The Class of 2024 College Application Thread

[kokotg]

Homestretch of applications now! He has his UGA audition date set in January, so all that remains is all the supplemental essays. But he now has a solid template for the diversity one that's all over the place now, so a lot of it is just going to be tweaking that and/or the "why this college?" one for assorted schools. And I think he's going to add a couple more that don't have supplementals...he has a fee waiver for the common app and the CSS, so nothing to lose. How's everyone else doing?  

[MagistraKennedy]

Have we all survived? 

I feel like this week has been BRUTAL -- I got sick with the winter crud last Sat -- not good timing. 
Made one last college trip that was VERY fruitful - a pleasant surprise, and the rest of the week has been the whirlwind of finishing the School Profile, Counselor Letter, reading and re-reading essays, crying, stressing, etc. My daughter came down with the crud on Wednesday, again, terrible timing. 

But we're 90% finished! We finished our state flagship application on Thursday, then an extensive Honors College application on Friday. We have one more regular decision application to manage, which we will send over by the end of next week. She has the main essay (Common App) done, but needs to finish the supplemental short answer essays. 

More crying for me this morning, when I woke up to a thank you message from my daughter. 

[kokotg]

21 minutes ago, MagistraKennedy said:

Have we all survived? 

I feel like this week has been BRUTAL -- I got sick with the winter crud last Sat -- not good timing. 
Made one last college trip that was VERY fruitful - a pleasant surprise, and the rest of the week has been the whirlwind of finishing the School Profile, Counselor Letter, reading and re-reading essays, crying, stressing, etc. My daughter came down with the crud on Wednesday, again, terrible timing. 

But we're 90% finished! We finished our state flagship application on Thursday, then an extensive Honors College application on Friday. We have one more regular decision application to manage, which we will send over by the end of next week. She has the main essay (Common App) done, but needs to finish the supplemental short answer essays. 

More crying for me this morning, when I woke up to a thank you message from my daughter. 

You're almost there--you've got this! Trying to encourage mine to finish everything by mid month so he can enjoy the holidays/having his brother home.

[SanDiegoMom]

I have one kid that has a supplemental application due for dance, and then two auditions.  She's not really putting much hope in them, she most likely is just planning on college and dancing on the side, but the work is still there to be done so as not to close any doors!

My son, well, he's still got a lot of work ahead.  It's a little bit overwhelming to be honest, since he's been going non stop with school and extracurriculars  and just feels so behind on apps.  On the other hand it makes my heart glad to see him so happy and involved in what he is doing now, vs where he was a few years ago.  He's surrounded by his tribe and doing things he loves.  It's just so awesome to see!

We did do a tour yesterday of Harvey Mudd. We are too late for interviews unfortunately, and while there is Early Decision 2, he's not going to do that as the tuition is so astronomical we would not want to be locked into that! Yikes.  But he will apply.  It was definitely SMALL.  QUIET.  The five campuses, while together made up a more normal size campus (with around 6600 students total), still felt slightly disconnected from each other with the side roads cutting through.  I myself would never have liked it.  But my son REALLY liked it.  The things he most connected with were the honor code (which was very much emphasized), and the collaboration/groupwork between students.  The tour took us through the academic classrooms so he saw all the labs and the makerspaces where kids were working.  And one of his favorite things was how QUIET it was.  So definitely a school for a particular type of kid.  

The absolute funniest part of the whole tour yesterday? We were the ONLY ones.  So the assistant director of admissions gave the who spiel in a mid size auditorium to just us.  It was actually quite awful, because the whole time my son knew this was the person who would be reading all the applications, that this was his chance to connect, and he instead he pretty much couldn't come up with any questions or even good answers to softball questions (like do you see any humanities fields on this list that you would be interested in studying for your humanities concentration?).  He was so nervous, he said he was just trying to do the "active listening" that he'd learned in AP psych -- triple nod and constant smiling.  Lol.  So basically we both just nodded and smiled the whole time. Except when he put the cost of tuition up.  Then I stopped smiling! 

