<p>I am thrilled to report that the essay fairy finally visited our house. My daughter had been struggling and produced a decent essay. Then, she dashed off something in her Latin class, revised it last night -- and it turned out great. She's written some of the supplemental ones; they need good editing. It's nice to see some progress.</p>
<p>Daughter is using questbridge essays in most of the applications.</p>
<p>Never saw the essay fairy, maybe she (or he) just sneaks in and leaves fairy dust. Older S was like pulling teeth, younger things nothing of a three to four page writing assignment. S asked me to read his essays, I tried to pass it off on his English teacher. He politely informed me that editing was my job. Oh well, it's done.</p>
<p>GC finally send HS material two weeks after initial request. Needed a little reminder and followup. Sent package out Monday. Not sure that school understands the concept of rolling admissions. Oh well. S printed out an article from Sports Illustrated or Espn.com about how Wisconsin is the perfect college sports town. Detailed info re all of the teams. Starting to get excited. Hope he isn't disappointed.</p>
<p>massmom,
My D had the same problem with her GC. She talked to him as soon as school started at the beginning of September and he said there would be no problem getting it done in two weeks. She got both of her rolling admissions in by the end of September and just got the finalized GC rec this week!</p>
<p>Her admissions essays are pretty much done, but she's been working on the Emory scholars one this week. It's a blend of a couple others she wrote earlier, but it's not always easy to do that and make it still sound cohesive and compelling. I've got to give a lot of credit to these kids, this is probably the most difficult type of writting to do, and to do it well is even harder.</p>
<p>The Essay Fairy came and left her goodies, and now the Common App is finally completed and submitted to the first of five Common App colleges. The other four aren't due until (at the earliest) Jan. 1st. We found that D's GC is taking at least a week to submit reports. Five down, four (maybe) to go!</p>
<p>Update here....here's my original post, with comments added:
Screen name: Mombot</p>
<p>Is your Junior male or female: Female</p>
<p>Home state: WA</p>
<p>Applied to/applying to:
Notre Dame, Carleton and Santa Clara U. EA: she hit the "send" button on Monday.</p>
<p>MIT, Tufts, UWash, and Stanford RD.</p>
<p>Academic interests: Math, languages, history, economics, physics, geology, business</p>
<p>Schools visited: U Wash, Lewis and Clark, Reed, Penn, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Harvard</p>
<p>Senior year courseload: AP English, Calc BC, AP psych, Honors chem, newspaper (editor), senior world history (required).</p>
<p>Study plans for SAT: You must be joking right? Showed up once and did fine, but steadfastly refuses to indulge in obsessiveness about standardized tests.</p>
<p>ECs: editor in chief of the newspaper next year, cross country captain, teen court (city allows teens charged with minor traffic infractions to go to teen court instead of traffic court), NHS, track and field, math tutoring, peer advocate/mediator, link crew</p>
<p>Stats: SAT IIs were excellent (760 on math IIC and USH, 710 in Physics), AP Commended, NMSF Commended, Rank is 2 of 300.</p>
<p>Somebody PLEASE talk me down from the ledge. Her essay was capable and technically proficient but I couldn't see much heart or depth. Of course it's 500 words so maybe I am being completely unreasonable, but nothing reached out and grabbed me when I read it. She fired it off because she's in such a rush to be done. She had a deadline that she had set for herself to have her EA stuff done before Homecoming weekend and by god it was done. </p>
<p>Her teacher recs will be strong; I got to read one and the gist was that she is a top student, both talented AND disciplined, and that she is down to earth, approachable, and humble. It came across loud and clear that she is not a grade grubber. The teacher also made the point that she is really well liked and respected both by faculty and by other students.</p>
<p>I keep thinking about andi and andison and worrying about her top heavy list. I am not worried that she won't do well at either of her safeties, but like any mom I cringe at the idea that she's courting a lot of rejection because she applied to so many crazy competitive schools. </p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>If she would be happy attending one of her safeties, don't worry about it. If she was totally committed to attending one of her reaches, she would want to retake her SATs, she'd be obsessing about the essay, she'd be contacting the admissions office, etc. She sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders. Let HER be the one who needs to be talked down from the ledge (figuratively speaking, only, of course). If