S26 and have been travelling and I come back to so many new posts to read I am seriously impressed by all your kidsâ college app progress. At our house there has been - drum roll - zero progress on this front.
S26 had a fun summer filled with soccer and travel. Today is his first day of school (my last first day of school, after he goes to college I will be an empty nester).
He did learn that studying by osmosis does not work, his June ACT results were not what he wanted. So he decided to sign up for another attempt in September. I think itâs his last effort to make his dream school affordable. But with school and club soccer season starting he will have to divide his time between ACT studying and common app completion. School does not cover the latter, so it will have to happen in his free time. It will be a busy fall! I see a lot of nagging in my future, which I donât like at all.
We did discuss expanding his list of schools (currently 5 on the list, 1 reach, 4 academic safeties) but he was adamant that those 5 were ok and he did not want more.
Schedules were not finalized as of yesterday, so Iâm curious to see which classes he ends up with.
Oh, Iâll get them to check re SRAR. Part of the common app workshop they did in summer was how to fill it out,but that was early June and maybe it changed after that. Thanks for the heads up. I think there are a couple schools that use it.
I think she means her kid is very likely to get in based on his academic stats â but that doesnât mean itâs necessarily affordable. A school could also be a financial safety (because in-state, guaranteed scholarship, etc). Ideally a safety will be both.
My D26 has one school on her list that is rolling admission, both an academic and financial safety, plus itâs less than a 4-hour drive, has a good honors program and fantastic dorms with single rooms. So if all else fails, sheâs going somewhere!
I think that D26âs current top choice is an academic safety, but financially weâll have to see what they offer for merit aid. The conservatory gives an automatic $14,000 award if admitted into the BA program and it could go up to $28,000 for the BFA (but getting into that will be a stretch). Whatever admissions was going to give is reduced by the conservatory award, but the counselor there said there would almost definitely be something more. S23 applied there as well and was given a very generous merit package and his stats were lower than D26. This school is rolling admissions so once she submits her application, they said they give a decision very quickly, especially if she gets it soon. Then it will be a wait until after February 1 to see if sheâs in the BA or BFA program.
We havenât started on the activities section yet- our challenge is that D26 was(is) an athlete so she didnât have much time for anything else, but she wasnât a captain or all-region or anything. There were some posts about pay-to-play- she did a theatre camp this summer that she will definitely be listing lol. She does have some volunteering hours, but not a huge amount. As for honors, not sure what is going to go there- she has one art award from her freshman year and thatâs about it.
yes, as @SpreadsheetMom mom said, S26 will get into his top choice school academically but at this point it is not affordable for us. Although, he is targeting a selective cohort program at that school, which might make it more of a target than a safety.
I got a bit of anxiety kicking in when I first saw those!!
It really did make it seem real. I think up until now- it felt like an exercise/assignment with arbitrary outcomes- but it is the real thing now.
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I have never heard of SRAR (now STAR?) until just now.
After googling it- I do not think that this is applicable to D26s school choices. It is so wild that there are so many things out there that are not more standardize across applications. Sites like this are so awesome on helping fill in the missing information!
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D26âs list is now at 6. It started at 3 so I am calling her current count an improvement.
4-likely/ soft targets and 2 safeties.
If she gets her applications for these finished and submitted soon- she said that she may throw in 1-2 reaches just to see. (I doubt this greatly . I assume as soon as she is done with her current choices- she will be done!)
D26âs ED1 school requires the STAR. She started it, but will need her counselor to confirm sheâs on the right track. Sheâs gonna drive him bonkers.
My D22 applied to 17 schools. It is so much work!! All those essays!
S26 is also an athlete with his sport dominating his activities, also he has no volunteer hours at all but he has some leadership positions. D22 was similar (though she did have volunteer hours) and it did not hurt her at all. So I would not be worried. I do believe they value depth and dedication to a hobby.
D26 had six that she wanted to list, so she included the band award with her activities instead.
She also wants to list National Merit Semifinalist â but clearly needs to wait for that officially to come out before she can submit apps!
But main essay is revised and being looked over by her counselor and also one of my best friends who happens to be an AP Lit teacher (not at her school), lol. I think itâs almost there.
School starts a week from today, and first football game (meaning first marching band performance) is a week from tomorrow. Gah.
Yippee! The counselors were able to change D26âs schedule, and now she has the exact schedule she requested. Who knows why they put three different non-preferred courses on there before, when there was apparently space in the courses she wanted?? But bottom line is⊠WHEW!!!
P.S. I guess not the EXACT schedule, she still doesnât have AP Lit, but at least she has the second choice non-honors English that she is happy with (and is actually an English class, ha ha), and the first choice other electives she requested.
So I have a question/quandy/dilemma/philosophical musing. I keep reading professional admissions couselors recommend applying for at least one reach school. And I can understand in the cases where the student is high achieving but is still at the bottom end of what a selective school might admit. Like they have a 4.0 with 7 AP classes and a 1350 SAT score- maybe they have that certain something that would put them ahead of a student with better stats and get into Columbia or Brown.
But for kids like my D26- Iâm not sure it makes sense. Sheâs bright and creative, but her grades in school were pretty lacking, especially in math and science. The tricky question is why. Was it because she didnât put in the effort? Was it because she didnât understand the material and she couldnât get help from her teacher (or worse, didnât make an attempt to get help or got the help but still didnât get it)? Was she a bad test-taker? If she does apply for that reach and by some miracle gets in, should she go? Will the things that contributed to her average grades in HS magically disappear in college? Or is she setting herself up for failure?
And if the answer is that it doesnât make sense- why then apply? Why set her up for the likely disappointment of a rejection or the lure of going to a school that might be more prestigous, but has more of a chance of not making it?
I guess I am wrestling with this because I saw it with S23- he applied for a program that was defiinitely a reach, got in, and then crashed and burned because he honestly shouldnât have been accepted in the first place. He showed us who he was in high school as far as the type of student, but we thought college would turn him around. It didnât.
I guess the bottom line is if she wants to apply to a school like Pitt, thatâs up to her. But she always asks me for advice and I honestly do not know what to tell her.
I am seriously impressed by all your kidsâ college app progress. At our house there has been - drum roll - zero progress on this front.
. I assume as soon as she is done with her current choices- she will be done!)
but she probably wonât apply to all of them.