I also have access to the portals. There is so much to keep track of, I think it’s good for two sets of eyes to be seeing everything. D20 wanted me to stay involved.
DS has the access only. I have not thought of asking for it. We sit together to go over the Common App application before he submitted, what else does the portal do? He has checked it and saw that everything is in.
I really think it depends on what kind of kid you have. If you have a very passive kid who is not really paying too close of attention to detail, I might be inclined to keep tabs on it for them, at least until the portal shows the application is complete. When I was a senior, I did all of this myself and thought nothing of it. I remember asking my parents for their tax return so I could complete the FAFSA. I swear that they never even looked over it! They were so hands off. But then again, I was very in charge. haha. This may be somewhat generational, or maybe its strictly personality, or both? I find Gen Z much less worried about details, in general. Even when I compare my last two to my first child who went through this process. They are very different. I find it a struggle to get them to even check emails. Since I am helping two navigate this process, they have done everything on the family computer where passwords are autosaved. I cannot imagine keeping them all straight otherwise. They know that any of us can access it to assist, if needed. But I’m still going to encourage them to do it on their own.
I have access to everything, including my daughter’s high school email account. (She was getting so much college email she was missing her high school messages. I go in everyday and delete the solicitations. I also retrieve the important emails from her Spam folder.)
You know I will use my power (muah ha ha) to check that portal while she is at school, run to the college when “we” get that email, buy her a shirt, come back and decorate the house before she gets home from school. I’m so excited.
I would suggest all parents ask for a look at the portal at least weekly, or until all items are marked Received. Schools could ask for more (essays, documentation, etc) through the portals at any time. Students are so relieved to be DONE with the process they may forget to check in on: But Wait, There’s More. Good luck, everyone!
Speaking of portals, D20 got an email today (I have all email from her colleges of interest (and only those) forwarded to my email, AND then I get a text. 
) We don’t miss a thing. Anyway, I got a text this morning that UMinn had an update on her portal. When she got up, we checked it excitedly. It was her acceptance to the University Honors Program. Not expected, and I’m not sure she would consider it while in Nursing, but it made her feel good for the day.
@bigmacbeth Great news! It’s good to have the option. With nursing she might consider it for the first couple of years before real clinicals start. Might have good perks with housing, registration etc. and the first two years are not as bad.
@am9799 Yes, that’s what I was thinking as well. It would at least take the pressure off of getting her first choice dorm. In the nursing program they are guaranteed to get all their courses, so early registration is not as important a perk…and I didn’t even see that UMinn UHP had this perk. But, yes, I totally agree.
It might be too late for this, but we created a new account solely for D20s college emails. Anything related to the college process goes in there and everyone in the family has the password.
I dont have access to the portals, but I remind him to check and about 2-3 times a week we go through his school emails together. I try to keep on top of it, but also try to give him some independance, knowing he will have to do things by himself next year.
My S really took it to the last hour. He got all his questbridge supplements in by 11p last night. He only ranked 4 schools and it was alot of work. I can just imagine those who ranked 12. Some of the schools supplements were really just doing a whole new application and essays. He also was able to put in his EA for NC state too.
Its just a waiting game now.
My D submitted the main Princeton College application on time but forgot to hit the submit button on supplementals. She did that today. She has reached out to the college but concerned that her application will not qualify for REA. Does anyone have experience with inadvertent delays like this?
@skyfall007 - hope they consider it as REA since main app is submitted on time.
No experience but it almost happened to DS - for one of the colleges, he had to submit the app then later have to submit the supplements. He forgot in the excitement of seeing the ‘you are done’ celebration pop-up (with balloons and all that). Hate that feature of commonapp - just have it done everything and confirm. Good luck to your D,
@skyfall007 Since the CA was submitted on time, they will probably honor the REA and consider the supplements. The CA app is not the most intuitive and I think this is probably not the first time this has happened. Perhaps you can have her GC reach out to the Princeton rep.
I agree, the supplemental part of the CA is really not well-integrated into the submission process. I hope by reaching out to the Princeton admissions, they would understand. @skyfall007
Ha! We already refer to the ”school up north”, or Xichigan. We’ll have trouble adjusting to being on the other side too, if it comes to that.
Two different submits? On the ones my DD did we got to preview and then print the entire CA + supplements at the time she submitted. Seems really confusing if they do not all work that way, but does give me a good comeback if DD teases me again about making her print out what was submitted. ?
It seemed like it was different if the supplement was under Questions or Writing. Some of the questions were pretty lengthy, so you could think of them as additional essays, but if they were in that section everything went through at once. If the supplement was under writing, you had to submit separately. I agree that it would be easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention and watching the confetti!
My dd20 had 4 different schools that had two different submits through Common App. One for the main app, and one for the supplemental portion for the particular school. We thought it was a strange way to do it. Dd could not preview or print out the supplemental portion to make sure it looked right until the first portion was submitted. I can see how it could be missed if one wasn’t paying close attention.
Wrapped up the self reporting grades for three different schools. Man that was a tedious task! I read off the transcript and D20 inputted the info. While it’s nice to not have to have the schools wait for the transcript to come (UCF’s portal says they’re waiting for it, though hopefully that status will change this week) I wish all the schools used the same self grade reporting system, like a Common App but for self reporting grades. But it’s done now. Yippee!
@Darcy123 and @amsunshine I just checked and none of the schools my DD applied to require “writing” so we did not encounter the need to submit more than once. Good catch on your part and thanks for posting that info for the rest of us. These kids have worked too hard on these applications to have something like that go wrong!
For the record, the four schools dd applied to that had the extra submit were: LMU, Richmond, USC and WUSTL