Every time I go to answer a question on the CA, this is the type of indecision I go through. They all feel like trick questions.

Okay, so next CA question — What are people doing for the rankings? I could go with “no basis” or “outstanding - top 5%” or “one of the few students that stands out over my career”. If that last option wasn’t there, I would say outstanding without thinking twice, but the last option feels awkward because this is one of two students I have had and this is not my “career”. And yet, if I only say “outstanding” will it be clear that the last option would feel awkward for a home school parent or will it seem like I don’t think she truly stands out when I absolutely do? Argh.

I finally had a chance to go back in and find this. The reason I missed it is that all my info rolled over from when my ds applied to colleges two years ago. So, I think when I started it this year, it automatically started me with the student section. Just an FYI for anyone who is doing this for the second time! A lot of the info was complete and I thought I had done it for my dd awhile ago and forgotten about it, but then I realized all the dates and info were wrong. My school profile from when my ds applied was even still uploaded.

I really think the bolded is the issue. I think the reality of what people are expected to pay is so astronomical compared to what they think a reasonable cost will be, they just never really understand it until they get the hard numbers from the college. Plus, there are so many promises about financial aid and meeting full need at colleges. That can be very misleading. People on this board are much more in touch with the reality of it than many that I’ve met IRL. I was just helping a friend who has a dd who is a senior this year. She was saying she needs to get her dd moving to find scholarships. I told her she had better make sure the school will stack outside scholarships first and that she might be better off focusing on test scores and scholarships offered directly by the school. Her dd has not even taken the SAT yet and is an average student. She really thinks there are plenty of scholarships just out there for the taking. And this is a very bright, financially frugal mom.

Thanks. I must have missed it. I’ve got a ton of paperwork I’m weeding through right now.

I can’t remember where I uploaded this for my ds. The homeschool section would be ideal, but there is no way to upload a document there that I see. Are people just uploading it as another transcript document? TIA!

My ds is heading off for his second year of college next week and he has severe food allergies and has been gf since he was 3 years old. At all of the colleges we have visited, there has been some sort of accommodation for food allergies. Some have a section that serves only allergen free food (assuming your allergies are the common ones) and they cook the food separately to avoid cross contamination. Many also have gf prepackaged snacks and treats available. At my ds’ college, they have both these things and they also list the food ingredients for whatever they are serving each day at the location it is being served. The school was also very helpful in having someone that could walk my ds through everything available to him (which my ds, of course, never actually took advantage of). When we visited ds’ school during his senior year, the dining hall staff was friendly and helpful and knew just what my son could eat. They also offered to make special food for him. That was a big plus for that school and part of the reason we were so happy with his decision to attend there. I would start with sending out a standard email to all the schools your student is interested in to see how they handle things, but then make visits and actually eat in the dining hall of schools that he is serious about and/or accepted to. I would think there would be very few schools these days unable to accommodate allergies, but some of them do it much better than others. We ruled out one school based on our experience eating in the dining hall. My dh tried to find out if my ds could eat something and was given a 40 minute runaround. At the time, we decided if it was so difficult for my dh to get a simple answer about the food they were serving, there is no way my ds would get the info he needed. I believe their policy was to rely on their allergy-free station for all allergies and that would have been very limiting and frustrating for my son because that station served things like a plain chicken breast with applesauce and green beans. It was also called the healthy food station. ETA: If there is a school your ds wants to attend that does not offer good options for him in the dining hall, then seek a special housing accommodation for him where he is able to have a room with a kitchen. Many colleges would have no problem with granting such an accommodation imo if you get a doctor’s note. A friend of mine recently was granted permission for her dd to live at home her first year (they usually require freshmen to live in dorms at this college) because of her severe food allergies.

Thank you very much! I am going to get the Cal Newport book and see if that gives me some more ideas. I really appreciate you empathizing with me about how complicated the process is and for your suggestions and kind words about my dd.

