“DISTRIBUTED”…nothing worse than a typo in an all-caps rant! 
We visited a couple more schools earlier in the month and have put the rest on hold for now. DD is increasingly feeling like the summer visits aren’t helpful to her. She has seen/researched enough colleges at this point to want to “drill down” into the culture of each. Meaning, she needs to visit when school is in session and probably also spend the night. As of now, she’s really enthusiastic about her “likelies” (I use that term VERY loosely) and her “reaches”, and has enough “matches” on her list, even if she hasn’t seen them all. The next step is to think through her ED/EA strategy, so visits in the fall will be to schools that she has already seen and is trying to decide if she should apply early. It’s a tough call, as some of her “matches” will be a reach if she doesn’t apply early.
All this plus ESSAYS.
Whatever happened to relaxing in the summer?!?!
re: Relaxing…between sports and a summer job and college stuff, this has been/is/will be one of the least relaxing summers of 7D2’s HS career.
Something I’d never done until this AM…actually read a school’s common data set. Very interesting.
Please please don’t make the common mistake and add the 75 percentile SAT sections together and state “75% had SAT scores of XXX/2400.” 
(I know they’re out of 1600 now, but I haven’t seen a current CDS which reflects this).
@SevenDad , those cds can be quite addictive. Read at your own peril!
I haven’t looked at too many or in too much detail, but so far I have only found one where male applicants outnumbered female, and that was only by a handful.
@ski: The CDS that I have seen are all still from the 2400 days.
@gardenstategal: The general layout of the forms is a disincentive to read to many or two closely.
@twinsmama: For me what’s been interesting is the race breakdown…to see exactly how many mixed race kids (like my own) there are in an admitted class at a given school.
FYI @SevenDad it’s not always an accurate number. My BF is the ultimate swirl - a mixed race Latino, but he’s only included under Latino on the CDS.
I have never looked at a CDS either, but I’ve never found school stats to be interesting or applicable to any specific case. And I’ve been a data analyst by trade for years. I should have been a ballerina.
The CDS stats can be helpful if you’re on a WL. While it varies from year to year, you can see which schools actively use their WL for enrollment management vs. ones that use it as a buffer against yield uncertainty.
@SevenDad collegedata.com pulls data from CDS, so comparing colleges on their website is easier.
What is up with my typos in #287: “Too many or too closely”? I’m obviously losing my touch…
Hi… What is that hilarious thread about the applicant who writes something bizarre on their CV and supposedly got into Harvard? I cant remember
Clam Fart!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/470497-clam-fart-oh-my-god-what-did-i-do-p1.html
To finish the summer with a bang, we went on our last - and longest distance - college tour, visiting Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Rochester. A lot of driving, but we had a great time. We saw a remarkable Pirates game in Pittsburgh, went bowling in Cleveland, got lost in Rochester (thanks to Google Maps), and enjoyed perfect weather everywhere. Case Western Reserve U. became a surprise favorite; it was especially surprising how much my daughter loved it, as it hadn’t really been on her radar. I might feel compelled to post on the thread about colleges that moved up on your list…
Driving 7D1 back to college today, so our summer is effectively over. In the middle of setting up OVs and waiting to hear back from one pre-read. 7D2 is supposed to have a draft of her main essay done by the time she goes back to school…I guess anything is possible in the remaining few days.
@SevenDad I hope that anything is possible for these last few days. My daughter took her SAT yesterday and I am praying she has that draft done this week. Working on the portfolio has been slow but progressing (she’s a perfectionist and needs 15-20 pieces) but at least we have visited more schools and the list is almost done. I’m throwing this out to the universe…FINISH YOUR ESSAY DRAFT :!! 8-}
@twinsmama RIT made a huge leap to the top of her. We both really liked it.
@twinsmama, one of ChoatieKid’s good friends chose Case and is loving it. You definitely should give it some love on CC.
@jdewey OMG I’m in tears here laughing so much over that clam fart link. I laughed so much I have a headache. Thank you…I needed that. My girls are laughing too