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Anyone Want to Chat About College Apps/Decisions?


JazzyMom
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All my DD's early action applications were submitted yesterday with several hours to spare! And both of her recommenders came through yesterday and today, so that is a HUGE weight off of our minds. Her early decision school deadline is 11/15, and she's almost done with the writing for that - and then after that I think she's earned a bit of a breather. Fingers crossed on the ED application because it is a very selective LAC that is a reach for every applicant no matter what their stats are. 

It would be so great to be done with this process in December!

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22 hours ago, JeanM said:

Yesterday teacher said he'd have it done by 6 pm. At 7 pm we were starting to panic. At 7:30 pm, the recommendation showed up. What a relief! I just hope the teacher did a good job. He knows ds very well, has taught him multiple classes for 4 years. And his subject is ds's potential major. So we really, really wanted this particular teacher.

OMG. We would have panicked. I am so glad that the teacher came through in time. 

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21 hours ago, kirag714 said:

All my DD's early action applications were submitted yesterday with several hours to spare! And both of her recommenders came through yesterday and today, so that is a HUGE weight off of our minds. Her early decision school deadline is 11/15, and she's almost done with the writing for that - and then after that I think she's earned a bit of a breather. Fingers crossed on the ED application because it is a very selective LAC that is a reach for every applicant no matter what their stats are. 

It would be so great to be done with this process in December!

Good luck on the ED app! That would indeed make for a much more pleasant second half of the year!

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On 11/2/2018 at 5:16 PM, kirag714 said:

All my DD's early action applications were submitted yesterday with several hours to spare! And both of her recommenders came through yesterday and today, so that is a HUGE weight off of our minds. Her early decision school deadline is 11/15, and she's almost done with the writing for that - and then after that I think she's earned a bit of a breather. Fingers crossed on the ED application because it is a very selective LAC that is a reach for every applicant no matter what their stats are. 

It would be so great to be done with this process in December!

 

Good luck! My older ds applied ED to a very selective LAC like that and got deferred and eventually rejected. He's happy at the school he is at now though. My younger ds just applied ED to a LAC that is much less selective. I think it's a great fit for him, and the odds of him getting in are high. Hopefully with merit aid too!

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Writing these supplements is going to kill both of us, I think. I am sympathetic, but also so tired of listening to him agonize over them. It's a 70 word maximum for this one, kid; how can it be taking you THREE HOURS?! Deep breaths. He just added Wesleyan back onto his list specifically because it doesn't have any supplements. But it does want an interview, which is a whole other thing. He REALLY hates interviews--even more than writing supplements!--and I'm not sure how much I'm supposed to push him. Some places are clear that interviews are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, but others are very cagey. Carleton says interviews considered on the common data set, but then says they're not required in bold letters on their website. Okay to skip that one? I don't think he's bad enough at interviewing that it would hurt him, but he's super quiet and reserved, so I don't think they're likely to wow anyone either (these would be all alumni interviews; he already has done a couple and has a couple more scheduled for places we're visiting...if he requests an alumni interview for everywhere that offers them it will indeed be a lot of interviews).

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It took ds forever to write the supplements, many of which were just a few paragraphs. I honestly think it’s because he doesn’t have any concrete goals or deep thoughts to share so it was taxing his brain to come up with things to say.  Haha!  Anyway, I am SO glad he’s done.

Thankfully, he should only have to do one interview, and that’s only IF he gets a shot at a scholarship he applied for.  I hope he gets a shot.  If so, we’ll do a lot of practice/coaching.

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DD started filling out the college specific questions tonight and discovered at least two more supplemental essays, three short prompts, 3 resumes, and 1 photo requirement. One college also lists an optional writing supplement and has a Common App Supplement on their website. The prompts, resume, and photo were easy enough to address but she sent an email about the optional writing supplement/Common App Supplement. Some she should have caught in her first pass for essays but some were buried deep and without text boxes. She is now trying to figure out how she can adapt already written essays for these new prompts.