I appreciate you sharing that your ds chose to put his program at the top of his list since it was held at his top choice school. That is a very interesting perspective that I honestly hadn’t considered at all. Which is why I am asking this question. I guess some of the recommendations do seem a bit crazy. But, I think things like physical labor and true responsibilities like babysitting are done by very few kids currently applying to college and I can see why those types of things might stand out. Blogging about something you are interested in is an independently driven and possibly highly creative activity vs having your parents pay to have you attend a summer program. I was thinking of not including these programs because there are only 10 spots on the CA for activities and my dd has already filled them with other meaningful activities that she has been involved in. It was recently suggested that we remove a large fundraiser she organized a couple of summers ago for these programs. Until this recent suggestion, I never considered including them because I considered them something colleges would roll their eyes at (an impression I got on this board and elsewhere). She never did them in order to put them on her college app. She did them because she wanted to. And they are enrichment programs that don’t relate to her *current* desired major. The program she chose to participate in this summer was selected by her because it was a subject she had never had a chance to learn anything about. Plus, it was held at a school she is seriously interested in.

I’m sure I am overthinking this. But, it’s not a matter of either doing a summer program at a college or doing nothing. In order to add these programs, we have to cut out other things she’s done. So, I’m just trying to figure out what the best way to approach it is. I’ve heard for years that summer college programs are worthless for admissions, so the suggestion to include them has me wondering.

You are so right! That’s what makes it so hard to make a decision about these things — it will be perceived differently by various schools. I honestly had written off these programs as worthless for admissions based on what I’d read on these boards in the past and was surprised when it was recommended that I include them by someone who supposedly *knows*. I’m going to mention their impact and her participation in my school profile or guidance counselor letter but leave them off of the transcript and the activities section. I think. Lol.

I’m just not sure. From what I’ve read, I think it can just be a signal of privilege and can hurt the student’s application at top colleges. I think if I do put the program she did this last year, I need to explain somewhere that she paid for much of it herself. But, yeah, I don’t want to completely omit it and signal that it was nothing to her because it was a major experience for her. Back to the drawing board . . , Here’s the link to the blog I mentioned and Sara’s thoughts on reporting activities. I really like this as a resource and much of her advice rings true to me. https://www.saraharberson.com/blog/to-report-or-not-to-report-the-strategy-behind-listing-your-summer-activities

Thank you. That is a good idea. As I’ve been talking this through, I started to realize this is another example of my dd’s love of learning and drive that I could put in my counselor letter. But the school profile is another place that this could be highlighted and I hadn’t thought of that.

Thank you both for your thoughts. These classes were for enrichment. She had to write essays in order to gain admission to the programs. One of the classes did give her one college credit as a P/F and I don’t know what the heck to do with that. Give her .33 of a high school credit? Lol. She definitely doesn’t need the credit. The main reason I can see listing them is because she worked so hard to gain entry into the programs and enjoyed the classes so much. The program she did from middle school up until she aged out last year was very reasonable financially and my dh and I paid for it. The program she attended this year (for the 1 credit) was expensive but she wanted to go so badly, she paid for a large chunk of it herself from her savings from her part time job. I’ve been reading Sara Harberson’s site and she says you don’t list pay-to-play classes taken in the activities section of the app if they don’t require much more than test scores and a teacher rec. The program this summer fits that description more because while she had to write essays, they were pretty short. The other program that she attended for a number of years was at our state flagship and involved a pretty in-depth essay that always required a lot of research. It was targeted at gifted and high-achieving students.

Well, yay! That does sound nice. Congrats to your ds.

I’m going back to thinking we won’t list these, but I’m not sure. I keep finding conflicting advice about it. Since she is applying to the schools where she attended these programs, I’m thinking the programs will come up in her “Why Whatever College” essays because they were amazing experiences for her. I have always thought that these types of programs aren’t worth mentioning for admissions, but I had someone in the admissions field looking over my dd’s CA and she felt I should list them. I’d still love to hear what others have done.

