I think the common app defaults to showing that the school report and counselor recommendation are required, even if the college itself doesn’t care.
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D26 just took the SAT today. Hope this will be the one. Otherwise, she has 2 more shots - Sept/October.
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S26 also took the SAT yesterday. It will be his last regardless of how he does. What did your D think of it?
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She thought the math was a lot easier than last time. The english was still a little tricky.
Her current score is 1520 (760/760). Her goal is 1550. If she can do a little better on the math, she can get there.
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S26 also took the SAT again yesterday. He already had a good score but he really wanted to try and improve on the math section for a better super score. Fingers crossed!
His schedule was a BIG mess but is finally fixed. He’s definitely taking some classes he didn’t need and isn’t that into but it’s way better than it was so we’re rolling with it.
English 4H
AP Bio
Yearbook
Study Hall
And once a week he has an evening Intro to Cryptography H class (virtual/synchronous)
In the spring he’ll take:
AP Lit
AP Environmental Science
Econ/Gov H
Statistical Modeling H
Now that he’s gotten settled in his classes and SAT is done, it’s time to really get in gear with all things college app related! Ahhh!
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Back home this evening from a whirlwind 2200-mile round trip 5-day excursion to TX to help D24 move into the dorms for sophomore year and D26 went with. It was a great experience for D26. Meant a lot to D24 that D26 accompanied us and helped D24 to move in. I have some cute pictures of the 2 of them walking ahead of me into the dorm together. 
D26 had some observations:
- “I don’t want to go to college in a small town.” What’s a ‘small town’? Something the size of Sherman, TX (~50,000 people).
- “I like all of the rolling hills with green grass, white fences, and horses.”
- “Hey, D24, if I end up going to Tulsa for college, that’s only like 3 hr away and we could visit each other.”
- “Geez, my sister has a lot of stuff.”
- “It’s a little overwhelming in here with all of your stuff, D24, everywhere.” (this was on move in day when it was a bit chaotic before we could get some things put away)
- (on the drive home) “Man, my sister has a lot of stuff.”
- “She has too many smaller storage boxes. I’d want to use more of those bigger plastic bins. They stack easier.” (she’s not wrong )
No HW got done while we were away. D26 & I stayed last night at the Roadrunner Lodge in Tucumcari, NM. SUPER COOL motel! Totally decorated 1960s-style. And on the rest of the journey home today, we stopped to take pictures at a bunch of Route 66 roadside attractions, like the Whiting Bros gas station in Moriarty, NM, Yellowhorse Trading Post in Lupton, AZ (just west of the AZ-NM border), and the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ. Chatted for awhile with the guy running the Yellowhorse Trading Post…his dad was Chief Yellowhorse and 2026 will be their 100th year operating the place! He was a cool guy.
It’s good to be home. Our 2 cats missed us. Back to the grind tomorrow. D26 has a bunch of work to catch up on, but at least it won’t be as bad as missing school in 11th grade.
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I feel like those trips are worth putting the HW aside for a few days. Very cool that you get to experience those things. Visiting the SW is on my bucket list.
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D26 has 3 complete applications (out of 8). Counselors have her holding them until she can figure out how to submit for LOR. Our school switched to School Links this year (from Naviance) and guidance counselor said they are “learning the platform along with the students.” UGH! Auburn 1st deadline is 9/15 which is quickly approaching.
Does anyone know anything about school links?
On a plus, she also started her essays for her ED school. For an engineering kid, these essays are WORK!
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We switched to Schoolinks last year after using Naviance for my older two. I don’t find it as user friendly overall, but we were able to easily link the Common App to it. According to my D, she will need to individually make LOR requests one at a time to the specific schools she has applied or plans to apply to.
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Ok, this is maybe a weird question, but recently my D26 showed us her school e-mail account and it was FULL of colleges marketing to her. We had specifically created a separate gmail account for her and moved her College Board account to try to keep all the college stuff in one place since we knew a lot of the marketing would hit after SATs, APs, etc. Now I’m wondering why her school email is still getting so extensively spammed?! We did the gmail account over a year ago (end of Sophomore year) to try to get ahead of this.
Any ideas on what’s going on? It’s like noticing a leak in your house that you can’t find the source of! 
When my D24 was a sophmore/ junior, we were so naive, we thought it’d be a good idea to get college mail/emails.
We regretted that after the first week.
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Was there something via the school perhaps that she inadvertently signed up for?
That’s what I’m wondering. Or is it Naviance or something that her school makes her do? She’s been ignoring it because all the ones she cares about comes to her Gmail, but I think it’s annoying to have your school email innundated.
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D26’s school email is full of college marketing stuff too event though she changed everything over to another email account before junior year. No idea, maybe it’s through Naviance?
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Yep, this is my guess as of now. It’s funny because I’ll get CC’d on a college spam and notice that the “to” line has her school email address. At that point, I hit unsubscribe and it usually unsubscribes her school email address. I was getting it very occasionally, so didn’t think much of it (was guessing it was just a college with an old list that had her school email when she did the PSAT or something). But then she showed me her school account and it’s crazy! I was getting maybe 1 in 20.
Parents don’t have access to whatever the school uses to connect with colleges so I’m not sure what our counselors use. We have to submit a hard copy (or scanned) transcript request to the guidance secretary at least 10 days before the deadline and then they do what they do. 
Point Park had requested the transcript via Parchment when D26 applied at the beginning of August but they would also accept it emailed to admissions or mailed. D26 hasn’t received a notification that they received it yet but I know her counselor is working on it.
I am very curious about her school’s stats regarding more drilled down percentages; all I have been able to find online are the attendance percentages of types of schools (4 year, 2 year , trade, military) and the AP scoring percentage breakdown.
D26 finally has the senior sunrise date. She’s planning on going although she doesn’t have many senior friends (her closest buddies are juniors). She is very nervous about starting senior year because of the vollyeball drama, but hopefully her naturally optomistic attitude and sunny disposition will carry her through!
She has been talking out her essay, but has yet to reach the writing phase. It’s a great topic and she has a really good plan- now all she has to do is put it into motion.
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That sounds like a great trip! I also moved D22 in this weekend for her senior year. We drove 850 miles one way (she drove her car and I drove a rental car) on Friday, moved her in Saturday, and then I flew home Sunday. I’m still tired, lol, so I can’t imagine 2200 miles.
I wish D26 could have come with, but she couldn’t miss marching band. Both girls really loved moving their brother in a few weeks ago – but he’s only two hours away, and neither had started school, so that was easy to maneuver.
Now begins the real school year – two settled in, the third deep into college apps and senior year.
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sorry, posted in wrong place
It seems everyone is having a great summer.
My S26 had a great summer too. He got ACT super score 36 in two seating (35 each), which is a great relief since his SAT was only 1510. He then sweated hard on John Locke essay, and he was shortlisted. Hope he can do better than just shortlisted.
Then cross-country season began even though our school has not started yet. Hopefully he will get a co-captain position.
His applications will be in two cohorts. ED/REA plus some merit chasing schools in early rounds. If the ED/REA cannot pan out, he will be sweating hard in the winter break to throw out another 7-10 applications.
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C26 just got notified that they’ve been nominated by their previous math teacher as a peer tutor for algebra & precalc. They’re signing up.
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