This is ok but for any you apply, especially the privates as interest likely matters, do the online sessions they offer. Get on the emails list. Open the emails. Engage them.
I admit to skimming the thread a little but has anyone recommended Hope College yet? Good music program and business school, conservative and a lovely campus and town.
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Our kids visited all or almost all the schools on their list but we prioritized making sure they had safeties and targets (with good chances of merit) and where they could visit more than one school within a trip if it wasnât close by.
Also, with the lists, we had a good split between EA and RD with many of the safeties and targets offering EA. This meant that by Feb 1 they had the decision on six of the schools and knew financial aid/merit and had 2-4 months to figure out admitted student visits. With the RD schools, there wasnât time to visit more than 2-3 schools and that assumed admitted student day didnât overlap.
Our kids didnât visit all the schools on their lists prior to application. They visited enough schools to get a sense of their preference for size, and urban/rural. We then prioritized anything under consideration for ED for my daughter. She ended up seeing half of the schools on her list.
It was a bit more complicated for my son as he was going through recruiting during the absolute worst of the COVID shutdowns. He missed all the OV and ended up with 3 schools with coach support that he visited after admissions decisions were out.
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Okay. Itâs good to hear that there are ways to work around not being able to visit all colleges, and that itâs still possible to make a good informed decision.
Just to echo others, our counselors recommend going to areas where you can see a good variety of schools, even if some of those schools are not necessarily at the top of your working list, or indeed on it at all. Using what you learn about preferences from those high-density trips, you can add some more targeted pre-application trips, but also apply to places that seemâbased on learned preferences, virtual visits, and other informationâto be really good fits, planning to visit/revisit the final contenders after admissions decisions.
I will say in our S24âs cases, trying to do visits during his junior school year ended up impractical. It is obviously suboptimal to visit during the summer, but that is when we can do our initial sampling visits, and then we will make sure to visit/revisit during the school year if there is any sort of close call following admissions decisions.
Hey all! I wanted to get a head start on my common app, so Iâve written descriptions for my ECs. I just wanted to post in case it might help give you a better understanding of me or in case Iâm way off the mark, and these type of descriptions wonât work.
Class President - Student Council - Led weekly meetings, bridged administration-student gap, achieved goal of fundraising for student lounge, picnic tables, and recreational equipment
Student Body Chaplain - Student Council - Planned weekly chapel services with speakers, started a Bible study and prayer group, built a support system for students, planned off-campus retreats
Principal Tubist - College band and local youth orchestra - Won principal tuba positions in youth orchestra and local college band as sophomore, met weekly for rehearsals, had featured solos in high level music
Elementary Music Tutor - School Fine Arts Program - Taught individual brass lessons to 5 elementary kids, developed lesson plans to boost progress, helped students prepare for school concerts
Worship Team Leader - School and Church - Planned/led weekly worship sets, coordinated scheduling/practices, set up new audio systems, held devotional meetings to build positive environment
Special Event Coordinator - Church - Planned 20+ special services, built teams to plan camps/retreats, organized week-long seminar training 50+ pastors, met monthly with church leadership
Math and Science Tutor - Jr. Classes - Helped 7th grade students become more confident in math and science skills, aided with homework, worked with teacher to craft plans to help students
Music Student - Private Lessons - Took weekly piano lessons(7 yrs), tuba lessons(4 yrs), composition lessons(1 yr), practiced daily to prepare repertoire, accompanied student soloists
Crew Manager - School Theatre Program - Oversaw 5-10 member backstage crew for two shows, planned out transition routines and oversaw props/wardrobe, worked with closely with director
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Great - is there a big difference between worship team leader and student chaplain? Itâs wondering if they can be combined.
The big thing will be once common opens is fitting the verbiage given limited characters but youâre off to a great start.
I tried combining worship leader and chaplain, but the worship leader position is more of a musical position (leader of a music group), whereas the chaplain position is more of an administrative type support system (if that makes sense). I also couldnât figure out how to combine both of them and still fit the 150 character limit.
My kid revised her descriptions like 10 times. So lots of time to wordsmith. That why you being organized now is a plus.
Some schools ask for resumes. Usually optional. I think it was fsu that required. But youâre on a nice path there too.
Yeah. Itâs a lot harder than I realized trying to boil down activities that sometimes lasted all four years of highschool, down to just 150 characters. It feels like Iâm leaving a lot out, but I just donât have room for any more details.
Quantify. Show impact is what Iâd say. That you have tenure is great.
I see a theme in your ECs and thatâs great too. I can kind of tell about you as a person.
Youâre well ahead of the curve. You donât realize it but youâll change what youâve written many times.
The big thing - show impact where you can.
You can build a resume with more depth. If they have an optional resume submission theyâll see even more if your impact.
Do you think itâs good to probably get a bit more specific with them, and maybe add some more quantitative elements?
For resumes and the common app - in my opinion always better to quantify.
Raised $5,000 in a bake sale for xxx.
Started a club and recruited 18 members.
Helped 11 7th grade kid x hours a week âŠ
Sounds good. Thanks! I was gonna put hours in but thought I saw somewhere that the common app has a separate section for this information. Is this correct or did I misread?
It did a few years ago. If I recall it was a range - like 5-10.
I think you have a great start.
Iâd develop a resume. Even if you donât use, it will be a good framework for future resumes when you apply for internships.
And I think youâd be ok to wait for common to open on the activities. Youâve organized it well. Sleep on them a few weeks. Maybe you missed something or you decide something doesnât belong. Itâs quality over quantity.
Maybe you change the grouping etc
Youâre 80% of the way. Once you see the format real time, youâll be able to finesse each to fit. And then rewrite and rewrite them again. Likely overkill but its what mine kept doing.
Sounds good! I definitely think I might be hitting this whole college thing a bit to hard 
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Enjoy your summer. But do get to more schools if feasible or sign up for info sessions at schools of interest. Some pre record.
If you havenât yet and you likely have - set up a college only email such as winstoncollege99@gmail and for any info lists you get on, they go there. This way you can have all emails in one place. Open them. Review them. And get fee waivers sent.
Donât be afraid to over sign up. You can always unsubscribe. My daughter had 110 - excessive. But If you follow guidance from here on Furman and hope - sign up let them know youâre looking at them.
Good luck. But yeah take a week off. Write down this or that thought an about the essay topic as they hit you.
Youâre in a great spot Iâd say.
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I think that overall, your descriptions look good. I would be careful of not trying to give the impression that youâve done more than youâve actually done, though, as then it might cause people to start doubting other descriptions.
For instance, planned off-campus retreatsâŠdid you do this solo or in conjunction with any adults? Like planning for transportation, securing the location, food, plus all the activities and lessons, etc. Did you do all of it or did you contribute to it? If you were doing all of this, then I would make sure you have one of the people writing your letters of recommendation to talk about it as an illustration of your character. Having a 3rd party to talk about amazing accomplishments can really help your credibility.
Again, were you the one determining who should be invited, sending out the invites, what the topic of the seminar was going to be, making the location and space arrangements, the food, etc If so, make sure you you have you letters of recommendation speak to this. If not, I would probably edit the wording to say âassisted with organizing.â
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Thatâs a really good point. In both of these, I planned all the logistics (food, hotels, schedule, recreational activities, sign up forms etc), but not necessarily the content/curriculum or decide who or who not to invite. I was actually thinking about getting a recommendation letter from the leader, but since it would come from someone at my church rather than my school, I thought that may be a bad idea (especially if some schools limit number of LORs).
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