Parents of the HS Class of 2019 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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I am also annoying my S19 by suggesting he do his summer reading, flesh out his college list, work on his counselor questionnaire, prepare a resume for LORs, etc. I dont think he will touch the essay until all of that is finished. He does have his profile more or less done on the Common App and Coalition, which is honestly more than I expected.

Speaking of applications, he said he was able to find a way to enter HS courses taken in MS in the Common App, but not on the Coalition. These grades are on his HS transcript and included in his cumulative GPA. Are we missing something?

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Can I join in on the nagging list? S19 has shot down all auto merit schools so I told him he needs to apply to our state flagship as his financial safety. I also gently suggested that it is time to finalize that list and the 8/1 app opening. Also suggested he find some former classmates who attend one of his possible choices. I would love for him to apply to at least 1 EA school and that’s next on my nag sheet!

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@homerdog your son sounds like a strong student and a competitive applicant. Best of luck to him on those LACs. I fluctuate between feeling panicked and secure with my son’s list…Thankfully, I have a good friend that is a school counselor in another state and she can talk me off the ledge if needed.

@eh1234 On the Coalition App, some schools want courses listed. It’s part of the Profile section. I know this because I have to nag my son just like many of you. He is working on his Common App essay (she showed me part of it and it looks like it’s coming along fine), but I keep gently reminding him to get it done.

Today, I sat him down and showed him a proposed timeline for his applications. We looked at all of the supplementals he has to do (2 don’t have any --yay-- and one has short answers). So, it’s not really that bad but for a kid that does not like to write, it’s daunting. I told him he should get 3 EA/rolling done by Labor Day and then work on his other 3 EA by 11/1 and his last RD by 12/1.

Love the kid to pieces but …

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@firstwavemom don’t forget to check if there are any deadlines to be considered for merit.

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@carolinamom2boys Thanks for that suggestion. The 12/1 date is the only deadline for merit. All other schools evaluate with the regular EA deadline. He might qualify for merit at 2 or 3 of his 7 schools, which would be nice but we are not counting on it.

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Wow, we just got back from our mission trip, and school is next week. Pages of posts to read here. Read some during our layover and laughed out loud. D so did not get done what should have been accomplished this summer, but I’m feeling calm about it.

Came up with a tentative schedule on the plane ride home, and I think I’m just switching to Project Manager role, and let her make decisions next year. D’s dad chimed in with two school application requests a few weeks ago. She’s not interested, but won’t say anything, so just adding to the plan.

I do have a question. Are the teacher rec questions for Common App schools the same? In other words are teachers just uploading the same rec multiple times?

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I think teachers upload the recommendation once and all the schools can see them just like the student profile.

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@homerdog many kids take AP classes and don’t take the test (or any of the tests) for a variety of reasons. Many kids take tests and only self report some even kids applying to highly selective schools. I would spend exactly zero minutes fretting about it, mentioning it, or thinking about mentioning it. Colleges care far more about the rigor of the courseload, than an AP score.

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Thanks @payn4ward . I guess there is no additional work for the school or teacher between 5 apps versus 8 apps. We have 3 early notification schools, including $$ that might make the January deadline schools unnecessary. Wanted to understand the work effort in having them tee’d up anyway.

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Thank you @corithian and @Parentof2014grad about ASU. I told my D to email that AO and see if she could get some info or anything, really. D is not the kind of kid who reaches out for info, so I am waiting to see if she actually does it. That’s what I meant by the part of if she wanted to go to the honors college, because she such an introvert she isn’t really that kind of curious learner that I keep reading about. She likes to have good grades but if it means meeting with the teacher a lot, she isn’t into it. Ugh.
D said she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go to ASU because she likes to wear sweatshirts. Of course I said “Really?!” I know Phoenix is nice in the fall and winter. And as for the heat, we are in San Antonio, TX and it’s pretty hot here. My friend from Phoenix comes here and can’t stand the humidity combined with the heat in the summertime. you got us though when it hits 117 there, we don’t compete anymore. You win, Phoenix!

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@twinmom2023 and all - I am totally twitching as well. Half of one essay done for Elon…that’s it. I didn’t realize how good I had it with the older two kids - they were very good writers and liked to write. S19 hates to write (and worse for D20…ugh!) [-O<

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@cakeisgreat DS19 is not a writer either. DS16 writes very well and woks in the writing lab at school. He plans to help DS19 by reviewing his essay before he returns to school.

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No intention of derailing the conversation, but has anyone here visited Dartmouth? My ex suggested this evening that we add it to our upstate NY itinerary (yes, I realize it’s not in NY). I really don’t think it’s a school DS19 would be interested in - he’s leaning more urban, and I don’t see him in a frat/drinking culture. But the curriculum and academic rigor appeals to me. Part of me says take him and let him decide for himself, the other says don’t bother, so I was just wondering what others’ impressions are.

