Anyone Want to Chat About College Apps/Decisions?

[kokotg]

We have a goal to get the early action application at our state flagship finished this week; it should be a pretty sure bet, unless they decide to pull some weird bureaucratic nonsense about the homeschool thing, so he should have one good option nailed down pretty soon. He's dragging his feet on his main essay, and I'm starting to get anxious about it. He has a draft done, but he won't let me read it. Argh!

He has an enormous list of places to apply in January, and we're having trouble deciding if he should start eliminating some so it's not so overwhelming, or if it's better to push on through so that we have more financial aid packages to compare. 

I'm still finishing up the educational philosophy thing on my end, and I think that's the last thing I need to write....I need to get it finished up before I have to start on financial aid forms. Which I'm not looking forward to.

[...................]

Yeah it's driving me crazy...but I just need to put it all out of my mind.  He has one more short essay to write and then other than the fafsa we are 100% done, and we just wait...and wait....annnnndddd wait... lol

[JazzyMom]

1 hour ago, Matryoshka said:

Dd17 is a senior this year, but she's going about things a bit differently in that she's planning finish her AS in Business this May and then transfer to the state flagship (UMass Amherst) in the fall - so no app for us till spring!  We did find out recently that in order to do this kind of transfer (where she's guaranteed admission at any 4-year state U) she has to do at least 12 credits as a college student, not DE, so she's now officially graduating high school in Dec. and what was going to be the last semester of her senior year she'll take as a CC student - basically the only difference is that we'll pay full price rather then the 1/2 off DE price.  But worth it for guaranteed admission (which includes admission to the Business school there which is otherwise super-hard to get into, and she doesn't have to take the SATs or write an essay, which are huge perks in her eyes...)

 

That sounds like a really smooth process. Did she have to have a certain GPA or just an associates to get guaranteed admittance?

And since she’ll have her associates, she’ll only have 2 years left at the 4-year school, right?

[kirag714]

Yes we are soooo close to getting her Pitt application in! They have a couple of short answer questions that are optional (and I'm pretty sure she could skip), but she's decided to apply to the Honor's Program so that means that some of the answers are not optional any more. But that's the only holdup and she should be done by the end of the week I think. I can't wait to hit "submit" on her first school!

She finished her common app essay over the summer, and I'm now done with all of the work on my end - school profile, recommendation, course descriptions etc. So glad that we got those parts done early!

There are a couple of early action schools she'll be applying to with a Nov. 1 due date, and for most of them there is either no writing supplement, or it's super brief so that should be fairly straightforward. The big hold up with those schools is the teacher recommendations. Because her switch to homeschooling was such a last-minute decision last year, all of her 11th grade courses ended up being home grown. That means the only teachers she can reasonably ask for a recommendation are her teachers in the outsourced classes she's taking right now. Luckily she's doing VERY well in those classes, but we are waiting until they know her a little bit more before she makes that request. It still feels like it will be a bit awkward, but she just needs one recommender for the 11/1 schools, and I think that there are two strong possibilities. Then she'll have more time to develop a relationship with the rest of her teachers before needing 1 or 2 more recommendations for the schools with a January 1 deadline. 

Anyone else sweating the recommendations a bit, or do most of you have a good person lined up from earlier classes?

[JazzyMom]

1 hour ago, Calming Tea said:

Wow that's neat, and congrats on Texas A&M! THat used to be on our list, until we learned that they don't accept you into the Comp Sci program until Junior year...but they have a great food allergy situation too, several of the dining halls are 100% nut free. 

Anyway, UC Davis is a big a step up from a safety but we feel fairly good about him get in with a contingency due to their TAG program...and- it's complicated- but yes everyone will feel a huge sigh of relief if he gets that acceptance.  It's a fantastic school with everything he needs and wonderful food allergy management, clean, nice etc. etc.  

How did you find out about food allergy management?  Ds is allergic to peanuts.

[JazzyMom]

43 minutes ago, kokotg said:

We have a goal to get the early action application at our state flagship finished this week; it should be a pretty sure bet, unless they decide to pull some weird bureaucratic nonsense about the homeschool thing, so he should have one good option nailed down pretty soon. He's dragging his feet on his main essay, and I'm starting to get anxious about it. He has a draft done, but he won't let me read it. Argh!

He has an enormous list of places to apply in January, and we're having trouble deciding if he should start eliminating some so it's not so overwhelming, or if it's better to push on through so that we have more financial aid packages to compare. 

I'm still finishing up the educational philosophy thing on my end, and I think that's the last thing I need to write....I need to get it finished up before I have to start on financial aid forms. Which I'm not looking forward to.

So the other schools don’t begin accepting applications until January?