So yeah, it was an interesting trip for sure!

[kokotg]

2 hours ago, SanDiegoMom said:

I have one kid that has a supplemental application due for dance, and then two auditions.  She's not really putting much hope in them, she most likely is just planning on college and dancing on the side, but the work is still there to be done so as not to close any doors!

My son, well, he's still got a lot of work ahead.  It's a little bit overwhelming to be honest, since he's been going non stop with school and extracurriculars  and just feels so behind on apps.  On the other hand it makes my heart glad to see him so happy and involved in what he is doing now, vs where he was a few years ago.  He's surrounded by his tribe and doing things he loves.  It's just so awesome to see!

We did do a tour yesterday of Harvey Mudd. We are too late for interviews unfortunately, and while there is Early Decision 2, he's not going to do that as the tuition is so astronomical we would not want to be locked into that! Yikes.  But he will apply.  It was definitely SMALL.  QUIET.  The five campuses, while together made up a more normal size campus (with around 6600 students total), still felt slightly disconnected from each other with the side roads cutting through.  I myself would never have liked it.  But my son REALLY liked it.  The things he most connected with were the honor code (which was very much emphasized), and the collaboration/groupwork between students.  The tour took us through the academic classrooms so he saw all the labs and the makerspaces where kids were working.  And one of his favorite things was how QUIET it was.  So definitely a school for a particular type of kid.  

The absolute funniest part of the whole tour yesterday? We were the ONLY ones.  So the assistant director of admissions gave the who spiel in a mid size auditorium to just us.  It was actually quite awful, because the whole time my son knew this was the person who would be reading all the applications, that this was his chance to connect, and he instead he pretty much couldn't come up with any questions or even good answers to softball questions (like do you see any humanities fields on this list that you would be interested in studying for your humanities concentration?).  He was so nervous, he said he was just trying to do the "active listening" that he'd learned in AP psych -- triple nod and constant smiling.  Lol.  So basically we both just nodded and smiled the whole time. Except when he put the cost of tuition up.  Then I stopped smiling! 

So yeah, it was an interesting trip for sure!

We've had some of those awkward tiny visits before! And, yeah, early decision is so hard when money is an issue...DS was only allowed to ED this year because I'd seen Vanderbilt's FA package with his brother.

[Eos]

18 hours ago, MagistraKennedy said:

More crying for me this morning, when I woke up to a thank you message from my daughter. 

Aaaawww, sweet!

[MagistraKennedy]

22 hours ago, SanDiegoMom said:

 

The absolute funniest part of the whole tour yesterday? We were the ONLY ones.  So the assistant director of admissions gave the who spiel in a mid size auditorium to just us.  It was actually quite awful, because the whole time my son knew this was the person who would be reading all the applications, that this was his chance to connect, and he instead he pretty much couldn't come up with any questions or even good answers to softball questions (like do you see any humanities fields on this list that you would be interested in studying for your humanities concentration?).  He was so nervous, he said he was just trying to do the "active listening" that he'd learned in AP psych -- triple nod and constant smiling.  Lol.  So basically we both just nodded and smiled the whole time. Except when he put the cost of tuition up.  Then I stopped smiling! 

So yeah, it was an interesting trip for sure!

I just thought, WHOA that would be so uncomfortable, but then I realized that on two of the visits we did in the spring, it was just me, my daughter, and her friend. At both of those visits, there wasn't a overview session. 

[MagistraKennedy]

7 hours ago, Eos said:

Aaaawww, sweet!

This past year, we have gotten SO TIGHT --- like she's attached to my hip. I love it, but shooo, it's going to be rough next fall. 

