Which schools are sending your kids stickers? Ours has gotten the letters, postcards and glossy books, but no stickers that I know of. Those sound fun!
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We definitely like University of Chicago’s mail (I think that’s one place he’s gotten stickers from? Also from University of Nebraska). Most college mail from places S25 doesn’t plan to apply go straight to the recycling, but we always love admiring the clever design and marketing on Chicago’s pieces. We also investigate any large “book” like mail to see how many pages it has. I’ve torn out a couple inviting looking pages of book shelves to cut and laminate into cool bookmarks? No pens received here!
S25 has two acceptances so far - Iowa State and University of Minnesota Twin Cities (we are in state here). I think he’s on the final draft of his common app essay, so I think he’s going to get the rest of his applications in soon (except maybe MIT, because his short answer prompts still need a bit of work for that app, but hopefully those will be done soon too).
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Quick question about essays. How much editing do you provide for them? S25’s essay has been reviewed and graded by the English teacher, and it’s good. I read it again after it had been graded and lightly edited for word count, and I want to tighten up a few sentences that could read more smoothly or have redundant language. Is it worth it to suggest doing this together, or is it better to just let it be as representative of his writing style in this moment? I mean, I think I know the correct answer to this, so this is more just asking for someone to keep me from overstepping… 
So true!
My opinion as a parent (plus extra bona fides: and as a professor in an English department): For something like a college application essay, I think that pointing out ambiguities due to phrasing or word choice is fine, as is very light copyediting for spelling and punctuation. Things like smoothness or flow of language, though, is incredibly subjective, and it’s important to leave the author’s voice in place even when we as parents might not like it.
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I am agnostic re essays. My impression is that the middle 80% (or more) likely do no harm and likely do no good, meaning that the essay is not generally a decision maker in an application. My position on this is largely Duke’s overt statement that they will no longer assign a numerical rating to essays (due to the rise of generative AI). They specifically said:
" ‘Essays are a very much part of our understanding of the applicant, we’re just no longer assuming that the essay is an accurate reflection of the student’s actual writing ability,’ Guttentag wrote to the Chronicle."
I suspect that many / most other schools feel similarly whether they outwardly admit it or not.
So, whether the essay is organically and solely written by the applicant, or with modest editing help by a coach or teacher or mom, or with the assistance of AI, I’m not sure it really matters.
But, as Duke further pointed out, just because the essay may not be written by the applicant, the essay should be a reflection of the applicant.
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My opinion - unless there is a misspelled word or other obvious error, go with what the student wrote. I had to restrain myself from “cleaning up” D22’s drafts as well, but I think that was the right thing to do, and she had a lot of success in the admissions process.
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For both common app and supplementals, I gave light copy editing advice, and on early drafts gave more subjective overall advice. I marked a couple places where I commented things like “this paragraph is a bit confusing” or “I think you were too technical here”. But left it up to him to decide where to go from there. He got feedback from close friends and a teacher as well. By the time I read his current final (or nearly final) draft of the main common app essay this week, it had improved so much! I was impressed!
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Nothing from U of Chicago (we are nextdoor but kids arent smart enough). My D25 did apply to High Point (it is a TE school for us) and yes we get the crazy mailers.
Most of the college mailers she has received have been from places where she has requested info. A few outliers like Samford (way oos) and a few instate privates though.
We visited Chicago (even though it’s not a realistic option) and somehow S25 is on the list TWICE. So we get two identical pieces of mail from them every time. 
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Oh we do too! My son goes by a name other than his first name so we get double Chicago mail, one in each name.
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Our college counselor said if classes change just to reach out to let the admissions offices know. No need to tell them why, you can just say Course A is now Course B. I don’t think it’s a big deal.
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Yay school counselor!
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Thank you! We knew nothing about UTK before about two months ago - we live in VA so it’s not like it’s even that far, we just don’t happen to know anyone who goes there. It felt really really good to him. I could see it being his eventual top choice, depending on if he gets merit from them or anyone else.
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One of my older kids was similarly doubled on a mailing list, once as Dfbdfb’s Kid and once as DFBDFB’S KID.
So much for having good data validation protocols. It kind of makes me wish I’d named one of my kids Dfb’); DROP TABLE Students;-- Dfb.
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Feeling very left out. My kiddo isn’t getting ridiculous mail from any of those! lol I think Tulsa might have sent the most unsolicited Mail but nothing over the top.
School was canceled today because of a bomb threat. 
It was determined to be a hoax but still scary.
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Me, too! No High Point Communication. But, Harvard, really? Could you stop sending my kid emails? (But nothing from Yale.) I find it interesting to see which schools target which kids. Nothing from Nebraska that I know of here!
From what D25 has shown me, my favorite emails are from Swat. Witty. Smart. It makes me want to attend!
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My D25 just had an interviewer stand her up! She had a zoom interview scheduled. They sent a reminder with the link. She got one early and waited 45 minutes before giving up. She gets so nervous about these, but it is one of her favorite colleges. Or maybe it isn’t now. I really hope they’ll reschedule her. Anyone ever have anything like this happen?
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I loved that we knew when applying exactly how much merit my D23 would be getting based on ACT and GPA. It wound up being less expensive than our state school. Is UTK still upfront about the merit?
My kids don’t get mail. We learned from the first not to check the Big Future/Scholarship Match box on standardized tests and we have unsubscribed from all CollegeBoard lists.
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