Yeah, DS is homeschooled so the recommender/endorser is an outside person, and the system wouldn't let us send the form to her until we were totally done, so I rode herd on him to get it finished early enough to give her a few weeks. She hasn't sent it in yet, though, have a reminder on my calendar to poke her again early next week.

Hurrah for submissions! Very exciting! We are making steady progress over here. DS has written a new Common App essay and I have substantially revised the school profile. Tomorrow I plan to make headway on the counselor letter, and DS has his first (zoom) interview.

We are finally moving along. DS had been really struggling to get it in gear, but we have had some productive conversations and he seems to have some newfound energy. Recommenders are all lined up, and he has written drafts of most of his supplemental essays. He wrote an earlier version of his main essay but has decided to start over with that. There will be some scholarship essays to write as well. I am done -- except for proofreading -- with the transcript and course descriptions, and I have a not-very-good draft of the school profile. The goal for this coming week is to rewrite that and make a good run at the counselor letter. DS and I both finished our parts of his National Merit application and sent that off to the recommender/endorser. DS's college list is almost certainly too long, but unfortunately for him he is my practice kid.

That would be my guess as well. My DS took the PSAT last year at a private school not even in our state.

Congratulations! If you are comfortable sharing the name of the school where he was accepted, I will post it to our annual list thread. You can PM me, post it here, or post it in the acceptances thread

This is mostly how US law school classes still work, with all or nearly all of a student's grade in a course based on one final written exam. We still have to use Canvas, though 😞

I have spent the afternoon revising documents and working on National Merit stuff. My only big piece left is the counselor letter, and I am waiting for DS to finish his Common App essay before I write that. DS has finally buckled down and seems to be making progress on his essays. I would really like him to get his requests out to recommenders but am struggling to walk that line between helpful reminding and nagging. He also needs to schedule interviews.

It's time for everyone's favorite thread! PM me or post your info below. Decisions in bold. American University, DD of jplain Amherst College, DS of kokotg Auburn University, DS of Clemsondana Baylor University, DS of blue plaid Bowling Green State University, DS of cintinative Bryn Mawr College, DD of jplain Clemson University, DS of Clemsondana Coe College, DD of historically accurate Colby College, DS of kokotg Dickinson College, DD of jplain Dillard University, DC of Dmmetler Duke University, DS of mirabillis Eastern Kentucky University, DD of MagistraKennedy Emory University, DS of kokotg Franciscan University of Steubenville, DD of MagistraKennedy Freed-Hardeman University, DD of lanabug Grinnell College, DS of kokotg Hamilton College, DS of kokotg Harding University, DD of lanabug Indiana University, DD of jplain James Madison University, DS of UmmIbrahim; DS of VAMomtoboys Lawrence University, DS of kokotg Lincoln University, DC of Dmmetler Lindenwood University, DC of Dmmetler Miami University (Ohio), DS of cintinative Morehead State University, DD of MagistraKennedy Murray State University, DD of MagistraKennedy North Carolina State University, DS of UmmIbrahim Northern Kentucky University, DD of MagistraKennedy Oberlin College, DS of kokotg Oklahoma Christian University, DD of lanabug Old Dominion University, DS of scbusf Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, DS of Clemsondana; DS of UmmIbrahim Rutgers University, New Brunswick, DS of UmmIbrahim St. Catherine University, DC of historically accurate St. Olaf College, DS of kokotg, DD of jplain Swarthmore College, DS of JennyD Tennessee Tech University, DS of Clemsondana The Ohio State University, DS of Acorn United States Military Academy West Point, DS of Doodlebug University of Alabama, DS of JennyD University of Alabama - Huntsville, DS of Clemsondana University of California, Berkeley, DS of SanDiegoMom University of California, Davis, DS of SanDiegoMom University of California, Irvine, DS of SanDiegoMom University of California, Los Angeles, DS of SanDiegoMom University of California, San Diego, DCs of SanDiegoMom University of California, Santa Barbara, DCs of SanDiegoMom University of California, Santa Cruz, DCs of SanDiegoMom University of Connecticut, DD of jplain University of Cincinnati, DS of cintinative University of Florida, DD of chiguirre (January 2024 start) University of Georgia, DD of jplain; DS of kokotg University of Kansas, DS of blueplaid, DD of jplain University of Kentucky, DD of MagistraKennedy University of Maryland, College Park, DS of UmmIbrahim University of Tennessee - Knoxville, DS of Clemsondana University of Virginia, DS of UmmIbrahim; DS of VAMomtoboys University of Wisconsin, Madison, DS of UmmIbrahim Vassar College, DS of kokotg Virginia Tech, DS of Clemsondana; DS of UmmIbrahim; DS of VAMomtoboys Western Kentucky University, DD of MagistraKennedy Wright State University, DS of cintinative

I remember being very unpleasantly surprised by this same issue when I went to college myself, lo so many moons ago. Very glad that the scholarship helped you work out such a good solution.