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4 hours ago, Arch at Home said:

DD started filling out the college specific questions tonight and discovered at least two more supplemental essays, three short prompts, 3 resumes, and 1 photo requirement. One college also lists an optional writing supplement and has a Common App Supplement on their website. The prompts, resume, and photo were easy enough to address but she sent an email about the optional writing supplement/Common App Supplement. Some she should have caught in her first pass for essays but some were buried deep and without text boxes. She is now trying to figure out how she can adapt already written essays for these new prompts.

 

You may have seen this already, but Cialfo does a web extension that pulls all the essay requirements for any college if you just type in the college name. We did a search then copy and paste for each college DS is applying to into a main document so they're all together. 

It's free and IME accurate. So much easier than going through the Common App or the college websites. 

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Woo-hoo! DS#1 *just* now showed me the official acceptance email that he received today --  just in time, as today is the first day for registration of classes for the spring semester!  What a relief! So DS will officially be a transfer student (again, lol) this spring.

He also got his report back from the registrar as to what courses transfer, so when we can go over that, hopefully we will find that all his gen. ed. courses are checked off, and he only needs to focus on the core concentration courses for Engineering -- which accounts for 101 credits of the 128 credits needed for the Mechanical Engineering degree! (:0

One disappointment -- although, we already knew this -- in spite of currently carrying a 4.0 GPA, DS is ineligible for scholarships as they all have a requirement that the student is "working toward their first degree". And while he is over 24yo and no longer needs our financials for FAFSA (which would increase his odds of getting financial aid), his previously-earned Bachelor's degree knocks him out of Pell Grant eligibility. ?  The best he can possibly do is to be offered the full amount possible for subsidized loans each year. We're keeping fingers crossed that he will be eligible next year for one of the university's smaller departmental scholarships given to juniors and seniors in the Engineering program.

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3 hours ago, JazzyMom said:

So if all of your ds’ gen eds transfer, will he have 101 hours completed for the degree,  or will he have 101 hours remaining?


He has been taking some of those Engineering core concentration courses at the community college and they transfer as well, so fewer than than 101 credits remaining.

However... we just got the report back from the Registrar yesterday, and also seeing the new catalog that bumps the total maximum transfer credits up from 52 to 64, everything is suddenly much more complicated and it's putting DS in a difficult decision position of having to decide whether or not to try and request a deferment and do the spring semester at the CC and start at the university in the fall. 

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My DD  receives approximately 8 or 10 emails daily in her school email account.  On rare occasions, she Forwards one to me to check out. Yesterday, Monday, was one of those days. An email from Tulane University.  A school that was *never* on our Radar.   I checked it out and I told her, "If I were in your shoes, I would apply, but I'm not in your shoes, so when you have time, check out their web site and see if you find things that are of interest".  She is in the process of filling out the Application for EA and the deadline is in 2 days.

Fortunately, they take the Common App and the CSS Profile. Between Merit Aid and Need based aid, it could work for her.  Some neat things like the majority (?) of undergraduates double or triple major, and they can take courses in the different schools within the university. They sent the email on Sunday morning and I wonder if they have a better response rate from emails they send on Sundays...

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DD got her October ACT scores today. We are both grareful that the testing phase of her college application process is over. The composite score was not as high as previous scores but she had one high so that will help with her one Super Score school.

Tonight, we huddled around the computer and she submitted to 5 schools. The Common App support staff was incredibly responsive to our requests for support. We got a response within 5 minutes of DD's first request and 2 minutes after a her reply email she had her second response. If only the College Board was so quick....It will be another day or three before we hear back from them.

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OK, my DD hit "submit" on her ED application to Swarthmore today! Luckily we got it done before we had all completely lost our minds. She spent ages on her essay and I think it ended up being pretty good - but man, writing these LAC supplements is HARD. She's really not feeling confident that she's going to be accepted, but I'm glad she's going for it (and think she has a shot).

And for good measure she submitted an application to another LAC (much less selective) that I had been recommending - no supplement, not even a short question to answer (yay!) and a fee waiver if you apply before December 1st.

So she's now submitted 6 applications so far. I'm so proud of how she's been approaching this process.

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27 minutes ago, kirag714 said:

OK, my DD hit "submit" on her ED application to Swarthmore today! Luckily we got it done before we had all completely lost our minds. She spent ages on her essay and I think it ended up being pretty good - but man, writing these LAC supplements is HARD. She's really not feeling confident that she's going to be accepted, but I'm glad she's going for it (and think she has a shot).

