I promised myself that I would try to limit S25’s list after D23 applied to 13 schools and it almost killed us. But S25 is up to 12 
We’re taking a quick trip to Santa Clara next week. After months of insisting he wants to leave the west coast, S25 asked to go visit a few weeks ago. After that, I’m not visiting anywhere else until accepted student weekends and I’m limiting that to two. Remind me I said that ok? 
Calendared.
I know a few Santa Clara grads. We visited last year. Beautiful school.
My kid’s list is 12 schools, without the UCs (they count as 1, right?). We did a purge of $80k+ schools. D25 won’t get any discounts and I know getting her to write additional essays will be like pulling teeth, so off they go.
I think the key is to figure out what are the compromises that make sense and they don’t always have the self knowledge to do this, but fit should be the last thing to go.
I made S24 add a school where everything was right but the school, although top ranked, is not well known for his major. I was reasonably certain of admissions. He would be HAPPY there and could then go to grad school before the workforce if needed.
D22 added some schools in the midwest, again because we thought chances were good. She did not want to leave the east coast but I know when it came down to it she’d compromise on location much faster than academic fit.
I view finding these “hidden gems” (in the sense that it would never cross their self-centered minds) as my job as a parent. I know my kids and this is where I can help.
If the UCs only count as 1, D25 has 9 applications on her list. Unless something else comes out of left field, I think her list is done.
She left about two weeks ago for a summer research program at UC Davis and will be there until early August. School starts about a week after that, so we’re pretty much out of time for campus visits and tours before applications begin. We’re totally fine with that though. S23 applied to over 20 campuses and D25 watched and decided that she was never going to do that to herself!
With respect to student effort, my vote would be for the UC application to count as one and for the CSU application to count as one. From the cost standpoint, each application is 
It depends on who you ask. Ask them, and they’d say that their lists are in great shape, that things are going swimmingly. Ask me, and I’d say their lists are way too reach-heavy, and they need to expand their targets and likelies. They’ll be applying to Pitt early, and I think they’ll have no problem with that, so that should help alleviate a bunch of the anxiety. But I doubt they’ve internalized that if they want to have more than one option in the springtime, they should be expanding their lists.
I’ve struggled with figuring out how to both A) let them “drive” the process and B) help them understand that they need to explore a few more likelies and targets. They were doing a lot of volunteering over the last few weeks, so I gave them a pass on thinking about college stuff, but I’ll probably need to encourage them to spend some time with Naviance in the next week or so, so we can talk about what the scattergrams suggest they’ll be up against.
They are phenomenal kids — just absolute gems — and I couldn’t be more proud of who they are. And I think the college application process will work out well for them. But I know how fickle the process can be, and how the stats for top (and tippy-top) schools are absolutely bonkers. I want to make sure they end up with options that they’re genuinely excited about.
Ummm….I really don’t have any idea. I feel like if I ask the question of “do you have a list” then S25 immediately jumps to the conclusion that I’m pressuring him to nail it down NOW.
It’s the same with summer work that I know he needs to be doing to prep for senior year. He has writing and reading and math assignments out the wazoo, plus studying for another attempt at the SAT, on top of family trips and his six week long job. I really want to sit down with him to talk about how he is planning to get the work done in addition to drafting college essays, yet I hate to make him feel inadequate for not having it figured out.
And yet I hate feeling like he hasn’t figured it out.
Once again, I wish someone had bothered to give me the definitive child-rearing manual after giving birth, so I would feel like I had any clue about what I’m doing with/to/for this kid.
Maybe after the college tour trip next week, I’ll feel better. After all, with more than 30 hours of driving together, he’ll be a captive audience and have to talk some, right? Oh, it’s good times, good times….
If CSUs only count as one, we’re down to 11, lol! D25 is applying to SDSU and SJSU.
My son has 3 LACs on his list, and one is a sure safety he’d be very happy with. At this point, it’s up to him if he wants to add anything more.
S25’s list is not finalized yet, but I think we’re done adding schools & are now moving onto the long process of cutting (he has 23 schools right now, hoping to get to more like 12-15). This child is a lovely sweet person but NOT decisive, so we’ll see how this goes. He thinks he wants a LAC close to home (New England), but we need a lot of merit so several (too many?) midwestern schools are still on his list. Right now I’m trying to get him to at least decide on his EA schools; then he can work on those supplements in August & we can deal with the (much reachier) RD list later this fall. We are visiting Fordham next week, but then I think we are done with visits until we revisit a couple of local safeties in the fall.
