My D1 wrote an absolutely beautiful college essay. I made a couple of suggestions but really it was all her. The problem was she was so freaked out by all the pressure on these things that she absolutely could not believe her when I told her it was great. So, I actually shelled out cash to a stranger to read her essay - and tell her it was great. The things we do!
Laughing about all the funny editing stories and dislike of literary analysis! I have a degree in literature. Hereâs the conversation I had with S19 about a decade ago, when I was driving him home after teaching a poem to his class as a volunteer.
S19: I donât mind poetry, but I donât like talking about it and stuff.
Me: Well, S19, thatâs exactly what people in my profession do.
S19 (sincerely): Wow! Thatâs really too bad!
And I am also not allowed to edit my kidsâ work, every since I told eighth-grade S13 that the paper he was writing, a version of a DBQ (same teacher taught APUSH), was truly terrible and insisted he revise it. Turns out I was the one who did not understand the conventions. His version would have received a pretty good grade. The version he revised after I insisted he include normal paper conventions received a D. My eyes were never allowed to see his work from that day forward, and his siblings followed suit.
I donât edit my sons writing work, or even look at it. Itâs so bad that I just donât know where to start. Somehow he manages to get a decent grade in his Honors English classes. There would be no chance to convince him to try any sort of AP English/lit which involves even more writing. He knows writing is an important life skill, but just doesnât like to focus on it. So whatever. If heâs happier taking the stem type of classes we are just letting him choose his own path.
So happy weâve paid for a college essay professional to help him write his essay this summer. I donât have to get involved other than write a check, love it!
Loving all these editing conversations. Iâm certain they would sound similar in my house if I had ever had the chance to see any English papers/essays of D17 or S19. I like to edit but Iâm sure they wouldnât appreciate my skills and they both did very well in AP and IB Lang. D did share different submissions for writing contests after they were complete and she did accept a little feedback on college essays, but neither of them would ever think to show me a school assignment. Oh well, I guess itâs for the best. I have enough battles to fight wth S. 
I have a friend who is a professional editor, who keeps a funny running commentary on the stuff she has to edit. She specializes in scientific papers from foreign authors who publish in English, so sheâs always learning something new. I plan to send all of S19âs stuff to her for final look-over, since she does so many college essays.
Kiddo has been ruminating about essay topics. He started one essay and heâs read it to me twice. Both times I told him the same thing; itâs a nice beginning, but he needs to write a lot more. We talked about supplementals this morning. I looked up Stanfordâs supplementals for him and emailed them to him. He came home with all of these ideas about an essay responding to the prompt, âWrite a letter to your future roommateâ. Ideas are nice, kid, but write them down!
I donât know if any of this brainstorming will produce useful prose, but the greater the volume of prose he produces, the more likely heâll be able to find a central idea and breathe it into life.
Ugh I have yet another question â sorry to be so post-happy this month! I need some informed thoughts on a âthrowawayâ test dateâŠD19 is taking the SAT for a second time on Saturday. Thatâs all fine and good. I had registered her for the ACT many weeks ago when weâd thought she would try both. Since sheâs got a pair of SAT scores from March that are above threshold in the bank, sheâs been saying that she does not want to bother with the ACT so I was going to relent and cancel her registration for the June 9 ACT sitting. Turns out I apparently canât cancel it. Since itâs the last test date of the school year I also canât postpone it, which is what I would do if I could â put it off to September or so. SoâŠdoes she no-show? She has studied a quadra-hydra-ton for the SAT but has done virtually nothing for the ACT, other than taking one practice test when she did not-great on the science section. I donât care a ton about the forfeited fee, but knowing I canât cancel Iâm now tempted to have her give it a try. But if it ends up lower than her SAT, weâd probably want to go whistling past the graveyard and pretend it never happened. Can one truly hide an ACT from schools? I canât figure out a way to have it not sent to her high school. So this makes me a touch nervous that this score will be floating out there. Of course, her one practice test showed a lot of potential if she could get her science score up. So, she might do just fine and could be a nice addition to her applications. She will be mad at me though. The worst-case scenario would be if a no-show gets recorded as the lowest possible score. Anyone have any experience with no-showing on these tests, or with âhidingâ a score you donât want associated with your application?
@SDCounty3Mom We havenât taken the ACT, but I understand that there is a process to âcancelâ specific ACT scores from your record. This process would be taken, I assume, by a student who has a better ACT score and doesnât want the lower score appearing on the score sheet that is reported to colleges. I donât think this process would need to be taken if you donât report any ACT scores to a school (e.g., only report SAT scores). Iâm sorry I donât have specific information, but thought Iâd pass on info based on what I have heard others engage in doing regarding a lower ACT score.
