EA supplemental essays are going unbelievably slow for DS, less than half done in two months and those still need edits. He’s always been a deadline-driven kid 
Luckily, it seems that a lot of this can be reused for RD schools, but I’ve already told him not to have big plans for the Thanksgiving week…
@RightCoaster Excellent criteria!
@eh1234 this is a first. It’s usually on a Thursday.
@homerdog - I’m not sure what’s going on up in that noggin of his. Yes, he has good stats, and admission will not be a worry at Penn State, and probably won’t be at BU either. I guess it’s just that I feel he hasn’t done enough research into all the options out there. And also, there’s a part of me thinking I might know a little better what he would like/needs in a college education. Lol! For instance, he attends a pretty large public high school, and I would like to see him at a small liberal arts school - maybe just for a year or two to be nurtured the way I was - intense training in writing, etc. But he has become very focused on larger schools, and I worry he won’t get the type of intellectual stimulation in the beginning that I think he would really like. From what I gather, he’s a kid who participates a lot in class - sharing insights, posing questions to other kids, etc. I just don’t see him thriving in a lot of 200 person intro classes. That said, I know deep down that a rural LAC is probably not a good fit for him, but I haven’t given up on the dream of him taking a look at a few, sitting in on a couple of classes, etc., and chasing merit aid - and letting mom enjoy the whole process. 
I’m also concerned that Penn State is his only financial safety given that we haven’t visited yet. Outside of the ivy league, which his Dad would probably find a way to pay full price for, he has a budget, and I really don’t want to see him have to take any loans.
Sounds like you’re in good shape. Is it possible for him to apply to the one school without visiting first? Then, if he’s accepted, he can go check it out - that’s if they don’t have a demonstrated interest component.
@eh1234 - too funny. I’m familiar with the burned eyes syndrome. I was forced to throw away the Bucknell mailing today. It was a big, fat, juicy one, too. :))
S19 approached me tonight about a senior week camping trip his friends are planning - co-ed. I realized his friends have started turning 18, and by next Spring he will be emancipated. Wow! I said to him, “quick - what else do I need to teach you?!” It’s crunch time!
@Trixy34 I think part of the problem is that there are so many schools and we are both guilty of doing so much research and our boys just can’t imagine themselves somewhere (1) they’ve never heard of and (2) they’ve never visited. So, Your S19 is cool with PSU being his safety. He’s heard of it and it’s familiar. Maybe the LACs you’ve identified just seem random to him and he doesn’t have the time or the will to get behind them. I know that’s why Lafayette fell off around here even though S19 wants an LAC and it’s a good fit with possible merit. It’s far from home. No one goes there from our school. He’s never heard of it.
As for the one school we all agree on, yes he will apply. He’s excited about that one but just not excited enough to go ED.
It’s hard to be the one who spent tons of time building a list we think is perfect for our boys and then have them question it. My husband even questions schools like Bowdoin and Davidson. He thinks they even seem random. Nothing on the list is random! It’s coming down to crunch time, though, and the boys have to actually write the apps so there’s only so much a mom can do now. Is your S applying to any LAC? Maybe just pick one as a mom pick and say he needs to apply to just that one.
@eh1234 My son has only looked at one piece of school literature for a total of 5 minutes max. He has not spent one second on any sort of college research. The only thing he has done is attend some info sessions and tours, and watched a 5 minute youtube vid about a school in CA. That’s it. He’s really just not that concerned. Both of my boys have been the same way, just not really interested in the whole process. Is it a boy thing? I’m OK with it too, as I personally think the kids can go to so many schools and end up fine. There is no “perfect” place. Lots of places that will work out.
However, I think son19’s interest level will uptick come Nov 1. That’s when the you know what hits the fan at school, and all the kids all spill the beans about where the’ve applied EA/ED. Then it’s a mad rush to add schools to the list that their friends have applied to. “Why didn’t I apply there?”
We got mailers from both Wesleyan and Yale yesterday. Kiddo made a small college shrine, with the acceptance from Arcadia, those two mailers, the book from Swarthmore and a little candle. I suppose any good mailers from other colleges on the list will go into the shrine.
Yesterday was callbacks for the fall play. Kiddo is very confident that he’ll be cast in one of the two leads. They had him reading for the romantic part, too, but he felt like he wasn’t as strong for that. He hasn’t had a lead role yet. It’s a lot of lines. Hope he’s up to it.
Until this morning I had forgotten, despite being told numerous times, that today is a school holiday. If I had remembered I would have come up with some assignments for the kiddo but instead he’s having a free day. I’m sitting here resisting the urge to text him and tell him to work on supplements. He knows what he has to do, I will let him figure it out.
@RightCoaster We have a neighbor who did absolutely nothing for her son’s search except hand over the credit card to pay for apps. She was even surprised at what schools he applied to when he told her about his acceptances and rejections. If we did that, there might be one overlap between what S19 would think of himself and what schools I asked him to consider. He also does not read the mail. And I have to remind him regularly that coaches and AOs may be emailing him and he has to check his email and respond if appropriate.
Another late night homework night here last night. He said he cut himself off at 11:30 to go to bed but that leaves him with additional homework tonight. Nothing I can do for him at this point but bring him snacks while he’s studying. Hoping he can go to bed early on Friday because he has a big race this weekend and the weather looks perfect for running. He cut last year’s XC PR by 1:30 two weeks ago and then shaved off another 15 seconds last weekend. He’s hoping for another dip on Saturday. After the race, it’s a rush back home to get ready for Homecoming. Sunday will be homework and reffing a couple of soccer games. I’m exhausted just watching him.