And for good measure she submitted an application to another LAC (much less selective) that I had been recommending - no supplement, not even a short question to answer (yay!) and a fee waiver if you apply before December 1st.

So she's now submitted 6 applications so far. I'm so proud of how she's been approaching this process.

DS has gone back and forth a million times about Swarthmore--I think he finally decided he'll do Haverford but not Swarthmore...if he makes it that far with essay writing! Good luck to your DD!

9 applications submitted so far here, and he's running out of steam. He's working on the Macalester supplemental right now, and then I think that may be it for awhile, and he'll see if he gets a second wind after Thanksgiving to do a couple more. We made the mistake of watching a Youtube video we stumbled across last night--of a girl recording herself reacting to all her college acceptances/rejections. She applied to half the same schools as DS, and it seemed totally random where she got admitted and didn't: Grinnell--yes, Hamilton--no. That kind of thing. So I feel like DS has a good mix right now and should really have a couple of appealing sure things in there, but now if he misses on all his reaches he'll always wonder if he might have gotten into one if he'd just managed a few more essays. Being a high school senior these days doesn't seem like all that much fun. On the other hand, he's likely to have a lot more options than I felt like I had at his age, so that's something.

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I'm impressed by your DCs who are getting in their applications! DS got his early in, and seems to have decided that there's absolutely not rush, whatsoever, and he can take his sweet time to complete the apps for the other 14 or so schools on his list. No rush. Plenty of time over the Christmas holidays. It's not even like he would definitely attend his early if he were accepted because he has a list of schools he would nonetheless apply to. His sisters have been telling him that this is a terrible approach; I've told him this. But he's at boarding school, school does pretty much zero to help other than send materials, and my ability to force him to sit down to do the apps is limited because of distance. But he'll be home this weekend .... 

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There has been no activity in this thread for 10 days now, so I will bump it up.   I know that my DD has been working on the ApplyTexas app.  This morning, when we were eating Breakfast, I asked her, "how does the ApplyTexas app compare to the CommonApp?"   Her reply was that she wishes the 2 universities she is applying to that require the ApplyTexas app used the CommonApp instead.   Sounds like she needs to enter the same information, in multiple places, on the ApplyTexas app.  Sounds like it is a PITA, compared to the CommonApp.

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Interesting, Lanny. DD only applied to places that either had their own app (or a streamlined version for certain applicants) or accepted the Common App. Always interesting to hear about other apps (ApplyTexas, Coalition).

I have noticed an uptick in snailmail addressed to "The parents of [Student Name]." I am also getting emails from the colleges where dd has been accepted. I wonder if this is an attempt to woo the parents and influence the kids? (How often does that work?)

DD is getting lots of reminders to fill out the FAFSA in email, too. About as many as when it opened.

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1 hour ago, RootAnn said:

Interesting, Lanny. DD only applied to places that either had their own app (or a streamlined version for certain applicants) or accepted the Common App. Always interesting to hear about other apps (ApplyTexas, Coalition).

I have noticed an uptick in snailmail addressed to "The parents of [Student Name]." I am also getting emails from the colleges where dd has been accepted. I wonder if this is an attempt to woo the parents and influence the kids? (How often does that work?)

DD is getting lots of reminders to fill out the FAFSA in email, too. About as many as when it opened.

 

There are probably a lot of different envelopes in the mail to DD. The Snail mail from the USA has become horrible. When I went to the post office to mail my Absentee Ballot at the end of September, the clerk told me she thought it is because there is no Tracking. She was seeing mail that had been sent late in 2017.   DD did receive one piece of Snail Mail a couple of weeks ago, sent by Columbia University last June, for a June meeting... Going the other way, if I go there to send an envelope the least expensive way, there is Tracking, and the envelope will be delivered in approximately 20 to 25 days.  

