Not a whole lot to report here - S25 met with his college counselor last week who gave him a pretty stern talking to about getting things done and laying out a schedule for him. It’s important to him to get his applications finished before the school year starts, because he wants to be able to do fall sports and not be overly stressed. Which is great. But if that’s his goal, he needs to do some work on it. So I sat with him this weekend while he finished a rough draft of the common app essay (still needs a lot of polishing, but at least there’s a draft to start with) and we brainstormed some ideas for the four mini-essays for Va Tech.
There’s still a lot more to do, and with his summer job just sucking his energy away, he’s realistically only going to get anything done on the weekends. But I’m happy he’s got some progress done. In the next two weeks he’s supposed to finish polishing the Common App essay, finish filling out the common app, complete the self reported academic record stuff, and finish getting together all the residency information for VA. (A large part of this is on me apparently - I don’t remember how we submitted any of this for my older son, but the counselor wants things like how long I’ve lived in VA, the month/year I registered to vote, the month/year we bought our home etc.) Then by mid- July she wants him done with the supplemental essays for the three schools he’s looking at that have them and by early August to have filled out any school specific applications.
So, that’s a lot, but should get everything done before we do summer vacation in August and then school. We’ll just see if my son can actually buckle down and get it all done in the next six weeks or so. It won’t be the end of the world if he can’t, but it sure would be nice to not have this hanging over his head when school starts again - he has enough trouble getting homework done when there aren’t other outside things.
Still can’t get D25 motivated to figure out what schools she wants to apply to or to start working on her common app. I have made a list of possibilities, but I really want her to own the process. CFdad had shoulder surgery so we had to cancel our trip to visit some schools. I had been hoping visiting schools would help with motivation.
FYI, common app for 2024-25 won’t open until Aug 1. Some info input into the 23-24 common app will rollover, but not all of it. Hopefully his counselor communicated this, but some info here:
Yes, thank you for the warning, she has told us that. She mostly has him work off of google docs for the things that wouldn’t roll over, so that when the time comes, he can cut and paste (like with his essay - we know what the questions will be, that’s been announced, so he can write it, just can’t paste it). I think what she wants is for him to finish filling out some of the stuff like his profile info that should roll over. Or if not filling it out ON the common app, at least saving it all somewhere so he’s done the work of gathering it and then can easily cut and paste to move it over.
UWashington Tacoma does the “no majors declared, pick one by junior year” thing. I believe UWashington Seattle is similar, EXCEPT for “impacted majors”, so similar to UWisconsin Madison, or other flagship publics.
My S22 is at UWTacoma, and enjoying things – he’s not STEM oriented, but instead has chosen Technical Writing as a major. (the kind of writing major that gets jobs! yippee!)
I’m curious to know if your S25 has come around to VA Tech. My memory could be mixing up peeps, but I thought you had a rising senior looking at similar places to my rising senior, but that he was less enamored of VA Tech than mine was…somethinn about “so much gray” comes to mind…
Oh, well, if I’ve mixed things up, I will still say that is GREAT news on him drafting and brainstorming. It is progress, especially for the summer!
So far, he isn’t feeling the love. I’m hoping to do a roadtrip again in the fall - maybe October or November - when he has a few days off of class. He’s got a friend who will be a freshman there so we can talk with him, and we can spend some time visiting the other Departments he’s interested in. I suspect part of what just felt less than stellar was that we visited on a Friday afternoon. That just isn’t a great time to feel a lot of energy as there aren’t that many classes so you don’t see students moving around the same way we did with our morning/lunch time tours at the rest of the schools.
When we toured Tech we did a bunch of different things - an info session specific to the College that had one of his majors (great info session - seriously the best I’ve seen), lunch with a current student majoring in one of his potential majors, the big group tour, a final walk around tour with a friend of my older son. I think that it, unfortunately, just started off on the wrong foot because (1) we left our house at 5:30am to get there in time, so no one is in a great frame of mind; then (2) we met with the college of natural resources and the environment - and their academic buildings are on the edge of campus, near some of the largest parking lots, which left him in a “go to college in the parking lot” frame of mind. There’s a gorgeous quad and a lot of activity, but not where we were. He really loved how vibrant Clemson felt as the students were moving around, talking, etc and he didn’t feel that at all at Tech - but I really think that was more related to the day and time of day.
