That potential gap year option for D25 I mentioned upthread? We just heard a rumor that it is being discontinued. I really hope the person who said this was mistaken; I think I had secretly hoped that this would be the path she took, as I think it would be the best option to let her live the life she thinks she wants, have a re-set before college, and we would get her at home for one more year.
It’s all going to work out and she will land where she’s supposed to be. I still hope when she reaches out to the program to ask they will reassure her that it’s a possibility.
My $.02 (and I have to keep reminding myself about this too): your son isn’t going to change into a grinder/gunner overnight. He made choices that were true to him and his interests. It’s reasonable to apply to a couple of schools that are real reaches, but maybe he’d be more likely to find his people at a school that doesn’t tend to sweep up all the alphas.
Maybe there’s a nicer or more diplomatic way to say this – I was super ambitious in high school and badly wanted to get into a Princeton/Yale-type school and made choices that set me up for that. But my peers and I were kind of stressed out and insufferable. It’s nice to see my son (and probably yours) being a little less competitive/credential-focused. If he were to magically get into a school full of ambitious strivers, would he be happy there? I’m not so sure. I wasn’t totally happy…
So my son was trying to pull up his PSAT score today and it’s not in his College Board account that has his AP scores and prior year tests, but it is in the CB App on his phone that they had him create and give a phone number for. He can’t figure out how to link those two accounts. Has anyone else had an issue with this?
We had this issue. We had to send an email to the College Board. It took a few days for them to respond and then a few days more to link/merge the two accounts.
We heard. My S2025 was told by his Counselor on the downlow on Friday. They then keep it a secret until 091124 when they are officially announced. Some schools keep theirs confidential in order to announce at a pep rally etc. This is my third NMSF and final child. It feels great to be done. It is now just a matter of the application/essay and the final notification of NMF. He will be following his sister to UAlabama on their very generous NMF scholarship.
If he applies to test optional schools, even the top ones, he has a good chance imo. He has a great academic record, ECs and recommendations.
Good luck to your kid!
My kids don’t apply to any reach schools. They only apply to schools that they can afford. For us that means the one with the most merit aid and then possibly one more in the same category. (Merit Aid) My S2025 is my fourth and last. All four were good candidates for the Ivy League. We quickly learned that the best fit is where one can be happy and graduate with the least debt. In our case that is zero debt. Two have recently graduated and are Computer Engineers. One is at UA Tuscaloosa majoring in CE and the MBA program. My current S2025 is following her. A decent student will find sucess anywhere they attend.
Mine look at the topic and just adjust it from their common application. Once you are NMSF, NMF is just a matter of paperwork, a decent GPA, and school history with no criminal record. Some students have no interest and dont follow up. Others dont have the GPA etc. Congrats.
AFAICT it hasn’t been released yet, but it has been unchanged for the past several years:
To help the reviewers get to know you, describe an experience you have had, a person who has influenced you, or an obstacle you have overcome. Explain why this is meaningful to you. Use your own words and limit your response to the space provided.
As others have said, the Common App essay usually works with minimal tweaking. (Some minor editing may be required because the CA essay has a word count maximum and the NMF essay has for the past several years been limited to a certain number of characters.)
Now that school is back in session, I have had several conversations with other senior parents recently. All truly want their kids to stay in state and stay close. I have only had 1 other parent thus far actually do a bit of their own research on colleges. My kids are the odd ones who have a parent pushing them to fly far from the nest!
My D25 sent in her first applications yesterday. They were two EAs. She has some more EAs to send in too, but they have additional essays for merit scholarships or the honors program. She’s moving slow on her supplemental essays, but wants to get all of her apps in by Nov. regardless of the deadline. She said she just wants it off her plate.
I’m nervous for her, but trying not to let it show. Things have changed so much since I went to college. And we’re in a low income school district. There isn’t much emphasis on college prep. Virtually nothing to help them prepare for tests and we couldn’t afford the courses. She’s going test optional. I hope it doesn’t hurt her. It’s just not the culture where we are and I hope that this isn’t putting her at a disadvantage.
@2plustrio My D is way too focused on reaches. I don’t know if it’s the lure of name recognition or what. I really had to convince her of the merits of other colleges. Fortunately, she acquiesced and added targets and safeties to the list. She just isn’t excited about them. On my end, the reaches are the ones that meet 100% need and that’s what we could really use unless she gets bonkers merit aid.
Well, we worked out an application strategy this weekend finally. He’s done quite a bit of work on his apps, which is great, but I think now that there is a concrete strategy he can work more efficiently and get stuff submitted. It’d be great if he realized how much better he’ll feel if he even gets one of those crossed off the list.
Removed two schools from the list and retained some that I thought he was setting aside, as well as discussed letting him remove his in-state flagship and adding a different safety or two. I didn’t get far with that, since I think the idea of researching another place makes him annoyed at this point, and all he heard was adding a school, not the possible upside. We’ll revisit that idea when he’s feeling a little less overwhelmed, maybe after he’s turned in one or two EA apps. He’s still weighing the ED decision. We’ll get there - and he’ll be OK.
One of the things that convinced my D25 to apply to additional safeties/targets was that they didn’t have any additional essays. She hasn’t researched all of them, which I’m ok with. I said just put these two on there and let’s see what happens. So there are a few schools she will apply to that she doesn’t know a lot about. She can go to an admitted student day if she needs more info to make a decision.
FYI parents, if your kids are applying to SUNYs like mine, the app is free Oct 21-Nov 3. I don’t know if you have to go through the SUNY app system or not.
I’ve been trying to find fee waivers whenever possible. I think she should qualify for a common app fee waiver, but we don’t get free lunch or have any of the other auto fee waiver categories. I think we’ll qualify for a Pell, but wasn’t sure if the fed grant estimator is enough to check the box on the common app. Can any other parents weigh in?