I relate to this so much! It’s hard to understand, but it could be avoidance due to anxiousness— maybe it’s too real once they are submitted. I dunno. My kid is targeting 10/24 for submission, but is still dragging feet on several tasks. Hang in there… they’ll make it!
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omg mine too! They have a big meeting with school counselor on Friday where they will review a bunch of things together – I am hoping that spurs them into getting a bunch done…
I 100% think it is anxious avoidance. They also have a bunch of big tests this week which isn’t helping.
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We are in the same boat. I’ve asked my child to apply to colleges without supplements today to get some applications submitted. It’s definitely anxious times.
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Mine doesn’t have their main essay 100% done 
Close-ish.
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I keep telling myself there is time, there is time. I think mine wants to edit some more before they submit to their top schools. Just a few more weeks. We can all get through this together.
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Yay for submissions!
Am I missing something, though? My kid seems to think that there’s no reason to submit anything more than a couple days before the deadline (in case of technical issues), because you might as well use the time you have to work on it. And her recommenders haven’t turned anything in either, so doesn’t she need to wait for that?
I think she is mostly done with the common app stuff for schools without supplements, even though I think she should have spent more time on the activity descriptions, leaving mostly MIT to do. Which she’s started all the pieces, but there are a lot. I’m a little nervous she will not get it done in time for EA – and they do say it doesn’t matter, but it still seems better to get it done.
That is my understanding. I think it just feels GREAT to get a few in and off.
My 25 got those w/ no supplementals done maybe a week early and then the others trickled out the week they were due.
Same here! Just finished first draft, but won’t let me see it.
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I think the recommenders have a slightly later deadline (according to my kid’s school counselor). So don’t wait for them, I think. Can anyone confirm?
I have been sitting down this weekend with my 27 to review where he is at with the Common App. He’s been doing it on his own. I’m glad I sat down with him because he has missed a bunch of things. For example, honors and awards - “oh, I forgot about that. That would go there?”. His activity section was filled out but he left (important) activities off because he ran out of space, rather than try to group things differently. His first essay draft has been done but he will need to connect with a teacher this week about feedback (she has it, but they need to connect) and then get the revision done. And I need to do the FAFSA. He also needs to go into Naviance and assign the LOR to the schools and check to see if the teachers have completed them or not yet.
It is somewhat complicated to do well, and I feel for kids who don’t have someone to be a second set of eyes on everything.
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Update, we have a submission! 
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Ok NOW I have a question maybe somebody could help us out with.
At 27’s school, LORs are requested through Naviance. The GC always does a letter and then my son asked 2 additional teachers - one in his intended major and one teacher more recent. As we were going through the Common App, it directed us back to Naviance to attach LORS to the schools. Some schools only want 1 letter max, some want 2 max, and some would take 3. Unfortunately, when my son did the request in Naviance in September, he followed Naviance’s pop-up suggestion to attach the LOR to all current and all future schools he applies to. There doesn’t seem to be a way edit and reorganize this OR limit for the schools with a hard cap of 1 in either application. Anyone have any info on how to correct this before I send him back to the poor GC on Tuesday? In case it matters, I don’t think the teachers LORS are in there although I am not 100% sure. Argh.
Ps. Why would Navience suggest to kids to do that when schools have different preferences?
Congrats to all the submitters!
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depends on the schools is my understanding… for most (?) I think that is true.
UMD, I believe, EVERYTHING has to be “postmarked” by 11/1 deadline, is my understanding. Many many schools, though, there is leeway on materials NOT sent by student of a few days to a week or 2. But this varies…
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Same! My kiddo shared it with us a couple of days ago. He got some notes back from his college counselor, and is working on the 2nd draft, but I think it still needs a lot of work. It’s just not reflective. The idea is a good one, and there are some cool moments, but a lot of it feels like a reader would respond with “So what?” because it doesn’t really give an idea of who he is as a person. 
Trying to bite my lip, because hopefully his college counselor will tell him the same thing when he meets with her this week, and he has (a little bit of) time.
I can’t wait until he can hit submit on his first application. But the essay will hold him back for at least another week or two. Aiming to have all ED/EA apps submitted by 10/27. His activity list is done as is the rest of the common app stuff that is not school dependent.
He is currently working on the first draft of his ED supplemental which is another 650 word essay. This one is already starting out much more reflective and his personal traits come across much more clearly. So there’s that.
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that is about the same with mine – parts are very good and a really really good start, but needs more detail and showing some more detail about THEM and not just saying some platitudes towards second half.. close though and I keep telling them it is really only a little clean up at beginning and a paragraph or 2 (NOT MUCH) but is overwhelming..they write more than this each week, by far for school.
Mine too! He has some small tweaks he wants to make plus change the order of some paragraphs. I really want him to get that essay done! He has four applications with no supplemental essays that he’ll be able to submit once he finishes his personal statement. He has so many supplemental essays to write by Nov. 1, I just want him to get the personal statement done with so that he can focus on the supplementals. I’m getting stressed about all the supplemental essays!
He did submit his application to one rolling admissions school where both he and his counselor thought the essay was in a good enough spot to submit to that school. At least that’s some progress.
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exactly! and mine has more for Dec 1 and Dec 15 (and the Dec 15 they really care about)
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Wow, congrats to those who have already gotten some submissions in, and even some acceptances!
I feel like my S27 is finally making some forward progress on his app, but he’s still working on the activities list, awards, etc. He has a draft of a draft for his personal statement. 
It probably didn’t help that he had an ankle injury the other week, and then when we went to get it looked at, he probably caught something in the waiting room and was down with a fever the whole week.
When I checked with him last week, I had to talk to him about his attitude, and asked if I needed to support him differently. He said no, it just feels like everytime we meet, he hasn’t gotten anything done or made progress from the previous week. I didn’t say anything, but I think him saying that out loud helped him realize that it wasn’t our check ins that were the problem, but that in order to make progress, he should actually get some stuff done!
This week we met twice, the second meeting was initiated by him, and he says he feels much more motivated to get his essay done. He has quite a bit of time this week to work on his stuff, plus we’re doing an extra visit to one of his top choices this weekend during an open house. Hoping that shows enough demonstrated interest (he is actually very interested, and I think it’s a great fit for him), and motivates him enough to get things completed before the 11/1 deadline!
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Hi everyone, congrats to those kids who have submitted their first applications! My S27 is almost done with his common app stuff. Like AKmom314’s kid, he says he’s going to also apply to MIT EA, but I’m not sure he’ll pull that off in the next 3 weeks. His odds are so low anyway that it probably doesn’t matter, but I wish it weren’t hanging over the rest of October.
My S27 had a lot more supplemental essays to write for his EA schools; I’m glad that many colleges seem to have dropped their supplementals, and also S27 is taking even longer to get everything done despite having less to write. I am so ready to put this stage behind us.
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