650 word limit.
One prompt. They choose one.
The CommonApp essay prompts for 2018-2019have been out for months
@mom23travelers I just set up the common App as a parent yesterday. I knew one of our in-state schools wasnāt on it, but two of our other tentative schools didnāt show either. I mainly wanted to get look/feel and 2017-18 info. Iāll check out Coalition next because I think weāll be forced to use both.
I need advice if anyone is willing to offer it. My Junior had his AP Spanish test at 8am yesterday and his AP Physics at noon. Spanish went over by an hour. At 1:00. the counselor handed him the Physics test, put him at his secretaryās desk, skipped most of the instructions and had him take the test. There were random students walking in and out of the office the entire time. The counselors were not in the room with him - he was alone a large % of the time. They moved him to another desk mid-way through. A pep rally started at 3:30 with loud music that he said was distracting, mostly because heād been testing for 8 hours at that point. He said it was the most unsettled, distracted testing environment heād ever been in. It also seems that the counselors broke several of the APās rules for giving tests. Do I have them invalidate the test because of the situation? Is it even worth it if he gets a 4 rather than a 5 and his grades and other scores are good? He wants to major in physics.
@EastGrad I think might have answers on that because of proctoring experience. Thatās awful.
@NJFL123 Take a look at the AP Coordinatorās Manual in particular p. 70. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-coordinators-manual-2017-18.pdf. It says: āIf any students from a morning exam that runs late are unable to arrive in time for the start of their afternoon exam, contact AP Services for Educators to order alternate exam(s) for late testing for the missed afternoon exam(s).ā It also says: āAP Exam administrations must not start late, but may run late.ā It says the AP Coordinator should arrange for a recheduled exam for your son. They should not have let your son start the exam late.
@NJFL123 I think this is a difficult situation. Your son has the right to complain. But will the counselor blacklist him?
Wow, that really is awful, @NJFL123. Certainly, you could ask for his score to be invalidated and for him to take the late test, which is what they should have offered, just like @Corinthian says. Did your son receive less time? It sounds like he received the full time in an unproctored environment with interruptions? Even without the time factor, I believe you have a very good case for a retake. So now you have a very tricky decision, depending on who your AP Coordinator is. If you report their noncompliance, you might alienate them. Or you could write it off, and tell your son if it happens again he should insist on the late test (making it clear that there probably was no way for him to have known this today).
If your AP Coordinator is the same counselor who will write his college recommendation (or if they are friends), I would tread very carefully. If you choose to ask for a retake, you should do it immediately because they must order the late exams, and it is a bit of a hassle. You want his late exam to be added to their collective late order. You also might want to consider making it all about the fact that (due to the environment) he felt so sorry about his performance and he really could do better and he is planning to major in Physics and this could really impact his admissions, etc. The AP Coordinator will have to file an incident report to ask for the score to be invalidated and for him to take the late test. I believe that the AP Coordinator could āsave faceā with College Board by saying there were interruptions that happened that they did not anticipate.
Good luck and report back!
Assuming the AP Coordinator is someone at your HS, I would start with the AP Coordinator first thing in the morning to give him or her the chance to ask for the reschedule before going over his or her head. I had a somewhat similar situation with the PSAT last Fall. (I described it here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2027447-psat-testing-with-mp3-audio-accommodations-testing-fiasco.html). I emailed the testing coordinator (one of our Assistant Principals) first thing the next morning and he quickly called me and acknowledged that it was a problem and did an incident report. My D was then able to do alternate entry for National Merit. Obviously APās are a bit different but what shouldāve happened, and still should happen, is for your son to be given the chance to take a rescheduled test.
On the topic of essays and the Coalition App. I created an account to get familiar with the application so I can help D19 once she gets started. Unlike the Common App which clearly shows which schools require an essay and also writing supplements, I do not see anything similar in the Coalition App.
How can I find out if a particular school that uses the Coalition App has writing supplements?
I also noticed that several of the schools that D19 will be applying to have their own application on their website in addition to the Coalition App (Clemson and Elon). Does it matter which one you use? I assume it is easier to use the Coalition App since you are not entering the same information over and over.
@DCNatFan Clemsonās own application is very easy to complete without required essays. Iād complete that one on Aug 1 as housing priority is determined by application date . Completing the Coalition App may place you further down in the housing list if it takes much longer to complete. JMO.
