I think I may be the only one in denial who doesn’t even want to know when the apps open. My son likely won’t get results until March at the earliest no matter when he applies so we really just have to make sure he meets Nov. 1 deadlines for merit consideration. Also, the HS works with the deadline and aims to just barely meet it - we probably won’t get anything out of them before mid-October.
We’re still working on the list and it’s actually starting to look like most schools are either on Coalition or have their own app, although one will be Common App. S19 has not opened an account for Coalition or Common App yet.
We should probably identify a non-audition safety with an easy application, SRAR, no LORs and rolling admissions so that I’m not freaking out well into next spring.
Oh, I don’t expect the school will have their parts done until mid September at the earliest but I know it would be best for my d19 if she had plenty of time to get her parts all completed and turned in before school starts after Labor Day.
I know when D16 was applying our high school didn’t send out transcripts and recs until early October. D had applied to one safety with a rolling app in early September but she didn’t get her acceptance until mid October after they got her transcript. I agree that it does help to get some work done early, though.
@JenJenJenJen What an ordeal! Sending healing vibes your D’s way. Hope she is feeling better. And seriously, not the time for college talk.
@homerdog My S is asked about college plans seemingly everywhere by everyone. But we have not been in any situations that would make me say “really, you are asking that now?” Of course, people are also just assuming that college is the plan as though it is the only thing a kid would do after high school.
S19 gets home from the grandparent visit tomorrow. Then it is college planning crunch time. The application for his top choice opens on August 1. And that would be our massively popular state flagship with (kind of?) rolling admissions, Penn State. And with all of the potential pathways leading to a degree from main campus, it serves as crapshoot, safety, and commuter option all in one. The fact that we can afford the PSU in-state costs with no scholarships or aid makes all of those options rather appealing. No teacher or counselor recs needed. Self-reported grades. He has everything he needs to apply on day one. But it will probably be day three or four because we’ll be out of town.
Once that one is in, he can move on to whatever other colleges he is applying to. While he could go Penn State or bust, Mr. InfiniteWaves and I are encouraging a few more applications. Which schools, however, are still being determined. But all of the non-PSUs are on the Common App, which he will have ready (other than counselor and teacher recs) when it opens on August 1.
Hard to believe this all starts in just over three weeks.
@JenJenJenJen hope your D feels better. Maybe she could’ve asked for a sedative so she could’ve fallen asleep and ignored the poorly timed questioning? lol.
@homerdog sorry for the loss of your friend, and that is brutal funeral behavior.
We are trying to avoid some social situations so we don’t have to deal with any of the questioning. I just don’t feel like dealing with it. The parents that we know that haven’t been thru this are losing their minds. I could probably offer some advice and help, but I’m staying out of it. It’s not worth it. I just mostly feel bad for the people who have set very high and most likely unobtainable goals for their kids in terms of college acceptance, but hopefully some of them have some decent fall back plans in place.
Son had a stroke of inspiration yesterday and cranked out his Common App essay. He’s going to get it reviewed and will have to rework it I’m sure, but just getting it crafted is a good start. He just needs to work on the activities section on the common app next. Then he’ll have more time to write any supplements and do any SAT prep work that he needs if decides to take it again.
Son will not submit any apps until the ED/EA date most likely. Our school doesn’t rush things, and it seems the GC follow a protocol that gets everything ready for submission by Nov 1. I was kind of nervous about this when my older son applied, but it was fine.
S19 is very close to being done with his common app essay. He also has three schools that ask for an essay about an extracurricular and that one is done. He’s finished one of his “Why x school” essays as well and he’s written the first draft of a second one of those. He’s really gunning to get at least half of his eleven supplements finished before he goes back to school on August 15th. I’ve helped him a bit with the activities section. Some of it will need to wait and he needs to include times, etc for XC season and that’s not over until late October.
He still needs maybe four more art pieces for his portfolio. (He’s not majoring in art. This is just as a supplement to show talent.) He really only has one school that needs ten pieces and the others he can just send eight. He’s got two pieces he started this summer that he likes enough to include them but they still need some work.
His first deadlines for merit are 12/1 but we are hoping to get transcripts sent as soon as school starts and confirm his recommendations as well. The teachers send them through Naviance but he will visit each of them and remind them during the first couple of weeks of school. I need to send scores, but waiting on Aug SAT 2s. He’s got one interview next month at Bowdoin. All other schools haven’t posted their fall interview schedules yet so we are waiting on those and then we will book them. Fall is going to be completely insane. It really is getting close now!
@eh1234 I’m not sure what my son yesterday, however I’ve been telling him senior year would be a lot easier with all of this out of the way. He’s fortunate at the moment to have some free time, and I reminded him about the importance of using time wisely.
He is usually so jam packed with activities that he doesn’t know what to do right now with the abundance of free time. I think it just dawned on him that he’s had enough downtime for the last week or so and that he should do something at least semi-productive.
Also, don’t underestimate the influence of your kid’s friend group this summer. They all start talking about college visits and where they are applying, and I’m sure will commiserate over writing the “stupid essay”. This might inspire your son to get moving. Some kids panic and don’t want to get left behind.
@RightCoaster I think S19 is going to beg off walking the dog for a while. Twice now, he’s been accosted by neighbors asking about college plans. Our next door neighbor is notoriously chatty and super-de-duper proud of his daughter who is headed to ND in the fall. Poor S19 turned towards his house to walk the dog and got the whole treatment - humble brags about the daughter and then a whole onslaught of questions. He told him where his D got in and he knew that those were hard schools to shoot for so maybe he should consider some others like Indiana or Wisconsin. S19 lamely replied that he’d been to XC camp at Madison and thought it was a nice place. Then the dad told him it’s getting harder to get in there too, so he can go for it but he’ll need safeties. S19 didn’t even want to get into it so he just nodded a lot and tried to move on asap.
