Well, I *may* have pulled that out of my hat...

[Matryoshka]

So I've been so concentrated on homeschooled dd's college app process, because I'm in the critical path and also because she can't seem to decide where to apply except for one safety and one reach, that I've apparently not been paying enough attention to her ps twin sister's process.  She pretty much knows where she's applying, she's got a counselor that's not me, and we weren't thinking she was going to do any early apps because we're going to need to compare financial aid and most of her schools only do ED.

 

So, we went to the open house of her safety on Sunday.  Turns out they have a $5000 research coop merit award that they pretty much only give out to EA applicants.  The deadline is Nov 1st.  She needed to get stuff in to her guidance counselor by Oct 15th for this deadline.  Oops.

 

Homeschooled dd is applying EA to her safety (why not?), and she mentioned last night that only her application has to be in by the deadline, not the supporting docs.  Hm, maybe other school has this loophole?  Well, it says their deadline is Nov 10th for supporting docs.  Still too soon for guidance counselor.  So I called them.  Turns out that if she applies directly (instead of with the CA) they do not need a counselor letter.  The only  thing they would need from the school is the transcript.  Maybe I can get them to send just that?  I can handle scores, and her teacher recommendation can just be written and handed in or mailed without going through guidance.  Need to get in touch with the ACT people and get her scores sent ASAP (how long does that take?) Maaaybe we can still pull this off!

 

It was a good open house - there was no campus tour; it's a city campus with three locations, too difficult.  But they had the whole Computer Science dept. open with professors and students showing off their research projects.  Great robotics lab.  It would be a very strong safety if she didn't get enough $$$ elsewhere - there's even the possibility of living at home if she ever wanted to save more money.  So why miss out on those merit $?

[Mom22ns]

You can get a rushed report from ACT. I'm not sure how long it takes, but I think it would make it.

 

I have found avoiding the common ap to be much, much less work. No college either of my kids applied to wanted everything that was in the common ap, so doing individual aps was well worth it. Of course neither applied to a lot of schools which would have changed things.

 

Good luck!

[Nan in Mass]

Ooo, good job, guidance counselor mama! Good luck!

 

Nan

[TechWife]

Good job, mom! 

 

I find it fascinating that the high school counselor would be so involved in the process. "Back in the day" I just dropped a recommendation form & a transcript release off in their office and went on my merry way. I don't even think I ever talked to them about where I wanted to go or anything like that. 

 

I imagine the larger volume of applications has something to do with the counselor office deadline, though. They must need to do something to manage their work flow. 

 

The common app is a pain. I am so glad we didn't have to mess with it, ds' application was straightforward. 

[Matryoshka]

UPDATE - well, it turns out that dd's guidance counselor is a real peach!  The school is really uptight about these deadlines, but dd's counselor is new to the school last year, and apparently isn't such a stickler!  She stopped by Tues and he said, meet with me Weds and I'll get you your recommendation  and other counselor stuff in time to use the CA,  He even went over her essay with her!  So now she's decided to apply EA to three schools (all with Nov 1st deadlines) because if she has to get it all ready for one school, why not?

 

What a big improvement over the GC she had freshman/sophomore year whose main task seemed to be a giant obstruction to everything and would just repeat "this is the way we do things at X high school".   Thank heavens she retired!!!

[Nan in Mass]

Yeah!