[JazzyMom]

45 minutes ago, kokotg said:

We have a goal to get the early action application at our state flagship finished this week; it should be a pretty sure bet, unless they decide to pull some weird bureaucratic nonsense about the homeschool thing, so he should have one good option nailed down pretty soon. He's dragging his feet on his main essay, and I'm starting to get anxious about it. He has a draft done, but he won't let me read it. Argh!

He has an enormous list of places to apply in January, and we're having trouble deciding if he should start eliminating some so it's not so overwhelming, or if it's better to push on through so that we have more financial aid packages to compare. 

I'm still finishing up the educational philosophy thing on my end, and I think that's the last thing I need to write....I need to get it finished up before I have to start on financial aid forms. Which I'm not looking forward to.

So the other schools don’t begin accepting applications until January?

When will you hear about acceptances?

Edited September 26, 2018 by JazzyMom

[kokotg]

13 minutes ago, JazzyMom said:

So the other schools don’t begin accepting applications until January?

When will you hear about acceptances?

 

No, the deadlines are in January; our goal is to finish up before December, so he doesn't have to worry about them over the holidays. For the early action school, he should hear in November, if I remember right (he might also apply to an Ivy early action; we'll see). For the others, I think acceptances generally go out late March/early April.

[kokotg]

22 minutes ago, kirag714 said:

 

Anyone else sweating the recommendations a bit, or do most of you have a good person lined up from earlier classes?

 

Recommendations were the part he was the MOST worried about, so I encouraged/forced him to do it early. Until 10th grade we had a Spanish teacher who came to our house and did private lessons for my kids and another family, and she'd already written him a recommendation for dual enrollment, so that one was easy. And then he asked one of his dual enrollment profs from last year, and that one he was absolutely miserable with dread about, but, of course, it was totally fine and he was very happy to have it over with. He'll probably still ask either his piano teacher or his acting teacher for one more for the schools that allow an optional third letter, but that one's very low stakes.

[JazzyMom]

Letter of Recs were difficult for us - especially since ds hasn’t taken many courses outside of the home and really isn’t a stand out kid.  

His co-op teacher from last year wrote a good one.  He asked our church pastor for one, and he wrote a blah one.  He hasn’t really needed that one so only submitted it at a couple of places.

[...................]

45 minutes ago, JazzyMom said:

So the other schools don’t begin accepting applications until January?

When will you hear about acceptances?

 

1.  Deadlines are January. Acceptances are usually sent in March or April.

2.  Every single college we apply to, we read the website, AND call and speak DIRECTLY to their food and dining staff to find out what accommodations, how many choices, what the entire situation is.  With UC Davis, we also visited for a weekend, and notified them ahead of time, as well as a last minute reminder - they offered to feed him the exact same way he'd be fed if he lived there, introduced him to the head chef and sous chef and showed him their system and how it works.  Once he narrows down which schools he wants to go to we will fly out and do the same thing. 

We want to see exactly what it'll be like on a day to day basis.  Will he feel like a number, vying for attention just to get a meal made for him, last minute?  Is the ordering process annoying and difficult, having to use the phone and wait and wait while it rings forever?  Do the chefs get to know them by name and start to really build up a friendly communication channel?  

There are a lot of things to consider, my son really loves the Allergen Free food stations but some look a lot better than others!  For example some only have a rotation of gross unappetizing flavorless foods.  Others put more effort into it, labeling and pre-packing items so students have more choice.  Some get it ALL WRONG.  Berkeley has an Allergen Free food station (of the top 8 plus sesame) BUT ITS ALSO VEGAN, well duh without eggs, cheese, dairy, or meat you realy have to know what you are doing or else you can get very sick very fast.  It makes absolutely zero sense to make the top 8 food station also vegan!  If there are allergy students depending on that they will end up low in protein and iron and vitamin B since they don't know how to properly eat a vegan diet.

So, we put a LOT of time and effort into narrowing down college choices based not only on their fit for him as a student, but as a food allergy kid with multiple FA. ?

[Matryoshka]

1 hour ago, JazzyMom said:

That sounds like a really smooth process. Did she have to have a certain GPA or just an associates to get guaranteed admittance?

And since she’ll have her associates, she’ll only have 2 years left at the 4-year school, right?

You have to have a 2.5 GPA overall for the general transfer guarantee, and with a 3.0 overall there's also a small tuition credit for 2 years, and she'll also need at least a B- in each of her core Business classes at the CC for the guaranteed admission to the Business school at UMass.  So far, so good, fingers crossed!!!  She's taking Honors MacroEcon, Stats, and Intro Marketing this semester (plus one elective), so I hope she does keep those grades up!  This is a much heavier load than she's taken in past semesters, but it's probably a good ramp-up for moving on to the 4-year.  In the spring she has to take 4 more Business classes to finish up.