 

[kokotg]

A productive but agonizing weekend! He submitted 4 applications all together--3 to places without supplementals, so that was all good. Then he had to write a 47 word "Why Lawrence?" thing, and he took FOREVER. 47 words! (they were founded in 1847, and they like to be cute about it).  I don't know how to get him to stop overthinking these things! Anyway, it's done now, and he also has two interviews coming up this week and a virtual info session or two. His 18th birthday is tomorrow! It finally occurred to me to offer to send him and his brother to an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performance while said brother is home over Christmas, and he was fairly enthused about this idea. Thank goodness! I had no idea what to do, and he was giving me nothing! 

[cintinative]

So, I know some of you are just recovering from the first round . . . but can we talk about midyear reports?

I am confused about whether or not I should send another official transcript from his DE college. 

Has anyone done midyears before? I might need to include a brief note about why we changed our planned courses for 2nd semester. I haven't poked around in the common app yet to know how the midyear report works. I assume it is all one file and I would just throw in my note after the updated high school transcript. 

[JennyD]

25 minutes ago, cintinative said:

Has anyone done midyears before?

FWIW, we got a message from DS's ED school a few weeks ago saying that they wanted first quarter grades.  I created a report (modeled on his transcript) and sent it to the admissions office via email.  

I'm guessing that we'll use the same format for midyear grades and just upload to Common App, but I too haven't yet poked around to figure that out.  

 

[cintinative]

6 hours ago, JennyD said:

FWIW, we got a message from DS's ED school a few weeks ago saying that they wanted first quarter grades. 

That would have been hard for us. We don't really do quarters.  And even the DE classes aren't necessarily broken up that way, although some had a "midterm."

I tried searching the threads on here about Common App midyear reports but didn't really get much beyond what I posted upthread--updated transcript plus a note about any course changes. Apparently there is a spot where you can indicate if you want to change your counselor letter at all, but it sounds like generally you wouldn't do that.

  

[kokotg]

7 hours ago, cintinative said:

So, I know some of you are just recovering from the first round . . . but can we talk about midyear reports?

I am confused about whether or not I should send another official transcript from his DE college. 

Has anyone done midyears before? I might need to include a brief note about why we changed our planned courses for 2nd semester. I haven't poked around in the common app yet to know how the midyear report works. I assume it is all one file and I would just throw in my note after the updated high school transcript. 

If I can remember right, all I've ever sent in the past is an updated version of the transcript...I haven't sent official transcripts to anywhere except UGA at this point, either, though--that one I did because it's his only giant university, I know they can be picky about things, and I didn't want to give them any excuse to defer him. The other schools I just upload the unofficial DE transcript (and the grades on his homeschool transcript) and then they can have the official one if he enrolls. I mean, or if they ask for it, but I don't think anyone's ever asked for it. So I guess I'll probably upload both his homeschool transcript and the new unofficial DE transcript for the midyear. 

[kokotg]

6 hours ago, JennyD said:

FWIW, we got a message from DS's ED school a few weeks ago saying that they wanted first quarter grades.  I created a report (modeled on his transcript) and sent it to the admissions office via email.  

 

 

DS had one EA school that wanted quarter grades...fortunately they just wanted him to self report them. I was like, "umm...I guess you have all As then?" He only has one outside class right now that he actually knows his grade in....other than that there's stuff he does at home, 2 ungraded co-op class, and a DE class where absolutely the only feedback he's gotten is "at this point you're on track for an A" when the prof told them they could ask if they wanted to know midterm grades. 

[JennyD]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

That would have been hard for us. We don't really do quarters. 

  

54 minutes ago, kokotg said:

DS had one EA school that wanted quarter grades...fortunately they just wanted him to self report them. 

Yeah, we don't do quarters either.  But if the ED school wants quarter grades, then quarter grades they get!

It does make it much easier that DS doesn't have any outside classes this term, though.

 

[MagistraKennedy]

6 hours ago, kokotg said:

If I can remember right, all I've ever sent in the past is an updated version of the transcript...I haven't sent official transcripts to anywhere except UGA at this point, either, though--that one I did because it's his only giant university, I know they can be picky about things, and I didn't want to give them any excuse to defer him. The other schools I just upload the unofficial DE transcript (and the grades on his homeschool transcript) and then they can have the official one if he enrolls. I mean, or if they ask for it, but I don't think anyone's ever asked for it. So I guess I'll probably upload both his homeschool transcript and the new unofficial DE transcript for the midyear. 

