<p>Just a rant! I just finished going through the websites and info of the colleges my son will be applying to - and it hasn't got any better in the 3 years since my DD applied to college. What a confusing mess. I made a spreadsheet of due dates/ requirements etc. since I 'm serving as "administrative manager" and :eek: At one college you apply to housing before you apply for admittance; at the rest you apply for admittance, then housing. At one, you apply to the honors college first, then they send your general ap on to the general college; at another you apply separately to the honors college and to the general college. At one your recommenders have to log on to the computer and recommend you online; at another, you have to "type" (type, what's that???) on to the form and snail mail it in. One college wants the Guidance Counselor to fill out a 3 page form with long essay questions. (Nice lady, works hard, doesn't know my son from Adam.) Applying to 5 colleges means the 3 different types of applications. Gawd! Why can't all the colleges change to the Common Application online? And standardize the process!!!</p>
<p>That's exactly how I spent the holiday weekend. Exasperating, no?</p>
<p>Hmm, maybe I should be reading those applications more carefully....</p>
<p>I wish my parents would have done stuff like that for me.</p>
<p>anxiousmom:
I was just complaining to my husband about that yesterday. It is outrageous really. All the supplements, extra essays, specific forms for scholarships, teacher recs, guidance counselors, test scores -- it's criminal.</p>
<p>My husband had a great idea. He thinks there should be an online college admissions clearing house. Kids will post their applications (stats etc.) and resumes on line. Colleges pay a fee to access that information and make kids offers. They would be prohibited from demanding any further information. Since it would be simple, there would be great incentive for students and high schools to use it.</p>
<p>It would turn the entire system around. Let the colleges come looking for the students instead of the other way around!</p>
<p>Weenie, I love it! I feel so badly for the hs teachers and GCs. Last year, I could hardly keep track of the process for my one kiddo. Can you imagine hundreds! I really think that this is supposed to intentionally make it difficult to apply to too many schools.</p>
<p>Perhaps the colleges are designing these highly individualized applications and deadline requirements to discourage the trend of kids applying to increasing numbers of schools?</p>
<p>weenie,</p>
<p>central application process?</p>
<p>then, centralize (and standardize) performance measures (like the bushies have proposed)?</p>
<p>then, why not standardize the curricula?</p>
<p>I don't think so.</p>
<p>In fact, a lot of the craziness stems from efforts to individualize the admissions process, both from an institutional and from a student POV.</p>
<p>And, the U. Mich supreme court decision had a big impact on this process, since a U can no longer apply its affirmative action goals by formula. State U's especially, have radically changed their requirements. Now, a lot of state U's require essays and more detailed recs. Didn't used to be that way. And, since state U's live in a political fishbowl (i.e. state legislatures) they can't ignore AA even if national currents are against it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My husband had a great idea. He thinks there should be an online college admissions clearing house.
[/quote]
And another $18 per college. I don't think so. CSS hasn't made my life any easier.</p>
<p>Our son's experience was exactly the opposite. In our say, pre-CommonApp, pre-PC each application had to be done separately and by hand. Trying to neatly type info on the college supplied application was a pain in the posterior wasnt it?</p>
<p>Because our son used the CommonApp for all but one of his 6 applications he was able to get all his applications done in a few hours. And because he got all his applications in by mid-October, he didn't have to worry about keeping track of any deadlines. Oberlin was the only college to require a supplemental essay and he did that one in less than an hour because his campus visit was so unique. He passed out his teacher rec forms out the first week of class sr year and they were in his Guiddance office file within a week. His high school GC was very organized and handled everything else to perfection. And finally, he used one personal essay for all his application and spit out that on one weekend afternoon. Oh, he had to give our Pastor a form for a special $14k/yr scholarship offered by The College of Wooster.</p>
<p>In lookong back, I dont think he spent much more than 8 hours total on his 6 college applications! HOWEVER he did spent untold hours researching colleges before deciding on his final list, probably in excess of 100 hours. But considering he fnally was offered metit scholarships totally $100,000 by RPI, he was well rewarded for that time to the tune of $1000/hr+/-!!</p>
<p>mewmassdad,
Ha -- a bushie plan?! Oh, dear me. I would never suggest that!!!</p>
<p>No, I think the thought was how do you put the control in the hands of the student rather than the colleges and the college board and all the various scholarship agencies and FAFSA and CSS and the high school guidance offices (shudder).</p>
<p>newmassdad, ABET criteria has resulted in much standardization of engineering cirrricula which isn't such a bad thing for us engineering nerds! We like being treated like automatons.</p>
<p>Arts, humanities and social sciented? I don't think so and they would put up with any standardization anyway.</p>
<p>anxiousmom - enjoyed your post. so true !!!!</p>
<p>it makes ya just smile big and jump up and down when one of those nifty fast track applications comes in the mail or in e-mail:)</p>
<p>We haven't seen any of those around here! A fast track application would be nice though! Maybe they'll come later on in the year? Hope so.....</p>
<p>question: the three colleges D will apply to all will take the common app. Do you think it's better to use the common apps teacher recommendation forms or the each college's teacher recommendation forms?</p>
<p>Colleges say it doesn't matter. I know in the Gatekeepers the admissions officer didn't like the Common Application layout, but I don't think it affected decisions.</p>
<p>Our High School teachers are too overworked to fill out more than one type of recommendation form. (Well, I guess they'll have to fill out the online forms for the one school that requires them as well. :eek: ) My DD used the Common App forms for all applications, and got in everywhere she applied.</p>
<p>thanks for helping. this is new for us. one school only accepts the common application, the other two will accept the common app. or their own. I'm trying to make life easy on the guidance office and teachers who write the recommendations. So is the easiest way to do this, is to give the teachers the common app. recommendation form hard copy? otherwise I guess they would have 3 different school forms to fill out. I'll be glad when this is over. It's so much more work than when I went to school decades ago.</p>
<p>Son filled out the top of the common app teacher & counselor rec forms, then made a copy for each of them. They can fill out the bottom and make enough copies for his common app schools. Saves them lots of time. Also, one school I can't recall right now had a 3 page form for teacher recs but the form said "if you just want to send in a letter you've already written, simply sign this form and attach the letter." Sounds good to me.</p>
<p>Our guidance counselor is responsible for over 300 seniors. I realize some of them won't need recs, but 300? She'll be lucky to be able to write a short letter for the ones who need it,.</p>
<p>I'm all for a clearing house for applications, somewhat like the service for law school applicants. All transcripts and letters of recommendation are sent to LSAC. The law schools request reports for students who have applied. LSAC sends a report they generate that includes GPA and LSAT scores, along with copies of each rec letter and transcript. </p>
<p>Each law school still uses their own application. To make it even easier, each college could use the same application that would be available online through the clearing house. If a school wanted an extra essay that could also be submitted online through the clearing house. Sure the due dates, scholarship app's and other stuff would still be a lot of work, but it would sure be easier.</p>