If she sticks with her Plan A and just does an Accounting major at UMass, she will in fact be able to finish in 2 more years.  She could even add an Economics minor (an idea she just floated the other day as apparently she's really liking her Econ class) and still finish in 2 years if she takes 18 credits just one semester.  Or, if she decides to go a different direction, it'd be more like 3.  Currently she's completely on board with Plan A (it's her plan), but I am quite familiar with Plan As not sticking, lol.

Having an Associates doesn't always get you finished in 2 more years, but since in this case she's doing very specific pre-reqs for the upper level Business classes at the CC, it's doable - but there's almost no room for electives once she gets there (the Econ minor would add 3 classes, the rest overlap; she had two optional 'free' spaces with the major alone if she wanted to do 15 credits a semester, so that's why adding the minor would require 18 one semester).

I'm also very happy we found out in time about the last 12 credits having to be as a college student; it doesn't mention that anywhere - not in the info online, any brochure, and the CC never mentioned it either.  We found this out when we went to talk to the transfer counselor at UMass.  I think it's just such an unusual situation for someone to get an AA while still in high school and then use MassTransfer (the name of the program) that they didn't think to point that out.  Most of the DE homeschooled students I know, even if they get an AA by the time they graduate high school, apply as freshmen (and not necessarily only to state schools).

Edited September 26, 2018 by Matryoshka

[RootAnn]

All of DD's colleges do rolling applications (except the one reach school she's applying to just so I see if she gets in--no extra essay). The one school that had EA was wiped off the list--probably because it would have required three essays (one each for admission, honors program, & merit aid all at the same time). DD hates writing, so any place she can get away with zero essays for is good on her list.

I'm waiting for her to have a weekend free so she can finish the one last short-answer she needs for one college app. (Technically, she could hit submit on the two that are done, but all three are on the Common App, so it just hasn't happened yet.) Then, it'll be onto one honors program application. We'll likely wait on the other honors program application until after she visits. If she doesn't like it, that'll cross that one off her list & she'll just be down to her top two picks.

None of her recommenders have logged into CA yet. She has bigger fish to fry right now, so she'll likely wait to send reminder notices until mid-next-month & then start to really bug them in November. One optional recommender likely didn't even see the CA email because everything goes to spam. She'll have CA resend the email & follow-up with an email of her own. Meanwhile, he's supposed to be working on his letter offline. She has two teachers from last year (one that she has again this year), and a local couple who head a youth service group she's a part of who have known her since she was a toddler.

[catz]

It's fun catching up on this thread.  My kid pushed go on his first common app application yesterday.  He actually has 3 or 4 more he can push go on.  I am going to try and clear it with him and do it for him.  I have the credit card anyway.  I am doing a lot of secretarial work for him.  My kid is mostly applying to schools with auditioned music programs and we need merit to make many private schools work so many many hoops to jump through.  He is booked to do a pre-screen video in a rented space in a few weeks.   He is applying at least to 2 or 3 schools EA.  I need to get him cracking on some of the smaller essays.  He's applying to a wide range of school.  All I can say about all the schools as a group is that all of them have merit aid available for musicians at least at times.  He may also apply to 1 or 2 non-audition programs.  We'll see how far he gets.  

I am so jealous of those of you getting early acceptances and being done.  Music programs keep you sweating until the end.  Especially if you're trying to watch the finances closely.  

[JazzyMom]

Best wishes, @FuzzyCatz!  I think having to worry about a music supplement on top of everything else would push me over the edge.  Haha!

I hope your ds gets accepted to some good, affordable schools!

[littlebug42]

15 hours ago, JazzyMom said:

Congrats @littlebug42!!!  Do you have the final merit packages or do you anticipate more?

 

We have a merit offer from one school although it could go up if she gets a better ACT score before March.  This school will likely also offer her a theatre scholarship but we won't find out about that until after scholarship auditions.   According to the department director, all of the theatre majors are on some amount of theatre scholarship so an offer of some sort is pretty much a sure thing.  The other school has not yet formally offered merit aid but it is automatic with her GPA and ACT score.  She has a chance for more if higher ACT score on December test.  We will likely get no other financial aid so the merit aid is crucial.  

[chiguirre]

19 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

 

If she sticks with her Plan A and just does an Accounting major at UMass, she will in fact be able to finish in 2 more years. 

Your dd might want to check the requirements to be eligible for the CPA exam in MA. In TX, you need 150 credits to take the test so Accounting Majors either take a 5th year or do an MPA (Master of Public Accounting). This varies by state so she may be fine.

[RootAnn]

I hit the button on the school report last night and DD submitted the app that was ready to go. I still need to hit the submit button on the counselor portion. Then, she needs to send her DE transcript. Also, had to resend a recommender request because they had missed the first one.

Lots of drama with the teacher changes in her online classes right now, so tough to focus on anything.