Yay! I will start the list.

Ugh. I was hoping that I had just missed an option somewhere. Do you have any idea what happens if a student initially assigns a recommender to one school, the recommender completes the recommendation, and then the student adds more schools? I know that Common App will send the recommendation, but will the recommender also be notified?

I don't see this choice anywhere. When I click on a college, and then click "Invite Recommender," I can then choose between types of recommenders (Invite Teacher, Invite Parent, etc.). If I select Invite Teacher, I am put through to a short form that asks for the recommender's contact information. I then input the (fake) recommender contact information. Finally, when I log in as the recommender using the link sent, I as recommender can see all of the schools that I as student requested recommendations for. Would the ability to turn off this "enable preview" possibly be located somewhere else in the system? Yes, this is my understanding as well. I am wondering if they receive notifications, however, when students add additional schools.

I set up a practice Common App account and sent a pretend recommender request to DS, just to see what it looks like on the other end. It appears as though recommenders can see every college to which the student is having their letter sent. Is this correct? Should DS just assign the recommenders all to one college and then add others later? (Will they receive notifications if he does this?)

Watching TV/movies from other countries or communities always reminds me how universal the human condition is. People are people, no matter where or when they live.

Oh, poor girl! Change is so hard. Even good and exciting change. Hope she feels better after a good night's sleep.

Do you have a Costco membership? If so might be worth looking there to see what you can get in bulk. I don't remember for sure but I feel like I have seen those Nutella packs at Costco. I sent oldest DS some of those That's All fruit bars when he was away this summer, and I know I got those at Costco.

Oh, OP, I am so sorry. I can only imagine how exhausted you must be. Is there a chance that your son is ill? Gentle hugs to you. I hope that you can both get some rest.

Wow, you guys are amazing. Kudos to you!! We are nowhere near where you are. Our big family event this weekend has been amazing but we have all been SO wound up and I feel like I've barely slept or eaten in days. One more party today and then it will all be over. I am already feeling all of the emotions but I will only have tonight to get over them, because starting tomorrow it is full steam ahead with both school and college apps.

This is what almost nobody understands. Truly high-quality education is always going to be extremely expensive, because it requires a tremendous amount of highly-qualified labor. In modern-day America, anyone who can educate children well could always be doing something else that would generate more immediate market value. Top-notch education isn't scalable and there are no hidden inefficiencies to be exploited. The only way to reduce the cost is to reduce the quality.

Thanks for investigating this. You are ahead of me on this whole process, but I do recall that at least one of the schools on my son's list wants extra recs, so this is a very useful heads-up!

Others will have more up-to-date information, but I believe that homeschoolers can no longer register directly for the AMC exams. It used to be possible to register one's homeschooled kid and find a proctor oneself, but AFAIK a few years ago they stopped allowing this sort of thing. I believe now the exam has to be hosted by a school or other educational organization. If a student's school doesn't offer it, or if they are homeschooled, then they're out of luck unless they can find another host. You might try reaching out to one of the schools in your area that offers the exam to see if they would let your son sit for it. We did that the very first time my son took the AMC 8 - -the math teacher at a local public magnet school agreed to let him take the exam with the rest of her class -- but you may have to hunt around to find someone accommodating.

Not leggings but my Athleta Pranayama wrap is my absolute favorite garment that I own. I wear it constantly.

Nope. Although while doing household tasks I sometimes make long, impassioned speeches to my imaginary antagonists.

Yes. A house is just a house, as far as I'm concerned. I am sorry that this happened to someone you knew, though, Scarlett. How awful.

I had this exact same thought yesterday. We are going to have to eat this elephant one bite at a time. The music piece does sound like it makes things a lot more complicated! Mine is a musician too but won't be pursuing it in college beyond a hobby level.