A few more Common App questions....

[TeaTotaler]

I wanted to clarify a few things as I work on the CA today:

 

In the student's workspace -

Is the GPA ending date until the end of Jr Year since that is what the current GPA is based on?

 

What do they want for: Highest grade/GPA in class?

 

Indicate # of official transcripts:  I just have one for ds but do I indicate two, if I'm uploading course descriptions as "2nd transcript"?  I didn't know if the # indicated here is separate from the allowance of 4 transcripts. 

 

In the Homeschool supplement, where it asks for more info about philosophy, motivation etc, should I just state: "see attached school profile" or cut and paste the relevant sections.

 

I managed to whittle down my course descriptions to under 500 KB (pdf) but if I add a footer it goes over.  I am so sick of looking at this document...can I just attach it for the Common App without a footer or is that not appropriate.

 

I am assuming that I cannot get to the Counselor letter part until the application is submitted.  I'd like to work on that and be done with this part. 

 

I'm probably over thinking all this but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[regentrude]

What do they want for: Highest grade/GPA in class?

 

They want to know whether your grading scale ends at 4.0, or whether there are weighted courses that increase it to 5.0 or even higher, so they can judge what your student's GPA actually means in context.

 

 

Indicate # of official transcripts:  I just have one for ds but do I indicate two, if I'm uploading course descriptions as "2nd transcript"?  I didn't know if the # indicated here is separate from the allowance of 4 transcripts. 

 

If I recall correctly, I put the number of transcripts I ended up uploading, i.e. 2.

 

 

In the Homeschool supplement, where it asks for more info about philosophy, motivation etc, should I just state: "see attached school profile" or cut and paste the relevant sections.

 

I cut and pasted the relevant sections of my school profile for each of the questions in the boxes.

 

 

I managed to whittle down my course descriptions to under 500 KB (pdf) but if I add a footer it goes over.  I am so sick of looking at this document...can I just attach it for the Common App without a footer or is that not appropriate.

 

Then I'd do no footer. How many pages do you have??? I have 8 pages of descriptions and am around 250k in the pdf.

[TeaTotaler]

 

 

Then I'd do no footer. How many pages do you have??? I have 8 pages of descriptions and am around 250k in the pdf.

Sigh...my word doc is 12 pages.  When converted to pdf with footer it is: 586KB  and without footer it is: 483KB.

 

Most of the courses are homegrown, other than Latin/Greek with Lukeion, Physics/Math with Derek Owens and some AP classes Jr,and Sr year with PAH.

 

Should I delete list of labs - was hesitant to do so since colleges are so concerned about homeschool science courses including labs.  Ds plans to major in Engr.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Sigh...my word doc is 12 pages. When converted to pdf with footer it is: 586KB and without footer it is: 483KB.

 

Most of the courses are homegrown, other than Latin/Greek with Lukeion, Physics/Math with Derek Owens and some AP classes Jr,and Sr year with PAH.

 

Should I delete list of labs - was hesitant to do so since colleges are so concerned about homeschool science courses including labs. Ds plans to major in Engr.

You are allowed 4 uploads. It sounds like you have two right now, a transcript and course descriptions.

Could you split out the list of labs and make a third document like Science lab supplement in which you describe the labs?

 

Can you reduce the font size and bring down the overall length and size? I used 10pt and thought it was still quite legible.

 

Could you describe the labs in a narrative sentence or two (total, not per lab) that gets across the type of lab environment. That might eliminate the need for the list of labs.

[regentrude]

Sigh...my word doc is 12 pages.  When converted to pdf with footer it is: 586KB  and without footer it is: 483KB.

 

Most of the courses are homegrown, other than Latin/Greek with Lukeion, Physics/Math with Derek Owens and some AP classes Jr,and Sr year with PAH.

 

Should I delete list of labs - was hesitant to do so since colleges are so concerned about homeschool science courses including labs.  Ds plans to major in Engr.

 

I listed the lab kit and number of labs. I do not think anybody will want to read a list of labs, especially since a lab title does not really indicate the depth of the lab anyway.

