<p>When my S was waiting for his ED results, he finalized his list of other schools to apply to, and submitted all of the paperwork to his GC to send transcripts, ref letters, etc., because they needed a couple of weeks to send them. And he made a list of the deadlines for all of the other schools.</p>
<p>He submitted only a couple of the applications to other schools - one a rolling admissions school, and one with an earlier deadline to be considered for merit scholarships. There didn’t seem to pay all of those application fees, in case they weren’t needed. We also didn’t submit test scores to the other schools, since that can be done quickly and easily later. </p>
<p>He filled out all of the common app supplements for the other schools, but did not write the school-specific essays, and didn’t submit anything. I would have preferred that he write some of those essays in advance, but he didn’t want to, and he needed to own the process. </p>
<p>If he hadn’t been accepted at his ED school (with Dec 15 notification, although it came a few days early), it would have been a busy month afterwards, first for the Jan 1 deadline schools, and then for the later deadlines, to finish writing the schools specific essays. It would have put a real damper on Christmas break, but he would have managed. </p>
<p>I think the most important thing is being aware of deadlines, and concentrating first on the things that are outside of your control, e.g., school deadlines for sending transcripts, how much time it takes the College Board to send scores, earlier deadlines for merit scholarships or preferential admissions, etc.</p>
<p>We are also trying to avoid a massive post-Early notification crunch!
And, to have to start up on a bunch of new applications after getting a rejection is NOT a good place to be emotionally…</p>
<p>We are finding that the Early app timing is actually helpful in a few ways:
D is focused on getting something done, and much of it (though certainly not all!) is translatable to the other apps, so they are getting partially done at the same time
Pressing send on things is rewarding!!!
The GC is spending time with our D now, getting to know her well, within a smaller pool of kids.
Keeps us on top of any other early deadlines (NMSC, scholarships, Art Supps, etc.)</p>
<p>HOWEVER, D is juggling so much ELSE (her REAL life!!) that we do NOT want her to be OVERWHELMED with all the college stuff, so she is breaking the long process into digestible pieces. She definitely will NOT have all her RD apps ready before the Early notification date- she just does not have enough hours in the day!</p>
<p>I guess it’s a different game when students apply to so many schools. My DD applied to only four schools…so it was easy (and not expensive relatively speaking) to get them all done at once. It also made her senior year ever so much more enjoyable.</p>
<p>My son applied via Questbridge and only listed two top non-binding schools during the initial round. Neither of us really expected him to be accepted the first round, and he wasn’t, but he was overloaded with work, including 5 AP classes, 3 honors classes and two college classes. He expected to use his Christmas break to focus exclusively on all the supplemental essay questions and forms.</p>
<p>Something of a mistake: three of his AP teachers gave him lengthy major papers to write over break, due when school began. He worked 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week to get all his desired applications (and his assignments!) completed by Jan. 1st, but he ran out of time and a couple schools on his potential list had to get triaged out, including Stanford and Cornell.</p>
<p>Keep working and don’t expect winter break to give you all the time you think you’ll need!</p>
<p>To respond to thumper1, we will wait because of $. S has 9 other schools on his list. The application fees range from $50 - $75 each. Add in sending test scores and paying for CSS Profile for each school, and we’re looking at spending $783 that we might not have to spend.</p>
<p>I think that kids who apply Ed should also apply to at least one rolling or EA safety/match school to lessen the blow if they aren’t accepted ED.</p>
<p>Both of my D’s applied ED. They both had a final list of schools and sent scores, transripts and recommendations to all the schools in before November 1st. They went ahead and sent in apps to any school on their lists that had rolling or EA admission options. They held off on applying to their RD schools to save the application fees as others discussed. They also waited on the supplemental essays for the RD schools, but reviewed the questions and had an idea of what they would write about if necessary. Both girls lucked out and didn’t had to write those additional essays. </p>
<p>I’ve seen kids who had to scramble and churn out essays in December after getting a rejection or derral from their ED school, and it’s pretty tough, but I couldn’t convince my kids to write the essays ahead of time.</p>
<p>“It is really, really hard to write a good essay after being rejected by your number one. It is also hard to write a whole pile of essays in two weeks during the holidays.”</p>
<p>So much agreement here. I’ve been through it many times, and the students survive and get into college, but it’s a tough couple of weeks.</p>
<p>A fair amount of my business happens in the last two weeks of December when a kid gets rejected from the ED school that was supposed to be a sure thing and has to get 8 more apps ready on short notice. There’s no such thing as Christmas break in this line of work! :)</p>
<p>My child is applying to 8 schools, one ED. They completed the CommonApp and ALL the supplements for each college even though applying ED.
the time you take now before you get any acceptances/rejections, will help you later.
Get it all done now so you have time to reread, look over, fix, etc.
Then, once you are done, you are REALLY done.</p>
<p>Depending on the other schools’ deadlines, this might require special cooperation from the high school registrar and the people who are writing recommendations for the student (and they could say no). The high school’s deadlines for the submission of transcript and recommendation requests are likely to have passed before the student receives a decision on the ED application.</p>
<p>lovestotravel – wow! Unfortunately, I agree with performersmom that there are not enough hours in the day. I certainly do see the advantages in completing as much as possible as soon as possible, but we are not in a situation to make much of a dent in anything now. Hunt, thanks for the thought that the backup list may get some late-breaking additions. I had not considered that.</p>
<p>If the RD schools are Common App schools, then the best thing to do is just to send in the applications now (many/most common app schools don’t have application fees if you apply online. In fact a lot of schools waive the fee if you apply online these days, at least for undergrads). You can always call and withdraw them if you get accepted ED. </p>
<p>For non-Common App schools, send in the recommendations, transcripts, anything you need from your high school itself when you send in your ED applicaitons (or right around then). When the RD schools receive this, the material will go into a file and then you can send in the application (the parts that your kid can do on their own) separately if needed.</p>
<p>It’s true that some high schools and recommenders might raise obstacles to adding colleges late, but this should be less of a problem if the school has gone to electronic data management for transcripts and recs through the Common App (or Naviance).</p>
<p>Another vote for having everything ready to go, but waiting to submit until after receiving the ED decision. Part of our deal with letting D1 do ED was that she had to have her RD essays finished by end of November. Almost all of those were Common App schools. Our feeling was that the very ease of the Common App system would make it straightforward for her to push the submit button on the RD schools after she’d had a week to get over any bad ED news.</p>
<p>What we are also experiencing is that more accomplishments and resume items are occurring as the Fall goes on. We keep adding stuff to her Resume, EC list awards, etc.
And I suspect a course she is taking may cause her re-write an essay.
Another reason why we are not rushing to complete let alone submit the RD apps until after Dec 15.</p>