I just can’t get past the fact that if he loves Clemson, he should also love Va Tech. The things he’s pointed out as big pluses at Clemson all exist at Tech too, for a fraction of the price since we’re in state. But I’m trying to keep all of that in my own head. He’s going to apply to both, I hope he’ll get into both and then he’ll have to really lay out the plusses and minuses. My older guy had a ginormous Pro/Con list that he taped to the back of his bedroom door when he was deciding - that way he could add to it easily if he thought of things.
If he’s a close enough friend, could your son stay overnight with him in the dorm? It could be a really helpful way for him to pick up some of the energy from the other students.
It’s wild how much that “we left early and roadtripped down” can turn into “kid was a total slug when we were looking around campus”. We have a 10am in-person interview in a few weeks, about 3 hours away, that we could drive to the morning-of, but we’ll bite the bullet and stay overnight just so everyone is far from slugville.
Update here:
Family vacation–check! (and the last big one before D25 graduates–sniff!)
D25 at ballet intensive–check!
Got her SAT scores–they were ok and better than in January, but she says she wants to try again. Sadly, the only space for August is ~150 miles away, so we’ve scheduled it, but I now have a new daily routine to see if a spot closer to home opens up. And I have mixed feelings about this. She has yet to study, and will have two weeks after she gets home before testing. Maybe I should just be glad that familiarity with the test helped last time and maybe will again? There is a space close to home in October, but I feel like that’s really late and she’ll be in the thick of all.the.things. I’m open to opinions on this, though. (I really would like to not have to trek out to central CA, get a hotel, etc for the August date, but will if that’s the best option.)
D25 was telling someone her top choices (4 ballet schools she is highly unlikely to get into if for no other reason than odds alone) and two choices in TX. I confess I was surprised and am not totally convinced that Bay Area Girl is going to fit into TX culture (Dallas or Fort Worth), but am happy to support her. (Full confession: TX schools are on due to ballet, so she has not explored beyond the dance programs. We’ll see what she thinks with deeper dives before she writes apps.)
My D23 was set on Texas from the beginning, we live in Portland. I didn’t understand it at all but she is absolutely loving living in San Antonio. I melt when we visit but have enjoyed the city more than I would have initially thought.
I really wanted him to stay with the friend, and it’s a good friend. But the friend is in the corps of cadets - which is like if you had to live like a service academy but on a regular campus. No guests, unannounced room inspections, early workouts etc. So he can’t stay with him, but I’m hoping we can come up with someone else, because I agree, I think that would be super helpful.
If y’all visit again, you can ping me… my son will be a sophomore next year and is having a great time. He’s made time in the past for prospective students and would probably be willing to do so again.
But yeah, I get the whole vibe check thing… theoretically Clemson and Virginia Tech should feel similar, but some kids just get a feel for a school and it clicks (or not)… but you definitely need to have a talk about finances, what you’re willing to spend and alternative use of the money based on choices.
S25 got his first athletic pre-read back and it was positive! At our visit in March, the coach had said he would support S no matter how he applied — ED or RD. I’d like to have him reiterate in writing but S is pretty pumped.
I love San Antonio so much as well. It’s such a beautiful city with a very interesting history and culture. Way more affordable than Austin and Dallas. But the heat is brutal — and we live just an hour away. It’s usually 5-10 degrees cooler out in the country. PS - Trinity is a top contender for my kiddo.
That’s great, but if you go the RD route make sure he is still applying to a balanced list of schools. Very few coaches will guarantee admissions in RD (even if they do support) and you want to have a fallback if things go sideways.
Is anyone else stalking the ACT site? The July test dates are all completely full and have been for awhile, but there are ZERO test dates beyond that! Does anyone know if they post/release test dates on any particular day of the month?
Assuming we are talking about Ivy or D3, I don’t disagree about having options if going RD, and also recommend them if applying ED (especially to highly rejective schools.) But…no coach can guarantee admission, ever. (And that’s why it would be irrelevant if a coach put something in writing @murray93).
Plenty of athletes have full support in RD, which generally works out as often as it does in ED.
S25 refuses to ED so we have specifically asked if he needs to apply ED and the answer from two coaches was no — we will not make you do that. These are not Ives or NESCAC schools but have under 20% admission and he has a 3.47 GPA — so obviously colleges where he wouldn’t be able to get in without his sport. And yes of course he has safeties.