Woo the parents and influence the kids?   Occasionally DD will receive an email from a school (is she still receiving ~10 emails a day?)  and she will Forward it to me and ask me about it.  Curiously, she has applied to 2 universities EA who did that. Those are the only schools she applied EA to. One of them had been on "the Radar" but was taken off the list of potential schools.  Then, they recruited her again and she applied...   The other was never on the Radar  but when I checked it out, I suggested to DD that she study their web site and if it looked good to her that she apply.  She did. Those are her 2 EA schools.

I think having a small Spreadsheet to keep track of this. If you sent the FAFSA. If you sent the CSS Profile. If you sent the SAT and/or ACT scores, etc., would be nice for DD to have.

I don't remember receiving any snail mail or email from a school with my name on it and I don't know how they could get my name, if DD hasn't applied for admission.

It is obvious that some of the emails DD receives are because she qualified as a National Hispanic Scholar when she took the PSAT/NMSQT last year.   Some of the others, I wonder if they are a result of the SAT exam or the ACT exam.  Probably a combination of those 3 examinations.

Your DD is lucky that she doesn't need to complete the ApplyTexas application...

 

 

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12 hours ago, RootAnn said:

Interesting, Lanny. DD only applied to places that either had their own app (or a streamlined version for certain applicants) or accepted the Common App. Always interesting to hear about other apps (ApplyTexas, Coalition).

I have noticed an uptick in snailmail addressed to "The parents of [Student Name]." I am also getting emails from the colleges where dd has been accepted. I wonder if this is an attempt to woo the parents and influence the kids? (How often does that work?)

DD is getting lots of reminders to fill out the FAFSA in email, too. About as many as when it opened.

We have gotten quite a bit addressed to the parents of [student.] These seem to focus on the affordablity, safety, or quality of education. The tend to come from faculty members or administrators with college age children. I always take them to mean that they feel they need to persuade the parents to consider the institution in question as a viable option for their child. This is a reasonable assumption since we seem to be getting these from more remote, more selective schools, lesser known schools, not our state flag ship uni. 

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20 hours ago, Lanny said:

There has been no activity in this thread for 10 days now, so I will bump it up.   I know that my DD has been working on the ApplyTexas app.  This morning, when we were eating Breakfast, I asked her, "how does the ApplyTexas app compare to the CommonApp?"   Her reply was that she wishes the 2 universities she is applying to that require the ApplyTexas app used the CommonApp instead.   Sounds like she needs to enter the same information, in multiple places, on the ApplyTexas app.  Sounds like it is a PITA, compared to the CommonApp.

 

University of Georgia was our only one that didn't take common app; it was either coalition or their own app. He used theirs, and it was a pain because they used the standard essay prompts (plus one more of their own) so that he could use his common app one, except with a much lower word limit so that he had to heavily edit it. And they don't even read the essays for the majority  of early action apps (just people who are borderline between being admitted or deferred and not), so it was a little frustrating to put all that extra work into essays that would likely never be read.

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Eleven apps down here. I feel like he could really be done now--he has a good mix of safeties and matches and reaches and all that--but he insists he wants to keep going. I think he's panicky that he won't get into any of the more selective places and that he'll have a miserable March because of it. I think that's pretty unlikely, but I can't guarantee it or anything, so if he wants to do a couple more that's fine. Assuming I can survive all the moaning about essay writing. He applied to Wesleyan last night specifically because they don't have any supplementals (I do think it'd be a good school for him, but we weren't able to visit, so we only have reputation and Lin-Manuel Miranda to go on).

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kokotg :  Yes, a PITA to write all of those essays, especially if nobody is going to read them...

One of the 2 universities DD applied to EA is a Public university and  they did take the CommonApp.       Sadly, the Public universities in Texas don't take the CommonApp.  

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I think the Texas schools use their own app to accommodate their automatic admissions. Apply Texas goes live in July and many students have their apps done before school starts in August. Some universities will fill popular majors first come, first served, others use holistic admissions but have more slots open earlier in the rolling admissions cycle. For some schools that give substantial aid (UTD and U of H) there's a preference for early appliers. Then there's the competition for on campus housing. It's getting a bit late for applications to Texas schools if they're your first choice.