she doesn't feel the need to be on that ledge, then she shouldn't be. As long as she will be able to get into a school she would be willing to attend ... and as long as she is aware of what it takes to get into her reaches (she probably is, being an intelligent young woman) ... then you should relax. Ultimately, this all rests with the kids. We can prod them to take the right classes, look into their options, maintain their grades, complete their apps, etc. Other things, though, they have to WANT to do. If they don't, they will deal with the consequences. The ones who are savvy will make sure they aren't missing anything they really need to get where they want. If they do, though, it's hardly the end of the world. A good sure-bet that they like can be turned into a great experience, if need be. It's all in the attitude.</p>
<p>Oh, and about the rejection factor: look at the acceptance stats for the competitive colleges. She'd hardly be the first & only one to be rejected, and she would survive. It's always hard on us parents to see our kids rejected, but it happens. Anyone who gets through life without any rejections & disappointments isn't taking any risks!</p>
<p>Mombot, I love her academic interests. That could have been me. </p>
<p>As for the essay, I've been obsessively reading books of sample essays - and I'd say maybe a tenth of them were really memorable. It's really hard to say much in 500 words. Since my son is clearly a techie kid applying to techie places - I'm praying his essay is good enough. But it's hard to tell, especially when you're so close to a kid. I wouldn't stew about it. What's done is done.</p>
<p>Second essay, done. With a week to go for the SCEA, I think S is all done. Now we play the waiting game (and, yes, to The Simpsons fans out there, I'd rather play Hungry, Hungry Hippos). He took a risk with his essays, neither focus on his one passion, the source of all his ECs. But, it's his app and he wanted to show some other sides of himself (and he felt his ECs were fully covered in other parts of the app). I'm worried that he's so focused on his EA school that he won't adequately prepare the apps for the other schools. Early App is great if it works, but otherwise it puts so much focus on one school to the exclusion of all the others. Still hoping for that coma to hit that will lift May 2nd.</p>
<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I found about this site recently and decided to join the parents' forum even though it's fairly late in the game.</p>
<p>My senior is: Male</p>
<p>Home state: New Jersey</p>
<p>Child's possible academic interests: Physics, chemistry, biology, biomedical engineering.</p>
<p>Schools currently on child's list of possibilities: </p>
<p>Dartmouth (ED)
Johns Hopkins
Cornell
Brown
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>Schools we've visited (whether or not child is still interested in going there): Yale, UPenn (twice), Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Bucknell, Carnegie Mellon and Williams</p>
<p>Senior Year Courseload: AP English Lit, AP Spanish, AP Physics, AP Art History, and multivariable calculus.</p>
<p>SAT/ACT: ACT 34, SATs last December were 720 CR, 760 M, 670 W. He took it again a couple of weeks ago. His SAT IIs were 800 Math II and 760 Chem. He plans to take the Spanish SAT II in November. </p>
<p>EC's of Note: Captain of Varisty Crew, piano competitions (he sent a CD in), and he's an Emergency Medical Techincial volunteer in our town.</p>
<p>Welcome to the party, momofrower, from your neighbor across the Delaware!</p>
<p>Glad you've joined us momofrower! My daughter is very interested in club rowing in college, somewhere that complete novices can join in. We have a river, but the HS's don't have teams, too bad, it looks like a wonderful sport.</p>
<p>Updating....</p>
<p>After ten or twenty rounds with the Essay Fairy, S finished the ones for the Common App. Binghamton and Fordham (both EA) are submitted. It truly seemed like this day would never arrive. He still now has tons of writing to do....three other Common App schools (Cornell (still HAH), NYU and W&M) all require supplements, and the rest of his schools have their own apps. He'll finish UNC-CH's in the next few days, but I'm depressed about a recent thread about how hard it is to get into if you're OOS. We had thought, based on his school's scattergram, that it was a match. Ack.</p>
<p>Michigan writing is mostly done, that should go soon too.</p>
<p>Something I want to share with y'all...S's school recently hosted a Parent's Night on the college process where quite a few parents strongly recommended college counselors and even essay "assistance"...it was mentioned that, with the incredibly stressful senior programs that competitive applicants HAVE to have, adding the college application process on top of that is like adding a part-time job. If seniors are applying to a number of colleges (we have ten), just the paperwork itself is immense. We've made the decision not to have a consultant, but if I had it to do over again (and especially if my kid was an uber-achiever seeking admission to incredibly competitive schools) I might do it.</p>
