OK, 2017 parents… here we go! The 2016 kids are getting their ED results and that means that our kids are beginning the process of researching, visiting and crafting their lists. Let’s share useful intel, cheer one another on and console one another here! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I already have knots in my stomach about the college process and I can’t believe our BS journey is moving along so quickly…
I’m not sure if I’m ready for this. Didn’t we just drop them off for 9th grade :).
We were initially told we’d get Naviance access in December but now it will be January. Probably when PSAT scores come out.
Overwhelming to think about! Am glad the school and the kids handle most of it… not that my kid would let me help…
Me and @gusmom2000 are here with the bourbon if you need us.
Cheers!
I’m so glad this process is over for my family. My son has been offered a place at Eton for the fall of 2018. He can now focus on being a kid --keeping up with his studies, of course-- while preparing for the CE exam in the spring of 2018.
Yes, good luck to all Class of 2017 students/parents. It’s inconceivable that this journey is entering the final mile. After Christmas break, DS will begin regular meetings with his EHS college counselor. The CC office has done a fine job in advertising their upcoming 2016 CC schedule and gave us access to Naviance.
DS has already taken the SAT and will take one more time in January 2016 (the last time the old SAT is offered) and then the ACT in April. Since his first choice school is one of the service academies (USNA, USMA, USAFA) and congressional nomination applications are due by October 2016, completion of standardized testing is accelerated. Further since service academy applications are accepted on a rolling basis, it is preferred to submit as early as possible. Summer will be spent completing six applications; one to each senator, one to his district representative, and one to each academy. Once these applications are complete, he will then focus on non-academy applications. It will be interesting to see how he handles the EA/ED decision for the other schools.
Although EHS CC will help guide DS in the process, he will need to self-manage some of the service academy application items; Blue/Gold officer interviews, candidate fitness test and medical exam, as well as the all important congressional nomination. DW and I plan to sit back and let EHS and DS manage this process.
Question - while we have visited some schools, how do you find the time to visit all of the other schools on the list, which incidentally are scattered throughout the US? It appears about 1/2 of his upcoming summer will be committed to various school trips, vacation, work, etc. and thus time will be scarce to travel the XYZ schools.
We have also been trying to figure out how to see a bunch of schools this summer without spending weeks driving! Of course none of them are near each other…
They’re “XYZ” schools, @i70sband, – you don’t have to visit them. 
I suspect your son has already visited the academies and those are where his heart is. If he’s anything like my son, the XYZ schools were just a place to cool his heels until he could re-apply if he didn’t get an appointment last year. His only criteria for those schools was “strong engineering plus on-campus (N)ROTC.” No visits; websites were more than adequate for him. YMMV of course.
We are not going to visit all schools that might be on DS list. We will visit a few in March. And try to hit a variety of urban/suburban/rural to get a feel for type of school. He is considering some schools in CA (other coast) but we don’t have plans to travel there at this time.
A data point (yes, “a”, of the very limited kind) that we will keep in mind when the Class of '17 search kicks into a higher gear and we do any planning for the summer. Our college counselor estimated as follows on the nine chosen by son for his final '16 list: two far reaches, two reaches, two possibles, and three likelies. He saw all of them except the one on the left/other coast. I myself figured that, in April, son would have been looking at, hopefully, four to seven choices. There could have been great variation in the combination of names that those choices might have become; and the results could have yielded only two or three on a truly bad day. Son resisted parental suggestions he might round it up to ten as the sheer amount of work to apply became evident. BS friends were staying up far later than son, who tries to be asleep before midnight.
A positive ED result came from one of the reaches, to which son had made two visits, the second in October for a class observation and lunch with a student. He came away with a clear sense of “fit”; which might not have worked for me if I were in his place, but I’m not. People can differ reasonably on the value of an overnight stay in dorm. As well, I’d say, disagree on the relative merits of a physical tour versus an online examination of the website. It’s the lucky kid who can find a terrific fit for them and have the school agree back with an ED or EA admit. ~O)
Thanks @ChoatieMom. Perfect, you assessed DS’s objective exactly. If he is not accepted, XYZ school will be a placeholder and he will likely re-apply. I say likely since there are a couple of “strong engineering plus on-campus (N)ROTC” schools that if he were accepted would give him pause (MIT and GTech). With that said, as of today he seems built more for academy vs. normal college life. I’ll suggest utilizing the school sites to narrow his list and visit if seriously warranted.
@Charger78 thanks for the data point. How does a far reach differ from a regular reach?
Another parent of the class of '17 here.
Can’t believe DS is becoming a senior next year. Hope the process goes smoothly…
The two far reach schools have either a single-digit RD admit rate, or one in the lower teens but with about 40k applicants. Our successful reach school has an admit rate in the higher teens with almost 20k applications, though the ED admit rate is more forgiving, at 29% last year. (ED is trickier at smaller LAC-type schools because of how many athletic recruits get funneled through at that time; often, athletes are about 20-25% of the entire freshman class at these schools.)
Good advice from @ChoatieMom as always. 
gulp
DS1 is '17 at local public school.
burying my head in the sand…
December SAT scores came out so DS17 (class of 17, I don’t have 17 boys 
) is done with Math II Subject test.
He took it cold last June after finishing Precalculus, so that outcome was not pretty. But apparently December test was much easier than June one, he says.
One down many more to go.
I call this Junior year “Annus Test” or “Annus Nito”
I am determined to not let the college application process take over our lives. Hopefully I can stick to that! When I look around at successful people I know – and by that, I mean people who are successful in their lives generally (i.e., happy, contented, interested, engaged) not just measuring success by professional yardsticks – it seems to me that there are about a million different paths to get there. Only some of those paths lead through HYP, the Ivies, etc. So our message to soxboy thus far has been more about enjoying his BS experience and making the most of it, than about setting himself up to get into the “best” possible college. To be sure, he hears a fair bit of that from his friends (like the one who spent the entire Thanksgiving break at an SAT camp, or the one who’s not allowed to get his driver’s license until after he’s admitted to college, as driver’s ed takes too much time out of his study schedule), so he can’t avoid feeling the stress entirely. But hopefully he won’t be feeling it from us.
I suppose we’re fortunate in that soxboy is the kind of kid who could be happy pretty much anywhere he ended up, he’s pretty low maintenance. And he doesn’t have any particular intended field of study or extracurricular that’s important to him, so the search doesn’t need to be driven by trying to find a school with a strong aeronautical engineering program and a top caliber fencing team, or other unicorns. In the end, I suspect his choice of colleges will be much like Goldilocks’ would be if she were applying to colleges – not too big, not too small, not too heavy on science, not too heavy on humanities, not in a city but not too far from one, etc. Since there are plenty of great schools that will fit those general qualities, I’m just trying not to get too worked up about all of this.
So, we’ll be lying on the beach over spring break, not driving from school to school. I will be encouraging soxboy to at least spend some time on college websites trying to narrow down the schools that appeal to him. And in the end, if he really feels strongly about wanting to visit a few schools, then we’ll certainly find time to do that. And I’m sure I’ll start to obsessively read college websites and reviews at some point myself. But I view my job as mostly being about trying to fend off inquisitive queries and disapproving sniffs from his grandparents, none of whom could be described as having a laissez faire attitude. Hey, I went to the BS I attended sight unseen, and I chose the college I went to largely on the basis that a whole bunch of kids from my grade (including two really cute boys) got in there too and were all like “you have to go too, it will be so much fun!” Turned out pretty well for me in the end, so I just can’t get too worked up about the process.