I really think Thanksgiving weekend will be the first time he will have a chunk of time to reflect on his list a bit. He’ll have homework that weekend but hopefully not too much. I’m just glad we started thinking about college early enough. If we had just started this last spring, his list would look very different. Probably more like all of his friends’ lists simply because they’re applying to schools we all know and are popular for kids at our school.
I somehow stumbled upon a You Tube video of a student logging in to watch each of his acceptances. Wow. That’s a stressful two minutes each. I’ll need a glass of wine for those episodes here. If the decisions are released during the school day, it’s going to kill me to wait until S19 gets home from practice!
The college acceptance reaction youtube video is an entire genre, @homerdog . I (she said, blushing) have become quite addicted to them, I think I must have watched several dozen. You don’t see raw emotion like that in many places. You get to know so much about a kid in just a few short minutes. I share my favorites with the kiddo. My recent favorites are a girl who got accepted to Florida State and couldn’t stop jumping, and a boy who got accepted to Yale and celebrated with his little brother.
But what I’ve mostly learned from all those videos is to keep close track of all those portals and passwords, and that the portals will lag or go down on acceptance notification day.
Logging into to the portals to see if kid is accepted or rejected is brutal. Especially if the news is not great. Not looking forward to that again.
The other thing that I learned from the videos is that kids seem to deal with it a lot better if they are able to log on and check when they’re alone, and when they can take all the time they need to steel themselves for the result. It’s not so bad when it’s a school they don’t care about, but if it’s a favorite they seem to feel better when they have a chance to celebrate or mourn on their own before sharing their news.
At least, that’s my take on it. At the moment I plan to let kiddo pick his own time to open decisions, but I think I will be hovering silently at the top of the stairs while he does it.
@ninakatarina I love that shrine idea with the candle! I’m going to have my mom do that because she is much more prayerful and a a much more frequent churchgoer than me! Who knows - it might work!
As for logging into portals for decisions totally dreading that -we were spoiled with my first. She applied ED to a school that phones the acceptances, and you don’t quite know when they will call. So it was kind of like getting an acceptance out of the blue. Then she withdrew her EA apps, so never had to deal with any rejections.
I was very stressed last year for a friend’s D, when the portal decisions were coming out and that was not even my kid!
^^. The worst is deferrals. Just accept or reject the kid. Prolonging the misery for another 4 months is brutal. For those of you applying to selective schools without tip top perfect stats I’d expect some deferrals along the way.
I hope that your kids have an experience like @wisteria100 's kid and get in to a top choice early and just be done with it.
@RightCoaster I’m thinking that winter break will be a good time for S19 to spend time on websites and try to put his list in some sort of order. I would like for him to decide ahead of time if there are any schools he likes well enough to even accept a waitlist spot. I’m really not into the idea of going on a waitlist. I’d rather him choose from the schools who wanted him right away. We will have to see how things pan out though.
DD won’t have the big drama about acceptances as she’s applying to only safeties/auto admit. Her drama was finding out her role in the school musical. It took a week and a half for the directors to decide. She was dying to be Cinderella, and most likely the musical was selected with her in mind, but then the other really good soprano dropped volleyball to audition. DD and that girl have become really close friends and they both wanted it badly so it was an agonizing time for DD not knowing. She ended up with Fairy Godmother and now that she’s been to practice she is quite happy with it. But it was a rough several days! I’m on the hunt for a fabulous gold ball gown that’s cheap.
Next up, Homecoming Court. DD, the girl who got Cinderella, and two others are up for Queen. Really curious how that will come out because it is 3 typical popular types plus DD- so maybe the popular kid vote will be divided and DD will get Queen? She doesn’t care too much but it would be kind of cool. I need to hem her dress.
So yeah, this is what is occupying our time right now. We may throw in a couple of applications this weekend.
@bjscheel that sounds better than agonizing over college decisions, good for your DD! Hope she wins the Queen title.
Senior Superlatives voting has started. DS is lobbying for Most Changed and Best Actor. It’ll be interesting to see what he gets.
Oh good. As of today, all of the schools have received all of the stuff. So we have truly reached the “nothing to do but wait” stage of waiting. Yay?!?!
Busy week at my S school. He attended 3 info sessions and has one tomorrow (all places he has visited). I told him he needed to introduce himself to one of the reps (he did, reluctantly) and she said, “Didn’t we exchange a few emails over the summer?” Yes, they did and now she has a face to go with the name. No school today due to the Jewish holiday, but S did have his dual enrollment class this morning. S is getting some things done (preparing for a Skype interview and filling out a questionnaire for his recommender). My task was to pay for a couple of ACT scores to be sent. S turned in 5 transcript requests this morning, so now it says “Schools I’m Applying To” on Naviance for those schools. This is really happening.
A shrine sounds interesting! I was just saying yesterday that we could build a fort only out of mailings from U. Chicago and Vanderbilt. It seems so strange to send that much stuff.
S. met with a college rep at school yesterday (which he pre-registered for) and I guess he was the only student she talked to - no one else interested or they didn’t advertise well. He is not thrilled about the meetings because he says they just want to see what questions he has. “I have no questions! The only questions I have are will you let me into your university and will you give me a bunch of money?” He knows he needs to play the game but it’s definitely not his thing.
On a positive note, S set some deadlines for getting some of the supplemental essays done. Also, yesterday I suggested another college to add and he was open to it. I have had a feeling about this school for a while but when I mentioned it about a year ago he wasn’t interested. I’ve been hearing and reading more and just have a feeling that it would be a great fit. I had that same feeling two years ago when I pushed D17 to apply to her current college, about which she knew almost nothing.The bad part is that it is another reach school and we should be deleting some of those rather than adding another.