How do you handle transcripts from summer programs via the common app? Has anyone figured this out? I just realized I hadn’t thought it through.
Oh, I don’t know that but now I’m worried too, @SwimmingDad
@SwimmingDad thanks for the reminder! I don’t think S19 requested a copy. Time to submit the request.
In the Common App tab, under Colleges & Universities, the print says:
If you have ever taken coursework at a college or university, please indicate the number of colleges.
Would this include non-credit summer program on campus?
I have a similar question. Does this include continuing education classes (photography, finance, computer, etc) which are pass/fail and not for college credit, but are through a community or four-year college?
@RightCoaster I received a nice email from twins’ English teacher asking if they could just stay on pace with the class as part of class time is used for essays. I wanted them to be done, however, working on the essays in class is much better and this is their favorite teacher so it’s all good. To quote Twin B, “and not a helicopter parent in sight!” Ha. Busted. 
We have a Senior College Planning night and I’m debating whether I should go or not. After going thru this 2 years ago I feel like I have a decent handle on it, but sometimes I go to these things and pick up 1 or 2 nuggets that I find useful. I’m not sure its worth 2 hours of my time, but its probably one of the last few HS things I need to do for son19., so I might go.
If nothing else (in my opinion), attending the college planning night lets the guidance counselor know that you value his/her expertise so they’ll look a bit more fondly on your child when writing their letter.
@RightCoaster Same here. We have the same issue…and I will probably go but mostly play games on my phone during the 95%of the boring stuff.
@ninakatarina we’ve had to bug the GC for a bunch of stuff through the years, so they know my wife and I and our kids plenty, LOL.
Kidding aside, the GC likes my kids, she has mentioned that in the past. They are good kids and students who did not cause trouble at school or need much assistance in any way. I would say they.were good contributors to the school the GCs recognize those kind of kids.
I just have to go to school functions and hide so I am not bombarded with questions and thoughts regarding son19’s application process. If I get cornered I just try to turn the tables or politely try to get out of it and run away, ha.
@SwimmingDad I probably won’t learn much, but there are new things I don’t much about , like I don’t know much about how Coalition App works ( doubt son will use it), and I don’t know what we need to do/sign if son applies ED.
Application #1 in the books for ASU yesterday. D19 self-reported her grade info into ASU’s own app rather than using the Common App (I think it’s a cheaper fee?) and/or requesting a transcript so that the process will be finished sooner. She already reported her December SAT score to ASU back in December, so hopefully by the end of the week they’ll have matched all that together and she’ll be in, and can move on to her Barrett Honors College application.
She’s got a make-up SAT this Saturday for a test that got canceled a couple weeks ago (long story, not worth going into), so hopefully after that she can turn her attention to doing more work on her CA essay, working on special questions, and trying to get off-site/Skype interviews for the colleges she visited too early to get on-campus interviews for.
It’s getting real! Eek!
D is slowly getting an actual list together. Last week we visited Tulane and this weekend she went to U Florida.
I can’t give much information about UF because she just went up with friends to visit some kids who went to her high school a few years ago. D really had no interest in UF (too big, wants to go out of state) but I encouraged her to go check it out. She did not get to do the regular tour or even see the whole campus, but she did get to wander around a little bit. She was surprised that it looked more northern than she expected - even had hills! - and that the main part of campus was prettier than she imagined with red brick buildings. She does not love how huge it is, the idea of having those giant lecture classes or that fact that if you live off campus you have to drive to class (said a lot of kids have scooters.) Overall though she had fun and said although it is not at the top of her list she knows it would be very hard to turn down if she could get in because it would be free with the Bright Futures program.
We visited Tulane with a friend and both girls really liked it. We got there very early Friday morning and after checking in the hotel went straight to Cafe du Monde - that was a good first impression of the food at least! We walked around a bit then it started pouring rain so we bought umbrellas and decided to take an Uber to campus instead of the streetcar. It was crazy to see how quickly the streets flood- within 15 minutes we could barely cross the streets! We got to campus just in time for the girls to make it to the class they were supposed to visit. Unfortunately I got a call a few minutes later - the girls said two boys walked into the class then quickly left and then nobody else showed up! We later found out the room had been changed at the last minute so that was a bummer.
