Lol. I think 24s have had such a weird high school experience, with freshman year being weird remote covid year and sophomore year dealing with the after affects. I’ve found D24 and many of her friends haven’t really ever “landed” at high school. Our goal for college is a place she can thrive, so if it’s KPOP or rock climbing or the sports business club or whatever, then awesome, that’s something. (This may be worth a standalone post once we get past the admission decision craziness)
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+1 to this.
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Okay for this old man what is KPOP?
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Korean pop music, I think. Like BTS? Not really my kid’s thing, but you know…I try to keep up 
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I cannot express how much I envy you for having to ask that question.
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Amen. D23 is home from college and my house is once again a KPOP/KDRAMA nightmare.
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I have the feeling that may hit as we get closer to move in day but for now she is so happy where she landed, thrilled to be done with the process and loving having 2 weeks where nothing is hanging over her shoulders (it has been a very long time since she’s had that carefree feeling). I have to laugh when I see her particularly celebrating that she will never have to take a foreign language again. A program that didn’t require continued Foreign language was a huge draw for both my girls .
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It’s painful. S24 did just start on his essays for his remaining 5 schools — but there are so many… Snd by “just” I mean today during study hall.
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Question for all of you. D was just voted captain of her varsity team (of 32 kids). They are in a highly competitive sport, the team won state last year. Should she email AOs with an update? Her RD schools are Lehigh, Syracuse, Michigan, Wisconsin, all of which are targets or reaches. She has a lot of individual accomplishments but this is first her team leadership position. I’m thinking a quick “I know how much x values leadership and wanted to note that I was elected Captain by my peers, please add to my application if you think it is useful”
Thoughts?
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I vote yes 
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Since my DC both need merit aid, most of their schools are either safeties or targets. They each have one high target/low reach for both admissions and merit in their “mom-approved” group.
But after they have either completed all the other apps and/or gotten in a couple that are within budget, they are each allowed to apply to 1-2 total reach “what-if” schools. Only after they are at a stopping point elsewhere (so they may at that point be too burned out to write more essays). They are fully aware they aren’t going even if they get in unless they miraculously meet budget, but I figured it’s better to let the reaches tell them no than for me to tell them that.
For me it is worth the $75 to not have that become a battle (you didn’t let me, you didn’t think I was good enough), but I understand that every family is different! But now that they are seeing the ED results of their friends to some of these same schools, they are starting to understand how tough it really is and might change their minds!
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Won’t hurt.
They may or may not do anything with it…but if they don’t, no harm no foul.
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I’d say yes.
The one thing I would definitely avoid is a lot of updates, so I would think about whether this is likely to be it for updates, or if you should hold off a bit to see if anything else should be included.
But otherwise, the basic standard I like for updates (this is coming out of Yale’s Admissions Podcast) is that if it is something you would have featured in your application if known at the time, then it is fine to do an update.
This seems to clearly qualify, right? So yes, whenever you are pretty sure you won’t need to do another update, I would go for it.
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S24 has made a little bit of progress on the supplemental essays for his remaining 11(!) schools but has a long way to go. I’m just relieved that a couple of the remaining applications are ready to be sent because they don’t require any supplements. Unfortunately, it’s only a couple so our break will not be the most fun for anyone, I’m afraid. Most of S24’s close friends got good news in the early round - I know he’s happy for them, and I am proud that he has been able to celebrate with them, but I also know that he wouldn’t mind having someone to commiserate with over the next couple of months.
After some soul searching and meetings with his counselor, S24 has decided to submit an ED2 application to a school where he is a legacy. I think that the school would be a particularly good fit for him but it was still a hard choice to make for a number of reasons: (1) the ED2 school is not much less competitive than the ED1 school from which he was rejected - all of us are a little uneasy about this and wonder if a safer option might have been better; (2) at least one of the slightly less selective ED2 options would have come with a nice amount of merit aid that is automatically given to anyone who is admitted in an ED round; (3) S24 slightly prefers another school, which does not offer ED2, and he would have preferred not to commit elsewhere before hearing back from this school; (4) as a matter of principle, I’m not a big fan of ED2 - I think the students give up a lot in that round without a clear, quantifiable benefit. Ultimately though, we chose to listen to S24’s counselor who thought S24 had a realistic shot at the ED2 school, and was nervous about waiting for the RD round.
I know that the potential benefit (or lack thereof) of ED2 have been debated at length on this site, and not everyone believes that ED2 is worth it. But S24’s counselor felt very strongly that the RD round is much tougher for kids from our school who apply to SLACs, and strongly advised picking an ED2 school. We decided to go with that advice.
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If he has 11 other schools and I’m assuming at least one will meet admittance and affordability, why worry about ED?
If you ED and get turned down - not a big deal. Too many think it’s a failure. It’s not.
I’m not a fan of ED personally but if I had a clear favorite and I knew I could afford it and wouldn’t waffle if others came with better deals…the ok.
But if not, I’d apply RD.
But if the student has an affordable, easy acceptance that they’ll be fine at - then don’t worry.
That school, not the ED, is the most important on your list.
Now you say - there’s a potential ED school with assured merit in ED (St. Olaf?).
So then the question then is - would he rather be at the legacy school, full pay…or the other school at X $ off?
That’s just not a question for him - but those paying the bill (you).
Or you just don’t ED at all…because what if a school comes in free tuition or half tuition and then you’re bummed you ED’d.
But with so many apps, there should be little to worry about - because he’s (hopefully) ensured he’s got that school he’d love to attend already in the bag (through proper application selection).
Good luck.
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She was also on front page of our local paper last week (individual photo and all) for a project she is doing with the city council. She listed that project in her activity section. Worth adding a link to the article in the captain update?
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yes.
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Smart of you to listen to those most informed. Good luck.
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We struggled similarly with this choice last year - D23 was deferred from her ED (Brown) and was applying almost entirely to SLACs. She had a few really favorite choices that she considered for ED2. Ultimately she decided not to, and I was super worried. In the end, she was rejected in the regular round from the original ED school but accepted in RD to all 3 schools she had considered for ED2 and was glad to have options (and ended up not choosing to enroll at those ED2 candidates)! There are so many factors and so much uncertainty at this point, and it’s different for each kid/situation. I can definitely empathize.
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