I wanted to share a few links to supplemental essays for this cycle. If your kid is like mine, once school starts it’s chaos. S25 is trying to get as much done as possible.
On the second link be sure that the school has been updated for 24-25.
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Thank you for posting this Izzy. I forwarded the top link (ICC) to D25 a week ago as about half the schools on her current application list are also on this list from ICC. While this should give her some extra time to do these essays (at least a first draft) before school starts in a few weeks, I’m not sure if she has actually opened it yet. And the summer is bleeding away.
D23 swears that the best thing she did was try to get most of her essays done by September when her classmates waited. I think S25 is listening because he’s been sending me things to read.
Obviously many schools haven’t posted theirs yet but anything he can get done now before sports and homework I think will be done better than something he whips out at the last minute. There will of course be many whipped out at the last minute too I’m sure 
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I completely agree on getting as much done as possible before school starts. If nothing else just to give it a draft a chance to sit in the background and come back to later after reflection. School, plus clubs, plus her fall sport will take up a lot of time between now and mid-Oct. Good luck to your son.
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Thanks for the reminder! She’s also going test optional. I did pour over most of the schools CDS and the ones with the more difficult academic admissions are 3 years required and 4 years recommended. In her specific situation it’s the audition that will decide if she gets in but she does need to be academically ready as well. I’m hoping she meets that requirement for all on her list and will land where she’ll fit best.
Thanks! C25 has been working on their supplemental essays for their ED and EA schools already. Definitely quite the opposite of S22 who waited until the last minute.
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Consider your good deed for the day/week/month the fact that you have now brought this possibility of sending a message of positivity to the attention of other senior parents here at CC who can act on it!!
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Hi, I’m new here and have been trying to find a spot to jump in. This looks like the perfect spot! We live in MS and I’m hoping S25 does NOT go to Ole Miss, although it’s his top pick outside of the extreme reach on his list (Notre Dame). UTK is on our list, but I would love to hear why you don’t love it.
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Welcome!
And I have a kid at Mississippi State, so of course I firmly approve of the sentiment, but why are you hoping he doesn’t go to Ole Miss? Depending on the intended field of study, they’ve got some world-class programs there.
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The main reason is because it’s an hour from home, and not really “going away” for college. Which is fine in many cases, but he was gung-ho about going away for a real college experience until just recently. I’m concerned he’s settling into something too comfortable. His stats are good enough to get into some much better schools, and I hate for him to sell himself short.
A secondary reason is possibly short-sighted on my part, but I’m privy to enough of the stories from students to be alarmed at the party scene there.
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My issues with UTK are mainly personal after a bad experience working in the system. I’m also a bit put off by some of the shenanigans of the state legislature. Despite my personal feelings I know a lot of great faculty and staff there, and so many students have incredible experiences. So you can take my feedback with a grain of salt! Honestly, if my son wanted a big state school experience, I still would have encouraged him to apply for the reasonable price.
Thank you. I truly appreciate your honesty.
Hello all, I’m a new join. Would like to know if anyone has used a profession admissions counselor and/or essay writing service and what the experience has been. I’ve seen several posts referring to Essay Guy and have gotten the free information from that site. Just wondered if it’s worth the individual sessions for essay writing in particular. We’re in the early stages, but I feel this is going to be crucial to his application.
Thanks in advance. Happy to be here!
FYI
Each year, the Common App goes offline to get ready for the new application cycle.
The 2023-2024 first-year application will close for students and recommenders at 5 pm ET on July 28, and the transfer application will close for students and recommenders at 5 pm ET on July 29.
The 2024-2025 application will open on August 1.
See this link for more…
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Quick question about common app…S25 has mainly 3s on his AP exams. He’s not planning on submitting those scores. However, should he still include the AP courses on the AP tab under the “Tests” section? Or just not include any AP courses? (He’ll have 9 by the time he graduates and thus far has five 3’s and one 4. 
)
We did not us an essay writing service. I think there is lots of good info out there about essay ideas online and in social media. My theory is that my kids essays should be written by themselves and accept where they end up (with some grammar and spelling checks of course-I myself don’t use proper grammar unless I’m scholarly writing at work). I would not want my kid to misrepresent themselves by having their essay guided and/or written by someone else.
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He should not report any APs under the testing section if he is not submitting scores. The classes themselves will be listed on his transcript.
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So, we chose to use a professional outside counselor service for several reasons.
Primarily, D25 is our only child, so we only have one shot at this and would like to come away with the best results possible for her (more on that below). Secondarily, my desire is that the independent counselor will provide a buffer between parents and child. Ultimately though, we live in a rural area, in an under-resourced school district (T1 with only about 10% of the graduates going to a 4 year school after graduation) where the guidance counselors have limited experience (and time) to assist with a college search.
For us, the “best results” include exploring with D25 what it is that she is most interested in now and curating a list of schools that are well positioned in that area of interest, but also provide a significant margin of error for a variety of Plan B’s in other areas. Then, have the ability and capacity to guide D25 to put together the best application possible for each particular school in that list.
So, at this point, D25 has identified about 9 schools that meet her criteria: one ivy, one ivy+, and 7 flagships (Mich, Mich State, UWisc, Purdue, UGA, UDub, KU). I’m identifying this list so as to point out that we did not hire an independent counselor with the intent of focusing on the tippy tops - rather, to truly assist her in having several viable options at the end of this process at schools to which will provide her with a foundation to accomplish her goals.
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Welcome! We have a counselor, but it’s mostly to be the professional nag that I don’t want to be. She offers services that include helping to identify schools - but I enjoy that and feel competent enough to research it to help give my kid options to think about as he builds his list. Where she’s really been helpful is more laying out process, and setting deadlines, and helping with brainstorming. Like for the common app essay, my son is a reluctant writer, who is always so worried about having the perfect idea, and expressing it perfectly, that he often struggles to get started because nothing seems just right. She did a zoom meeting with my son and talked through his ideas. She wrote down bullets of what he said, and helped guide him through looking at each one to pick an idea, then she coaxed him into fleshing that into more of a bulleted outline that could serve as a roadmap. Then his assignment was to write the essay based on the outline and come back. They met again, and she talked him through the editing process - things like “I think this paragraph is a little unclear, what are you trying to say here? Ok, is there a way you can rephrase what you wrote to make that more clear or succinct?” Technically, I could do that with him - I consider myself a strong writer and editor. But he’d never take the guidance from me, and it would lead to crankiness, for both of us.
She also aggregates information for us - our contract says that she’ll help with applications to seven schools. So for those seven, she’s put together a chart with all the deadlines for things, the school specific essay questions, do they need a self reported academic record or send the transcript, do they want test scores (and if so, self reported or submitted from the testing agency) etc. The chart even has spaces for what your login and password information is for each college’s applicant portal, just to make sure it’s all organized in one spot. Again, all of this is stuff I could help with, or that my son could do on his own, but it was worth the money to have someone organize us - less anxiety and stress for us, plus now my son has a roadmap of what he needs to do when.
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Common App question in regard to colleges attended. She has done several dual enrollment classes. 4 of them have been taught at her high school (2 different colleges) and the 2 this summer have been at community college. Does she put 3 down for colleges attended or is that only for fully enrolled college students?