Yay!! Congrats. You gotta have a few of these good days to keep you goin’. So happy for you and one of 4 kids.
Congratulations, @Momto4kids … Did I do the arithmetic correctly? Did your son apply to 16 schools? Is that the norm these days? WOW. That’s a lot of work!
@CaliMex, yes that’s correct, he applied to 16 schools. He originally applied to six EA and rolling, but I was worried. All of those schools are big state schools which don’t give much financial aid to out of state kids. This last admit from today is the only exception as they meet full need, but was a major reach. I told the college counselor that he needed some more safer financial schools. The next ten are mostly privates that reportedly can be more generous.
I think that some kids apply to less schools, but when you need financial aid you need to cast a wide net. Fortunately, most were on the common app so that helped. I was shocked, however, by the cost of it all. With the application fees, ACT fee for each school and the CSS profile fees we spent over 1000$ on the whole thing.
My daughter also applied to 16. All are selective privates; most wanted extra essays. We couldn’t talk her out of any, and the ones she doesn’t love quite as much are those where she is more likely to be admitted so couldn’t be dropped. She did say after it was pretty much done that although it hadn’t been more than she could handle (because she handled it), it had been as much as she could handle. Five applications were “free,” but not free with sending scores, arts supplements, and CSS Profile fees. My son applied to 11. You do the math. 
Is that what the Groton and Mercersburg college counselors recommend for students who will need FA for college? Wow!
oh wow we wait anxiously for 2019. Despite having top grades, ECs, the need for $$$$$ makes us anxious.
@Momto4kids Congrats! "This last admit from today is the only exception as they meet full need, but was a major reach. " That is outstanding
@calimex, We were advised 10-12. My daughter tends to overdo things. 
DS applied to 15 selective LACs which were mostly low reach/matches. A couple that seemed safety-ish but it’s really hard to predict.
Most had about 125-175 spots for unhooked boys, and the counselor said there was no way to know in advance where his profile would be needed to fill out the class. Had his list included different schools, it might have been a bit shorter. It really depends on what kinds of schools are of interest (selectivity and size), whether you need merit or FA, etc.
Hooray for your son, @Momto4kids , big relief!
Have you heard from any of them yet, @gardenstategal?
My kid is a sophomore in college. So yes, all of them!! :))
^ Right. That’s my foot in my mouth. Belated congratulations!!!
DS applied to 14 (he has a different cc than Twinsmama’s kiddos). 2 “true safeties”, 1 sky high reach (rejected), a handful of reaches (rejected/waitisted), and the rest “possibles” per Naviance. Finally got a non-safety yes last night (Sewanee), plus they gave him some merit, which was unexpected. 6 more to hear from. We cast a wide net due to the discrepancy between his scores/extracurriculars (high) and his grades (quite mediocre).
Great to hear the updates from our fellow 2018 parents.
Was anyone else sweating over mid-year report? While 7D2 was admitted ED to great school that we’re all very happy about, the specter of a drop in grades (I’ll tell you what, they certainly don’t ramp down work for Seniors, as least in our experience through 1.5 trimesters!) was something that was constantly looming. 7D2 seemed concerned as well. Thankfully, she told us last night that there was no meaningful change in her grades…some a little higher/some a little lower, but everything still comfortably in the ballpark. Phwew!
To add a data point to a parent who reported upstream that ED/EA seemed to be less successful at their kid’s school this application season — I get the sense that at 7D2’s school it has been a fairly successful (perhaps even surprisingly so?) ED/EA year — even at some of the super-selective schools.
Yes to the worry about interim grades. I got a call in the supermarket from my daughter who had done relatively poorly on a test and thought she couldn’t send interim grades. Luckily, her grade in the class was still fine. My son’s English grade on interims was well below his norm. I asked what happened, and he said his teacher hasn’t finished grading essays and put the grade in as a stub. I hope he tells the college counseling office before they send the reports out…
When prep school publish early (or late for that matter) cum Laude, do they take into consideration if a student has taken very rigorous course load? Or prep school only calculate Cum Laude totally based on Grade Point Average. Thus a student can boost their GPA by taking very easy classes from 9th grade. I am getting conflicting reports and I was wondering if that depends on the prep school.
The reason I am asking that many student are maintaining same grade but they are taking very easy math and science classes and are enrolled in similar difficulty level humanities classes as my kido.
@infinityprep1234: You will not get conflicting reports from your student’s guidance counselor who is the only person you should be listening to. The experienced BS parents here are willing to share their knowledge and experience, but your recent posts indicate a lot of concerns that could be cleared up by having an honest, direct conversation with your child’s GC who will be able to evaluate your child within the context of his/her school, something none of us can do here. If your child has not been assigned a GC yet, you can still talk to the advisor or someone in the CC office at the school.
Just my .02: Don’t worry about what any other student is doing or how any other student compares to your child. Just make sure your child is getting the education and boarding school experience that is important to him/her and your family. College will take care of itself. If your child is class of 2018, it is too late for these concerns over which you have no control, and you will know soon enough how your child’s college journey pans out. Good luck.
100 days until graduation
@twinsmama I was at the 100 days reception tonight. Your kiddos looked happy and healthy. And got some fun news about graduation. You can ask them.
Hard to believe there’s just 100 days left. 18 years in the blink of an eye… [sniff]
@hellomaisy You lucky mama! Thanks for the report!
Here’s a quote to share from my current book group read, “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng:
“To a parent, your child wasn’t just a person: your child was a place, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all existed at once.”
My first attempt at formatting text on CC; let’s hope it takes…