Parents of the HS Class of 2026

I’m annoyed about the colleges that require official reports with application – two of the schools on D26’s list do. WHY? If most schools are fine with self-reporting until you actually decide to attend, unsure why they can’t all do that.

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Or at least (like some do) just let you upload the score report you can get off the college board website

I sent one to ASU to confirm the merit amount (C26’s SAT score adds $4k a year according to their calculator and their app didn’t have anywhere to self report SAT) and am watching out of curiosity to see how long it takes to update on the website. ( I didn’t do the rush order.)

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Tis the season, got a fee waiver in the mail from Fordham. They’d sent one to D19 too (who got in without doing the optional supplemental essay).

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same! D26 got a fee waiver to apply to Embry Riddle, but she’s not interested in attending there, so will not be applying.

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Interesting! I see in our USPS Informed Delivery that we have some mail from Fordham today too. Hope it’s a fee waiver, ‘cuz my D26 is applying there for sure.

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S26 is getting fee waivers, too. He got one from Fordham, as well as University of Denver, University of Minnesota and University of Vermont. Northeastern sent one, too. The last two are because we have visited, I believe. If S26 was better about looking at his email we might have others in there too. I don’t remember this as much with D22 but she didn’t apply to any of these schools except Fordham.

Speaking of missing emails, my S26 missed a recommendation form from his math teacher (who agreed to write a letter for him). So he scrambled this weekend to get it done. There wasn’t a deadline on it, but it was sent in June. Doh! I’m trying to remind him to get in the habit of checking his email regularly but it hasn’t sunk in yet. Maybe it will now that he’s missed something important!

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FYI - The A2C (ApplyingToCollege) Reddit has a “Fee Waivers Mega Thread” which might be useful!

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It has to be - we received one via postcard today - and my D26 has shown no interest in Fordham, ever.

congrats! Is she applying to the new major at Tech? I saw them announce and immediately thought of y’’all.

We registered for a visit but then cancelled on the day because it was cold and snowy and too far up the train line lol. We’d booked for rose hill as had already visited Lincoln center with D19. Not sure C26 has that much interest but it’s easy as another option to keep open with no fee and no required supplements…

I am salty that we visited (Oakland campus) and they still didn’t send D26 a fee waiver! There were only two families on the tour that day, and we stayed a bit and chatted up the rep afterwards, we should have gotten extra credit! :frowning: :laughing:

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My D26 LOVES the look of Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in photos (completely her vibe), but we ran the NPC and it is a bit too high for us. But she might decide to apply anyway because of the fee waiver and just hope for decent merit on top of need-based aid.

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So funny story, she finished the whole essay convincing Tech that LMC (Literature, Media and Communications, which is half of the interdisciplinary Computational Media major, the other half being CS) was exactly right for her – because we hadn’t seen the new major announcement yet.

I randomly saw it last night at 10:30 while D26 was in the shower, so then we sat up discussing it, LOL. So crazy, it’s exactly what she wants. So YES, she absolutely will apply, and the essay practically writes itself – “I was about to hit submit on LMC when I saw the new major.” :rofl:

I guess this week will be spent revising that essay! She’s still not that excited about Tech, but this definitely made her perk up. They apparently approved the new major on August 12? But I came across an announcement from Sept 5, and I think it was just now added to the Common App. (It’s a B.S. in Arts, Entertainment and Creative Technologies in case anyone is wondering – and it’s a flexible major that lets you tailor it several different ways.)

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I thought they were pretty generous with their merit offer for D19’s kind of middle of the road GPA, but that was a few years back and I think I’ve seen people here mention they don’t give as much as they used to - but nothing first hand. I like the school, but not sure the program they offer for C26’s area of interest is optimal.

Congrats!

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That’s fantastic!

We have a question on the number of hours for an activity on the Common App. I don’t remember what we did for the other kids. If the activity is all year, but some months are much busier than others, what would we put. He spends 20-25 hours/week for 4 months, 5 hours/week for 3 months, and 2.5 hours/week for 4 months. Add it up and average it?

That’s what my daughter did. Just took an estimate across busy and less busy times and then averaged it out.

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I saw it Friday or Saturday so I guess they just announced? With such a niche interest it’s hard to pass up.

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D26 had a meeting after school today w/the college counselor. 30 min session. Counselor has been doing them 1-on-1 w/all of the seniors. They talked at length about a bunch of different stuff. D26 said she’s got writer’s block with getting started on her common app personal statement, so she & counselor talked about several things that D26 could use in her essay. Like, really a lot of very insightful things about herself. Things that make me cry when I think about it because I’m just so dang proud of what a good human my kid has turned out to be. Based on what she told me this evening, I suspect she’s going to have a pretty kick butt essay. Some of the insights about herself are from College Essay Guy writing exercises they’ve been doing in class. :slight_smile:

A draft of the personal statement is due on Friday of this week.

They also talked about D26’s list of schools she’s applying to. Counselor said they’re all great colleges. :slight_smile: D26 also explain her list of ‘must have’s’ and ‘nice to have’s,’ which drove why the schools ended up on the list and why others got removed. Kid also said she doesn’t want to go to college in a small town.

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