<p>Now it is about three days until the EA application needs to be finished. Only the common app essays and the supliment essays are needed. DD is extremely busy as Student Assoc. president, a job she takes very seriously, so I can't get her to delegate work to other students for this next week. She gave a welcome to visiting students last night and again today and is in a short skit tonight. Tomorrow she and her coauthors have to paint sets for a long skit (cast of 20, lasting 20 min.) to be given Friday.</p>
<p>Well, the essay fairy flits by our house, and I think she's going to land, but then she waves her wand (what a tease!) and flys right by!! Actually, D has written, but not fully edited, the Common App essays and has somewhat complete drafts of the other 5 that need to be done before the EA and ED apps must be mailed on Wednesday. There's a major school project due Monday, quarterlies, and she's leaving for a conference on Wednesday evening....All I can be sure of is that by Wednesday morning she will have hit the "submit" button or the apps will be in their FedEx envelopes winging their way to their destinations.</p>
<p>My senior is: female</p>
<p>Home state: Connecticut</p>
<p>Child's possible academic interests: Biology, Botany, Microbiology, Music, Irish Studies</p>
<p>Schools currently on child's list of possibilities: Trinity College (Dublin), National University of Ireland Galway, Smith, WPI, UCONN, University of Hawai'i Manoa, Sarah Lawrence College</p>
<p>Schools we've visited: Emerson, MIT, UCONN, Smith, WPI, scheduled to visit Sarah Lawrence, Trinity College (Hartford), SUNY-Geneseo and RIT.</p>
<p>Senior Year Courseload: AP English Lit, AP Calculus, AP Physics, AP Euro History, Honors French, Chorale</p>
<p>SAT/ACT: SAT Verbal 700, Math 620, Writing 700. SAT IIs all in the 600's & 700s, she's taken every AP class her school offers thus far and has 3 or 4 on all of them. She is a nervous test taker, her classwork/project work/homework tends to be very strong. </p>
<p>EC's of Note: Section Leader for her school's top ranked a capella Women's Choir; Class Representative for Drama Club, leading roles in school musicals, Math Team, Chemistry Olympiad, National Honor Society.</p>
<p>Her essays are currently in the hands of her English teacher, she's already filled out the Common Application and several of the individual school applications, we're just waiting to pull everything together into stamped envelopes.</p>
<p>Welcome aboard IrishMom -- Looks like an interesting list, particularly Dublin and Galway. Are you of Irish descent or Irish citizens? How difficult is it to apply to Dublin and Galway from U.S. high schools -- beautiful country and fantastic cities!</p>
<p>We are dual citizens, which means diddly-squat because getting into college in Eire is based on residency. Ireland the US have a very friendly grandfather clause for dual citizenship, because Ireland basically lost a couple of generations of her citizens to the US. My dad was born and raised in Galway, and all of my grandparents on both sides were Irish citizens. </p>
<p>We all visited Ireland together for the first time this year, and both of my Ds, and my husband, fell in love. (Younger D is 9, we've got a few years before we start this whole college thing for her). They all want to move there. I think I'm slightly less inclined to do so because I grew up in an overwhelmingly Irish culture (our entire social life revolved around the AOH), so I know some of the cons. Although they do have a lovely pace of life over there, they are rapidly turning into a very American-like country, everyone drives big SUVs (even with their v. expensive petrol prices) and wants to get a piece of the Celtic Tiger. </p>
<p>Anyway, D really wants to go there, and I'm holding my tongue, because not only will it be difficult for her to get in as a US resident, she probably won't be able to go if she does get in because she will not qualify for any aid.</p>
<p>
[quote]
please let us know what you think of Trinity U after your visit; I have a son who's a sophomore that I think would be a good fit for a smaller school. I'd love to hear more about it. Also, is your daughter happy at Rice? Everyone I've met who goes there seems to really love it, and they're all so friendly too.
[/quote]
Sorry, I hadn't checked in this thread for awhile. DD is very, very happy at Rice, and is looking forward to being back at school next semester. (She's studying abroad in chile this semester.) We really liked our visit to Trinity - did the "Trinity in Focus" program, then DS spent the night. I'll try to post a complete trip report on the "visits" thread tomorrow, when I'm not half asleep!! :)</p>