 

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55 minutes ago, kokotg said:

Eleven apps down here. I feel like he could really be done now--he has a good mix of safeties and matches and reaches and all that--but he insists he wants to keep going. I think he's panicky that he won't get into any of the more selective places and that he'll have a miserable March because of it. I think that's pretty unlikely, but I can't guarantee it or anything, so if he wants to do a couple more that's fine. Assuming I can survive all the moaning about essay writing. He applied to Wesleyan last night specifically because they don't have any supplementals (I do think it'd be a good school for him, but we weren't able to visit, so we only have reputation and Lin-Manual Miranda to go on).

DD submitted 4 last evening and will do the final 4 tonight. She wrote almost all of the essays prior to starting to apply as the rolling admissions schools were not highly competitive. The last couple essays were collages of previous essays massaged to fit the topic de jour. 

At our house, Lin Manual Miranda would be a good enough reason to apply to a college. Shoot, DD is applying to Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s alma maters. (Actually, they fit her requirements prior to knowing that they touted these famous alums.)

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All of our apps are done and we are flying from the West Coast to NYC in Jan to explore some of the schools ds applied to there!  He also applied to schools in Philly but they're safeties and he doesn't want to add them to the visit.  They're not bad schools, but for his major, not as enticing or interesting but more run-of-the-mill....so just NYC and family in Philly đŸ™‚

I am super excited that we have scheduled this trip.  This way, when the acceptances come in, we will only have to fly out once in April.  That will either be to SoCal or to Pittsburgh.  Maybe even no flying at all if he chooses the CA schools nearby or the NYC schools. đŸ™‚

I did have to purchase a coat for him and I, and decent warm waterproof boots as well as fleece lined tights for under my jeans đŸ™‚ We are not used to the cold and are going in JANUARY! (we also have hats and gloves and all that but our ski coats would have been weird walking around the city.)   They were expensive so that's the big Christmas gift for us this year đŸ™‚

I am going to NY in January, after living in Florida for 13 years and CA for 5. Oh my.  (grew up on the east cost but you do forget what it's like) 

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Also, Lanny, I agree.  The Common App is the best one of them all.  We opened up the Texas App, chose the Coalition instead for Texas A&M, but then got about 4/5 of the way through and just lost steam.  I just couldn't push my son to do anymore and with mid-terms, finals, and term papers constantly looming, and the first C of his life coming in Physics (from the drunken disorganized prof), he just didn't have the heart for any more.

But, I feel like I can objectively say that the COalition App is much more annoying to use than the Common App

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@Calming Tea  This morning, DD was working on the ApplyTexas application for the first of the 2 schools that will receive it. She had a question about Income. I went in there, so I could see how the question was worded.  So ambiguous...  I didn't know if they wanted Gross Income or Adjusted Gross Income or Taxable Income. I gave them Gross Income.  I didn't see other parts of the application, but if that's typical, not well thought out IMO.  Both schools were sent the FAFSA early in October and if they want copies of tax returns, etc., we will send that to them.  DD will hopefully submit the ApplyTexas to the other school today. I can only imagine from what you wrote how much worse the CoalitionApp is... One submitted and one being worked on and hopefully will be submitted later today.

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3 hours ago, Lanny said:

@Calming Tea  This morning, DD was working on the ApplyTexas application for the first of the 2 schools that will receive it. She had a question about Income. I went in there, so I could see how the question was worded.  So ambiguous...  I didn't know if they wanted Gross Income or Adjusted Gross Income or Taxable Income. I gave them Gross Income.  I didn't see other parts of the application, but if that's typical, not well thought out IMO.  Both schools were sent the FAFSA early in October and if they want copies of tax returns, etc., we will send that to them.  DD will hopefully submit the ApplyTexas to the other school today. I can only imagine from what you wrote how much worse the CoalitionApp is... One submitted and one being worked on and hopefully will be submitted later today.

I am so glad that DD was able to do all of her applications with the Common App. For some of the schools, it was a bit akward as it appeared to be their first year but every one took it.

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@Calming Tea     After submitting the ApplyTexas app to the first school this morning, DD began working on it for the 2nd school.  A&M.   It popped up a Scholarship for her to apply for, which she then began doing.  I don't think the other school presented her with a Scholarship to apply for, but will ask her about that later.  I believe A&M will offer her more aid (Need and Merit) than the other school can offer. Time will tell...