Before she takes the ACT cold, @SDCounty3Mom, I would read through the thread called âACT Testing Wrongly Accusing Cheating 2017.â I do think some of her SAT studying would transfer. The ACT is a faster paced test, however. There are a few schools/systems that require all scores, including some that might be important to you: the UC application requires all scores to be sent. I donât know what would happen if an all-scores-required-school realized that you hadnât sent all scores. Maybe someone else has had experience with this?
@SDCounty3Mom if she does not need or want to take the ACT, I would just eat the deposit and have her blown it off. S19 was supposed to take the Oct SAT way back when but didnât need a second score and I accidentally waited too long to cancel. So, itâs out there as a registration but there will never be a score. I donât know how it would look for ACT but I believe it wouldnât never look bad, per se. It would just look like she didnât take the test. I donât even think it would count as something you report. If you guys have schools that require all scores, just call the schools and explain that she wonât take this test and you would plan on only sending SAT scores since she really does not have an ACT score.
So finally got around to posting this, technology has NOT been my friend todayâŠI write and read resumes for a living, among other things, and my engineers with 10, 20, 50 years of experience do not have 3-page resumes unless they have a lot of publications. I work in both CV format and project format, so some basic rules apply and 3 pages for a HS student is overkill and honestly, could do more harm than good if you arenât careful.
Think of it as a web page. Is the info compelling enough that you âwantâ to scroll down? or do you toss it aside. And how far do you really want to scroll anyway? In resume speak, one page above the fold or what shows on your screen for a standard web page. Or in your email if it is in preview mode and you donât actually have to open it to read it.
It sounds to me as if you have items on the resume that are better dealt with elsewhere. AP scores are not standardly listed, in general colleges do not care until you matriculate. As you can self-report them on the common app and the classes show on the transcript, there isnât much gained having them on a resume as itâs redundant.
Travels with interesting angles do not belong on a resume. They could be an essay topic or a supplemental essay topic but not on a resume.
In general, I suspect you have narrative that is unneeded. Remember that folks have minutes to read a resume and get an impression, it is âat a glanceâ. If they have to work to read it, they are unlikely to keep going. If you think about the common app activities section, in many ways it is a resume. That asks for information and only gives you 150 characters to do so. This is done so the reader can get the most important information quickly, they donât want to read through extra fluff to do so. To that end, a resume is only needed if 1) colleges ask for it 2) if you want it handy for interviews but bear in mind some will not want it or cannot take it and 3) for scholarship apps that want a resume. Even then you may end up with iterations. AndâŠdo you actually NEED a resume? Many many (most) do not. If one app didnât require one, we wouldnât have bothered, weâd have added in some additional info into the supplemental section of the common app instead but only it if was truly critical and couldnât fit into the activities section. But then scholarship apps needed iterations and it was nice to have a base to create versions from.
For my S17, the main resume was broken into the following sections: Activities, Community Service, Awards, Leadership, Summer Enrichment, Work. I found a column format to work best, putting the âmainâ info into the body (activities, community service, work) and âhighlightsâ (awards, leadership, summer enrichment) into a column. GPA and Test scores were at the top of the column. I plan to use the same format for S19 though he may have other ideas as he is far more opinionated and likes to âownâ things more than his brother did.
Try to think about what is most important that the target audience (adcoms) see on the resume and then add back in as you can. What are the critical must haves versus the nice to haves? If it is a supplement to the common app, what is different or in more detail than what they find in the activities section? Succinct action statements are your friendâŠ
So, for example, for Theater we did this.
Theater
STAGE CREW [9,10,11,12]
Set Building, all school productions [9,10,11,12], Grip, Harvey [9], Follow Spot, Oklahoma [9] Lights, Mary Poppins [10], Follow Spot, Matchmaker [10], Dresser, Once on this Island [11], Head Fly, Thoroughly Modern Millie [11], Sound, A Wrinkle in Time [12].
It shows the years, the productions and the positions but takes up the bare minimum of space. Zero narrative. Not needed or wanted. If my kid wanted to expound upon the experience in one of these productions, thatâs an essay topic, not a resume one.
@eandsmom that is crazy helpful! Can I ask your opinion on something related? If a student has significant theater or dance experience and the activites section cannot do it justice, can the student put extra info like your theater example in the additional info section on the common app instead of adding a resume? What do you think of that option? Anyone else have experience with that? D21 is a ballerina whose company dances for paying audiences with three different shows a year. It will make sense for her to list those somewhere to show her depth of experience and 150 characters in the activities section wonât be enough space to explain this EC.
