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justkeepswimming

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Everything posted by justkeepswimming

  1. Unfortunately, the "bonus" essays definitely are "regular admission" essays - not for the honors colleges. Those may (should) come later. Both of the extra-essay schools are schools that are near the bottom of her list- but she should qualify for significant merit aid - so she's going to jump through their hoops. But - UGH!! The "Common App" was supppppposedddddd to make this simpler! :p
  2. Love this thread, I'd been wondering the same thing! So, it's normal, then, to wait until acceptances/decisions before thanking the recommendation letter writers? I think we're going to borrow Kareni's idea for the main letter-writers for dd. They were SO wonderful for dd to work with on this - had the letters written within DAYS of her requesting their assistance.
  3. Thanks for the input - so helpful, as always!!! :cheers2: It's humbled us - made us a little wary - and I think both of us will be much more appreciative of any early, "safety" school admissions when they (hopefully) come in! If anything, dd is now less resistant to applying to a local, very-safety, high scholarship-potential school now. Just in case those 40-50% schools fall on the wrong side of admittance and/or scholarship money.
  4. I was just talking to a friend about this very thing today! In any of the applications, when it asked the "Will you be seeking financial aid?" question, we said yes. Because... why wouldn't we say yes? lol Are there people who don't at least apply for financial aid and just see what happens? (I honestly thought everyone would say yes to that question... some merit scholarships even require that you fill out the FAFSA or CSS Profile...) But, she told me pretty much what you've said here... and my mouth just sort of gaped open. Didn't even occur to me that would make any amount of difference. :svengo: Of course, I should have known better - everything seems to make a difference! Ugh!
  5. OK, I wanted to relax after dd sent in her applications, but it appears there's still STUFF to do while we wait. :glare: Question #1) For every application she sent, that university has sent her a link to their portal/communication hub/student website/ thing. They all have a varying name for the thing, but it's where she's supposed to check on updates for her applications, etc. I'd thought that was supposed to be communicated through the Common App? Or is she pretty much "done with" the Common App at this point, and all further communication will be done via portal thingy and/or email and/or phone communication with each school? Because keeping up with 8 additional weird/assigned usernames and passwords is just what we need to keep track of right now. :mellow: 2) On said university portal thingies, if the "official transcript" is marked as still needed (she only sent in the Common App on November 1) - does this mean I have to mail them one? Or what? Wouldn't the one I attached to the Common App BE "official"? I thought that was the purpose of the Common App counselor transcript upload... ?? 3) Total bait-and-switch - on TWO of the university portals, they have ADDITIONAL ESSAYS TO BE WRITTEN!!!! WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK IS THAT?? Why didn't they have supplemental writing portions ON the Common App???? DD has exactly zero hours to devote to that for the next two weeks - so they're going to delay her application processing because she hasn't written these additional essays? She might be able to literally throw something together tomorrow- but... it will be very much thrown together in about 30 minutes while she's scarfing down lunch. :ack2: 4) AND one of them has an asterisk by their own "Recommender" section (there are four available slots, all blank, with an asterisk by the first slot). She ATTACHED the recommenders (teacher and the optional) to her Common App when she sent it in! She doesn't have a copy of those letters - and she certainly isn't going to ask those people to send it to another place after assuring them all she needed them for was for the Common App recommendations.... Maybe they're not totally updated yet - but they have the other, basic information from her Common App on her portal account, so it doesn't appear to be an update issue. grumblegrumblegrumble. We are both so totally over all of this nonsense and ready to move along to the next chapter of life. Blurg. (There are other serious complications going on in our real life that are taking up an unimaginable amount of time and energy on both of our parts - so I'm sure this probably shouldn't be as overwhelming as it is... but for us, right now, it just is. :bored: It has been one heck of an autumn.)