What are people doing with classes their kids took at college programs over the summer? My dd has participated in competitive entry summer programs since middle school, but I’m not sure how to reflect them on her application. She put a lot of work into getting into these programs, so I’d like to put them somewhere. I remember someone (maybe Arcadia) saying that they have a section on the transcript for “Classes Taken for Enrichment” with no grades or credit. This is the idea that appeals to me the most, but I have very little room left on my dd’s Transcript. I am thinking of making a page 2 for the transcript and just listing all the summer classes she’s taken and the colleges she’s taken them at without giving any credit. The other option is to list the names of the summer programs in one space in the CA activities section and then write “(see course descriptions for actual classes taken)” and write out the classes there. Anyone have any ideas for me?

My dd had planned to take Greek 2 through CLRCs dual enrollment program with St Katherine’s in the spring, but they have just changed their text from Athenaze to Intensive Greek, so it sounds like that isn’t going to work. She took Greek 1 with Lukeion using Athenaze, We really want a semester class and it would be a perk if it was a dual enrollment class that might transfer. The closest university doesn’t offer Greek and neither does the cc.

I have to wonder why these schools bother saying they meet full need if they don’t. Don’t they have enough full pay student? I’m thinking if they can raise the tuition from $60,000 to $85,000 over a couple of years, they must.

Yeah, I figured that was the case. But if you were a close friend, I’d have to say it sure sounds like a lot of self-imposed misery. Why are you doing this to yourself, friend. Surely, eating some bread with 2% or less of an egg product isn’t going to hurt anyone. And goat dairy from a HFS? I don’t think we’re talking big food here. I have dealt with many, many food restrictions because of allergies in my family and the level of restriction you are placing on yourself seems almost punishing. I am sorry you feel you must do this, but I hope you can someday give yourself permission to loosen up on these restrictions. I have a person coming into my life who is vegan without all your additional restrictions and I am planning on reading up on it to try to understand it better. I can obviously understand not eating meat, but eggs, butter and milk from local sources isn’t so obvious to me.

Yes. It actually wasn’t even on my radar that there were a lot of schools that cost as much as $60,000 until last fall. To see they are now projecting to increase to $80,000 or $85,000 in a couple of years just boggles the mind. The idea of paying $25,000 a year at one point boggled my mind. But the bar keeps moving and if they are going to “front-load” the aid while promising to keep it the same barring changes in income, that is just criminal. i only have two children and actually am fortunate enough that we have been able to save for college and could pay a decent chunk. I can afford (just barely) our NPC numbers because our income dropped so much last year, which seems like a good thing. But actually complicates everything if I can’t actually trust those numbers. I’m finding the whole process extremely frustrating. I guess the good thing about this thread is that I have saved myself from making a trip to Rochester. I feel horribly for you and your dd Whitestavern, but thank you for sharing your situation. You may have saved us a similar heartache.

True. Good reminder. ETA: TMI

And the other thing that totally stinks about these financial aid calculations is that if you aren’t too far from being able to afford it and want to try to work a little extra to make up the difference or grandparent wants to help, forget it. Every dime given by a grandparent will just reduce the aid by almost the entire amount given. Increasing your income also decreases the financial aid. So there really is no path for middle-class students at these schools. You’ve either got to be rich or poor. Or be one of the very few who receives substantial merit aid.

Just throwing this out there as food for thought. If part of the reason you do not want to eat dairy is because it causes stomach issues there are lactose pills for people who are dairy intolerant. Also my daughter has issues with dairy that are not lactose related and she does fine with goat cheese and she can also tolerate regular dairy a couple of times a week. She just cannot eat it every day or she starts to have problems.

Also, I love these bars, which are crunchy and chewy and gf and df, but they do have honey if that is an issue — salted caramel Kind bars https://www.kindsnacks.com/nut-bars/caramel-almond-sea-salt-M17179.html