We have the financial and student fit issues as well. I got anxious at the beginning of October and hunted down two more financial safeties. I don’t know if they are ‘perfect’ fits -but at least they give some options versus her state school.
2 Likes
I hope everyone posts here- I feel like we are all so invested in everyone’s kid’s journey and I would be sad to miss someone’s news!
10 Likes
I think the whole thing with weighted/unweighted GPA is confusing. Pitt clearly uses weighted GPA, but they aren’t telling you how they weight. They can’t use the schools/ weighted GPA calculation because some schools don’t weight and the ones that do, all weight a bit differently. So you really have no idea how you stack up against anyone else.
3 Likes
LMAO we are a “freeze” type of family- well other than d26 who is pretty athletic 
4 Likes
I have a hard time seeing “FUN” and “RUN” together
10 Likes
I think once their list of accepted schools come back it is a lot easier to really dig deep into all the pros and cons or the “must have vs. nice to have”. A spreadsheet with the specific characteristics is helpful to see it all laid out. I know kids who went to a school that had all of their “must haves” and transferred, and kids too felt like they were settling for a school who ended up loving it.
6 Likes
A lot to catch up on!
We have bought something at every school we visited, with the exception of Pace and Stevenson. We spent the most money at Marist, but now it looks like D26 may not even apply 
I only applied to one college and it was my junior year; I remember it was a paper application filled out by hand. I received the acceptance packet in the mail; pretty sure it was a thick envelope with lots of info. I lived vicariously through S23 because I helped him a lot with his apps and he applied to a bunch of schools using the Common App. D26 is a lot more independent and selective so not as much fun LOL.
I agree on posting all acceptances everywhere! D26 is definitely NOT high stats so we will be celebrating every win. If I could just get her to FINISH HER ESSAY! Luckily, her EA deadlines are all November 15 or December 1 so she still has a little time. Only one of her schools has a supplemental essay, thank goodness. The only tip top reach that she’s applying to is Syracuse and they don’t even have EA- that RD deadline is January 5.
There were a lot of posts about plans for the winter and about cheer earlier. The basketball cheer team at D26’s school just announced flash tryouts and now D26 is seriously considering it. I am torn because as much as I’d love to see her cheer again, I also know that she really needs a break and time to work on her portfolio. It’s technically for the JV team but there is a chance she could be put on varsity if her score is high enough (she would only do it if she was varsity). I am also concerned about her body image issues that cheer always seems to amplify. And let’s not forget girl drama. Ah well, it’s her choice- we shall see what happens.
3 Likes
That is a great reminder! D26 is so indecisive. Right now she has three top schools and vacillates between them; she is very stressed about the decision if she is accepted to all three.
2 Likes
Tbh there’s not much difference in my kid’s weighted vs uw to now, so I don’t think that’s it. Of all the colleges on their list, Pitt was the lowest probability.
2 Likes
Finances and fit, two words that won’t go together in our house for S26 I’m afraid. Luckily he is an easy going kind of guy and will make it work at one of the schools that will be affordable.
He says his common app essay is pretty much finished, his sister ok’d it yesterday and had just minor correction suggestions. He told me about his topic, a very unique hobby, that, if he wrote it well, should make him memorable (he needs any push at his EA school, as his stats and rigor are on the low side). Now on to the supplemental essay. I just found out that the EA deadline is actually 11/10 and not 11/1. I am not telling him that 
But the nagging won’t stop after that. One honor’s college essay to write and a cohort program application essay. And High School soccer season starts next week and youth leg is coming up as well, free time is at a premium.
8 Likes
When D24 had to make a decision, she REALLY had a hard time deciding. I created something in a spreadsheet. Here’s how it worked:
- Review what the list of ‘must have’s’ vs ‘nice to have’s’ were when kid was deciding where to apply.
- Have kid put a priority on each decision factor (must have vs nice to have). For example, high, medium, or low.
- Assign a weight to the values of high, medium, or low. We went with a 1-5 scale. So 5 = high, 3 = medium, 1 = low.
- Then for each college your kid applied to, ask them to score each college for each of the decision factors. We went with a 1-5 range, where 5 = highest.
- Now you multiply score x weight to get the weighted score for that specific decision factor for that specific college.
- Add up all the scores for that college.
- Do the same for all the other colleges your kid applied to.
- Compare the final scores. Talk about it with your kid. Do a pulse check to see if the scores line up with what the kid’s “gut” is telling them. Adjust the weights & scores (or even add another decision factor if that’s important to the kid) and review, talk about it again.
D24 was really struggling with picking between 3, maybe 4, colleges. This method helped her confirm that where she was thinking she should attend.
Here’s a screenshot of what it currently looks like for D24:
6 Likes
S23 did something similar although he didn’t add up the scores. He gave the colleges grades for various features that mattered to him. I think it felt empowering for him to grade them. Here’s an excerpt from his sheet. (“Car” refers to FSAE team.)
9 Likes
I’ll definitely report back for all those who can’t make it any time soon.
2 Likes
I like the letter grade method! 
1 Like
This is fantastic. No way my daughter would do this (she’s fully going off vibe, the rest of it be da*ned), but I think it’s awesome.
2 Likes
I keep hoping that something will happen to either put one of her 3 top picks as a true front runner or to knock one off of the list completely!!
We have one visit coming up to RIT- so hoping that will help solidify her having a top choice or at least knock it down to 2.
(Though with this shut down- I am worried that we will not make it out there with flight reliability getting dicey)
Seems like choosing between 2 is way easier than picking from 3+
I do like the ranking/grading methods. I need to start brainstorming what she may or may not consider important or not to make a good list.
Though I have a feeling that my D26 will also be using the ‘vibe’ method
2 Likes
I was thinking the same thing for my D26! She’d put everything down as F’s and then one school with all A’s regardless of what they actually had.
Reminds me of the scene from Half Baked where a character is leaving and basically goes around the restaurant with a F-U to everyone and one in the middle with a “You’re cool.”
6 Likes
‘Your College Bound Kid’ podcast had an episode a few months ago where they talked through a big long list of different types of ‘things’ that students might want or desire in a college. I’ll see if I can find it and will post it here. I used that with D26 last school year and it helped a LOT.
edited to add
Found it! YCBK 466: A Creative Idea To Help You Build A Customized Way of Evaluating Colleges - Your College-Bound Kid
6 Likes
Mine would just put NA NA NA NA for everything but the Vibe.
6 Likes
Although there are a lot of good ideas on that YCBK list, it is funny that it has no entry for what is clearly the most important factor… vibe!
6 Likes