We had an hour to kill so we wandered around and went in and out of a bunch of buildings and spent some time at the bookstore. Next was the actual info session and tour. I didn’t feel like the tour showed that much (no cafeteria, only one class building) but the girls were fine with it. I think he front of the campus (academic area) is beautiful while the back part (dorms, library) is pretty ugly but that girls liked it all. They really loved how green the campus was with lots of grassy areas and live oaks. We all love how it seems pretty easy to do things like double major and take classes outside your major as well as the huge focus on community service.
So, now we have a few schools where she will definitely apply but they are all pretty much reaches - UF, Tulane & BC. I can’t believe we are still looking… :((
@carolinamom2boys - How is your S doing at COC? Did he have to evacuate? Hoping he stays safe!
Husband is enroute to get DS16 right now. We are 3 for 3 for evacuations each year he has attended . We are about 3 1/2 hrs away. Just throwing this out there for anyone looking at schools on the coast. Hurricanes happen. Know that going in. Also know that states that have hurricanes have plans in place. Just like norther states have plans in place for snow.
@carolinamom2boys - hope all of you stay safe.
Funny, but not funny. We have one school in a fairly common hurricane path, and I totally thought about that last week with the Gordon threat.
S19 was told of his NMSF status today - we unofficially had heard but it is nice for him to hear it from the school. We have now scheduled visits to UF and UCF in November and he will plan to apply to both now. His other big NMF school is Alabama and he already has visited and submitted his application there. Funny we started out with a list of 15-16 schools last year and now we are down to 5 – 2 OOS publics that are reaches in terms of merit and 3 NMF schools.
D19 finally has a meeting scheduled this week with the GC, and I’m attending as well. It only took from Aug 17 to Sep 7 to get this on the calendar. Meanwhile I either answered many of my questions or gave up on them and decided I don’t need to know. So basically now this meeting is just to let GC know that we’re an “on the ball” family and have high expectations for getting this all done, and facilitating the production and upload of the counselor letter and school report by the first week of October. We’re hoping to get the first EA application in by early-to-mid October so we can have a chance of getting a response and merit offer by mid November, which will then affect our applications (or lack thereof) to California publics. We’ll see if this plan works or not. If she doesn’t have her offer back from this first EA school by mid November then we’ll have to put in some of the 11/30 deadline schools as more insurance.
Can anyone see a downside to having the counselor letter and school report uploaded to the CA around, say, late September through mid October, given that 7 of D19’s 9 schools are RD schools? That letter will be about 3 months old by the time those apps are due. I’m not sure how we’d get around this anyway. Just wondering if there’s a reason not to submit an EA app 2-4 weeks before deadline like we plan to do, to minimize the gap between uploading of that info and the actual reading of the RD applications.
Stay safe all those in the hurricanes’ path! I’ve given that some passing thought in the college search process but I think the only school we might have on our family’s list is Rice for S21, and he says he’s not that interested in Houston but he doesn’t know what he’s saying at this point so I’m not putting much stock in that for now…
Congrats to the NMSF kids!! Great feather in their caps for the rest of their lives.
I ran into a friend in the grocery store and found myself explaining the FAFSA, NPCs, need-based aid and need-blind schools to her at some length, standing there in the produce section… Her son is just a junior so she has time to figure this out, but the level of ignorance on this topic is genuinely surprising. That was true when I was that age and hasn’t really changed a great deal.
They just called for mandatory evacuations in parts of our city (Zone “A” - our neighborhood isn’t even zoned so I guess we’re good). With mandatory evacs come the need for shelters starting Wed night, and that means we have our first official school closing in the second week of school - starting Thursday (they use a few high schools as shelters). I hope snowfall is light this year so we don’t once again lose all the teacher workdays and random days off, not to mention extending the school day when those run out.
Just looked - such a huge area that really needs to be on the ready. We have family back on the East coast but far enough north that it should not be a huge impact for them. Again, hope all of you in the path stay safe. Very scary storm…
@carolinamom2boys and others on the Hurricane Path, stay safe.
@parent2one We were upset last school year to lose so many of our teacher workdays and random days off, as they were great school visit options. By the time there were no more days left to give, the county adopted e-learning days. It was very bumpy, especially for the elementary school parents, and didn’t solve the problem of “no power”, but hopefully, they continue with that this year.