Common App is down for maintenance. Probably getting ready for the switch this week. Last year it opened in the evening on July 31.
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So, a bit of a downer. We were recently at one of my child’s top choices and the admissions counselor asked them point blank where else they were looking. I thought that was a no no. Am I wrong?
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We’ve had them ask as well, at least for my daughter they did several times. I think it’s fine to be vague or just say “well, your school is at the top of my list.” And move on.
The worst was that for D23 we had an admissions officer who looked up my husband on LinkedIn. I thought that was really tone deaf because he could see it! D23 didn’t attend.
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Had a couple days with just D25. Decent conversations about college in the last week. We may have helped her figure out an essay topic while on a relaxing pontoon ride. She feels a bit more drawn to a couple schools but knows she needs to keep her options open.
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D23 had an admissions officer do the same - turns out the AO had her BS in the same area of interest as my kid, and even recommended some other schools/programs to her! Turned out fine, my kid decided on a different major and ended up attending the same college the AO worked for and loves it. More than anything I was impressed that the AO was looking out for my kid’s interest above all, made us love her choice that much more.
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I think sometimes AOs are looking to find out where else their potential applicants are considering - that gives them lots of information about who students/families consider peer institutes, etc.
It is fine for a student to say, “I’m still narrowing my list down…if I told you every school I was considering/have considered we would be here for hours”
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We had a successful weekend - Chapel Hill released their supplemental essays last week (or the week before?) and I wanted S25 to get started on them last week while he was off the schedule at work. He really did almost nothing all week, but then on Friday drafted one and yesterday drafted the other. It’s only an initial draft, but a solid start, so I’m happy. We’ve only got a few more weeks of summer - he’s working full time this week and next, then a week of family vacation, then senior year starts so I’m glad he’s getting these things moving now. Only two of the schools he’s applying to have supplemental essays, the rest just take the common app. But he wants to apply to honors programs at several of the schools and they all require more, so he’s got plenty of work still to do.
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We had that question at almost every place we visited. I think they just want to know their competition. One of the colleges D25 is applying actually asks on the application!
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One of my kids was asked where else they were applying during an interview. The person conducting the interview had gone to one of the other schools for grad school and they spent the rest of the interview talking about the other school!
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This happened to me years ago! I was interviewing at Vassar and the AO asked me where else I was looking and I said Dartmouth which was her Alma mater and she spent the rest of the time talking about how much better Dartmouth was than Vassar.
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This is shockingly unprofessional behavior by the AOs. I interviewed for decades for my T5 alma mater and we were explicitly told not to ask about or mention any other schools.
When students commit to schools in the spring, they often have to fill out a questionnaire about what other schools they considered. That is the appropriate time for schools to find out about competition. Any earlier and they’re mining for questions about who to yield protect. I would tell my S25 to demur and say his list is long and he’s there to talk about College X.
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That seems really unprofessional for an AO.
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Oh it absolutely was. To be fair though, this was 1995 (I think) and she had graduated just a year or so before. No College Confidential to ruin her reputation.
I also had a weird AO at Dartmouth, she asked me all about my race and then proceeded to huff about how she shouldn’t be the one interviewing me. It was odd and I remember crying in the car afterwards.
Rejected at Dartmouth and didn’t apply to Vassar 
I would imagine today that AOs are much more careful. Except for the linkedin thing, which was weird.
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In my kid’s case, it was an alumni who was interviewing, not an AO.
@Izzy74 @lkg4answers ,
Somehow I don’t have as big of a reaction if it’s an alum asking the question during an interview. I feel like if it’s an AO asking (interview or not) it feels more manipulative. Maybe that’s not fair, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. (And I can’t really identify why, except that I do still feel like when one is still applying the college holds more of the cards, so I think the cards my kid still holds should be held closer. What, me not totally idealistic about this process? Why do you say that?)
D did her senior pictures today. It was surreal to see her wearing the cap and gown. I know this year is going to be so long but will just fly by. She texted one of her foreign language teachers just now to ask if they would write a recommendation and they immediately responded absolutely. That lifted D’s spirits especially after showing her the essay prompts for common app. (I’ve shown her a few times now, but I guess every time feels like the first time) She said she’ll think about it more before starting, I did send her the link to the essay guy so thank you to those who’ve been sharing it!
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Our school has the kids write their Common App. essay at the end of the school year after the AP Exam. That is one thing our school actually does well. No fighting over it all summer.
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I was hoping her school would have done that. Sigh
Yeah–its nice–I have not even seen the essay. It got good a good review so we are rolling with it.
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Drama in the Kumihama-Cho household this morning. S25 has his much dreaded (and fought against) haircut this morning before orientation (tomorrow) and senior pictures (Thursday). The hairdresser (my hair dresser who charges an arm and a leg) called in sick today. We got him in with someone else, but he is not pleased. He said, that “only Meredith knows how to cut my hair.” As long as he doesn’t come home with the Dumb and Dumber haircut, I’m sure he will survive. 
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