@goldbug Congrats on your kiddo getting that interview DONE!!! It is always nice to have those kinds of things in the rear-view mirror, rather than sitting on the to-do list where they can stew anxiety. Or maybe I’m just speaking for myself….
Anyway, glad for your student to have accomplished that. Kudos!
And it sounds like he has a topic he can sink his teeth into now, so good luck to him with that. May he be inspired!
(At the same time, as a voracious reader, I personally would probably get a kick out of seeing one writeup from a person who sees how to
That’s the kind of thing that would give me a little hope in today’s world…but I’m on the lookout for that kind of stuph these days!)
I feel you on this. My son’s personal statement needed some serious editing (which I did, and offered to him to use or not). He wasn’t happy about it. Still don’t know if he took my suggestions. My older child, HS class of 2021, with neurodivergency and music school auditions, submitted all of her applications in October that year without any help and without telling me or her counselor! I’m sure there were many flaws in her essays but they were obviously her voice and unedited, which likely came through, for better or worse. She got into 11/12 schools! We also paid zero application fees - not sure how she managed that!
D25 went to the college fair at school last night mostly just to touch base with one of her admission counselors. He gave her some great tips for the scholarship essays she has to do. She wanted to meet with one other admin counselor, but she didn’t show up.
Now she just needs to get the scholarship stuff done. She’s driving me nuts. Plus, she still has to finish her last college app.
It will inevitably lead to less students submitting scores, raising the middle range even higher until only a minority of students will submit scores but the SAT range will be one of the highest reported.
Based on telling students to only submit if within the 50% range, the possibility of going back to requiring tests is possible but contradicts the current goal of reporting ever higher scores.
Why would telling people not to submit a test score that’s below 1510 decrease apps? It will decrease test submissions but most of the name brand schools had an increase in apps after going test optional.
I brought up Ohio State at dinner (because if he’s going to apply, it should be done by Nov 1 EA deadline so he could qualify for merit scholarships). The answer I got was “I don’t want to be in Ohio unless it’s Cleveland. Cleveland is cool.”
I don’t think he’s ever been to Cleveland, so no idea why it’s more “cool” than the rest of Ohio (although I agree that Cleveland is pretty awesome - my S22 was looking at Case Western and we both loved Cleveland). But he’s pretty much outright rejected it.
Of the seven schools he’s applying to only one has an actual Urban Planning major - that’s Pitt and he’s already gotten in to Pitt since they have rolling admissions. Although he’s currently got Pitt lower on his ranking of “where I want to go” he tells me that if he decides between now and May 1 decision day that Urban Planning is a must have, then he’ll just go to Pitt, no problem.
@nothappyabout I like this perspective for filling out those forms. I hadn’t thought about it this way before, so thank you!
@goldbug love this new topic! It sounds like a great opportunity to let those AOs really get to know him. Good luck with the writing process!
Today’s adventures in the college journey: a 3 AM drive to the airport to catch a 5:30 flight to DC and then on to MSP to visit St. Olaf… thank goodness for frequent flyer miles is all I have to say. And he just barely made his connecting flight apparently. Because in his wisdom, he relied on his boarding pass for gate info instead of checking the boards… lesson learned I hope. He is traveling solo (staying with a friend) and is a seasoned flyer, but I think the ridiculous early start and a wee bit too much confidence nearly got the better of him today! Now I’ll just be watching FlightAware all morning while drinking a vat of coffee to recover from my 2:30 AM alarm.
Safe travels for your son! Let us know how he likes St. Olaf. S25 had his interview with them last week and said he really enjoyed the discussion. I would say that it’s his second choice, but I think it would be a great option for him other than the weather!
D25 has to push through more of her hs transcripts and get 1 or 2 LOR sent but her apps have been in for a few weeks now.
Putting it out there in print to see how wrong I may be in the future. If I had to rank where she may end up, here is my current list of guesses (in order).
Lindenwood
Central Michigan U
U of Scranton
U of Southern Mississippi
U of Nebraska Omaha
Saint Joseph’s
LeMoyne
Creighton
St. Louis U
Marquette
(Though they only use if if half the entering class reported SAT or ACT scores for at least one of the preceding two years; if not, they increase the weighting of 6-year graduation rates.)
But either way, it matters by making them look “smarter” than competitor schools, which makes them look more desirable to a certain (usually wealthy) segment of the target population.
D25 has all of her applications in (with 2 acceptances so far). I will also rank them in order. The top 2 are pretty equal though. She’s already in at Dordt but Hillsdale is a reach due to low acceptance rate. She has the stats but you know how it goes.
Hillsdale
Dordt University
Hope
University of Tulsa
Wheaton
Palm Beach Atlantic
Trinity Christian College
Olivette Nazarene University
I’m not expecting any rejections but we shall see. For us it will come down to cost, dance opportunities, and choice of majors (if she decides to be more specific with her path).
Cost will be a deciding factor between the top 2 for sure. The other wrench is D25 is now contemplating a nursing major which isn’t offered at Hillsdale.
I guess now is the time to post the applications for S25, who is going for an engineering degree. I’m going to put them in order of my preference, since I think this is one of the few places I can share that without judgment:
Virginia Tech
NC State
University of Alabama at Huntsville (already admitted, with a super impressive academic scholarship offer of $21k)
Penn State
Auburn
Looking at the list, I don’t think I’m too far off what S25 would say, although he might switch the top two. Everyone around here automatically assumes I would rather have him close to home at NCSU, but the truth is…I would like to know that I can drive around town and not worry about accidentally seeing him doing his college thing. I kinda want to have Raleigh to myself, and I also would like for S25 to have the experience of discovering new activities and new interests in an environment beyond what he’s grown up with. So having him head to another state could really be ok, maybe even really good.
That being said, it is really competitive to get into NCSU from our county. And on the tours we took last year, there was a lot of emphasis on how much of the admitted class came from the top 10% of their high school class. S25 is just outside of that stat, coming in at the top 12%.
Otherwise, I feel like he has the stats, but I know it is out of our hands. Time will tell. For now, I’m just glad I have this board to vent and commiserate and celebrate with. Thanks, all.
No I don’t think so. Dordt has a very good nursing program along with others that are very close to home so she would just go to one of those. I really don’t think she’ll end up doing nursing but it’s something she’s going to have to think about before she would commit to Hillsdale because it’s not an option there. Her plan up until the other day, was to major in Biology and then either go on to Vet school or Law school. She is starting an internship at a vet clinic on Friday so I hope that helps her decide.
I totally understand! Just know that if she does choose nursing down the road there are many post bachelors accelerated programs for nursing out there. So just because she doesn’t chose it to start doesnt mean she can’t ever be a nurse.
Right now D25 has a fairly short list compared to most and someone looking from the outside might think it is random. Part of the problem is she really has no idea what she wants to major in. Her biggest strength is writing. She is also very good at analyzing and interpreting data. Any suggestions on majors that intertwine those skill sets AND lead to employment after college? A job with good healthcare benefits is a must due to a chronic medical condition. One major that looks interesting at her reach school (Cal Poly SLO) is English with a concentration in technical and professional communication.
The list so far:
NAU - already applied and accepted
University of Redlands - multigenerational legacy
Gonzaga - lots of family in the area, not too big, but not too small, out of state
Cal Poly SLO - reach, probably won’t get in