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, RootAnn said:

I hit the button on the school report last night and DD submitted the app that was ready to go. I still need to hit the submit button on the counselor portion. Then, she needs to send her DE transcript. Also, had to resend a recommender request because they had missed the first one.

Lots of drama with the teacher changes in her online classes right now, so tough to focus on anything.

 

Exciting! I'm very nervous about hitting submit on anything. I did for the one school that's not using the common app already, and I sometimes wake up at night worrying that I did something wrong and can't change it!

[kokotg]

DS finally let me read his first draft of his essay! He hit send on the e-mail and then immediately ran up to his room so he wouldn't be there when I read it. But I think it's pretty good! He went with funny and slightly self-deprecating, which is his strong suit. Does anyone have any advice on finding good people to read it for him and give him editing advice? My husband teaches high school math and offered to ask the AP English teacher, but I'm not sure just handing it off to some random person is a good idea. Bad advice is worse than no advice, right? I can offer some general guidance but 1. I'm too invested in it, and I want to be very careful not to coach him more than I should and 2. I really don't know any more than he does about what goes into a good college essay. Academic writing I know; personal essays not so much.

[RootAnn]

11 minutes ago, kokotg said:

Exciting! I'm very nervous about hitting submit on anything.

I think we all are. I can't undo it:  I hit submit on my counselor portion. So, I'm done until the midterm report (which one school wants). I figured I'd looked at it six million times already, so it needs to be good enough.

Last spring, I changed the order of some of her classes on the transcript and it obviously messed with the GPA calc (lowering it by .4 or so). I didn't realize it until after I uploaded and submitted her app for a competitive math camp. I freaked out, but she got in anyway. (They either saw my obvious error or took pity on the mathy girl whose mom did the math wrong.) 

6 minutes ago, kokotg said:

 Does anyone have any advice on finding good people to read it for him and give him editing advice?

There are lots of books out there if you want to do the research yourself. (Checking out the JHU essays that work is helpful.) My friends have hit up a-good-with-grammar mom. There might be Hive moms who will take a look in email.

[Matryoshka]

2 hours ago, chiguirre said:

Your dd might want to check the requirements to be eligible for the CPA exam in MA. In TX, you need 150 credits to take the test so Accounting Majors either take a 5th year or do an MPA (Master of Public Accounting). This varies by state so she may be fine.

Thanks for the heads-up!  I know pretty much nothing about Accounting - except that I hated it when I took it!   Who knows if she will stick with it; she's been pretty firm with a Business-y direction, but there has been some waver (so I guess this already isn't Plan A... )  First plan was to get AS in Graphic Design and then transfer for a Business degree in maybe Marketing.  But then she realized in Marketing or Design you have to bow to the will of the client, and she decided she didn't like that, and in Accounting the numbers are what's right.  So far she's only taken Financial Accounting, but she did really like that.  She'll actually have 82 credits (!) when she gets her AS (this is largely due to the changes in direction).  Only 72 will transfer (maximum), and she'll have another 54-63 at the 4-year depending on if she decides on a minor.  I wonder how they add up those credits - would the 10 that didn't transfer count - the 150 couldn't all be from institution anyway, so it should be total from everywhere?  I looked up the MA CPA info... it says 120 to sit for the exam but 150 for a license -  It also says you have to work for 1-3 years at an Accounting firm before you get a license (but not before sitting the exam).  If she sticks to the path, it sounds like she'll be in good shape and only have to take a few extra classes?  Or she could decide she likes Economics better after all and end up in that direction... or heaven forbid switch to Basket Weaving...   I'm just going to be happy if she finishes any BA; in spite of her good grades at the moment she tends to fly by the seat of her pants and I'm a bit worried about the probably tougher requirements at a 4-year.  But she's been upping her game this year with the Honors class and juggling more credits at a time, so I'm crossing my fingers that the maturity is coming!

[ValRN]

On 9/13/2018 at 8:55 AM, Pronghorn said:

I have a music composition major, so we have extra work. In addition to essays, my daughter has to write compositions and get them performed and recorded. And for most schools she has to do auditions. So, we won't have the comfort of early acceptances.

 

My oldest was a music composition major (graduated in May). Luckily for him, he already had a portfolio of pieces. Because he was in a youth orchestra (trumpet) and took private composition lessons at a music school in DC, it wasn't difficult to get his pieces performed and recorded. The process is very tedious, but worth it in the end.

My youngest is going through the application process now. She's submitted 4 applications (her top 4 choices) and has 9 more to go. She wants to get them all in by November 1st even though she's applying regular decision to most.

I'm happy that this is my last application cycle.