I didn't send official DE transcripts either, because --- WHY would I spend money to do that? I'll be happy to send them if we enroll. 

This is likely a dumb question, but where are you getting an unofficial DE transcript? Just a shot of the DE dashboard with the grade? 

[MagistraKennedy]

13 hours ago, cintinative said:

So, I know some of you are just recovering from the first round . . . but can we talk about midyear reports?

I am confused about whether or not I should send another official transcript from his DE college. 

Has anyone done midyears before? I might need to include a brief note about why we changed our planned courses for 2nd semester. I haven't poked around in the common app yet to know how the midyear report works. I assume it is all one file and I would just throw in my note after the updated high school transcript. 

I'm glad you asked this --- I'm planning on going ahead and uploading mine as soon as her DE class wraps up. Our cottage school classes are on a trimester (don't ask) system, so we already have grades for the first 1/3. 

[kokotg]

2 minutes ago, MagistraKennedy said:

I didn't send official DE transcripts either, because --- WHY would I spend money to do that? I'll be happy to send them if we enroll. 

This is likely a dumb question, but where are you getting an unofficial DE transcript? Just a shot of the DE dashboard with the grade? 

They send him one in the mail after every semester, so I just scanned it and uploaded it...it has some kind of magic ink that makes a watermark that says "unofficial" show up when you scan it, but it's still perfectly readable.

[MagistraKennedy]

Just now, kokotg said:

They send him one in the mail after every semester, so I just scanned it and uploaded it...it has some kind of magic ink that makes a watermark that says "unofficial" show up when you scan it, but it's still perfectly readable.

Interesting! I guess that's school dependant --- I've never seen anything like that. 

[kokotg]

12 minutes ago, MagistraKennedy said:

Interesting! I guess that's school dependant --- I've never seen anything like that. 

Yeah, come to think of it I guess it is sort of quaint that they still mail out transcripts twice a year! 

[cintinative]

9 hours ago, MagistraKennedy said:

Interesting! I guess that's school dependant --- I've never seen anything like that. 

Me neither! 

I think we can access some sort of unofficial one in his account. I guess we will do that. I would rather not pay again. I just assumed we needed the official transcripts for the original app.  Oh well.  😃

[cintinative]

You guys. My son got his honors acceptance packet today from BGSU and they took a sentence from his essay and blew it up to a full page and put in the packet. I almost started crying.  Well played, sir.

I can't believe my boy is this old or this wise.

Edited December 5, 2023 by cintinative

[ScoutTN]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

You guys. My son got his honors acceptance packet today from BGSU and they took a sentence from his essay and blew it up to a full page and put in the packet. I almost started crying.  Well played, sir.

I can't believe my boy is this old or this wise.

❤️🎉😁👍🏻❤️🎉🎈😎

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

You guys. My son got his honors acceptance packet today from BGSU and they took a sentence from his essay and blew it up to a full page and put in the packet. I almost started crying.  Well played, sir.

I can't believe my boy is this old or this wise.

nice touch, BGSU!

[cintinative]

So I just went into Common App and none of our schools require a midyear. Is there a reason to do it if it is not required?

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

So I just went into Common App and none of our schools require a midyear. Is there a reason to do it if it is not required?

I guess if grades were showing an upward trend you'd want to do it? otherwise, I don't think so.

[kokotg]

Oberlin just sent an e-mail this afternoon that DS had neglected to actually do like half of the conservatory application, including requesting his 2 recommendations. oops. It's nice that they e-mailed him...it was due 2 days ago, but I guess they'll take it late. The letters should already be written and just need to be uploaded, so fingers crossed the people can do it quickly. Musicians can be a little flaky 😂

[cintinative]

23 minutes ago, kokotg said:

I guess if grades were showing an upward trend you'd want to do it? otherwise, I don't think so.