ETA:   I confirmed this with DD. The first school she submitted the ApplyTexas app to did not suggest that she apply for a scholarship as A&M did.  

Edited by Lanny
add ETA and change "better" to "more"
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Last night DD had her ACT test results to the remainder of her schools. She had two tests that she did not have to pay for having the test results sent (December 2017 and June 2018). Did anyone else have that happen to you also. I am definitely not complaining, just was pleasantly surprised.

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On 11/28/2018 at 10:14 PM, Calming Tea said:

I'm bummed that we took A&M off of our list.  But, at the same time with 11 schools on the list and spread out so much, maybe it made sense to just let it all rest. đŸ™‚ Good luck to your dd. I can't believe we are where we are.

 

A&M is a top-notch school and not just in Football...  Possibly rethink that. I believe the deadline to apply is December 1st?   A&M has a guaranteed $3500 a year scholarship for National Hispanic Scholars and DD is qualified for that. The other Apply Texas school she applied to doesn't have that.  

It isn't about the Cadet Corps or Football. It is simply an excellent university and they have a big Endowment which (hopefully) permits them to provide more Need/Merit aid to the students.

I can't believe where we are either. I remember when we (unexpectedly) enrolled DD in Pre School, just before she was 3.  She was so ready and she learned so much. The older I get, the faster the years go by...

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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.

 

Hi--I am an old timer on WTM forums and the old boards and have just managed to get a password working again. I am chiming in because my youngest is a music major freshman in trumpet performance. YES, auditions are huge and even though I might be a bit late, I'd be happy to answer questions. Which schools is she applying to? Apply to at least 5 or 6 as we learned that students can pass auditions but still not get into the schools, particularly if they are larger names. My son passed almost every audition, but only got into two (the ones he got into offered him audition based scholarships.) We live back east, so he auditioned chiefly in MA & RI, but also at one school in TX. The school he is attending, with almost the exact same faculty at NEC, is Boston Conservatory (now part of Berklee), but he also tried for RIC (Rhode Island College, his back up school as his teacher at the time is on the faculty there and at the school he's going to), NEC, BU and in Denton (is that the U of N. Texas? I can no longer remember).

My main unsolicited advice is to not overpay your undergrad and that the teacher is most important--where are that teacher's students going afterward? He would be at RIC if not for a very generous scholarship and would have had the same trumpet faculty he has now (but for 4 years not 2 as he's already been studying with him for 3 years). This is more "classical" or "art music" whereas the Berklee side is more jazz, pop and other sorts of music. Also, he commutes because they have removed the freshman housing requirement. BUT my cousin has made a living as a composer and went to Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC which is not famous for composition, plus the master's degree is the most important. i am taking voice lessons at NEC Continuing Ed (financial aid--my son was in their prep program with generous financial aid for nearly 3 years) and fequently meet grad students there and at BoCo who did there Bachelor's at less expensive schools

Feel free to PM me with questions, if you'd like to chat about this. If I was redundant, my apologies as I have to run đŸ™‚

PS Also, early decision can work against you if you are hoping for merit scholarships and don't get one at your first school. I am quite certain, though, that the reason he didn't get into one of the big name schools is because a trumpeter from our same state, also male, got in in early decision (a horn player and friend of my son's knew that trumpeter as they were in BYSO, which is the other excellent orchestra programme in Boston).

 

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A couple of weeks ago, DD received an email from a $$$$ Private university to apply EA and she did. That school had never been on our Radar, but it checked out very well.  Yesterday, she and I received an email from them, for their second ED period. She can change her application, from EA to ED, by the first week of January 2019 and they will notify her by the 24th (?) of January.  In this case, she has applied to another university ED and I doubt she will take them up on this, if she is not accepted by the university she applied ED to,  but I really appreciate the fact that they gave her 5 weeks to think about it, and not just 2 or 3 days.  Probably this is common and they are trying to increase their "Yield"?

