I think I saw the SAME video – I’m wondering about this leave the optional areas blank advice as well.
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If you haven’t seen this, check it out! Some schools are having no application fees for the entire month of October, some even longer, and some just for a week or two. But in addition to the public New York schools there are privates like Colgate, Fordham, Siena, and Vassar on the list.
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Hey, who was it who said they were surprised UMN used STARS after they had done it for Pitt? We can go one better. C26 was surprised to find an account already with their email existing in STARS when they went to set it up for Pitt. Very puzzling when they had not set one up yet. After doing a password reset to actually get into it, it looks like what happened is that UMN created and auto populated it from the common app! So now it’s there as submitted to UMN - even though they’re still waiting for a portal invite from UMN - and submitted to Pitt automatically when they submitted Pitt via the common app.
Question: should they go in and check everything or do they assume it’s correctly pulled in from the common app? They should check, right?
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We always check for every school that we need to submit in STARS. Takes less than 5 mins (since data is already there after the initial entry) and makes sure nothing glitchy happened!
Yep, good thing we checked. One of the courses was incorrectly submitted (summer school course) and none of the senior year in-progress courses had been recorded. So that’s resubmitted. It says it will send the new submission to the schools it’s already been sent to. They can’t penalize C26 for something they had no control over, presumably?
It submitted automatically for both UMN and Pitt for C26, btw.
It was glitchy for us all around, so glad you got it sorted. I think it was auto setup for my D26, too – but we didn’t know that, and a password reset wouldn’t work to let her in. She had to create an account with her personal email (listing the school email when prompted) and a different password. (Using the school email and same password as the common app would not work, either to login or set up a new account, even though those were the instructions she was given.)
And then populating it by importing the school’s transcript did not work well either – just kind of a jumbled mess. I wish schools would just take an electronic transcript and be done with it.
I’m surprised that there’s not some sort of AI tool that will just let you upload your transcript and have it auto-magically filled out in STARS format. Seems so easy in my head!
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In theory that’s what the import tool does, but D26’s looked a mess. Although her college counselor said she’s the only one at her school that happened to – so maybe it was user error, lol. 
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I’m assuming that’s what got done for C26 …
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FYI Pitt showing sat score received, 2 days after college board request - no rush order.
The stars is also received but now we don’t know if it’s the original or the updated one …
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Just wanted to share that D26’s transcripts, etc. have been submitted and received by her schools!!! Guidance finally got their act together and submitted everything and schools received as of today. She is so relieved and now feels like she can truly sit back and wait. Please send all the good stuff her way tomorrow as she should be hearing from her top choice tomorrow night. Crossing everything she gets in and not deferred or denied.
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All good juju being sent her way!!
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Random thought of the day- if YOU were applying to college all over again, do you think you would apply to the same schools you applied to? Do you think you wold still attend the one you ultimately chose?
For me I would say in terms of my list no. I had zero guidance from anyone and applied to the most random 8 schools (University of Arizona, Tulane, University of Vermont, University of Maine, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Georgetown, and University of Washington 
I lived on the East Coast and REALLY wanted to go to Georgetown. I didn’t get in. I ended up at Boston College. I got rejected from University of Arizona which was my safety 
Also, this was back in 1991 for context.
I would still go to BC today if this was my outcome. I would also still be in shock about Arizona!!!
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I think about that often. I graduated high school in 1994. Although I am from the east coast I attended University of Miami in Ohio. My parents and aunt are also alumni and I loved my time there! But…. I feel that helping with the college search for my kids has opened my eyes to a lot of schools that were not on my radar back in the day. I always say sliding doors are very real - and I am certain that every step along the way has led me to here!
What a great question! I think about that too because I only applied to one school and was accepted as a junior. The application and admissions process certainly wasn’t the circus it is now way back then! I had really good grades and a long theatre resume; I probably could have gone to a conservatory, but there was no guidance from anyone. I did absolutely love my college and earned Actor’s Equity points while I was there, but I often wonder “what if”.
There are also so many more majors and specialization these days. If I were to change anything, I would get a degree in Sports Media or Sports Broadcasting.
I do think that I lived vicariously through S23 and now D26, which makes me quite the helicopter mom.
No. I only applied to one school – University of Florida, which was in-state for me – because it was basically free with national merit and the Florida undergraduate scholarship (I think it’s called something different now). Plus all my friends were applying.
I also had no guidance – my parents didn’t go to college in the US and didn’t know anything about the process. I went to a tiny private high school with a graduating class of 43. And going from that environment to tens of thousands of kids at UF was so not a good choice for me, LOL. In hindsight, I probably would have thrived at an LAC.
I managed to totally lose my way. Never lived on campus because I didn’t want to share a room or bathroom, wasn’t motivated to go to classes, lost half my scholarship after a disastrous second semester freshman year (thankfully it was a cheap school, and my parents paid for the rest), and was just generally a hot mess.
Finally got it together my junior year after being admitted to my major, landed a plum internship that summer, met my husband, moved to my dream city after college, and life has been pretty good since. But I don’t have a ton of fond memories of college being a great time in my life.
So, although I wish I’d had a MUCH different college experience, I guess I can’t complain about the end result. Still, I’m a huge proponent of the right fit when looking for a school. I think we’ve gotten two right so far with D22 and S25 (although he’s still finding his footing, and it’s been interesting – but that’s more about him than the school). So fingers crossed for D26!
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I didn’t really have a choice. Our local university was all we could afford as a commuter + local scholarship. But it was totally fine and met some of my best friends for life.