Edited September 27, 2018 by ValRN

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 9/26/2018 at 6:26 AM, kirag714 said:

Yes we are soooo close to getting her Pitt application in! They have a couple of short answer questions that are optional (and I'm pretty sure she could skip), but she's decided to apply to the Honor's Program so that means that some of the answers are not optional any more. But that's the only holdup and she should be done by the end of the week I think. I can't wait to hit "submit" on her first school!

She finished her common app essay over the summer, and I'm now done with all of the work on my end - school profile, recommendation, course descriptions etc. So glad that we got those parts done early!

There are a couple of early action schools she'll be applying to with a Nov. 1 due date, and for most of them there is either no writing supplement, or it's super brief so that should be fairly straightforward. The big hold up with those schools is the teacher recommendations. Because her switch to homeschooling was such a last-minute decision last year, all of her 11th grade courses ended up being home grown. That means the only teachers she can reasonably ask for a recommendation are her teachers in the outsourced classes she's taking right now. Luckily she's doing VERY well in those classes, but we are waiting until they know her a little bit more before she makes that request. It still feels like it will be a bit awkward, but she just needs one recommender for the 11/1 schools, and I think that there are two strong possibilities. Then she'll have more time to develop a relationship with the rest of her teachers before needing 1 or 2 more recommendations for the schools with a January 1 deadline. 

Anyone else sweating the recommendations a bit, or do most of you have a good person lined up from earlier classes?

 

DS2 had one of his CC profs agree to do recommendations and then decide after a few that it was too time consuming to do anymore, when there were several critical recommendations not yet submitted. 

His calculus prof agreed to do one, but had a policy of not writing a recommendation until the course was completed, so they weren't submitted until December. 

Acceptances worked out in the end, but it was harrowing. I do think the lateness contributed to one turndown. (It wasn't part the deadline, but it was late in the cycle for this particular application. )

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 9/27/2018 at 5:44 AM, kokotg said:

DS finally let me read his first draft of his essay! He hit send on the e-mail and then immediately ran up to his room so he wouldn't be there when I read it. But I think it's pretty good! He went with funny and slightly self-deprecating, which is his strong suit. Does anyone have any advice on finding good people to read it for him and give him editing advice? My husband teaches high school math and offered to ask the AP English teacher, but I'm not sure just handing it off to some random person is a good idea. Bad advice is worse than no advice, right? I can offer some general guidance but 1. I'm too invested in it, and I want to be very careful not to coach him more than I should and 2. I really don't know any more than he does about what goes into a good college essay. Academic writing I know; personal essays not so much.

 

I asked a friend of mine who writes well (English and theatre degree) and who was far from me in experience and politics.  I wanted to check that it read ok from someone outside our normal circles and that it didn't come off the wrong way.

After she read it I found out that she had worked in college admissions for several years, which was an unexpected bonus.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Sebastian (a lady)

[Arch at Home]

DD got notification that her name change is finalized so DH, DD, and I have been working to get it changed on all of her paper work. I was amazed at how easy it was to get it changed with the ACT. I am grateful that thus far there have been no hiccups.

DD finished her last college specific first draft tonight. There is still a lot of editing to do. She is thankful that the Common Essay was written last spring for her pre-college program so all she needs to do one that is minor edits. Once she has them done, a co-worker of mine in Marketing is going to do a final proof read. I have to admit that I do enjoy watching college application essays evolve. You learn so much about what is important to the studen

DD has a couple more interviews scheduled and a couple more that she is working to schedule. She is also taking the October ACT.

This is definitely a slow process but she is chipping away at it. I believe that she will finish in plenty of time that is if her recommenders come through in a timely fashion.

[Hoggirl]

On 9/26/2018 at 12:47 PM, kokotg said:

 

No, the deadlines are in January; our goal is to finish up before December, so he doesn't have to worry about them over the holidays. For the early action school, he should hear in November, if I remember right (he might also apply to an Ivy early action; we'll see). For the others, I think acceptances generally go out late March/early April.

 

Without knowing your schools, I may be misunderstanding what you are writing here regarding your early action apps.  

Often early action *deadlines* are November 1 or November 15.  Usually EA schools respond by mid-December.  For rolling admissions schools, one can hear back much sooner, of course.  

I am not familiar with all the Ivies, but HYP offer Single Choice Early Action, and there are restrictions on where else one can be applying early action if one Is applying to one of those three.  Usually only to state schools (some of which do offer EA, so those are okay), schools that offer rolling admissions, international schools, and special programs with early deadlines.  Some of the other Ivies offer Early Decsion which is a different animal altogether.  One ED school may be applied to (or two if there is an ED1 and an ED2 choice made). If the student is accepted into the ED school other apps must be withdrawn. 

Sorry if I’m being too bossy.  I just worry that people confuse the lingo or don’t understand some of the restrictions and limitations with SCEA or ED.  Early Action and Early Decison are not the same.  