I think he will have all A's so maybe?

[kokotg]

I'll add that while I'm annoyed with DS for not checking his portals, it's also really annoying how EVERY music school has a completely different application and/or audition process. It's often applying to the college and then doing a separate music application and then auditioning later. But then for St. Olaf there's a single application for music scholarships OR to be a music major--if you're interested in either, you fill out the same application and submit a recording...they don't do live auditions at all. College of Wooster, on the other hand, ONLY does live auditions for music scholarships. Honestly, that's likely knocked it off DS's list, and I'm really surprised there's no option at all to do a virtual or video audition. We live like 700 miles away! So! With Oberlin it's actually two common app applications for the college and the conservatory, which I haven't seen anywhere else (I've seen completely separate music school applications, but not common app ones). So he was thinking, "sure--common app--I've done a million of these" and missed how, yes, they use the common app, but they have a separate form for inviting recommenders--no recommenders through the common app! And then another form that he missed that's separate from the common app with a bunch of questions about musical background/goals/etc. So. It's a bit maddening. Hence my long rant about it just now! 

[Eos]

18 hours ago, kokotg said:

I'll add that while I'm annoyed with DS for not checking his portals, it's also really annoying how EVERY music school has a completely different application and/or audition process. It's often applying to the college and then doing a separate music application and then auditioning later. But then for St. Olaf there's a single application for music scholarships OR to be a music major--if you're interested in either, you fill out the same application and submit a recording...they don't do live auditions at all. College of Wooster, on the other hand, ONLY does live auditions for music scholarships. Honestly, that's likely knocked it off DS's list, and I'm really surprised there's no option at all to do a virtual or video audition. We live like 700 miles away! So! With Oberlin it's actually two common app applications for the college and the conservatory, which I haven't seen anywhere else (I've seen completely separate music school applications, but not common app ones). So he was thinking, "sure--common app--I've done a million of these" and missed how, yes, they use the common app, but they have a separate form for inviting recommenders--no recommenders through the common app! And then another form that he missed that's separate from the common app with a bunch of questions about musical background/goals/etc. So. It's a bit maddening. Hence my long rant about it just now! 

So irritating.  Is he doing double degree?  Sorry if I missed that along the way.

The only bright side I can see is my musician kid is remarkably good at wading through forms and recordings links for everything else in her life.  Small consolation when it's app season but I believe it's a skill she learned from having to comply with all that duplicitous red tape.

[kokotg]

5 hours ago, Eos said:

So irritating.  Is he doing double degree?  Sorry if I missed that along the way.

The only bright side I can see is my musician kid is remarkably good at wading through forms and recordings links for everything else in her life.  Small consolation when it's app season but I believe it's a skill she learned from having to comply with all that duplicitous red tape.

It's true--I'm a little amazed at how well his brother, my spaciest kid by far, is handling keeping up with everything  at Blair. He doesn't even complain about it much!

So August will do a dual degree if he ends up doing a BM anywhere, but he's also open to a BA in performance places that offer that along with another (possibly English) degree OR a double major with more of an academic focused music major or even a music minor. He says his preference is still for a dual degree but the only places still out there where that would be a possibility are Oberlin (he thinks it's exceedingly unlikely he'll get in; I think it's a weird year for horn there because they're losing their horn prof after this year and haven't hired a new one yet, so who knows? Maybe that will scare the better horn players away 😂), Lawrence (which he likes a lot), and St. Olaf (which he also likes but he hasn't met the horn teacher yet). Oh, and UGA! Not sure how easy a dual degree is at UGA, actually; he needs to find out more. And then he has a whole mess of liberal arts colleges with strong music programs. 

[kokotg]

Also, can I just say how weird it must be to be applying as a music major and know exactly how good you are compared to everyone around you because your musical life is so based around auditioning and being ranked? And in my kid's case, since he's homeschooled, he only plays in situations where he's surrounded by All-state caliber musicians, since he only plays in auditioned ensembles that are open to everyone. 

