3rd and last kid and the easiest by far. Mainly bc he’s solidly “average” (3.85 GPA/32 ACT) and is applying to 8 large state schools, already finished his common app essay and only has one supplemental! Hallelujah! I feel like I deserved this after my older 2 though so I feel for alot of you - talking to all the Engineering-applicant parents.
6 Likes
that must feel nice to have that decision made! 
1 Like
oh that is nice!
I have to say, two my 27s schools dropped there this year! (one was short to begin with but one was a 500 words!) so that was nice (I think?)
Well, their decision is made. Now to see if the college also sees the fit!
2 Likes
A double-edged sword for sure. One side - the kids don’t have to write that essay. The other - without the supplements, more students might decide to just send in the application to “see what happens” and that will lead to a lower admission rate overall.
Welcome! 
The first year really does seem to arrive out of nowhere. It’s hard to believe they go from middle school to high school so quickly.
The Class of 2027 will have plenty of milestones ahead over the next few years. It’s nice to have a community where parents can share experiences, ask questions, and compare notes along the way. Wishing you and your kiddo a great start to high school!
2 Likes
It looks like C27 is not planning on doing ED anywhere. The top schools like Swarthmore or Bowdoin might not be financially viable (we’re probably full pay, and not entirely sure we want to commit to that kind of money), and the other schools on the list probably don’t need the extra boost of an ED. The only that makes sense would be William and Mary… but while they like it, they don’t think they love it enough to be willing to commit to it.
So, we’re going to be waiting well into April to make a decision. Much, much different than my other two who we knew by December and February respectively.
3 Likes
Mine doesn’t want to ED anywhere, either, and my older had all their decisions back by early Feb… they were all EA! This one we will be waiting until Mid-late march…though hopefully have some good EA decisions before that…
1 Like
My older two did not ED anywhere, my S27 will be my first, assuming he still feels strongly enough after our second visit in early September. It felt like a long wait for my older two, but they both ended up at great fits and could not be happier.
2 Likes
My S27 won’t be EDing anywhere, we definitely need to see what the price will be before committing. He doesn’t have a particular favorite either, so that works out well. However, I think he will be doing a lot of EAing. Fortunately none of them have supplemental essays this year. There is one school without EA and he may find others before the RD deadline as well. No rolling admission schools.
1 Like
I kind of doubt S27 will ED anywhere, although there is one school that is new to the list that has it. I’m hoping to take him there asap to see if he actually likes it as well as he thinks he might. (He met some kids from the school at his internship and they raved about it, so suddenly S27 is considering it. I’m not entirely sure it’s a culture fit, but it’s a big school, so he’d find his way.)
2 Likes
My older kids didn’t ED anywhere either. Oldest had to wait until the end of March for that last decision and then agonized over where to go until finally committing the day before May 1. Second one did the whole search and application process in Covid, so that was different. We didn’t visit any schools until after decisions came in and then I had them pick their top three and we visited those.
2 Likes
I’ve been following along quietly this summer and am now gearing up for what might be an interesting fall!
We squeezed in a few college visits this summer. We covered Bates and Colby, as well as Connecticut College, Holy Cross, Babson, and Tufts. Fun mix, and they were all so very different! All told, he’ll have visited about 20 schools by the time he finishes up his applications. Thankfully, not all of them are on the final list, but his favorites (top 3-5) are a decent mix of target, safety, and reach schools. I think his final list will probably be about 8-10 schools. We both agreed that it’s better to visit campuses when students are around, but that was not likely to happen on a timeline that either of us felt comfortable with this fall, so we got a few more visits done this summer.
I will be really curious what strategy his college counselor recommends when it comes to whether he applies ED to one of his favorites. He will apply EA to any of the schools on his list that offer that option, but I think he will likely apply ED if his clear favorite is one of the more reachy ones that doesn’t offer EA. He holds his cards pretty close, so it’s hard to tell which of those will come out as the frontrunner just yet. If ED doesn’t pan out, we’ll evaluate his options when the time comes.
My 25 did apply ED to his school. We would have preferred him to apply EA, but we also felt pretty confident that he would receive a decent merit award that would help him stretch his college savings further. It worked out ok, both financially and otherwise.
My 27 has a pretty heavy course load this year (4 of his 5 classes are APs, plus a capstone project), but I’m more optimistic about loading up this year than I have been in the past because I think he’s finally connecting the dots between where he is now and what he needs to do to get to where he wants to be a year or two from now. Standardized testing though? Meh. He’s not a fan. He’ll take another crack at the SAT this fall (we were too late signing him up for the August date and it was full, with the next closest one 100+ miles away), but I think that will be it and he’ll likely end up TO at the schools that allow him to be, which is really all of them except for I think one.