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I haven’t visited Dartmouth. The people who love it love it, so they must be doing something right.

I believe we have a finalized List. Drumroll please

Super safety - Arcadia (already accepted with merit)
Safety - Gettysburg
Low match - Franklin and Marshall
High match - Wesleyan
Reaches - Pomona and Swarthmore
Lottery tickets - Yale and Brown

A bunch of on the bubble schools were ruthlessly culled last night. Some may sneak back on between now and New Year’s, but for the moment we are facing 7 applications to complete. We have yet to visit Yale, Wesleyan and Brown (that’s our trip in two weeks) so the list may shrink even more.

Our next decision is where, if anywhere, to apply early. I’m very hesitant about pulling the trigger on binding early decision without seeing a financial aid offer, so he might end up SCEA-iing to Yale. If I could get an early read from the financial aid office at Pomona or Swat I might let him ED to one of those. End of October suddenly seems very close.

I opened up a 6 month old version of my colleges spreadsheet and counted 27 schools. Progress!

There are about 12 supplementals represented in the above list. Kiddo says that he has been jotting down ideas on all of them but none of those essays are in shape for me to see them yet.

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@Trixy34 We visited Dartmouth. D and DH were enthralled, I was underwhelmed. There was no info session that day, so I never got the elevator pitch for the school. Tour guide was energetic but overall a lousy guide as she told a lot of personal anecdotes but not a lot about the programs. On the plus side, lovely setting, cute town, strong sense of community was evident, summer program unique and interesting.
@ninakatarina Congrats on narrowing the list. We need to do that in my house.

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Congrats on the new slimmed down list @ninakatarina! I am trying to get S19 up to 8 schools and will hope that’s enough. I think he stands at 4 schools on his “definitely applying” list.

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@ninakatarina Can’t wait to hear wait to hear about your visits to Yale, Brown and Wes. So fun! That must feel great to have your list down to a reasonable number. Congrats!

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@Trixy34 We have been to Dartmouth several times for a sports camp thing and tour. Never any intention on applying. I thought it was OK, but I wasn’t wowed by it truthfully. The town is cute. The campus is pretty but not unlike many other decent campuses I’ve been on.
My son stayed in some dorms that in his words " sucked bad". It’s not that convenient to get to. It’s sort of in the middle of nowhere in New England, there really isn’t any city life nearby at all. The town has all the basics, but I think my kids would be bored to be honest. The school may be somewhat diverse but I can assure you that the town and NH in general is pretty white bread.
They have a great outdoors club and my kids might like that. I think the Frat system is pretty strong there, one of my kids did not like that, the other one thought that might be fun.

I do not know what kind of kid would love it there, it’s a hard place to label. I got strong vibes at Brown, Harvard, Yale and Columbia as to what kind of kid goes there and why they like it. My son liked those places as he had access to a campus but step outside a bit and you gain access to some city life.

So I am going to give you my “opinion” on what kind of kid might like it there, but certainly all different kinds of kids go there.
Smart, wants a smaller campus community kind of feel, doesn’t mind cold weather and being confined to the nice campus and pretty but small town, kind of sporty, or completely non-sporty and just wants to study and learn in a comfortable environment, likes nature, might like to ski, camp, rock climb, doesn’t mind going to Frat parties or doesn’t care if the Frats are allowed, less politically/socially active than kids at Brown, a tad conservative, less Techy too. Seemed like the school was more about reading, writing, literature, arts vs science and engineering. Contrast this with Harvard who is building the biggest science research center I’ve seen ( it’s huge!).

That’s just my take on the place, and I’m probably wrong about several things, but that’s my takeaway on visiting Dartmouth.

My son said it was pretty and he liked certain parts of the school but it wouldn’t be his top choice if he had to choose.
That being said, he would have about a 0.00011 chance of getting in there anyways, lol.

If you have the right kind of kid who wants to go to an Ivy I think Dartmouth could be an excellent place to go to school, but it’s definitely a different vibe from some of the the other Ivies for sure.

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My Scottish aunt used to say, “It’s good we don’t all like the same things, for think of what a haggis shortage there would be!”. I am reminded of that time and again in this college search. There are so many schools that are perfectly lovely for the right type of kid, completely wrong for other types of kids.

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Add me to the list of pulling my hair out over lack of summer progress on applications and summer homework all of which were going to be done before all consuming band camp starts next week. The list has been set since spring. Child has not even looked at applications.

However a very pricey agenda has been purchased along with an assortment of colored ink fountain pens. Once the ultimate in color coding systems has been perfected, I’m sure she will get right on the task of breaking everything down into manageable tasks and scheduling them so that she can then ignore all of those deadlines as well.