Like...I was an English major and then went to grad school in English. If I had wanted to believe I was the best analyzer of literature in all the land, who was going to be able to tell me otherwise? And then, even if there were an objective ranking system and I was only the 100th best in my state, there still would have been plenty of room for me at colleges with great English departments.

[MagistraKennedy]

On 12/7/2023 at 10:25 AM, kokotg said:

 So. It's a bit maddening. Hence my long rant about it just now! 

SO FRUSTRATING --- add that to the list of things that don't make sense this year. 

Sending y'all hugs. 

[MagistraKennedy]

On 12/5/2023 at 5:46 PM, cintinative said:

You guys. My son got his honors acceptance packet today from BGSU and they took a sentence from his essay and blew it up to a full page and put in the packet. I almost started crying.  Well played, sir.

I can't believe my boy is this old or this wise.

Oh momma. That would have wrecked me. (in a good way)
 

[MagistraKennedy]

On 12/6/2023 at 4:49 PM, cintinative said:

So I just went into Common App and none of our schools require a midyear. Is there a reason to do it if it is not required?

I was circling back here to see if you'd found a resource for the midyear report --- I have two schools that require it in the Common App, and now I'm beginning to wonder if the schools that we applied to without the Common App will need something, too. 

(that is an enormous run on sentence, but that's the state my brain is in)

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, MagistraKennedy said:

I was circling back here to see if you'd found a resource for the midyear report 

I found this, but it doesn't really explain what to put in the "note" or how to format it. 

https://fearlesshomeschoolers.com/blog/midyear-report?fbclid=IwAR0RhPFJLw7t2wOPGGKsoR7eux6wphJ3nQeR9c-32VAXwORgCuVaIWTwPak

I poked around in the midyear report and it is mostly info on class rank, GPA, etc. and it asks if you have had any course changes or if you wish to update your evaluation. If you answer yes, it prompts you to upload your explanation. 

I have mixed feelings--my son's grades are great, but I don't want him to get dinged for the course changes we are making.  Since the midyear is optional for us, I am not sure what I will do.

[MagistraKennedy]

32 minutes ago, cintinative said:

I found this, but it doesn't really explain what to put in the "note" or how to format it. 

https://fearlesshomeschoolers.com/blog/midyear-report?fbclid=IwAR0RhPFJLw7t2wOPGGKsoR7eux6wphJ3nQeR9c-32VAXwORgCuVaIWTwPak

I poked around in the midyear report and it is mostly info on class rank, GPA, etc. and it asks if you have had any course changes or if you wish to update your evaluation. If you answer yes, it prompts you to upload your explanation. 

I have mixed feelings--my son's grades are great, but I don't want him to get dinged for the course changes we are making.  Since the midyear is optional for us, I am not sure what I will do.

I followed this exact format in this post --- I took my transcript and added in the grades thus far -- we finished our dual credit course and her grades for everything else are great, so we're in good shape. 

Mine was required for our schools, and we haven't made any course corrections. I don't think he would get dinged, but I understand your trepidation. 

 

[cintinative]

This is honestly just a whine, so I guess a JAWM?

Originally I really thought my son would commute, so the whole "how will my Celiac kid get food?" aspect was on the back burner. Now that he has a scholarship to one college that his friend wants to attend, we have opened up the can of worms regarding: what sort of housing can he and friend live in which my kid can still cook his food? We should be able to get housing exemptions, but I don't know if they will flow over to his friend who has no restrictions. So any hopes they have of rooming might be for naught. I won't know anything until we meet with people, and at this point it is too early to make a decision because the school in question still hasn't offered enough of a scholarship (in my opinion).  That said, I really am not looking forward to delving into ADA stuff with these colleges. 

Okay, vent over. Thanks for listening.

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

This is honestly just a whine, so I guess a JAWM?