I don’t know why he just wouldn’t tell the neighbor he’s looking at smaller schools and just name a few, but he told me that he doesn’t want the neighbor to know his business. That was probably a smart move but I’m now wondering how many people nosy neighbor told that Wisconsin is S19’s first pick. 8-|
@homerdog son19 will have to start those " Why this school". essays. Those are fairly easy and it’s good to get those out the way too. A lot of schools have that essay.
Son19’s answer to the question is he’s looking at all sorts of local area schools. This a very broad answer and usually nobody bugs him any further.
Of S19’s essays, he’s got five “Why X School essays”, two “elaborate on an EC’” essays, and then four much harder ones that involve choosing one of a selection of prompts. Those are rough. The essays are all unlike one another and will take some time to write. He’s still working with his AP Lang teacher on these and I told him to start working on the harder ones next and leave some of the “Why X School” essays for later. Those can be done after school starts and probably without our having to pay for the teacher’s review.
@JenJenJenJen So glad she’s okay. Better safe than sorry!
D19 has been back less than a week and every adult, including her hygienist, has asked about college. I noticed that she changes her answer depending on the adult. Her general answer is “I’m looking at a few schools, but I do like __”. I think she makes a call whether or not the person will recognize a Case Western or Purdue, and when in doubt goes Auburn. No matter the answer, she ends up with a piece of advice or a story.
I was given a lecture by another Class of 19 parent in front of her last week about not taking advantage of “Legacy”. When I pointed out that “Legacy” was still a lottery ticket and could cost 250K, they insisted she’d qualify for merit and poo-poo’d my insistence that it was a need only school. Thankfully, my overly-anal command of the spreadsheet and things like getting her AP scores early have solidified D19’s comfort in my facts. While we don’t have any essays done yet (she’s doing the easier parts), I feel like we at least know what’s ahead and have good info. July 11 results will help, and hoping for a good UAH visit on Thursday.
I’ve discovered that random people who ask about college plans aren’t really interested in the answer, they just want to give their own opinions about where they went to school or where their relatives went to school. So if you answer vaguely enough and ask them their opinion, you’ll never have to say anything about your own plans.
We did a (non-college visit) trip last week and at one point we got into a talk with three retirees at the Skyline Drive visitor’s center. Didn’t have to say a word, they just heard that DS was a rising senior and they were off in reminiscence.
The lead actor in DS’s play is a community college teacher. They have a pre-show talk every Saturday night where they talk Shakespeare and the background of the play. Last Saturday they had a guest lecturer from a local college, talking about Scottish inheritance law and King James I and V and the occult. Kiddo was rapt and asked a couple of good leading questions. I was proud enough to bust my buttons.
My S18 didn’t get TOO many people asking about college plans last year, just mainly church people. I remember that I joined CC about this time last year. I remember I asked about common app, potential colleges based on major, financial aid, etc. Then it’s a whirlwind from August on. S18’s homeschool began last August along with his online classes. He had his first acceptance in late August. He had Fafsa in October, scholarship deadlines, acceptances in December/January, a snowstorm college tour in January, decisions in January, Scholarship results March-May, financial aid final plans April/May. He had AP test in early May, classes (homeschool and online) finished in May, and AP results in July. Now it’s 42 days until he leaves for college.
S18 will be attending his August acceptance college. He is not majoring in what he thought he would a year ago.
Hoping our school gets its act together soon after we start as our two state schools to which S is applying have EA deadlines Oct. 15th.
Wow! @homerdog your son is on the ball! Ah, to have rule follower child.
As usual S is over confident about his ability to crank out essays in a short amount of time, despite my many attempts to suggest that they will need a good amount of time for revision, input etc. Even for the more difficult topics (which look very complex to me), he dismisses my concerns and thinks they will not be a problem. “Do you know how many years I have been writing these kinds of essays in school?” Ugh.
@elena13 Ha! S19 is like me…really bad under pressure. And, luckily, he realized that sophomore year when he got a bit behind and it hurt him. He plans up front now because he feels like he has to.
I don’t mind so much when people ask, I mind more when people make stupid comments about a school you mention. Like, ‘really?, my D looked there and hated it’. Or, ‘You really want to go somewhere so small?’ … or cold or … Even my mom gets in on the action with some dumb comments, like I hope she didn’t like that one, it’s too far away!
@wisteria100 My mother in law is the same. She said she only let her kids go to in state schools and we should do the same…that we will be sad when he goes away and ends up living away because that’s where he will find jobs. While my husband and my brother in law both went to schools in our state, both of them worked on the east coast and overseas for a decade before returning “home”. Granted, she is very lucky to have all four of her kids within a 40 minute drive but it wasn’t like that until we all had kids.
We haven’t had too much trouble with people asking S where he wants to go to school. When it does happen, he just shrugs his shoulders and says “I don’t know”. Fortunately we don’t seem to be in a prestige hungry neighborhood. I know of one girl who went to MIT several years ago, but mostly kids end up at UMass or mid tier privates.
The worst we experienced was when D16 was applying and went to a doctor about her chronically injured ankle. He asked where she was applying and she rattled off her list. He then proceeded to tell us that he had twin boys that were currently at a fancy prep school and had both been admitted to Princeton ED. He obviously didn’t care about her list. He was just asking so he would be able to brag about his own kids.
Because I was such an all around cruddy student in HS and went to a mediocre huge party college a million miles from my hometown, but somehow ended up being fairly successful in my adult life, neither of my parents question my kids about their college stuff.
They obviously know it doesn’t really matter where you go to college, I would be the poster boy for that expression, lol.