[kokotg]

7 hours ago, Hoggirl said:

 

Without knowing your schools, I may be misunderstanding what you are writing here regarding your early action apps.  

Often early action *deadlines* are November 1 or November 15.  Usually EA schools respond by mid-December.  For rolling admissions schools, one can hear back much sooner, of course.  

I am not familiar with all the Ivies, but HYP offer Single Choice Early Action, and there are restrictions on where else one can be applying early action if one Is applying to one of those three.  Usually only to state schools (some of which do offer EA, so those are okay), schools that offer rolling admissions, international schools, and special programs with early deadlines.  Some of the other Ivies offer Early Decsion which is a different animal altogether.  One ED school may be applied to (or two if there is an ED1 and an ED2 choice made). If the student is accepted into the ED school other apps must be withdrawn. 

Sorry if I’m being too bossy.  I just worry that people confuse the lingo or don’t understand some of the restrictions and limitations with SCEA or ED.  Early Action and Early Decison are not the same.  

 

Bossy is good with topics this confusing, but I think I do have a handle on it thanks to a few months of obsessing ? . He's applying to University of Georgia early action; deadline is October 15, and they should send out decisions by December 1 (so I meant his goal for finishing ALL of his apps is December; the early action ones will have to be in earlier). So that would be fine along with early action at a SCEA Ivy....although now he's considering doing early action at a couple of other schools (non restrictive) instead so that, we hope, he'll already have a few good options before he settles in for the long wait until March/April. He's definitely not doing early decision anywhere; he doesn't have a definite favorite and we need to be able to compare financial aid offers. I keep thinking of you, Hoggirl, because we're visiting Hendrix next week! 

[Hoggirl]

3 minutes ago, kokotg said:

 

Bossy is good with topics this confusing, but I think I do have a handle on it thanks to a few months of obsessing ? . He's applying to University of Georgia early action; deadline is October 15, and they should send out decisions by December 1 (so I meant his goal for finishing ALL of his apps is December; the early action ones will have to be in earlier). So that would be fine along with early action at a SCEA Ivy....although now he's considering doing early action at a couple of other schools (non restrictive) instead so that, we hope, he'll already have a few good options before he settles in for the long wait until March/April. He's definitely not doing early decision anywhere; he doesn't have a definite favorite and we need to be able to compare financial aid offers. I keep thinking of you, Hoggirl, because we're visiting Hendrix next week! 

Feel free to PM me with any questions about Hendrix!!  Hope you love it!!!  

Thank you for understanding my bossiness and clarifying the “either/or” on your choices regarding your EA route.  That was the part I wasn’t clear on!  

[RootAnn]

Well, DD was admitted into her other top choice school today with the auto merit we thought she'd get. They'll let her know about competitive merit by February, but both top picks are financially do-able with just what they've notified her about so far. Still have things to do (honors college application, finish up one application to college choice #3, etc.). Still have two colleges visits to plan & make--which will hopefully narrow the field or help her to make a decision. I think she'll probably want to revisit the top choice she's already been to once, but there will be time for that in Feb/March, hopefully.

She got a call from a college admin rep the other day for the college I had her apply to (free, 5 minute web application, no essay) this summer. It was a bit awkward since she has no intention of going there, but good practice in case she has another call from one of her top picks. And, it showed her what small college personal attention is like. She got a little 'welcome' packet from the major department of one of her admitted universities. I thought it was a nice gesture even though whoever addressed it spelled her name wrong on the envelope. 

One of these days, someone should start an "admitted" thread for 2019. 

[GoodGrief]

37 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

Well, DD was admitted into her other top choice school today with the auto merit we thought she'd get. They'll let her know about competitive merit by February, but both top picks are financially do-able with just what they've notified her about so far. Still have things to do (honors college application, finish up one application to college choice #3, etc.). Still have two colleges visits to plan & make--which will hopefully narrow the field or help her to make a decision. I think she'll probably want to revisit the top choice she's already been to once, but there will be time for that in Feb/March, hopefully.

She got a call from a college admin rep the other day for the college I had her apply to (free, 5 minute web application, no essay) this summer. It was a bit awkward since she has no intention of going there, but good practice in case she has another call from one of her top picks. And, it showed her what small college personal attention is like. She got a little 'welcome' packet from the major department of one of her admitted universities. I thought it was a nice gesture even though whoever addressed it spelled her name wrong on the envelope. 

One of these days, someone should start an "admitted" thread for 2019. 

So is it down to these two then? That is great!

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, RootAnn said:

Well, DD was admitted into her other top choice school today with the auto merit we thought she'd get. They'll let her know about competitive merit by February, but both top picks are financially do-able with just what they've notified her about so far.

 

Wonderful!  ?