It’s time for us to get back on college confidential. We started the process around this time for D23 and now it’s that time for S25. We don’t have a college list yet, but have a few in mind for early action/decision. Hope to get him to come up with a list before the end of this month🤞
Good luck to everyone!
My son’s list is not quite finalized. But so far- USNA, USAFA, USMMA, RIT, VA Tech, Pitt, U of Rochester, possibly Norwich Academy. And NROTC, AFROTC Scholarships.
He has started the academy apps and nomination apps. Not done any essays, I am sure his 8 week summer flight academy will help inspire his essays.
So far D25 has submitted 2 applications with 1 acceptance (that one she did way back in March or April that she isn’t really planning on going to). Those 2 were no essay applications. She has now started working on her essay for her 3rd application. She is working through College Essay Guy’s material to help her come up with a topic. When she has that one written she will probably also apply to 2 more through the common app and might throw in Duke and/or Cornell for fun (but at this point I’m highly doubting she’ll do those last 2). So when all is said and done, she will have applied to 5-7 colleges.
We got her transcripts sent over for the one application and she just has to get her SAT scores sent over now. The college she was accepted to hasn’t asked for transcripts or anything yet and keeps sending her emails asking her to apply so she’s now dead set on not going there. She set up her account/portal, we think, but all it has is that she has submitted. There is no button to check decision or whatever and nowhere to apply for scholarships. Maybe there is another portal that she somehow missed in the acceptance email.
Monday is AP results day and she’s getting anxious about seeing those scores.
List still ever changing. Have some visits next month set up. She has looked at the Common App essay prompts and doesn’t have any real essay ideas yet. I have given her some things to think about but of course I don’t know anything. 
The july 6th list (maybe)?
Lindenwood
U of Louisiana-Lafayette
Stockton
U of Southern Mississippi
Maryville University
Iowa State
Rider
Wayne State U
Mercyhurst
Central Michigan University
LeMoyne
Saint Joseph’s
Western Carolina
Kent State
Coastal Carolina
Eastern Carolina University
Can you share what your daughter finds appealing about these two schools specifically? One is my daughter’s top choice and the other is not on here radar.
I’m not much help. She says she just wants to apply to them. (eyeroll).
LOL.
No.
S25 is neck-deep in his chosen path of attempting to complete three online summer school courses under his own steam and we are…trying to watch what might be a trainwreck w/out intervening. Calc seems to be mostly done. Econ is maybe 50% done. Gov…barely touched. He has less than two weeks to complete these and schedule/take the finals without major inconvenience/academic consequences.
We aren’t visiting or even really talking about schools that might or might be on his list.
Also, final report card in the flesh was less exciting than we’d hoped. A, A-, A-, B+, B, B. Oh kiddo. How did you get an A- in YEARBOOK? did you…kick the teacher’s dog?
Anyway, it’s his life. I think realistically he’s going to have to roll the dice on a bunch of schools he’s never seen (if he makes a late switch to engineering) or else go the LAC route.
If WPI is a hit, that makes things simultaneously easier and harder. It means he’ll apply there (but I don’t think he’s guaranteed admission by any stretch, since they don’t consider test scores and I think his GPA will be below average for them). He’d probably add some subset of Oregon State, CU-Boulder, UC Davis and Cal Poly (super long-shots but we’re in-state so…), Rochester, CWR, Pitt, Minnesota, Virginia Tech (again a long-shot), RPI, Union, Lafayette, Lehigh, maybe Trinity U, maybe Santa Clara (all engineering).
If he’s not excited about engineering after WPI, I’m going to be even more keen on pushing a gap year. But I think also at this point he’d be looking at the original list of LACs (Oberlin, St. Olaf, Whitman, Denison, Puget Sound, Wooster, Dickinson, Oxy, Holy Cross, Brandeis, etc) with a couple of larger research universities (Rochester? CWR?) thrown in for variety.
I really feel like I’ve lost all sense of perspective on what his chances are at these places but…it will be what it will be. He’s a smart, sane, grounded kid with a lot of growing up to do and he’ll do it somewhere that isn’t here, and with any luck he won’t flail too badly and will find a path that works out for him. I’ve got to admit that I’m curious about what will ultimately take. Aren’t you?
I FEEL YOUR PAIN! 
This. This!!! Yes!!!
The kids will be all right. And yeah, it’s gonna be a treat to see where their paths take them.