I heard it is done for when it ARRIVED, not when uploaded / confirmed in portal. ie if the transcript is received 10/31 but not processed and marked complete 11/5 in portal, it is 10/31 date that rules. It takes them loads of time to process all the stuff, even if it arrives early.
FWIW I got emails from a few schools who said supporting transcripts and letters and such are due 11/12 (for 11/1 common app due date).
That said each school can do whatever the heck they want! Their rules.
Congrats! We had a kid bring in a brand new porta potty as her not a backpack this year! It was on wheels so was pushed around most of the day.
I’m so thankful D25 has the rest of the week off. She needs time to catch up on both homework and college stuff. All of her applications are in but she is now getting invited to apply for the honors colleges and getting more emails about applying for scholarships (several full ride opportunities). All of this is fantastic but it takes so much time! She has also been invited to at least 3 scholars days over the next couple of months. I don’t think we’ll be able to make them all though.
Yeah, I see one school that says “X” deadline for the application and “Y” deadline for all supporting documentation.
Can I just say that I am shocked that transcripts are mailed in 2024, like when I graduated from high school in 1994?
But two good things happened (1) teacher uploaded recommendation and (2) counselor responded that transcripts will be mailed by end of next week.
5 applications in yesterday! Do we still get to get ice cream if 4/5 of those still require video supplements for pre-screens/dance application?
Aside–One school D25 is applying to has the equivalent of a “Why Us?” that has a max of…drumroll please…800 words. 800! This is a college that admits 80% of its applicants. D25 can tweak the one she’s written for other schools to fit this, but her other schools are ~250 words, so she’s wondering if it will be seen poorly if she’s closer to 300 words. Why would the max be so high? It’s the highest word count I’ve seen on the supplementals she has aside from two honors college prompts.
The answer is yes. The answer is always yes. 
Congrats on getting those DONE, woohoo!! That is no small thing.
Tangentially related - while S22 was home last week for fall break he was sitting with me while working on job applications. Most were pretty straightforward, some required a short answer question (the equivalent of “why us”.) One application was for a fairly prestigious internship program, and the application required four written answers… of 5000 words each. He looked at that and decided NOPE. He liked the job, a lot, but he didn’t have the time to write four essays for something that, no matter his qualifications, was a pretty serious long shot.
But to your question - I don’t think it needs to get to 800 words, but less than half the max will probably be noticeable. I’d ask her if there’s anything else she can work in - like something specific she noticed when you visited (if you did), or a profile of a professor she noticed that does research in an area that calls to her, or if there’s something about a program or activity that she is specifically interested in. Even if it’s only one more paragraph, it would add some more specificity and make it closer to what others might be submitting. (But at the same time, I wouldn’t add words just to puff it up, that would look worse than a short, succinct, well written response.)
Had ice cream tonight!
First common app submission!
Already have some niche acceptances so not exactly our first thing, but still felt great!
A bunch more to come this weekend! Feeling like a huge sense of release now that '25 submitted one.
We submitted 2 in-state applications this month. We have another EA application due by Nov 1st. And the rest (7 more) are RD and they’re due by Jan 1st.
No ice cream for me, but S25 had one 
I got ice cream yesterday even though no applications have been completed yet. My rationale: it was a seasonal flavor (honey vanilla pluot) and we will enjoy it later.
This morning I woke up in a cold sweat from a dream in which my son confessed that the French grade he thought would be an A was actually a B because he missed turning in his homework. In my dream, I overreacted. In real life? This has actually happened. Multiple times. And since he’s done with French, it’s one thing that I don’t have to worry about.
Wishing I could sleepwalk through the next six months. Who’s with me?
It is a “season of life” these days, for sure. Senior year is definitely shaping up to be a challenge. S25 is currently slogging away at his practice IA essay for the IB history class, as are all of his buddies, so it seems like the whole pack is incredibly stressed. I hear rumors of plans to head to the state fair this weekend, or to get a group together to hang out for Halloween, but those appear to be tough to nail down with all of the other deadlines and expectations. I’ll be glad for the kids when they can breathe again.
I will also add that I’m glad to know I’m not the only one having nightmares about coming down overly hard on the kiddo about schoolwork. Here I thought it was just my overactive mind going into overtime. I hope it isn’t one of those things like that viral pneumonia…
This morning I got the “stop wanting to do things for me/I can do this by myself/ how is your oversight helping me get ready for college life” talk from my child. On top of that, he has never been interested in prizes or celebratory “ice creams” so I can’t even offer that!
He has a point. He is well aware of what needs to be done and by when. Time to step back.
Early action applications submitted! He got his SAT scores back, and his math score went up 50 to 750! Which is funny b/c it was a bit higher than his engineering brother, and S25 wants to do film and stay far away from math.
Now we get to wait… if he were just applying to most majors, he’d be a shoe-in for his choices… but the portfolio part of everything makes it so difficult to gauge.
S25 has had about five interviews so far, which have all gone well. He’s a great interviewer and has mostly enjoyed them. Last night, he had a virtual interview for one of his early action schools, and he walked out of the room, stating that the interviewer had turned him off the school.
It was with a current senior, and he said the person didn’t smile at all, was snippy/rude, cut him off, asked the most basic questions, and gave one-sentence responses to my son’s questions.
I am TEMPTED to inform the admissions office since it’s not a good look for the school, but I would probably do so after decisions are out. 
Reminds me of an interviewer D19 had with one of her top 5 choices, who seemed to have just googled “interview questions” and asked those. Like, literally D got asked what she had seen when she googled it. Not rude like your s’s experience at least, but it seemed kind of pointless.
I had a rude interviewer 30yrs ago when I was looking at schools. I still have a bad feeling about that particular school!
As of last night, 3 schools down (KU, UGA, and Purdue). Six more to go. Will do another three before Nov. 1, two more by Nov 15th and the last by Jan 1. She has prepped the upcoming three and I think that has lifted quite a bit of weight off her shoulders - that and all of her teacher and counselor recs are in.
One of her two near term orchestra events is today and tomorrow. So that will be done as well.
She took a “personal day” yesterday from school and you could see some of the stress melt away.
C25 only has two colleges that do interviews: Rochester and Syracuse. Rochester was rather perfunctory, nothing special either way. The Syracuse interviewer had clearly at least noticed that C25 is applying from Alaska, and so had some questions tailored to that, and the whole thing progressed more like a conversation than anything more formal. The result is that Rochester was probably top of the list after touring (though later replaced there by Pitt), but now Syracuse seems to have that slot.
Went on a fun college visit yesterday. It’s my alma mater and local. D25 applied but isn’t really interested in it. It was fun showing her the dorm I was in fr/so years. However, I am SO glad she’s not really interested in it. The admissions rep was super uneducated. D25’s actual rep was there but they sent a different one in to talk with us (he wasn’t busy so I’m not sure why). We asked the girl if the school had an honors program, and she didn’t know?! She also said she had to get back to us about a certain scholarship because she didn’t know about that either. I was flabbergasted!
We also did the Niche Direct also for New Hampshire. We got the acceptance this week! He got an email and link. No physical mailing yet. It did take awhile to go through the different stages on the portal. We were on Awaiting Decision for a couple weeks. I think all in, we waited about 3-4 weeks after sending in all the info.
BTW, we were waffling on applying to UNH or not so we were glad to see it on Niche because it probably would not have made the cut on the Common App. DS has mixed stats, so we have to cast a wide net as it’s not as clear cut what are reaches and targets based on that.