D20 got her Pitt acceptance packet in the mail today! (But still no Common App Essay draft, @holychild - I feel your pain!)
Super frustrated here too, though trying to trust the guidance folks. They gave S2 permission, he says, to switch over to two other projects (related to an outside EC with a tight deadline) for the next week. So there sits the half-drafted essay. UGH. Deep breaths.
Iâm seriously considering locking my son in the basement for the weekend and not letting him up until he has a list I give him done. (itâs a finished basement and doesnât actually lock 
)
Itâs driving me nuts how much heâs dragging his feet. To be fair, heâs been getting scheduled with a ton of hours at work which is another issue. Yesterday he managed to find the time to apply for a different job complete with resume, but canât find the time to finish his scholarship apps? Then he tells me he signed up for an all day merit badge fair in a couple weeks with the Boy Scouts. He does not NEED any more merit badges, he has a ton of them, but his Troopmaster told him he might end up being the only scout to get 4 Palms with his Eagle in our Troop and now he has that as a goal. Like anyone is ever going to care if he has 3 or 4. Heâs whining about not having enough time and being overscheduled then he goes and makes it worse for something that doesnât even matter.
Congratulations on acceptances and hitting the submission buttons! We are not there yet!
DS20 is saying how stressed he is, with all the college stuff jammed with swimming/music/school work. Not fun!
It is not fun to be a parent of a senior either! I kind of wish there were no EA/ED decisions/deadlines, even tho I know it is up to us to decide whether to early anywhere. The pressure is really on.
At least we have a great senior portrait done! ?
Congratulation on those who have stared seeing acceptances!
S20 is in the midst of Homecoming week (heâs on the court) so I would be surprised if he gets much accomplished. He did state that the Common App essay is complete and was going to have his sophomore honors English and junior AP Lit teachers read through it.
If he does get the essay done, we can submit to 4 of his 5 choices. The UChicago prompts are going to take a little longer.
There is a dim light at the end of the tunnel!!
My daughter is almost done with the common app essay - wants to sit on it a few days and take a final look. She has a âstartâ on a bunch of supplements, but not the school she now says she wants to ED for! It doesnât help that weâre deep in rehearsals, so her time is limited. The good news is thereâs no chance of being overly edited lol
I am glad I am not alone in having a procrastinating senior!
@cshell2 I am also dealing with my son trying to finish his Eagle project before he turns 18 in December!
@ITBgirl - Getting Eagle by December would be a huge stress on top of everything else. DS is done with everything except the project write-up. He finished his project back in May! Luckily he doesnât turn 18 until next July. I donât know why he didnât just crank that out over the summer. The more I nag the more he gets mad and shuts down.
D20 got her first scholarship offer yesterday. Presidential Elite at Alabama! It is an automatic scholarship based on scores, but it is nice to see it in writing fro the University.
Second application was submitted as well which includes 2 essays that should be usable for the common app. We are on our way!
@Darcy123 Good call for your D20 to sit on the essay a few days. I told my D20 that writing should really just be called editing. Letting things marinate is crucial to the process. Good luck with the finishing touches!
@WasIDremin S got the same letter from Bama yesterday. We knew the scholarship was automatic, but itâs still a relief to see that itâs official. Thereâs a lot to be said for having an affordable rolling admissions safety in hand so early. It takes off a TON of pressure.
No actual applications submitted yet but all LOR and deadlines communicated to GC so at least that part of the process is out of DD20âs hands and can be checked off her list. Essays are well underway. Fall break school visit is booked. Official scores sent. First attempt at fitting honors/awards and extracurriculars on the common application is done and will be tweaked this weekend. It is all in motion so she just needs to keep chipping away at the to do list.
Hang in there everyone! It will all get done.
Seeing @cheeringsection 's post reminded me I wanted to ask this question - does anyone have any guidance or thoughts on how to get descriptions of extracurriculars into 150 characters? Major frustration on this last night. I have two friends who are college counselors - one said âuse the Additional Information section,â and the other said âwhatever you do, do not use the Additional Information section - resume info should NOT go there.â Thanks for any insight you may have.
P.S. My D17 was super independent throughout this whole process - her mantra was âI got this.â I was glad my S20 was more interested in our help . . . until the application process actually got underway!
D20 finally heard back from UMinn. She applied 8/27 and did not hear that they had even received her application until last Friday. Then yesterday she received the email that she can now access the Nursing application on their portal. So, while there was no âacceptanceâ yet, Iâm hoping access to the Nursing app would mean that her acceptance is likely. Hopefully, by the end of this weekend, she should have her 2 main Nursing apps submitted. Then, the CA essay. :neutral:
What made you decide which schools to apply to early and which regular? S20 isnât doing any ED, but it seems like almost everything needs to be in by 11/1. He only has 1 or 2 for regular Ed.
DD20 is not doing any ED, just EA and RD. Most of those deadlines are Nov 1, or Nov 1 is the deadline to apply for merit scholarships. Two schools have slightly later deadlines for merit consideration, but not by much. No ED as we canât commit financially.
@NYC2018nyc D17 and D20 will apply early to any school that has it. All of hers are a mix of Rolling and Early Admission plans. One is a Regular Decision school, but we are treating it like an EA because, why not? May as well just get them done ASAP. Iâm of the mindset that the earlier you apply, the better. No. Matter. What. I know it really may provide no benefit in many cases, but at least then youâre DONE. Not sure why to hold off on a RD app if everything is done.
One case in favor of applying in RD (over EA): if there is a scope of improving the application.
Whether this improvement is in terms of better test scores and/or GPA - it could be valuable for border cases. GPA improvements at this stage maybe minimal if at all but in some cases (like my DS) where there is a slight dip in junior year grade; a recovery in 1st marking period âmay possiblyâ work in candidateâs favor. Of course this may not even register to AOâs if admission decisions are truly holistic and they look at broad strokes - but realistically - in our school we regularly see that admission below a certain stat threshold is very difficult (for select colleges). If we can sense any such trend/threshold and confident of reaching that in the next 2 months - RD maybe favorable. Admittedly this can be true for only a few cases.
We were finally able to log into the University of Minnesota tracker as well, and found out his SRAR wasnât submitted. He had completed everything over a month ago, but went in to edit the SRAR at some point and didnât know it needed to be resubmitted. Of course if I hadnât pestered him to log in and check the tracker he wouldnât have noticed this for weeksâŠmaybe EVER.
This is why Iâm a fan of doing things early!
My daughterâs Nov/Dec is crazy with performances, so weâre doing everything possible early. I think sheâll have 3 reg decision apps, but I imagine sheâll send them early regardless as just balancing school and dance will be plenty in early December. It will also give us an opportunity to add a couple schools once the ED/EA decisions are in and Nutcracker is over in late December.