Many schools that are on the Common App also let you fill out their app directly. We got a fee waiver from Arcadia (our safety) when we visited and we were told that they didnāt really care about the essay if you get above a certain score on the essay portion of the ACT/SAT. Since the kiddo is comfortably over that score we filled out the app on the spot. Itās nice to have one application finished before the end of junior year, and we will be notified probably some time in August.
Itās easier to use an applications aggregator website (common or coalition) if youāre applying to multiple schools, but I wonder whether using the schoolās own application website or even sending a physical application is a way of showing interest? āI like your school enough to fill out your application by hand, and by the way look at my lovely handwritingā.
When my D16 was applying, several of her schools gave the choice of their own app or the common app. We checked with each one to see if it made a difference which you used and they all said it didnāt matter. We choose to use the common app for all that gave the option since she was filling it out anyway.
The coalition app throws a new twist in the works. It didnāt exist when my older D was applying. I just looked at the list of schools that use it, and there are three that are on his āmaybe listā that use it. Iām hoping he doesnāt end up having to do both the common app and the coalition app. Iām hoping they all give a choice.
As for looking at the common app and researching supplemental essays, I let my kid do that. I donāt think I ever looked at the common app until she asked me to review everything she typed in before she started submitting it to schools. She didnāt let me read her main essay until she was done with all her applications. She did have a teacher at school helping her with her essays so I know they got some review, but they were totally just her essays.
It looks like all the schools that my S would apply to use the Common App except for one, which uses the coalition or its own application. Since Iām already familiar with the Common App, Iāll probably have my son stick with that one. Is there any advantage to switching to the Coalition?
I had no idea you could make a āparentā version of the common app. Not that I would open an account anyway.
The app situation annoys me for S17. If the current list stands he will have
6 Common app
1 Coalition (only)
2 School Specific ones.
the Coalition āonlyā one used to have a School Specific app, I fail to see this as an improvement.
We wonāt look deeply at supplements till after 8/1. I recall issues with rollovers of info prior to 8/1 in years past and I just donāt see the benefit of starting before then anyway.
@me29034 It probably depends on the student. Iām glad that I set it up. Even though D has a spreadsheet, itās incomplete, especially with the adding and subtracting of schools. It was nice to see all the tentative schools on the list with the clear documentation of required/optional tests, etc. For instance, my D didnāt do the SAT with essay yet. Weāre down to only one school that wants it. Once exams are over, well discuss that particular school in detail.
Benefits to the banker: getting a quick view of app fees and the schools that actually allow self-reporting of SAT scores. While my kid did raise her eyes at an info session when she heard $75 app fee, sheās not going to be as good as me in terms of financial strategies. I did also have a mini surprise when I realized Case Western is no longer a free app.
@eandsmom Now that I look at the Common App website again, itās not really a parent version. I just set myself up as a student so I could see what the apps look like from each of the schools on Sās list. This being our first go around, I just wanted to know how the Common App works and how it looks. And since his list is long, I was curious about how many supplements each school had (knowing, of course, that the questions could change for 2018-19).
One thing that helped is that I could see one of the schools wants a list of books he read in the last year, so I told him to start keeping a list. Thought it might be harder to recall if he wasnāt keeping track. He wonāt start any supplements until they are confirmed in August. School is back in session Aug 10th for us, so he most likely will shoot for getting at least some essays done in the first week of August. I like the idea of him starting with the ones that maybe arenāt quite as important so he can get the juices flowing. No way he will get them all done before school starts. He has one school with a deadline of 10/15 so he can do those supplements first. After that, heās got four apps due 12/1 and two of them are very important since heās trying to get merit scholarships at them. He will have to do his best work on those essays.
All of his schools are Common App or school-specific app. Heāll just use the Common App for all.
@peachActuary73 I agree that it was helpful to have everything in one place on the Common App where we could see cost of application and self-reporting. I hadnāt really thought about either of those until I made an account. And Iām loving that S19 has two schools with no app fee and no supplements! And there are four schools where he can self report his SAT so that saves us money as well.
I donāt know if D2ās school uses the Coalition app - back when D1 was applying they only used the Common app.