[kirag714]

2 hours ago, RootAnn said:

Well, DD was admitted into her other top choice school today with the auto merit we thought she'd get. They'll let her know about competitive merit by February, but both top picks are financially do-able with just what they've notified her about so far.

 

Great news - congratulations to you and your DD!

[RootAnn]

4 hours ago, GoodGrief1 said:

So is it down to these two then? That is great!

Technically, there's a third. We're visiting it before Christmas. We'll see if it moves up the list or if it moves off the list after that.

[kokotg]

On 10/5/2018 at 3:04 PM, RootAnn said:

Well, DD was admitted into her other top choice school today with the auto merit we thought she'd get.

 

woot--exciting for her! congratulations!!!

[kokotg]

DS got his first application (early action at state U) in Friday night, and he's feeling very good about having one done (and a million? or so to go). We're sitting in a hotel in Little Rock right now; we're about to go out and check out the town, and then we head to Hendrix College this evening; he has an overnight visit (which he's dreading; we have one more scheduled this fall, but I told him we'll cancel that one if this one is as terrible as he thinks it's going to be. I have to come up with an excuse other than, "my kid hates new experiences and people; please admit him to your college." Perhaps something about travel schedules instead ? ).....and then their fall open house with tours and class visits and an interview and all that is tomorrow. The value of the overnight is that he's barely even had the energy to fret about the interview yet!

[Bristayl]

Well, DD hit submit on her early action app!

She already has acceptances to four state schools, but her remaining apps are all uber-reaches and this early one was her favorite of that group, so it was the one that felt the most momentous!

I don't know whether to feel relieved or anxious!

[JazzyMom]

On 10/7/2018 at 10:11 AM, kokotg said:

DS got his first application (early action at state U) in Friday night, and he's feeling very good about having one done (and a million? or so to go). We're sitting in a hotel in Little Rock right now; we're about to go out and check out the town, and then we head to Hendrix College this evening; he has an overnight visit (which he's dreading; we have one more scheduled this fall, but I told him we'll cancel that one if this one is as terrible as he thinks it's going to be. I have to come up with an excuse other than, "my kid hates new experiences and people; please admit him to your college." Perhaps something about travel schedules instead ? ).....and then their fall open house with tours and class visits and an interview and all that is tomorrow. The value of the overnight is that he's barely even had the energy to fret about the interview yet!

 

My ds went to 3 week long college camps this summer.  (They were free, thankfully.). He was reluctant to do them at first, but he had a lot of fun, made friends he still keeps in touch with, and learned a lot about the schools and college, in general.

I hope your ds enjoys the overnight and gets a lot out of it!

[RootAnn]

@littlebug42 @JazzyMom @Bristayl & anyone else who has rolling admissions already:

On 10/13/2018 at 4:59 PM, Bristayl said:

She already has acceptances to four state schools, but her remaining apps are all uber-reaches and this early one was her favorite of that group, so it was the one that felt the most momentous!

If you feel comfortable sharing, please post on the Acceptance thread with the schools your kid is already in at. 

[kirag714]

After submitting her app to one of our in-state options last week, my daughter is ready to submit to her first EA school. We are waiting until the October SAT results are posted on Friday - if her scores have increased it would be worth updating the Common App before submitting because this school bases a lot of their merit aid simply on SAT scores. I know that they would get them anyway if we sent them, but since it's just waiting 3 more days it seems simpler for everyone if we wait. Fingers crossed - she only needed to do a tiny bit better on that SAT to be in a the next "tier" of applicants.

[kokotg]

3 hours ago, kirag714 said:

After submitting her app to one of our in-state options last week, my daughter is ready to submit to her first EA school. We are waiting until the October SAT results are posted on Friday - if her scores have increased it would be worth updating the Common App before submitting because this school bases a lot of their merit aid simply on SAT scores. I know that they would get them anyway if we sent them, but since it's just waiting 3 more days it seems simpler for everyone if we wait. Fingers crossed - she only needed to do a tiny bit better on that SAT to be in a the next "tier" of applicants.

Good luck to her!

[kokotg]

DS just submitted his second early action app--to Hendrix College. Then he sat down to do Knox, thinking it had no supplementals and would be easy, only to find that when he clicked that he wanted to be considered for merit scholarships a secret supplemental opened up that's basically "write 200 words about why you think you're so great that we should give you a scholarship." He is NOT HAPPY with Knox right now ?

[Arch at Home]

46 minutes ago, kokotg said:

DS just submitted his second early action app--to Hendrix College. Then he sat down to do Knox, thinking it had no supplementals and would be easy, only to find that when he clicked that he wanted to be considered for merit scholarships a secret supplemental opened up that's basically "write 200 words about why you think you're so great that we should give you a scholarship." He is NOT HAPPY with Knox right now ?

Oh yeah...After being assured by the rep that Drake required no essays, DD was not impressed to discover that their competitive scholarship has 2 - 500 word essays. 