Originally I really thought my son would commute, so the whole "how will my Celiac kid get food?" aspect was on the back burner. Now that he has a scholarship to one college that his friend wants to attend, we have opened up the can of worms regarding: what sort of housing can he and friend live in which my kid can still cook his food? We should be able to get housing exemptions, but I don't know if they will flow over to his friend who has no restrictions. So any hopes they have of rooming might be for naught. I won't know anything until we meet with people, and at this point it is too early to make a decision because the school in question still hasn't offered enough of a scholarship (in my opinion).  That said, I really am not looking forward to delving into ADA stuff with these colleges. 

Okay, vent over. Thanks for listening.

Yeah, I have a friend who sent her celiac kid across the country to college, and it was...a lot to figure out, so I feel for you! My kid takes a biologic that comes in the mail and has to be refrigerated every month. I asked his doctor how college kids get their meds, and she said, "oh, we usually just ship it to the home address." And I was like, "but...how?!" I still don't know. I guess we'll figure it out if he ends up far away!

[JennyD]

2 hours ago, cintinative said:

That said, I really am not looking forward to delving into ADA stuff with these colleges. 

Oy, that does sounds like it could be exhausting.  Yet another thing to deal with ...

DS will hear from his ED school this week.  If he gets in, we're done.  If he doesn't get in to the ED school but gets in EA to another school he really likes, then he will send in two RD apps and that will be that.  If he doesn't get into either of those two ED/EA schools then we are in for a loooong few weeks.  DS does have most of the supplementary essays for the potential RD applications done, at least.  But still hoping that we don't have to actually use them.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by JennyD

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, JennyD said:

Oy, that does sounds like it could be exhausting.  Yet another thing to deal with ...

DS will hear from his ED school this week.  If he gets in, we're done.  If he doesn't get in to the ED school but gets in EA to another school he really likes, then he will send in two RD apps and that will be that.  If he doesn't get into either of those two ED/EA schools then we are in for a loooong few weeks.  DS does have most of the supplementary essays for the potential RD applications done, at least.  But still hoping that we don't have to actually use them.

 

 

Good luck with ED!

[kokotg]

DS had all-state auditions this morning. Came home, muttered "terrible" when asked how it went, then spent the rest of the day moping in his room. Turns out he made district honor band and the second round of all-state auditions. This kid! His teacher (who was at the auditions because I guess French horn judges are hard to find) says he'd have placed higher in district if his scales had been better, but other than that he sounded good (and there are no scales in second round of all-state). I've found college admissions to be much more pleasant with non-perfectionist children, having tried it with both now. Oh well.

[Acorn]

Ds was accepted EA to Ohio State Univ. We haven’t had an official tour and  I think his preferences might be other places. I think it will be a great fit for his major but I’m not in love with the campus. I wrote earlier that both ds and I were frustrated with the website and creating the portal etc. I think the EA notification process was odd. Only some of EA notifications were to be released Friday, the rest will be on a day in Jan. He got a postcard saying that it would be random between the two release dates. I was reading Friday on CC that students were receiving emails to create a campus email even if they also had a portal, so people were assuming that admission offer would soon follow. Then some people could see changes on their portal indicating admission. As of 8 pm  Friday night, my son didn’t have any changes so we assumed he would be in the Jan batch. He woke up Saturday to an admitted email that had been sent at 3 am. Weird.  The email itself seemed perfunctory. His other admission offers are from smaller universities so maybe they have to work harder at recruiting. I am glad for the acceptance as it means all the pieces of his application must have assembled themselves. (His public school uses a platform tied into common ap but the school will no longer be using next year due to issues.)

[MagistraKennedy]

13 hours ago, cintinative said:

This is honestly just a whine, so I guess a JAWM?

