Right now she thinks she wants to do a literature tie-in essay, but honestly I think her chosen material is a little over her head so I’m not sure that’s really the way she should go. But it’s a start.
@SDCounty3Mom I think the essay isn’t supposed to be tricky but it is. If you read any essays that are deemed strong (ie. in those books that are titled things like “Essays that Got Me Into Harvard!”), you don’t see any straight forward essays on what kids did with their time. Many of them tell an anecdote that shows an important trait of the candidate like determination, curiosity, etc. All advice says to not restate the rest of your app. They need to see a personal side in order to get to know the candidate and separate him from the rest of the kids.
When Kenyon came to our high school, the rep told the kids it’s as simple as this - tell us what we need to know that we cannot see on your app (where they see your grades, activities, awards, etc). She also said to think about it like a conversation. What is a story you would tell them so they can get to know YOU. She told them to be vulnerable and dig deep.
@SDCounty3Mom I don’t think you can write different Common App essays for different schools. Or, if you can, that would be a royal pain because you’d have to write one, enter it, and then send the app. Then take the essay out and write the different one and then send the app. Maybe others with older kids have some advice but I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. Many colleges have supplemental essays and those are the essays that are specific to their school.
I have looked at the Common App and opened a parent account. I can see all of the supplemental essays from the 2017-18 time period. I guess we will know officially on Aug 1 whether they will remain the same. Some schools put the essays on their websites earlier in the summer so you can see them there before the Aug 1 date. S19 definitely planning on finishing main essay and any essays for 12/1 deadlines this summer. If he has time, he can move on to the apps that are due 1/15 but I think it’s ok if those are still undone when school starts.
@homerdog That what I figured was probably the case. Sigh. Supplemental essays seem to be so much more specific and honestly not that conducive to creativity. (“Our campus values an open exchange of ideas. How will you contribute to this community?”) Yawn. I guess it’ll be that much more a challenge for her to really reveal herself.
Y’all might enjoy googling “Stanford Magazine Let Me Introduce Myself” which will bring up a list of successful first lines of essays. It’s an entertaining list. Some of which violate the “death, divorce, disease” list of no-no’s, so all these pieces of advice always need to be taken with a grain of salt I think.
I had heard of a bunch of kids tweaking or entirely rewriting their Common App essays in between applying to schools, @homerdog The kids are changing so fast at this time in their life so it makes sense that their personal statements could change, too. That’s the disadvantage of applying early, there’s a whole month’s worth of tweaking the essay that you miss out on.
I ran across one youtube lecture on the ‘perfect’ point at which to apply to a school. They compared application quality between all applications for kids who applied to 8 or more schools. They found that the first application often had mistakes, awkward wording, and the lowest overall quality. The second application improved markedly, and the third application was usually the best of the bunch. After that quality slowly declined, perhaps fatigue sets in or the essays get overworked or the enthusiasm wanes.
So we’re planning to complete the safety applications first, then the top contenders, then fill in with matches and reaches.
Some of the prompts are pretty generic (why college x?) but some of them are out there and fun. I liked Pomona’s “you can have any superpower in exchange for one of your senses, what would it be?”. No way you’re recycling that essay for anything else.
S19 got through AP physics yesterday and all he said was that “it wasn’t too hard”. Who knows with him? He never seems to get stressed by any test or school work, which at times is annoying. I got pretty frustrated with him over our debate about what he would wear to his tennis banquet last night and he teenage moodiness really irritated me, but I was able to take some deep breaths and stay calm. At the banquet, the boys received their letter certificates and scholar-athlete awards, but they only gave out one big award for each team. My son got the award for the varsity team for overall contributions to the team and for his leadership. It was a really nice moment. There are many times along the way where our kids are not recognized in the ways we might have hoped or thought they should be (or gotten a position, part etc. that they really wanted), and that can be hard as a parent. Now, this year he has received the highest award for each of his athletic teams, and both as a junior! It was great to see him get those awards but either way, I would have been very proud of his hard work.
@ninakatarina - that’s great advice about getting warmed up with safety school applications. Hoping we get around to identifying one or two before Nov. 1 when his ED school application would be due! At this rate (we’ve visited three schools, plus driven through Bucknell campus over the summer) I’m not confident. Lol.
Common app essays: It’s worth remembering that while the Common App essay prompts may change in August, the last option on the list is almost certainly going to remain the “roll your own”—so I figure it’s no loss if a kid writes a good essay now in response to a prompt that disappears, they just reframe it as a response to the last option and move on from there.
I thought that they announced that the common app main essays were not changing this year? The supplementals are all still subject to change, but the central essay prompts are set for this year.
@Kona2012 -Glad your son liked Lafayette. I really liked that campus and also that part of PA. The view from their library was so pretty. My D didn’t interview when we did the campus visit but a couple of months later she interviewed with an AO who came to our area.
That’s going to be a lot of testing for your son next year! My son has two IB tests this year (along with AP Physics) and then three IB tests next year, so it’s nice that it’s broken up a bit.
@Kona2012 I really enjoyed your tour reports, thanks!
Anyone been to Moravian or Misericordia? We are working off the list of direct entry nursing programs on PA and they are on it.
So far we’ve seen Scranton, which my daughter liked. They are smallish, friendly and the clinicals would be accessible via public transpo (bus) I think.
So funny Misericordia came up. I just saw a graduating senior from our HS yesterday and she said that’s where she is going. She said no one has ever heard of it, it’s very small and rural and she says beautiful and she really loves it and is looking forward to going.
I never heard of it before yesterday. It must be a Murphy’s Law that it came up again today!
Is my kid the only one in this group planning to use the Coalition App instead of the common app? All of the schools on her current list take it and at least one of her schools doesn’t take the common app. Mostly importantly we feel good about supporting the mission of the coalition and staying away from college board.
@elena13, congrats to your son!! It’s nice to be formally recognized and it takes some of the pressure off of wondering how he’s going to “prove” his leadership qualities on applications. LOL at the clothing battle, though! Sometimes I just have to laugh at how my daughter can show such dedication and maturity at school, and yet be unable to handle the simplest thing at home. It actually seems correlated–when she is stretching herself and performing her best in school or EC’s, her behavior at home tends more toward argumentative/defensive.
@homerdog, I’m not a fan of peer editing/grading. Hope the teacher lets your son opt out so he can write for the intended audience (AO’s).
@ninakatarina, very helpful. I think D19 is at risk of burning out halfway through applications. She is not an energizer bunny like some of the kids I see.
The PA schools we have toured are Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Franklin and Marshall. I’m curious about the others–summer road trip maybe.
@mom23travelers The main state school my D is interested in only takes the Coalition, and another school nearby only takes the Common- but she’s not so crazy about this school so not positive she’ll be applying until we visit. So it looks like she might be doing both… what is the main difference, if you don’t mind explaining? I haven’t looked in to that yet.
@mom23travelers That’s funny because I was thinking the same thing about the coalition app. I think there is one school my son is planning to apply to that doesn’t take the common app so I was thinking maybe just do the coalition app. I am meeting with his guidance counselor Friday morning and that is one of my questions.
@elena13 With all of his IB classes being two years long it is unfortunate that he will sit for all external assessments next May. However - there is a class they are required to take - IBAIR which they take 1st semester Junior year and 2nd semester senior year. The purpose of the class is in their Junior year to go over good research and writing habits especially for their extended essay and to start developing their extended essay. The 2nd semester of their senior year the class is centered around studying for all of their external assessments in May. In between those semesters (2nd of Junior and 1st of Senior) they take TOK.