[kokotg]

10 minutes ago, Arch at Home said:

Oh yeah...After being assured by the rep that Drake required no essays, DD was not impressed to discover that their competitive scholarship has 2 - 500 word essays. 

Ugh!

[RootAnn]

7 hours ago, Arch at Home said:

Oh yeah...After being assured by the rep that Drake required no essays, DD was not impressed to discover that their competitive scholarship has 2 - 500 word essays. 

Yep. Mine crossed off U of KY after finding out she'd have to write three essays as part of their app -- one to apply to get in, one for the Honors College, and one for scholarships. (Or something like that.) She's got one or two more to write for Honors College applications, but she's in no hurry to do them.

Good luck to all the EA/ED kids!

ETA: Because I didn't want to interrupt the visit thread with this slightly off-topic spinoff . .  

It is interesting how different people get different college mail. My DD didn't get anything like the Carleton origami penguin thing or the blah-blah-blah mail, but one of her snail mail flyers recently unfolded to a giant toothbrush picture. (She also got what looked to be an individual email from a junior at a small college talking about the transition between homeschooling and college. Not sure if they had that kid write a generic email and send it to all the homeschooled kids on their contact list or what.)

And the emails had slowed down for a few weeks but have exploded again with colleges warning that their deadlines are coming up and she needs to APPLY SOON.

Edited October 17, 2018 by RootAnn

[Another Lynn]

8 hours ago, RootAnn said:

Yep. Mine crossed off U of KY after finding out she'd have to write three essays as part of their app -- one to apply to get in, one for the Honors College, and one for scholarships. (Or something like that.) She's got one or two more to write for Honors College applications, but she's in no hurry to do them.

Good luck to all the EA/ED kids!

ETA: Because I didn't want to interrupt the visit thread with this slightly off-topic spinoff . .  

It is interesting how different people get different college mail. My DD didn't get anything like the Carleton origami penguin thing or the blah-blah-blah mail, but one of her snail mail flyers recently unfolded to a giant toothbrush picture. (She also got what looked to be an individual email from a junior at a small college talking about the transition between homeschooling and college. Not sure if they had that kid write a generic email and send it to all the homeschooled kids on their contact list or what.)

And the emails had slowed down for a few weeks but have exploded again with colleges warning that their deadlines are coming up and she needs to APPLY SOON.

I don't blame her for that decision!  Wow - that's a pain!  And I don't know how it is for students who are coming from other places, but for those of us who are local to UK, merit aid is not what it used to be!  

[RootAnn]

4 hours ago, Another Lynn said:

I don't blame her for that decision!  Wow - that's a pain!  And I don't know how it is for students who are coming from other places, but for those of us who are local to UK, merit aid is not what it used to be!  

Mine possibly would have qualified for free tuition plus two years of 10k each for room & board at UKy. So, kind of a big deal to shrug off.

But, UAH didn't require even one essay for their app (but does require a separate app for the Honors college that requires a small one & a twitter-size blurb--neither of which she's done) and she got full tuition & a $1k fee stipend there with the possibility of more merit later. Plus, she wasn't sold sold on the huge UKy campus, so I'm not complaining too much. ?

[Kassia]

38 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

Mine possibly would have qualified for free tuition plus two years of 10k each for room & board at UKy. So, kind of a big deal to shrug off.

But, UAH didn't require even one essay for their app (but does require a separate app for the Honors college that requires a small one & a twitter-size blurb--neither of which she's done) and she got full tuition & a $1k fee stipend there with the possibility of more merit later. Plus, she wasn't sold sold on the huge UKy campus, so I'm not complaining too much. ?

 

Yes, the amount of scholarship money was the first thing I thought of as far as being a big deal to shrug off.  We haven't visited UK yet but I suspect my dd will have the same issue with it being too big.  UAH isn't an option for us because there aren't circus opportunities nearby (UK has a great aerial studio very close to campus and it's possible they may start a circus club).  

 

[JazzyMom]

On 10/14/2018 at 9:12 PM, RootAnn said:

@littlebug42 @JazzyMom @Bristayl & anyone else who has rolling admissions already:

If you feel comfortable sharing, please post on the Acceptance thread with the schools your kid is already in at. 

 

Where’s the the thread?  

[Lori D.]

28 minutes ago, JazzyMom said:

On 10/14/2018 at 7:12 PM,  RootAnn said: 

@littlebug42 @JazzyMom @Bristayl & anyone else who has rolling admissions already:
If you feel comfortable sharing, please post on the Acceptance thread with the schools your kid is already in at. 

____________________

Where’s the the thread?  

Class of 2019 College Acceptance Thread

(I also linked it on page 2 of the College motherlode pinned thread, with all the other past years of acceptance & decision threads ? )