Beautiful rainy day today (I love rain). D has been working all day on those pesky early November apps, while I supply her with tasty snacks and the occasional reminder to lock in. Many ups and downs of mood today, much progress made, much still to do… but it’s wonderful to watch her feeling gradually more and more sure of how she wants to present herself, and what she wants to do (or at least explore) for her next step.
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My wife has taken over the application process to help move things along. She’s asking why Im not helping with the application process. I said Im on CC posting about credit cards so I don’t have time for that.
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Sorry I should have said ED not EA. He was thinking about Dartmouth which is binding.
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Got one more EA application done here. Just two more EAs to go - one for Nov. 1 and the other Dec. 1. Feels like progress!
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First applications are in! Hallelujah! 
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I was really hoping mine would apply to Steven’s, too. The location seemed ideal to me – how could anyone not want to look across the water to Manhattan every day?
But we looked in depth at the required classes for the major D26 would apply to, and it was waaay too art-heavy, with lots more art history and such than she wanted.
RPI was eliminated for similar reasons – she didn’t like the class requirements.
Of the original six she applied to, she’s mentally crossed off two of them. And then she put in one more application because her school nominated her for a scholarship – she’s not really interested in this school, and it’s a long shot anyway. But it was super fun to get a nice write-up and bio on her high school website and be featured on social media and in the weekly newsletter!
I refuse to be anxious right now (ask me again in January, lol).
There is an Insta account that posts all the college commitments in her senior class (118 kids), and there are four listed already: Auburn, Alabama, Stetson (XC/Track), St. Joseph’s (Lacrosse).
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We have an insta for decisions too and of course all recruited athletes so far - Midd, Colorado College. Johns Hopkins, UCLA & Stanford.
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We’re down to one app left. It’s the one with the “hardest” supplementals according to her. Which she of course left for last. Personally, I would have done that one first, but she works well under pressure so that was probably the best choice for her. She has 5 days to complete it, but only about 10 minutes of free time between now and then, so we’ll see how it goes. She completed one this weekend, and I have to say her answers to those supplementals were so good. I’m obviously incredibly biased, but I was so impressed. I’d totally let her in to that school based on those essays alone.
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LOL, this sounds EXACTLY like my daughter!
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Mine has one video left to submit to get into a particular major at one school – due Nov 1. (She already sent in the application itself.)
You’d think she would have worked on it this weekend – and I think she did kinda put together a script (she’s not a natural at talking on camera), and she’s not great at creating edits, so it will take some time.
Instead, she spent all weekend sewing a Halloween costume – something obscure from Zelda. The band kids are allowed to perform their show this Friday in costume, so it has to be good, lol. Meanwhile, it’s supposed to be 38 degrees Friday night, and unclear if she planned for that.
Priorities!
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We have three done, three more EA to finish, then the ED. Crossing fingers and toes that we are done by mid-December and don’t have to do all the RD applications on her list!
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My D let me know earlier that this afternoon’s activity has been cancelled. Inwardly, I was celebrating that she would now have extra time to get her EA apps done. Then she texted me that she is going for a “quick” visit to a Halloween store with a friend after school 
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We have two honors essays left in the November EA dates and then we move onto December deadlines! And one more affordable acceptance to a safety! It gives a false sense to get those early safeties - like everything is going to be roses -haha! But nice to have some options.
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When my S24 was trying to decide, he reached out to his admissions counselor and arranged to sit in on two classes in the major he was interested in. He also made arrangements to meet up with some current students to ask about social life, etc. I helped with that by going to the Facebook parent page for the school and asking if anyone had a kid willing to connect with mine. It worked out really well and the school was more than happy to have him see what classes were like.
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I reached out through our social and school networks to pair my first two up with students at the 2-3 schools they had been admitted to and were in final running. Paid the college kid(s) to provide them with a “Real Deal Student Day” on campus from first up in am to mid evening. Both of mine said it was significantly more helpful than the school driven tours.
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These visiting suggestions made me wonder if folks with older kids have had their kids do overnight visits to schools that are far away that they got admitted to? Part of me was thinking that 24hours at a school could be a good way for D26 to get a better feel of the culture/vibe as she is trying to decide between 2-3 finalists whatever those end up being. Have folks done this? And if so, how do you go about arranging it?
None of the colleges D24 applied to offered overnight visits, so we didn’t do those. One of my friend’s kids did overnight visits a couple of times, but he was a recruited athlete so the overnight visits were because of that.
However, if a college DID offer overnight visits, I’d probably have my kid inquire about it through their admissions rep/officer at that college.
Another option if the college doesn’t offer overnight visits would be to ask the admissions rep/officer if you (the student) could speak with a current student. The worst thing they’ll say is no.
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I have older kids and I know a couple kids that did overnight visits (2 were athletes). Problem is it can really skew your view of the college based on what the student is like and what your student is like. One kid went on a weekend and the student did nothing with him. So he got no sense of the social life. He ultimately committed there for his sport but the visit did nothing to help him. Another friend of my son’s was taken to a party where people were doing hard drugs. Not his scene and the school came off the list. My daughter’s friend (not an athlete and a communications major) who is very social went to a school and was matched up with a music major. They went to rehearsals and a show. Not at all the social scene she was looking for and so it came off the list.
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My older one was doing her college search during Covid, so no, overnight visits were definitely not an option then – we barely got tours in. I’m not sure that they’ve come back as the norm since then? I haven’t seen them mentioned at any of the schools D26 has been looking at.
We didn’t even do admitted student days for my older one – she was stage managing a show during spring of her senior year, and the admitted student days that she would have attended fell at the worst possible time.
But we got a ton of info from the only other kid to ever go to Rice from our high school, lol, coincidentally the valedictorian from the previous year. This was a family we’d known for years, so we were able to pick their brains – both the parents and the kid – quite a lot. That was a bit of luck!
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My S23 did not do any overnight visits. I don’t think any of his schools offered them.
Back in the dark ages, I myself had an overnight visit to Oberlin. I still remember the student that I stayed overnight with. She was a native Alaskan, which was really interesting to me, and we had a great time talking about our lives and stuff like that. However… neither of us actually had much in common with the typical Oberlin student (as I was to find out later when I attended) and therefore the overnight visit turned out to be a bit misleading. 
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