@romns116 For UTexas, it is the housing app date. Once the ApplyTexas app has been submitted and received, the housing app can be submitted. For DS17 we submitted the housing app in early November, and he got his first choice housing, Jester West.
thanks @payn4ward
The UT housing page shows a Fall 2019 app link, but it gives me an error when logging into UTDirect. Maybe too early?
What did DS17 like about JW? S19 is applying to Moody.
@me29034 My girls are getting apps done now b/c school starts next week, theyāll be dual enrollment at local university, and the past two Octobers have had serious family illnesses out of the blue. I canāt imagine waiting much later with the pressures of senior year, volunteering/etc.on the weekends, homework, and the great unknown of Life Happens. I have twins and at least one is ED though.
Re: housing. Some schools report that housing is based on deposit date.
@me29034 Donāt forget about rolling admissions. S19ās top choice is our state flagship system. It is extremely competitive for main campus. And as @TwinMom2023 pointed out, the main campus does housing based on deposit date. He figures the earlier the better.
The other schools on his list are EA/RD and on Common App. He will wait to submit those. Of course, if he hears from the state flagship first, he might not even bother. Which is another reason to stress about at least this application now. 
My daughterās taking a full slate of courses (including 8 credits of DE college coursework) starting 20 August. Having been through this rodeo before, I can say that the more she gets out of the way now, the saner the academic year will be.
(Plus what @InfiniteWaves said about rolling admissions and housing and such.)
My d19ās school schedule will be so full that she wonāt have either a lunch or study hall. Sheās confused by kids who take late arrival or early dismissal because there are so many things to learn and she canāt imagine not taking an extra computer class or extanscience or extra foreign language. Her classes will consist of 2 APs + 5 dual enrollment and a couple of other requirements. In other words, to alleviate as much stress as possible later, she needs to get as much of her college apps done before school starts. Itās about time management.
Our HS stopped the practice of allowing kids to schedule so many classes that they didnāt have a lunch break. They felt it was unhealthy for the kids and lead to the kids trying to one up each either leading to a toxic environment around the school.
My son did most of his apps early to get them out of the way before school starts on 8/14. He has a crazy schedule and has no lunch or study hall. He has a half class period to eat and thatās about it during the day. He is a varsity athlete and has a job - so better to get it all done before the mayhem starts for senior year. Heās already been accepted to University of Alabama, Ole Miss, and University of Nebraska. He applied EA to Tulane, and that was really the only school that he might not get in. He should breeze through the rest - then it will all come down to what he likes the best, and also has a good merit package.
Our high school allows it.
And my d19 isnāt trying to one up anyone. She is genuinely interested in the classes she has chosen that go beyond requirements.
Iām glad we live in a district that doesnāt hold kids back.
āSheās confused by kids who take late arrival or early dismissal because there are so many things to learn and she canāt imagine not taking an extra computer class or extanscience or extra foreign language.ā
This is the definition of trying one up someone and you are basically insulting kids who take a lunch. Iām sure there are many more kids who are confused by kids who donāt want to eat lunch.
We get that your HS allows this practice since you already said your D19 does it, no need to repeat yourself. You assume our HS is holding kids back when you know nothing about our HS or the kids, curriculum, etc. Such a general statement is rude, uninformed, and just plain wrong. Our HS that holds kids back still managed to send 16 kids to ivy league schools this past year. I think they know what they are doing.
I was just trying to point out that some HS are actually trying to throttle kids back from the overload and stress. This is why you saw recently the elite private HS in Washington, DC are doing away with AP classes. I donāt think any of the parents at these schools feel like their kids are being held back.
S19 has a lunch (lunch periods are short - 25 min) but he eats in his classes all day long. . Sometimes he calls me at 10:30 and says all of his food is gone and asks me to bring him more. Heās still growing. Needs a ton of food. LOL.
@homerdog yeah, my d had a lunch period last year and rarely ate her lunch during it. She preferred to eat earlier in the day, during her social studies class when she was actually hungry.
College Apps: Not too stressed any longer, but that is because I wimped out on granting independence. With school starting so early in GA, I created a firm project plan last week. We meet together 2 nights a week for 30 minutes to make sure goals are met. Gtech and UGA have 10/15 deadlines, and 2 publics are rolling. Mix that in with school work, ECās, and āfunā work (making costume for Dragon Con), better early than rushing. D had the nerve to make a comment after school today about a friend who had a lot of questions about the process. Like D would know anything herself without prodding.
Its good that some school systems have scheduling flexibility. Different strokes for different kids and their paths. Back in the day in my NY district, one could stack classes by Senior year so the opportunity for good employment hours were there. In Dās case, maybe we could have saved a few hundred dollars one semester off PE or Health if we had the option for an extra period or more flexible scheduling.
Another example of variation among high schools. None of the schools my kids have attended have allowed kids to eat in class. That seems to me to be a big distraction.
@Sue22 no eating in class at our school either unless there is a medical reason for it. I agree that it could be distracting to other students as well as the teacher.
@Sue22 well, heās not eating spaghetti or something. Not as hard to eat a sandwich or an apple or a granola bar. He eats a little during almost every class I think!
My kidsā school stacks classes so seniors have too much free time IMO. Itās hard to find the balance between a slacker schedule and the crushing pressure of seniors trying to shine. Hoping we struck the right balance, but who knows.
My kids make and pack their own lunches every day. If they run out of food and are still hungry then its on them to figure it out. There is no way they would ever ask me to bring them more food because they know I would not even entertain such a request from teenager.
@DCNatFan thatās happened maybe three times and we are get a good laugh out of it. I only gave in once and that was because he had a big race at 4:30 and eating cafeteria food would have been bad before the run.
I think itās only distracting when itās not the social norm for a school. When it is part of the social norm, people adjust to it pretty quickly and itās no longer distracting.
You donāt eat during tests or in labs, but itās fine in most of the other classes.