Also in the obsessive planner club. I am a former event planner and now comms director. My family calls me “Queen of the Spreadsheet” because I have one for everything.
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You’re describing… Me! 
These are also my strengths and I have had a long career in state government in environmental policy. I would suggest finding something that she (and the government) are really interested in and either majoring in that subject with a minor in data science, or majoring in public policy with a minor in data science or vice versa. The data science minor will make her super competitive for any job. Look up a list of government agencies and go from there. Tons of writing in-depth on topics, and lots of big picture thinking. Huge and interesting data sets to work with. Bonus: government jobs are pretty stable and have great benefits/healthcare packages. Salary? Not the best. Dealing with bureaucracy? Eek. but for me the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.
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I feel like we are the same person LOL. Also in VA, also tried really hard to have D25 look at App State, also she is totally done with the process. I have tried to have her look at a couple other target schools, like UGA or Pitt, to no avail. I’m trying hard to let go but gosh it’s tough! My daughter’s all over the map in what she wants, and seems to be of the mindset to “apply everywhere” (except where mom suggests) and decide later. This should make for an interesting spring…
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And I’m a fed, with a public policy degree, who just hired some data scientists. So I mean, we probably ARE the same person. Or two versions of it at least. 
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The best linguistics student I had at a previous place I worked ended up getting a master’s in technical communication (a bit broader than technical writing), and has made an amazing career for herself with that. No matter your field, you’re going to need someone who can successfully encode it into a form that multiple audiences can handle.
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I logged into DS’s portal for one of his favored safety schools today to see if they had received his transcript, and OOPS…it had a congratulations banner. Great news, but they never sent an email, and I feel bad that I saw it before DS!
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Last night, I mentioned to D25 that some parents have access to their kid’s application portals. Before I could even pose the question “What do you think of giving us access to yours”, D25 interrupted me and said that we should not expect such access.
What are the benefits to having such access?
I am a type-A planner, and my kid granted me access to check if his school is sending documents or if any new requests come in. His school has one counselor for 370 kids so things do fall through the cracks. Also, DS has a long list of schools for various reasons, so we are dividing and conquering when it comes to checking if the school is on it.
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I created the college app only email for D25 and she lets me have access to it. She has opted in to texts for all her top colleges. As she isn’t applying to really any huge reaches, the acceptances thus far have been pretty anti-climactic. She has yet to receive any “welcome to xyz” packages in our actual mailbox which bums her out. “I like opening mail, not email” she says.
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I think however a family wants to manage portal access, proof reading essays, checking the Common App for errors, etc. is just fine and should be based on what your kid wants. I’ve got one kid that welcomed the support and one that doesn’t 
For us, making sure that financial aid stuff has been received is important and while I trust my kids to check, my own Type A self also likes to see the proof. I’ll ask S25 to show me that the FAFSA and CSS have been received when we get a little further along.
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Agreed. I’m not suggesting that one route or the other is better. At this point, D25 is not even letting us review her common app (sans essays). I’m a little bewildered at her push back on that and cannot see at all how that is being too invasive on her privacy. Frankly, it just seems prudent, but what do I know.
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Oh I get it. My S25 is crazy about “privacy” suddenly in the last year or so. I’m not allowed to ask about anything that ventures into normal Mom nosiness No, “how’s the girlfriend?” or “where’s X friend applying to college?”
Whereas my D23 would come home and spend hours spilling the tea with me!
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I feel like “but what do I know” has been coming out of my mouth more and more lately… 
I have access to my S25’s portals, mostly because he gave me access to the email account he used for submitting applications and all college materials. That was mostly so that I could help him weed through things to understand what was important and what was junk. In the early days of a zillion emails (he had checked the box on the PSAT for “yes, please inundate me with information that I likely won’t care about”… or whatever it says) he was paralyzed looking at the email box and did nothing. At one point it had well over 200 emails, and that’s also the address that he was using last spring to apply to summer jobs.
So he gave me access to the email, to clean out the junk, unsubscribe to things for him, and to leave or highlight messages that were somehow important. I find it a surprisingly cathartic thing to do while watching TV, or killing time waiting for a meeting to start or whatever.
And since I had access to his email, once he started submitting applications and the emails came back to set up portals, he asked me to do it. His rationale was that I’d save all the login information somewhere that made sense and that he could find it again, and that would be helpful. So since I set up the portals, I have access to them.
I peek in on one of them every 4-5 days, to see if a merit offer has materialized. (It’s the school with rolling admissions - I didn’t log in to the portal until after he’d gotten the email that there was something in there, and he should check, and then he checked and got the admissions letter.) At this school (Pitt) when my older son applied three years ago there was no email about merit aid, it just showed up, so I’m assuming the same will happen. I won’t open the letter if I see one, just tell him that something is there.
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My position is that we as the parents are paying, so we should have access to everything related to finances specifically. This is often only available through the portal (or at least that’s where the best, official information is), and with portal access we can make sure all the scholarship stuff and the like is taken care of and in order.
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My D25 will not let me have access to her portals either and she recently changed her password to the common app also. I guess she likes me nagging her. lol
She was accepted into Palm Beach Atlantic today. I only know because they emailed and texted me also. I have no idea about scholarships yet though. I’ll have to ask her when she gets home.
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My kid has zero interest in checking his portal or email for college stuff. He said, “Just let me know when the Rose-Hulman decision comes in, and I’ll open that one.” At least he’s checking his school email finally…
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Does it take into account the percent of students submitting scores? This number should meet a certain threshold ie. 60% of the class submitted scores to be used for the 5% or at the very least be part of the ranking ie. less students submit would either reduce 5% to something lower or would reduce the value a school can get from the 5% and should be reported in the rank along with the median score range so people can actually compare like with like.
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This is why my kid is grateful for me to have access to her college application email account and portals. She is not interested in wading through all the junk. I, on the other hand, get a kick out of it.
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Yes! I have no idea why the random emails and junk are so entertaining to me, but I really do get a strange joy and pleasure out of dealing with it.
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They use it if at least half of the entering class submitted scores in at least one of the the preceding two years.
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