 

I'd leave out the footer if it blows it up by 100k.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

One other thing I did to generally pare down the length of my descriptions was to only list essential information for the texts we used.  A friend pointed out that it really didn't matter to anyone which edition of Frankenstein or Uncle Tom's Cabin we'd used.  So for novels and major works of non-fiction I just have author and title.

 

I only put publisher and year of publication if it would really matter (ex, to indicate which edition of a textbook or to identify a lesser known resource like Windows to the World or Art of Problem Solving texts).  In some subjects that change reduced my course entries by several lines each.

 

I also agree with Regentrude that the application readers aren't going to get much out of a listing of labs.  Unless they were science readers, they may not be in a position to evaluate the significance of the list.  You might be better off to give a broader statement about the nature of the labwork.

 

[regentrude]

One other thing I did to generally pare down the length of my descriptions was to only list essential information for the texts we used.  A friend pointed out that it really didn't matter to anyone which edition of Frankenstein or Uncle Tom's Cabin we'd used.  So for novels and major works of non-fiction I just have author and title.

 

I only put publisher and year of publication if it would really matter (ex, to indicate which edition of a textbook or to identify a lesser known resource like Windows to the World or Art of Problem Solving texts).  In some subjects that change reduced my course entries by several lines each.

 

yes, definitely. Editions are completely unimportant - Frankenstein is Frankenstein. Publisher does not matter in this context either.

I did not even make a separate list of texts studied, but incorporated them within the text :Major literary works studied included....

 

To the OP: Formatting takes up a lot of bytes. See where you can change bullet points and indentations to consecutive text.

[TeaTotaler]

Thanks, regentrude and Sebastian. 

 

I will skip the list of labs.  We did a few at home and ds also did the Chem and Bio Landry Intensives. 

I only included editions for texts for example : Western Civilization, Jackson Spielvogel, Combined Volume, 6^th Ed.

 

My document was in Calibri font 12pt.  I changed it to 10 pt and it went down to 565 KB with footer.  I will play around with the formatting some more.  Does using Bold, Underlining and Italics eat up more bytes.  Ok, that sounds weird. :-)

I do not have a separate list of books - major works are listed in the description.  We also used Great courses extensively, so those are listed too.

 

Any advice on the first part of my original post:

Is the GPA ending date until the end of Jr Year since that is what the current GPA is based on?

 

Thank you again for walking me through this.

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Thanks, regentrude and Sebastian. 

 

I will skip the list of labs.  We did a few at home and ds also did the Chem and Bio Landry Intensives. 

I only included editions for texts for example : Western Civilization, Jackson Spielvogel, Combined Volume, 6^th Ed.

 

My document was in Calibri font 12pt.  I changed it to 10 pt and it went down to 565 KB with footer.  I will play around with the formatting some more.  Does using Bold, Underlining and Italics eat up more bytes.  Ok, that sounds weird. :-)

I do not have a separate list of books - major works are listed in the description.  We also used Great courses extensively, so those are listed too.

 

Any advice on the first part of my original post:

Is the GPA ending date until the end of Jr Year since that is what the current GPA is based on?

 

Thank you again for walking me through this.

 

The transcript I uploaded included courses taken through the end of Junior year, with grades.  I based gpa on that.

 

I do have courses listed that are in progress.  They do not have a grade.  They say IP instead of a grade and I explain in my notes that this means In Progress.  I also have spring semester courses listed.  They say PL and I note that this means they are planned for Spring 2016 (already I have one change, because there is a calculus/chemistry conflict in the dual enrollment college schedule.)

 

So yes, the gpa is through junior year.  I don't have a way to calculate it based on grades that aren't complete yet.  In December, I'll be able to submit a midyear report that includes the grades for one semester courses at the community college.

 

FWIW, I actually have a little box at the bottom of the transcript that shows the credits earned each year, with weighted and unweighted gpa through the end of that year.  My transcript is arranged by subject, so this was a way to make it easier to see how many credits had been earned each year.

[3XBlessed]

I submitted my counselor school report last night. (HUGE RELIEF!) Now I am second guessing some of my answers. For "Highest grade/GPA in class", I left it blank. I thought it was asking for the grade of the highest ranking student in the class, which does not apply in my homeschool student's class of 1.

