Even though there is a little over two weeks until EA deadlines, I am pretty irked that teacher recommendations are still not done yet. They were asked last April, and then again through Naviance over a month ago. And here we are…tick tick tick. D20 feels bad ‘bugging’ the teachers (although she finally did last Friday). D17 was all over her teachers to get things done well in advance. She had a knack at getting people to do things for her without being overbearing. D20 could learn from that.
SUNY Binghampton had EA results out as early as November 20, 2018.
At first, I thought you meant they had results for 2020ers. 
We’re visiting Iowa State and UMN this week. DS is pretty excited, which is the first time he’s been excited about any of this process, so I take that as a good sign. He said unless something really surprising comes from these tours he’s going to UMN, but he’s never been to either of them, so I’m not sure what he’s basing this on. All last year it was Duluth. And all Summer it was Iowa State or Huntsville. I think a lot of it is he’s starting to think he wants to stick closer to home. It’s really hard for me to keep my opinions out of this!
We’re making a mini road trip vacation out of it with his 9 year old brother coming along. I thought he should stay with the grandparents, but he begged and insists he understands what he’s getting himself into. We’ll see…
@cshell2 A word of advice, the tours are UMN are going to be a zoo this weekend. We took a S20 last fall over MEA and it was meh. I think the student guides are stretched thin with so many on campus visiting. Hopefully you get a good one.
@roper1313 - Yeah. I was kind of worried about that. I didn’t want to pull him out of school for a visit, but that may have been better. We’re only a couple hours away so if we feel we were short changed on the tour we can always go back easy enough. Unless it’s so chaotic that he says “no way” to even going there.
I can’t believe we are closing in on EA deadlines. I think DS20 will be ready for the 3 he is applying EA to. One is his absolute first choice (and of course his reach).
I’m a little unsure looking at his complete list for EA/RD. I just feel like he is truly interested/excited by 3-4, which of course are also high $. I wish he was as excited about some of the more practical options. We will see how things come down, I figure in 6 months we will know.
@cshell2 I would remind your son that no matter how these visits go that there will be admitted students visits in the spring where he can get more specific info about the campus and meet his likely classmates.
D20 recently got her ACT writing back and its only an 8 again. Do you think colleges care much about the writing score?
Most colleges that we researched don’t consider the writing score (or its not part of the decision factors). I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
There is speculation on CC that for very top colleges, even though they officially don’t consider the writing scores - AO’s see the score (if its added) and might indirectly affect the decision. We asked about this at one of the colleges - AO was emphatic in saying that it is not the case at his top-25 college - factors that are not part of the decision will not be analyzed deep.
Need advice on common app activities:
DS20 spent a lot of time on one activity during school year and also over the summer break - number of hours during the break are lot more than during school year. How to deal with number of hours. He is just calculating the total number of hours and dividing them into all weeks of the year (and selected the activity as all year activity). Is it correct approach - will this raise any concerns? (there is not enough space to explain this in the activity section).
@hs2020dad I would put a note in he additional comments section.
From what I have read, summer activities should be included in the year you are going into. For example, the summer immediately prior to being a rising senior would show up in 12th (senior year) activities. At the end of the day, I think as long as you have a reasonable approach to how you calculated number of hours per week, you should be fine.
@socaldad2002 to add on to what @hs2020dad said, an 8 is a perfectly decent score as 12 is the max. If colleges are requiring the writing, then they probably are looking it but even then it can’t be a huge factor. There are a lot of issues with that kind of assessment – the subjectivity of it first and foremost. How quickly one can formulate ideas, the quality of those ideas, and then the coherence of an essay including those ideas is not task anyone faces in real life. Maybe taking a test at school…but even in that scenario you’d have some idea about what you might be writing about.
@hs2020dad D20 took a similar approach to the scenario you outlined. They see all sorts of ways it is done. If the hours are equivalent, and it wasn’t in middle school, then you are good.
Remember, AOs are, for the most part, looking for reasons to INCLUDE your student in their class of 2024, not EXCLUDE them.
We totaled summer + school year and divided by weeks/yr to get number of hours/wk. Some applications (schools and scholarships) want summer after a grade to be included in the next year’s hours and some want it included in the previous year’s hours.
How would one go about finding this out?
Many don’t state either way. In that case, I would just be consistent on that application and any scholarship applications affiliated with that school.
The UCs/CSUs define the summer before to be included in the next year’s hours with the exception for classes taken the summer after 11th grade. Those courses are included in 11th grade courses. There have been a couple of scholarships that have defined it as the year before. I can’t remember off the top of my head. Usually it is listed in the definition of the section or in the “more info” tab.
It is kind of like work experience. Some want only paid work experience. Others will let you list unpaid internships. They usually define it in the description of the section.
Thanks,I’ll make sure to tell S to double check his apps just in case the school/scholarship specifies it.
Not related, but S just found out he is a Questbridge finalist!!! ?
I’m catching up on this thread - I came because I am very excited to report that D20 submitted her first (and top choice/ ED) application last night! Of course, while catching up I see that a lot of your kids are way ahead with many more applications done and acceptances as well so congrats to all of them.
I’m also not sure whether to chuckle or worry about the question about dress code at interviews as my kid just wore regular school clothes to the 3 she’s had so far… nothing terribly sloppy but also not at all dressy either. I’m curious whether those of you advocating for suits and jackets are on the East Coast vs those of us slackers in California who don’t really dress up for anything ;-).
So anyway, the next thing is to finish a couple of essays for the 2 EA schools and the UC app and then make a bit of a start on everything else in case ED doesn’t work out but figure out how much effort to put in before hearing back from them.