  6. We took both boys - wonderful movie. They both loved it! Best movie they've seen all year! :) It has sparked a lot of really interesting discussions since too... Which is always a bonus! I own the book but haven't yet had the time to read it. Going to begin this week - hoping it's half as good as the movie. :)
  7. Have any of your dcs (this year or in the past) been surprised by a rejection from a university you'd felt was a safe bet? DD applied to a couple schools with 40-50% acceptance ratings - and will be applying to one with a 25% rating and another with something like 15%. So, obviously, the 25% and 15% are high possibilities of rejections, even if she's "on paper" qualified... But - what about schools in the 40-50% range? Anyone applied there, fully expecting an acceptance, but been surprised by a denial? Just trying to gauge expectations before the acceptance/denials start coming in. She's above the average stats for the 40-50% schools, so we feel fairly safe... but... wondering *how* safe we should feel at this point? :001_unsure:
  8. We are DONE!!! DONEDONEDONE!!! DD is still considering two schools whose deadlines aren't until December or January, so she's going to wait until November to even look at those (there are two tiny, 250-word "essays" that will need to be completed). But - for the Early schools or those with November 1 scholarship deadlines - she is el finito. It feels so, so, so good. I re-read everything this morning (she submitted yesterday) and while, far from perfect, I don't think my counselor's information (school profile, letter, etc) is going to prohibit a school from accepting dd. lol Her essay is solid. Her stats are at, or above, the schools where she's applying. I think she's in good shape. Having this clunking around in our brains for so eternally long (feels like forever!) - today felt like a party! No more ACT/SAT testing, no more 650-word college essays, no more comparing colleges and scholarships and teams to decide where she's most interested.... just DONE! (until final decision time) We've put in the work, done what we can, and it's all in God's hands now. And I'm okay with that. :) We can now think of something - ANYTHING - else!!! Hallelujah!!!!! :hurray: :thumbup: :party:
  9. Great - that is what I was thinking, but wanted to make sure it wasn't overkill. :)
  10. YES! DDs issue is time and time alone. If she could only have an additional 10 minutes in 3 of the sections - she'd have had a 35 easy peasy. So, we have spent a TON of valuable time just taking practice tests and drills over and over and over again to help her be able to process the information more quickly. In "real life" situations? She's usually the first one in a group to solve a complex math problem, translate information from a data sheet, or read a graph. She can make decisive decisions and be correct in those decisions faster than those in her peer group. But, with that "false" time crunch hanging over her head? Nope. Notsomuch. IF I calculated the time we have spent on "useless" test prep (I am SO not going to do that), I would weep. (I don't count the math review useless... she needed that. But all the rest? She's not learned a darn thing!! It's just been drilling for speed, over and over again!) With that said - she's now done with the ACT forever. Unless I decide to sign her up for December's test "just for fun!" (oh the glares I received from her for suggesting such a thing! lolol!!)
  11. Are you including a class description for each-and-every class on the transcript or only those classes that are considered "Core Classes" or important to the student's chosen major (ie. leaving out the class description for a music class if the kid is planning to major in biochemistry or some such...)
  12. I wish we had started painting with a broader brush from junior high on. We had just assumed that dd would attend a local school, so neither of us really researched anything beyond that. She went on one college tour her sophomore year to a tiny college in a small town just for kicks. NOW I wish that, on one of our many out-of-state vacations, she and I had spent a couple of hours visiting a local-to-the-vacation-spot university so that she would be able to compare/contrast more easily now. Now that it's crunch-time, she is JUST beginning to have a true sense of what she likes vs what she doesn't like about universities. Small vs large campus, private vs public, etc... and it's tough trying to iron it all out NOW in the midst of everything else. DD#2 and the boys have already been with us to visit a couple of universities this year and I fully intend on making several visits over the next year (DD#2 is a sophomore) so that she can visualize much earlier than DD#1 and so that the boys will just take this as "What is normal" and already have a favorite university somewhere out there before they even HIT high school! :) Also wish we'd done more testing during junior year. DD#2 will be taking the SAT II for Math I and Chemistry next year during her junior year so we don't run into the schedule crunch that dd#1 has found herself in.
  13. OK, I think I will do just that. The cover sheet with SS# and name information and then put a student ID on the transcript itself. Phew! I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!! It's growing a little brighter!! :coolgleamA: The transcript that she's sent to coaches so far has not had the SS# on it, so I'll just use that same one and add the student ID. Maybe I'll just use the NCAA ID#. hmmm....
  14. I have read so many wonderful and helpful threads that now, at crunch time, they are all blending together in my mind! I can't remember which were the "Good" ideas and which were the "Do Not Do This" statements! :lol: :svengo: :willy_nilly: :001_rolleyes: lol I have a half-dozen spreadsheets too, but some of them have conflicting information (I've been gathering the information for so lonnnnnng!) All this work and dd will probably wind up going to the state flagship school, which is about 15 minutes from our house. :P
  15. So they will just match up her mailed-in transcript with her online application using her first/last name? I guess that's how it works when the ACT scores are sent in, though, isn't it? The university doesn't have her ACT ID# anywhere on her applications.... One of the universities has a counselor's form to send in with the transcript and the form itself requests the SS# of the student. I don't *want* to include it - I agree with you wholly and don't want that number floating around anymore than it has to... but want them to match the transcript up with her application asap! :) Oh, the complications in all of this! lololol!
  16. The student SS# belongs on the transcript sent in with applications, yes? (Some of these universities aren't Common App and I have to send in paper transcripts to them, apparently. I'd thought I could do it online, but no. So, Priority Mailing these tomorrow so that they will arrive close to dd's electronic applications and hopefully not delay the process further!)