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18 hours ago, Lanny said:

A couple of weeks ago, DD received an email from a $$$$ Private university to apply EA and she did. That school had never been on our Radar, but it checked out very well.  Yesterday, she and I received an email from them, for their second ED period. She can change her application, from EA to ED, by the first week of January 2019 and they will notify her by the 24th (?) of January.  In this case, she has applied to another university ED and I doubt she will take them up on this, if she is not accepted by the university she applied ED to,  but I really appreciate the fact that they gave her 5 weeks to think about it, and not just 2 or 3 days.  Probably this is common and they are trying to increase their "Yield"?

I wouldn't take those sorts of emails to mean anything other than schools are businesses and they definitely do a lot of marketing. Applications bring in $$, ED means guaranteed students in seats. I personally think ED only benefits the school, but others may disagree, I wouldn't have her pursue any ED if you want to be able to compare offers.

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5 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

I wouldn't take those sorts of emails to mean anything other than schools are businesses and they definitely do a lot of marketing. Applications bring in $$, ED means guaranteed students in seats. I personally think ED only benefits the school, but others may disagree, I wouldn't have her pursue any ED if you want to be able to compare offers.

 

She did apply ED to the university that is her #1 choice.  And recently she applied to 2 others, EA, including this school.   Like you, and I told my DD this, I believe the 2nd school where she applied EA, which sent that email Friday, about changing from EA to ED by January 7th, is trying to increase their "Yield" and to have more students who are not only accepted, but who actually enroll.   I do not believe at this time that she will apply to any additional schools ED.  That particular university does not charge an Application Fee, so they are not making $$ from the Applications.  

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1 hour ago, Lanny said:

That particular university does not charge an Application Fee, so they are not making $$ from the Applications.  

Yes, but they (Tulane, if I'm not mistaken) are increasing their number of applications through the marketing (some would call them recruitment) emails. Because of the increase in applications, their acceptance rate drops. They touted that this year's class is their "most selective" ever.

It was interesting the different techniques colleges used to market to the kids. Tulane, for example, was one of several who sent emails in the vein of Snob Appeal -- saying that she would receive Priority Consideration as an elite candidate who wouldn't have to pay an application fee, would be considered for merit scholarships, and would get an interview with an alum. The trick is that no one pays an application fee, that everyone who applies by a certain date gets automatic consideration for merit, and all ED/EA applicants get an interview with an alum.

Another college had one of their current students who had been homeschooled write an email that I assume went out to all the homeschooled kids on their mailing list. I thought the email was a bit of a turn off (because the kid who wrote the email sounded like a stereotype of a homeschooler rather than the type of kid I know), but it was an interesting idea.

The fill-in-the-blank emails where it puts your name & hometown into certain slots like a bulk mail letter make them sound more personalized, but they are clearly sent out to a ton of kids at a time. (Now, DD does get personalized phone calls from one of her application counselor people. The only problem is she doesn't actually want to go to this place -- it was one I made her apply to.)

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@Root Ann  Yes it is Tulane.  It was *never* on our Radar, but it checked out and DD applied. The other university she applied EA to had been on our Radar, but then was taken off, because it is a state flagship that requires the vast majority of Freshmen to be state residents, and then they sent an email about extending the EA deadline, and she applied to that one EA too.  Most of the emails she receives don't make it to me.  A small percentage she Forwards to me, asking my opinion and I try to check them out for her.

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I have always treated all college emails as spam and junk mail. I don't  see real value in them bc they are just mass market mailings and eventually learned for our kids to not check for release of information or have had them create a bogus email for all college board and college spam to go to.

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Tulane is one of those schools using heavy marketing to make their acceptance rate go down and thus their ratings go up. My kids got tons of email from Tulane and neither one of them had the stats to go there. My high stat niece did the free app after getting the emails and got deferred and the rejected. She was so offended but they knew she wasn’t going to go there. She’d showed zero interest but filling out the app helped their stats. She ended up at Georgia Tech.

I read an article that said Tulane had the same marketing agency as U of Chicago. I laughed because U of Chicago sent so much stuff to my second son. My ds who was almost ten points below their average ACT and had no business applying to U of Chicago. 

I think Tulane even called our house. 

It is silliness how the ratings game has driven the marketing.

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http://www.thecollegesolution.com/please-apply-so-we-can-reject-you/

When one of mine was a high school senior, he received a very "heart-felt" letter late in the application process urging him to apply so they could fill their freshman class. 