Otherwise, it’s been a summer of outdoor work, and he’s been enjoying it. He’s considering reworking his essay, and I am totally there for that because I think if the reworked version can reflect his experience and joy in his work this summer, it will be even better. I haven’t seen the current version, so we’ll see.
Planning to sit down before school starts to just review what he’s done so far in the common app, check for any mistakes in the biographical info, double check who needs a supplemental essay and who doesn’t, etc. And then I guess he’s really off to the races - at least until he needs my credit card to hit “submit”!
6 Likes
My kid is done with trail work for the summer, so back at struggling through college essays along with her own more-fun (mostly coding/science) projects before school starts. She never considered ED since her dream reach school would be MIT and they don’t offer it. I’ll be curious if she considers ED2 if MIT rejects her, but I know MIT defers a lot of folks first before rejecting them, so it may not come up. I don’t think there are other schools she loves enough to want to game the system for vs having choices, but we’ll see.
5 Likes
How is everyone doing with the college application process?
The Kid has one likely school on his list with rolling admissions, so he’s been working on that application. He has found that staying within the character limits on the activities section of the Common App has been harder than writing the essays. The plan is to confirm his senior class schedule with his high school before sending this one application out the door. He has high test scores, but I don’t think we are going to wait for possible news from the National Merit people before sending this application. I think that will be okay?
I really like this college and would be excited for him to attend. We are planning a visit for the middle of winter, so he can get a taste of winter weather conditions. I have lived in cold places before and don’t mind bundling up, but the Kid has never experienced such low temperatures. It will be an adventure.
Summer is winding down, and the Kid has not made as much progress on his supplemental essays as we were expecting when the school year ended. He has enjoyed a chill summer, with a lot of downtime. There may have been video games involved. But he should have at least a few good college options to pick from regardless. I feel fortunate that the Kid has gotten a good education thus far, and that there are so many great colleges out there where he can study the subjects he is really interested in.
4 Likes
S27 finally made some good progress on his activities list last night- he was missing some important things–I had to explain why they’d be good to include. Probably not the final version yet, but a whole lot closer than before. Personal essay progress is still minimal, though he did about 15 min of freewriting on Saturday night some of which might get him in the right direction. He really needs to make some progress by the end of next weekend because the athletic visits are starting soon, plus he’ll have weekend XC meets and orchestra rehearsal starting next weekend too. He is still a long way from a decision but he narrowed the list in the last two weeks a lot. Hopefully the upcoming visits will help with that (and hopefully not tank his grades at the same time!). He’s settled into his senior year courses pretty well, including several tests and quizzes already. He’s definitely not a fan of AP Lit, but I think the others are fine so far (very STEMmy)!
Still haven’t started here. lol
They are going to be so busy this fall - 6 AP’s and just got promoted to Head life guard at the pool, plus they are on some super committee at the county level for organizing environmental clubs at all the schools in the county.
2 Likes
Haven’t started over here either. Every time I bring the topic up it’s like I’m torturing D27. But she is exciting to start the new school year with today being 1st day. D27 is taking 4 AP’s this semester, AP Calc BC, AP Psych, AP Lit and AP Chemistry.
Finished the rest of the college tours, D27 really liked UMass and UNC and was intrigued by Rutgers, Columbia and Fordham.
4 Likes
Slow going. Mostly avoidance on the essay or supplemental (only one school has one!), although kiddo did some brainstorming and started getting some kernels of stories to tell. She’s mostly finished with the common app, barring current courses (not yet released by her school, which doesn’t start up for another week) and a few other items. So some progress made these past two weeks. I’ll take it!
2 Likes
Congratulations to everyone who’s been working on lists, having fun summer experiences (including relaxing and having fun with friends), potentially working on college applications, and getting ready for their senior year of high school!
For those of you who have been visiting colleges, it would be great to share your family’s reactions in this thread:
I saw this, and I just had to comment.
A 32 composite score is at the 97th percentile, i.e. only 3% of test-takers scored higher. The mean (average) ACT score is a 19.2 (source).
The average high school GPA is a 3.11, or a 3.56 for academic courses (source).
Your kid is performing WAY above average academically, as are the kids of most people posting on CC. Please don’t let academic stats posted around here impact your family’s understanding that your kid is academically awesome.
(And though I’m quoting you, @COMom3, I think it’s a good reminder for everyone on CC.)
14 Likes