Since Grinnell is ranked #14 on USNWR and Bates #21, I jumped to the conclusion that Grinnell would be the harder admit but I guess there are more factors than selectivity at work in the rankings. At any rate, I think they’d both be lottery schools for my D. But worth looking into. We do need more good solid matches and safeties she’d like that aren’t too difficult to get to. Not having an airport nearby really stinks!
D’s college list is too long, but I’m not really forcing the issue until after the July ACT. I think the main reason to get it figured out now is to get started on the apps, and if she is studying for that she probably doesn’t have time to be writing essays anyway. So we are still in a broader search mode right now.
One slight bright spot of the whole COVID debacle is that she has started reading for pleasure again. She always has off and on, unfortunately it’s been mostly off in HS. But given the choice of teaching herself AP Calc or AP Bio (our distance learning was a slight step above self study) or reading something for pleasure, the fun reading started winning out. And no soccer tournaments or other EC’s to interfere either. She started rereading Harry Potter not long ago, and I think she is currently midway through the Half-Blood Prince. She hasn’t been ambitious enough with the recreational reading to tackle a series like that since middle school.
I think all the universities will join the TO crowd. They need to expand their reach and net so that it increases the chances of hitting admissions targets. I would imagine waitlists will be expanded, too. It gives them a back up plan.
I wonder if schools will get creative to lock in students. Maybe the best dorm or a scholarship if you send in your deposit before Feb 1st, and a very large deposit to be sure you’re really coming.
Agreed on deposit amounts likely increasing, some schools had already gone to around $700 this year due to the NACAC changes.
Will probably be more perks for applying ED too, e.g., preferred housing, early course registration, sporting ticket priority, good parking spot, and whatever other benefits the schools can dream up. I don’t expect scholarship money to increase in ED though.
Did anyone’s kid here take the June ACT last weekend? If so, I’m curious how it went in terms of set up, how many test takers in the room and mask wearing.
My S is supposed to take in July at a rural district about 40 minutes from us.
I agree that all, or nearly all, schools will likely go TO, but at this point it’s due to social pressures, even though it is the right thing to do to take pressure off the Class of 2021.
Top schools will not be wanting for strong applicants with strong test scores. Further, colleges have always been able to accept an applicant with a low test score, whether the school was TO or not.
For example, U Chicago went test optional in 2018. Their class of 2023 profile shows that they accepted at least one applicant who submitted an ACT of 20 and at least one who submitted an SAT of 1020…meaning applicants submitted those relatively low test scores to a TO institution.
Here is UChicago’s class of 2023 published ranges for students who applied with scores. Note matriculants were not required to ultimately submit a test score if they applied TO, and recruited athletes were allowed to apply TO.
https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/class-2023-profile
I’ve looked through a dozen college websites and I don’t see anything that shows ED applicants being offered extras. Wouldn’t a college “advertise” that on their admissions page? If anyone knows any schools who does that now, I’d be curious to see that page.
@Zinnia203 – I feel you! While my S has been pretty good about settling on a list, he’s resistant to my efforts to help him get organized and a plan for actually doing applications. Every time I suggest we sit down and create a spreadsheet for his colleges on what they require, deadlines, etc., he pushes me off. He doesn’t want me involved and thinks he has a handle on it, but based on knowing him for almost 17 years, I have my doubts! He’s can be a real procrastinator who I’m afraid too often gets by on his smarts, sigh.
I hate to nag, but I also know that if he doesn’t have a game plan and serious headway on essays by end of summer, he will be in trouble. He’s taking 5 AP classes next year and doing all his apps in the Fall on top of that will be difficult! But it also seems like the more I push the more he resists – almost like he’s a teenager or something, lol!
Though I hate to compare kids, my D18 welcomed my involvement in getting a game plan together. I alternate between wanting to nag my S more and taking the attitude that the chips will fall where they will. . .
Good thing is his list is shorter than my D’s – I think he’ll apply to between 6 and 8 schools whereas she did 10 plus some UK unis!
This year High Point and Lake Forest College (IL) did for sure. I know there were more too, I’ll report back later.
Here’s one article about it, but doesn’t have that many examples. I do think this practice will accelerate this year, as will the recruiting of transfer students.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/desperate-for-fall-enrollment-colleges-are-luring-students-with-campus-perks-and-cold-cash/2020/04/22/b6452686-84cd-11ea-a3eb-e9fc93160703_story.html
So I’ve been reluctant to push on the issue of writing the Common App essay, but I really think now is the time.
She read the book I bought a couple of weeks ago, complaining the entire time (she did not love it, oh well) and it gave her a good three or four ideas of topics she could write about. She agreed she needs to just write about them and see where the topics take her.
She seemed motivated, but that has fizzled out. We leave for vacation in under a month and once we are back the lazy days of summer are virtually over - marching band starts up intensely (fingers crossed) followed quickly by school (in whatever incarnation that may be).
I feel like now is the time to start writing, but I don’t want to be a nag. This far, she’s been very self motivated about the whole process and I don’t want to ruin that.
Last summer, together (though I was the initiator), we put together an ACT summer study plan calendar where she did a little bit of prep @3 times a week. It worked well and kept her accountable and our relationship drama free.