 

I mainly answered the required questions marked with a red asterisk, and a few other questions that were easy to answer, such as 100% to 4-year college. The other questions did not at all apply to a homeschool student. I thought admissions just wanted the brick and mortar school counselor to determine where in the class the student ranks in comparison to the other students in their school, and place them in context of socio-economic background. I provided all that information in my school profile.

[TeaTotaler]

I submitted my counselor school report last night. (HUGE RELIEF!) Now I am second guessing some of my answers. For "Highest grade/GPA in class", I left it blank. I thought it was asking for the grade of the highest ranking student in the class, which does not apply in my homeschool student's class of 1.

 

I mainly answered the required questions marked with a red asterisk, and a few other questions that were easy to answer, such as 100% to 4-year college. The other questions did not at all apply to a homeschool student. I thought admissions just wanted the brick and mortar school counselor to determine where in the class the student ranks in comparison to the other students in their school, and place them in context of socio-economic background. I provided all that information in my school profile.

Please don't second guess yourself.  I'm sure many of us have responded differently to some questions. If you haven't completed the counselor letter, get that done and then celebrate!!

Ds needs to work on some scholarship essays but I'm focused on getting the CA done for early action deadline of Nov 1.  Then, we'll deal with those other applications.

[bugs]

To the OP: Could you break up your Course Descriptions into 2 files.  Call one say...9th-10th Grade Courses, and the other 11th & 12th Grade Courses?

[regentrude]

 

My document was in Calibri font 12pt.  I changed it to 10 pt and it went down to 565 KB with footer.  I will play around with the formatting some more. 

 

I think the bolded may be your problem: Calibri is not a standard font for pdf - it requires the pdf writer to embed the font itself in the pdf file, which bloats the file!

You should use a standard font, such as Times, Helvtica (Arial in Word) or Courier - these are included in pdf already and would not need to be embedded.

This should give you the biggest byte saving.

 

 

 

Does using Bold, Underlining and Italics eat up more bytes.

 

Yes. Bold, Italic, Bold Italic are all different fonts and will be embedded as soon as you use them. Cut down on such formatting to avoid having an additional font embedded.

 

Underlining is not a separate font and thus does not require additional bytes.

 

For more info, see for example: http://www.aivosto.com/vbtips/pdf-optimize.html

[TeaTotaler]

I think the bolded may be your problem: Calibri is not a standard font for pdf - it requires the pdf writer to embed the font itself in the pdf file, which bloats the file!

You should use a standard font, such as Times, Helvtica (Arial in Word) or Courier - these are included in pdf already and would not need to be embedded.

This should give you the biggest byte saving.

 

 

 

 

Yes. Bold, Italic, Bold Italic are all different fonts and will be embedded as soon as you use them. Cut down on such formatting to avoid having an additional font embedded.

 

Underlining is not a separate font and thus does not require additional bytes.

 

For more info, see for example: http://www.aivosto.com/vbtips/pdf-optimize.html

Yes, that was indeed the problem.  I deleted the list of labs and changed the font to Arial after googling earlier to find a font that uses less space.  I did not know that about the Calibri font.  I was wondering why my two page school profile took up so much space.  I have mostly used Calibri for Word documents - it has just the right amount of space between letters and around the words to make it easier for me to read. (I have a degenerative eye disease and am slowly losing my vision).  I will be glad when I no longer have to stare at a screen for hours. 

 

Is there an opportunity to save the final pdf of the common app before you submit it?

 

Thanks again, for your help.

[TeaTotaler]

To the OP: Could you break up your Course Descriptions into 2 files.  Call one say...9th-10th Grade Courses, and the other 11th & 12th Grade Courses?

Thanks, I was able to get it under 500KB by changing the font.

[regentrude]

Is there an opportunity to save the final pdf of the common app before you submit it?

 

It was two years ago. I was able to save a preview as pdf. Not sure how that works in this year's version.

[bugs]

 

 

Is there an opportunity to save the final pdf of the common app before you submit it?

 

There are buttons on the review page that will allow you to print and /or save. Additionally, after you have submitted it, you can review the schpool report and save it as well.  I just did.