Originally I really thought my son would commute, so the whole "how will my Celiac kid get food?" aspect was on the back burner. Now that he has a scholarship to one college that his friend wants to attend, we have opened up the can of worms regarding: what sort of housing can he and friend live in which my kid can still cook his food? We should be able to get housing exemptions, but I don't know if they will flow over to his friend who has no restrictions. So any hopes they have of rooming might be for naught. I won't know anything until we meet with people, and at this point it is too early to make a decision because the school in question still hasn't offered enough of a scholarship (in my opinion).  That said, I really am not looking forward to delving into ADA stuff with these colleges. 

Okay, vent over. Thanks for listening.

Ahhh crap. It's maddening when you think that you have things carefully laid out and then --- WHOOPS - detour! 

Sending you hugs. 

[MagistraKennedy]

10 hours ago, kokotg said:

DS had all-state auditions this morning. Came home, muttered "terrible" when asked how it went, then spent the rest of the day moping in his room. Turns out he made district honor band and the second round of all-state auditions. This kid! His teacher (who was at the auditions because I guess French horn judges are hard to find) says he'd have placed higher in district if his scales had been better, but other than that he sounded good (and there are no scales in second round of all-state). I've found college admissions to be much more pleasant with non-perfectionist children, having tried it with both now. Oh well.

I'm not laughing AT you --- just commiserating. I'm over here thinking, "Dang, how would he have acted if he'd performed poorly?" 
Kids are hard to figure out. 

[kokotg]

3 hours ago, Acorn said:

Ds was accepted EA to Ohio State Univ. We haven’t had an official tour and  I think his preferences might be other places. I think it will be a great fit for his major but I’m not in love with the campus. I wrote earlier that both ds and I were frustrated with the website and creating the portal etc. I think the EA notification process was odd. Only some of EA notifications were to be released Friday, the rest will be on a day in Jan. He got a postcard saying that it would be random between the two release dates. I was reading Friday on CC that students were receiving emails to create a campus email even if they also had a portal, so people were assuming that admission offer would soon follow. Then some people could see changes on their portal indicating admission. As of 8 pm  Friday night, my son didn’t have any changes so we assumed he would be in the Jan batch. He woke up Saturday to an admitted email that had been sent at 3 am. Weird.  The email itself seemed perfunctory. His other admission offers are from smaller universities so maybe they have to work harder at recruiting. I am glad for the acceptance as it means all the pieces of his application must have assembled themselves. (His public school uses a platform tied into common ap but the school will no longer be using next year due to issues.)

Congratulations! Although, yes, that sounds like a lot of annoying weirdness!

[cintinative]

@Acorn what is your ds' planned major? 

Oh, and if he goes there, you better get used to calling it THE Ohio State University, or so my friends say.  LOL

[Eos]

On 12/9/2023 at 7:31 PM, cintinative said:

This is honestly just a whine, so I guess a JAWM?

Originally I really thought my son would commute, so the whole "how will my Celiac kid get food?" aspect was on the back burner. Now that he has a scholarship to one college that his friend wants to attend, we have opened up the can of worms regarding: what sort of housing can he and friend live in which my kid can still cook his food? We should be able to get housing exemptions, but I don't know if they will flow over to his friend who has no restrictions. So any hopes they have of rooming might be for naught. I won't know anything until we meet with people, and at this point it is too early to make a decision because the school in question still hasn't offered enough of a scholarship (in my opinion).  That said, I really am not looking forward to delving into ADA stuff with these colleges. 

Okay, vent over. Thanks for listening.

I'm sorry, this is so stressful.  I found dd's school's office of ADA compliance/disability services to be very helpful and easy to work with.  I hope yours will be the same.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Eos

[JennyD]

DS got into his ED school.  

We homeschooled K-12, and you people are among the few who can truly understand how unbelievably relieved I feel right now.  

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by JennyD

[ScoutTN]

8 minutes ago, JennyD said:

DS got into his ED school.  

We homeschooled K-12, and you people are probably the only ones who can understand how unbelievably relieved I feel right now.  

 

Hooray! 🎉🎉🎉🎉❤️❤️💥💥💥⭐️⭐️⭐️😎😎😎🎈🎈🎈🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Congratulations to you both!!