I had to laugh, because the school was Princeton.

I wanted to respond to the personalized letter just  to assure them they could easily fill their class from the applications they had already received. 

My kids use a junk email address for standardized tests, so we never see any emails. We have a shelf for the mail. I think I remember opening the Princeton letter, because I didn't recognize what it was. I do remember it didn't look like the rest of the marketing materials. It was a simple white envelope and may have been hand addressed. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Before she took the PSAT/NMSQT last year, I suggested to my DD that she create a special email account for the emails she would receive as a result of the test taking. I told her that 99% of them would be things she had no interest in and that she should delete them. But, that there would be a few, a very few, that we should check out.   Some of the emails she receives make it obvious they know that she is a National Hispanic Scholar. Others, I assume are just from the SAT and ACT exams.   We are overseas and the mail from the USA has become incredibly slow and unreliable, but she did receive one envelope, in November, from Columbia University in NYC, about a June 2018 meeting there...  I suspect there are many other things in the mail to her, from what some of you wrote above about what your DC have received.  She has excellent stats, not quite as high as she would like, and hopefully will be accepted by a university where she can be happy and excel and be with other highly motivated students.  Some of the emails she receives are targeted at "International" students, because her address is overseas, and apparently they are not aware that she is a U.S. Citizen and so is not an "International" student with deep pockets.

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Lanny, using them as a tool to research schools you aren't familiar with is a good plan. Interpreting them to have any value in terms of individual students is what they want you to do but is completely worthless. The emails have zero predictive value bc the same email is sent to every student who checked off any computer-generated box with whatever terms.

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2 hours ago, Lanny said:

@8FillTheHeart  I think that is intuitively obvious.   

 

I wish I could say that emails and mass mailings were widely perceived as advertising, but I think a sizable portion of the recipients and their families read more into them than they should.

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2 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

I wish I could say that emails and mass mailings were widely perceived as advertising, but I think a sizable portion of the recipients and their families read more into them than they should.

They are so personalized now-a-days that it is very tempting to think they are recruitment emails. They are targeted marketing emails. VERY targeted in some cases.

DD is so jaded by how personalized the mass emails are that she has missed some very specific, actually-to-her emails from an admissions counselor at one of the schools she's been accepted at. She found out about them when the admissions counselor called her to see if she had a different email that she actually checks/answers. This is for a college she doesn't want to attend, however, as it was one I made her apply to. :tongue: So she didn't feel too bad about ignoring them. I don't know how you tell the difference, though. I guess some schools use their portal/campus email address to send the stuff the kid is really supposed to care about.

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13 hours ago, RootAnn said:

They are so personalized now-a-days that it is very tempting to think they are recruitment emails. They are targeted marketing emails. VERY targeted in some cases.

DD is so jaded by how personalized the mass emails are that she has missed some very specific, actually-to-her emails from an admissions counselor at one of the schools she's been accepted at. She found out about them when the admissions counselor called her to see if she had a different email that she actually checks/answers. This is for a college she doesn't want to attend, however, as it was one I made her apply to. :tongue: So she didn't feel too bad about ignoring them. I don't know how you tell the difference, though. I guess some schools use their portal/campus email address to send the stuff the kid is really supposed to care about.

 

True confessions but I helped one son monitor and manage his email during college apps. The flood of junk mail was obscuring important communication. I took a couple hours and deleted and unsubscribed from colleges he didn't care about. 

He was in the room and approved each unsubscribe, but literally did not have the 10 min per school needed to get control of his inbox back.

Took a bit of daily maintenance to stop all the unwanted stuff, but he was then able to see when important mail came in. The unsubscribing is key, otherwise it just keeps coming.

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31 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

DD actually has a college junk email and a separate one used for applications. So, these were just junk from one college she applied to. Her college junk email gets 9-12 emails a day. Her application one gets 1 a day. But she generally ignores all the emails from that one college because 99% or more don't apply to her (Visit! Fill out the FAFSA! Apply for this or that scholarship! Apply to be a writing tutor!) since she is not going to attend there.

I really wish I had thought of this! My DD's inbox is inundated - and yes she has missed an occasional important message amid all the junk.

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