I’m debating whether we should sit down and and create some kind of deadline system for the essay. I know writing doesn’t work the same as moving through a workbook, but I’m thinking she may need some goals to work toward. Like maybe identify four topics to write about (already done) and write a quick rough draft on two topics each of the next two weeks (so two days of work each week), then pick the one she likes the most in the third week and do at least one revision of the essay (one day of work). That will lead us up to vacation and while it might not be “done”, at least it’s on it’s way before she’s shocked back into reality with marching band.
Is that too much work? Should I just leave her alone in this?
This is so hard!
DS has started to complete the Common App and has written a few of his essays. He let me read some of his responses and his list of Activities for the common app are informative and do describe what he has done but, I guess, a bit dry. While I get they are not meant to be an essay, should they merely list what he has done or be more memorable and show personality a little bit in a few of the entries?
From what I have read about the holistic admissions process, ultimately your reviewer will be presenting you to the committee in a span of two minutes or so and you need that person to want to go to bat for you and represent you well. Is part of the goal in the activities section to do that or they just want the facts?
@kartaqueen – yeah, he should punch up those descriptions. With my D, she drew from the list of verbs you can find on the internet to punch up resumes. Emphasize his concrete contributions/role in the activity. Be specific – they will see a ton of generic descriptions.
@3kids2dogs – If you think she’ll respond well to the structure, I think your essay plan is a good one.
My daughter’s list has been pretty set since we took our last campus visits in February. She seems pretty firm at six (maybe seven) schools. UGA is currently her safety and their EA decisions historically come out around Thanksgiving, so she would know if she needed to widen her scope by then. Hopefully the timing isn’t significantly skewed by the testing issues. She was fortunate to have signed herself up for the Dec ACT even though I asked her if she really wanted to do that the week before exams - she clearly knew better than me!
@3kids2dogs I made D21 put together a google doc with all of the essays she needs to write. If they have not been confirmed by the college yet as essays for 2020-21, she sent an email to the AO and received messages back from all - everything from “the essays will remain the same” to “we are working on it and will know by x date”. For the schools that haven’t confirmed them yet, she went ahead and entered last year’s questions into the doc because they are, honestly, unlikely to change. Colleges don’t change them too often. She will work on those last. Worse case, she won’t know for sure until Aug 1 when Common App comes out for this group.
It’s good for her to see all of the essays in one place.
She’s started the CA essay. On draft three and going back and forth with the teacher we hired to help her. The doc is shared with me so I can see what she’s doing and see his comments. She agreed to this as long as I never comment on the doc or in person. Lol.
I think her CA essay will be done in the next two weeks. While she was waiting for the teacher to get back to her on her last draft, she started two other essays that seemed “easier” to her. That worked for S19 too. Write the essays for questions you have answers to first to just make progress. Some questions require a lot of time and thinking, a visit to campus, or a deep dive into the college’s website. Some do not.
I will say, though, I want her to do the essays for the schools she’s most interested in before school starts. S19 had maybe three essays left once school started and it was really hard to find time to write them well with XC and a heavy academic load. For some of these questions, you need time for your answers to simmer, time to write them and then completely bag finished essays that don’t work and start over.
D21 still has a way too long list, but without visits, it’s hard to decide which to cut. A couple we cut because they were highly doubtful to be affordable. She’s gone through the websites and cut those who didn’t have majors that appealed to her. Not sure what else to do with that until we get more visits! The onlines just don’t do it for her.
She will get working on the Common App essay soon. A teacher is going to review with her, but did confirm they work on them during 1st marking period next year too. She wants to have it done over summer, though, because she wants to get in early to several schools (mostly NC publics that limit OOS). She can always work on Honors College essays during 1st marking period.
She started working again last week as non-essential retail is open as of yesterday. I’m glad to get her out of the house a bit! Tomorrow she returns texts books and will officially be a senior!
She’s also back to her love of reading since she’s had more down time lately. I forget the name, but she ordered a series off of Amazon a couple weeks ago and read all 3 books in less than a week! She also has gone on spurts of ambition and reorganized her bathroom linen closet and reorganized her bookshelves! We’ve moved on to picking out paint to turn the “toy room” into her “hang out” room! Quarantine silver lining!
Thanks @AlmostThere2018 and @homerdog
She doesn’t really have that many essays to write, but maybe it would be good to put them all in one place. I think maybe four or five essays in addition to the Common App plus some short answer questions. She’s looking at 3 public schools and two private schools.
We did that “You’re the Dean” program that Tulane offers three times, so she’s read 12 sample Common App essays and heard Tulane admissions officers comment on them. I think it helped her, and it REALLY helped me realize that these are essays written by 17 year olds, not works of professional prose.
I think I will sit her down today to go through the applications and put all the essays together in one place (with placeholders for the ones that will change) and that will help me segue into why it’s not a horrible idea to do the work a little at a time now so that she won’t be overwhelmed once life picks back up again. Wish me luck!
@3kids2dogs I think it will get her motivated. It just helps to have the essays all in one place. Even with just five or six to write, when she sees them all in one spot, she’ll know the amount of work in front of her. Good luck!
@Zinnia203 My S21 is the exact same way. Reading about the kids who have college lists and started essays is giving me anxiety! Mine has no list yet and isn’t even sure what he wants to major in. He’s a procrastinator and I think its all just too overwhelming for him to think about at the moment. Meanwhile, D23 loves the idea of researching colleges and has a spreadsheet going. Different kids, for sure!