  17. One of dds essays covers a personal relationship issue ... and we are wondering if the essays are always generally just put into a stack and never seen again? (hopefully) Just unsure about submitting this particular topic if there's a chance it will be posted online somewhere with her name attached (whether as an example of what to do or NOT do, I don't know! bwahahaha!) So - just curious. It's not a particularly sensitive topic - just brings up something a family member once said to her that had a very lasting impression and changed her trajectory. But, we don't want family to stumble across said essay if they happened to google her name at some point in future. (I am pretty certain that this would never happen & that those essays we see online are "agreed upon" to post publicly, but... a bit uneasy about it anyway)
  18. answering AND asking questions!! It has been SO helpful. I do a daily read-through and so often find an answer to questions I didn't even know we had yet! This forum has been a lifesaver these past few months as dd and I navigate this process (both of us have a tendency to make things harder than they need to be so we need all the clarification we can get!!). :) Seriously, though, the non-snarky replies and helpful information... having a safe, comfortable place to ASK my (stupid) questions... it's made this so much easier. So - thank you. :hurray: :cheers2:
  19. Hmmmm... We are (once again) stumped. So - in the activities section is asks for how many weeks spent and how many hours per week spent for each activity. Many of dds activities aren't neatly divvied into hours per week slots. Some activities totaled, say 200 hours of annual involvement - but some of that was overnight activities (these are volunteer/activism sorts of things, not sports), conferences, etc. So it could be many, many hours one week involved with this group - and then nothing for the next several weeks except for perhaps a conference phone call of 1 hour. So - how does she fill this out? If she fills in 4 hours a week, 52 weeks a year... that's around 208 hours, which is just about right. But... she wasn't technically INVOLVED 4 hours a week, 52 weeks per year, so it's not exactly correct. 10 hours a week, 20 weeks per year is closer to how the actual time is spent BUT she's technically INVOLVED 52 weeks per year... (with conference calls and short meetings), so we don't want it to sound like a "part-time" activity. So. ??? The other one that's stumped us are things that she's been involved in for 4+ years, but the hours involved have drastically varied each year. She was in Activity A for four years. In 9th & 10th grade, she spent approximately 18-20 hours per week for 40 weeks per year. In 11th grade, she spent approximately 10 hours per week for 40 weeks per year, and in 12th grade, she's lucky to spend 2 hours per week. So, how the heck does she answer THAT question? We don't want to go with her senior hours, because that doesn't fully flesh out the MANY hours of involvement she's had with this particular activity... but answering 18-20 hours per week NOW, of course, isn't honest and isn't accurate (and they would see that she doesn't have that many hours in a day, of course).
  20. That is awesome! Congratulations to your dd!! How nice to be mostly finished already!! We were waiting for Sept. ACT scores, and now that the writing portion is in, dd is out of excuses. :p She has a busy week this week, so next week is college application week. She's narrowed it down to approximately 4-5 schools that she really likes, two local safety schools, and one distance safety school with a nice automatic scholarship.
  21. DD needs to review geometry before the October ACT - it's her weak link on the past 2 ACTs she's taken. She completed Saxon Alg I/II with integrated geometry - but that was a couple of years ago and it didn't stick as well as we'd like. :)
  22. DD met with an adviser at a large out-of-state university last week - the person who is the adviser for the specific degree (within engineering) she is most interested in at the moment. She had an appointment and had a list of questions with her. She said it was remarkably awkward. DD, although introverted, doesn't usually have any awkwardness while talking to people (especially if she has a list of questions she wants to ask with her!). The woman just sat looking at her and when dd asked her questions, the woman would sigh or huff slightly. Once, dd is pretty sure she rolled her eyes at one of her questions. :mellow: DD said she felt like she was an enormous inconvenience on this woman's day and she couldn't get out of there quickly enough. DD said the woman sat there, pursed lips, and didn't volunteer any information. If dd asked a *specific* question... she would answer that *specific* question and not elaborate any further. DD is juggling a decision between two vastly different majors and had hoped that meeting with this woman would give her a clearer picture of one of them. It DID - but probably not in the best way! lol! DD said she left with the impression that the woman was used to meeting with parents... but I told her that can't be right - the advisers are there to advise the students... NOT the parents. So.... What gives? What questions should a prospective student ASK an adviser? What is an adviser's purpose in relation to a prospective student (vs. a current/enrolled student)? I have a hypothesis to this woman's attitude... but wanted to ask the questions-question here first to make sure dd's questions weren't as absurd as this woman seemed to think they were. :D If dd's questions were way off-base, or if OUR idea of an adviser's purpose is way off-base, then we'll need to fix that before her next meeting.
  23. What an incredible blessing that they caught it early!! Hope that his recovery goes smoothly and glad that he was in good hands with his surgeon.
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