DS will have been involved with over 20 theatre productions when he finishes school, but thatâs pretty much his only extracurricular other than a couple honors society things. Iâm going to suggest he breaks it out as four lines - "acting in school playsâ, âtech for school playsâ, âmarketing school playsâ and âtheatre activities outside of schoolâ.
@SDCounty3Mom I would just not have her take the ACT at all. Youâll lose your cash. But she will rest and can do something else. You then donât have to bother to go and cancel her score/test afterwards if you donât want it.
Nothing is forcing her to take the test, so just donât show up and she wonât have a score to worry about.
I went to watch a high school sporting event yesterday ( my sonâs friends were playing). Itâs official, the Junior parents have started going crazy and are completely stressing out about the whole application process. Every single parent I spoke with had something to say about college, and unfortunately I just wanted to watch a game, lol.
Everyone wanted to know where son19 will be headed. I told them I had no idea at all, and he could wind up anywhere at this point. I told them I wasnât really worried it and their heads exploded.
After going thru this process just a short while ago, I have a different perspective on it. Iâm more relaxed now and I kind of donât care where my son19 ends up, as long as itâs a place he likes.
Yes, it is so different the second time around.
I am sit back and relax mode. 
Que sera sera.
4th time and itâs nearly autopilot - until I heard GC is leaving the districtâŠand she wants a unicorn major and in an area with palm treesâŠI thought I had the game down and then wrenches being thrown into my well oiled machine.
Yes, the âadditional informationâ section on the common app can work for this. We put a small amount of info there, including two hyperlinks to items. The resume was only used schools that specifically asked for it and the common app one had a spot to upload it that was not part of the additional info section. I can tell you in our case, no adcom ever clicked on either link. Whether they read what was there, who knows. That said, the most important things should go in the activities section, in order of priority but you could expand more if needed in the supplement. Either way succinct is still your friend!
@ninakatarina that is a good approach. I found the activities section to be the most challenging aspect of the app. We ended up with the following categories. The headings are set choices, you canât customize.
Theater/Drama
Music: Instrumental
Community Service (Volunteer)
Community Service (Volunteer)
Student Govt./Politics
Work (Paid)
Work (Paid)
Environmental
Academic
Athletics: Club
His HS sports didnât even make the cut. They did get listed in the supplemental area.
S 19âs will look totally different but I think it will be SO much easier having done it for S17
@RightCoaster, @payn4ward , @amandakayak
Much easier the 4th time around although the unicorn factor is real!
I will admit that Iâve already been working on S19âs activity section and trying to help him write the descriptions. Itâs hard. Iâve read to put as many awards and leadership positions in the descriptions. (The separate awards section on the Common App is just for academic awards.) Iâve also read to use action verbs in the descriptions and to use as many numbers as possible. For example, S19 was a volunteer coordinator for a 5K run in our town and it raised X amount of money and that number should be included. Itâs really crazy to see the studentâs whole four years formatted into such a small space!
I wish all schools had a supplement asking about the studentâs most important EC. For many of S19âs schools, there will be no way to expand on the EC that takes most of his time. His common app essay is almost done and, while itâs very personal and hopefully well-written, it does not involve XC directly. To see that involvement and sacrifice boiled down to 150 characters is a little unsettling.
Have only had enough time to read, laugh, or hit the like button for the last 25 or so pages.
I did want to add with respect to resumes specifically for alumni interviews. Obviously, every school is different, but in our case, the alumni know next to nothing about the applicant. Maybe desired concentration and geographic local and if they are special program (like QB). My early interview questions are designed to garner some of that base info. I admit, if they were featured in any local online article (and many of them are), thatâs a win, because I do google once a date has been set.
If a student gives me paperwork when we sit down, I get a chance to do some quick glances and perhaps alter some planned questions on the spot. So yes, only page 1 gets the attention. If the student actually emailed paperwork in advance, I read the whole thing.
Also, pet peeve: not responding to either email or phone contact, even if it is just to indicate application withdrawal. Oh, and customized voice mail message - make sure itâs consistent with the âstory they want to tellâ.
Junior year is a wrap! Crazy hard work resulted in all As. Also just found out he received Honorable Mention in the state-wide prose contest. So proud of his work ethic and ability to manage his time. Canât wait to see S19 less stressed for the next ten weeks. Bring on summer!