<p>I have buy in to crank out apps tomorrow!!! I offered DS the choice of a shovel and pick axe for his Christmas gift so that he can start digging himself a basement to live in next year or start in on his essays. He chose essays! woot woot!! :D/ </p>
<p>Hmmm. D4 has 5 early apps due Nov 1 and I don’t think she has even one supplement started and the Common App half done, maybe. These are high achieving kids. They know how to manage their time or they wouldn’t be 4.0 34+ AP scholar etc. etc. students. They will get those apps done. My timing is not her timing. If it were me I’d be worried and preoccupied and making micro deadlines for myself for the rest of the week. But I’m not the student applying. D4 is the eligible (and hopefully qualified) student and she has to get herself into those colleges. Her sister sent early apps in last year a couple hours before the Nov 1 midnight deadline. I was nervous, but it had a very happy ending a month later. D3 was a top student in HS, she’s a top student at Williams now. Who am I to tell them they are doing things wrong? It’s only nerve wracking when I insert myself and my needs and my projections and my anxieties and my way of operating into the mix. Letting go during this college admissions process is the beginning of the big letting go. </p>
<p>As someone who once got an National Science Foundation grant application submitted 8 minutes before the deadline, I really have nothing to add to this conversation.</p>
<p>I will second oldfort’s advice above, though. It really helps if the RD applications are done, or nearly done before the ED/EA/REA/SCEA decisions are out. It’s possible for an exceptionally strong student like oldfort’s D1 to be surprised by a deferral, and it does tend to take the wind out of the sails.</p>
<p>" @rhandco, reading your post actually made my palms sweat! "</p>
<p>Just found out that his online teacher reopened a small assignment he missed, but didn’t tell him, and it was due last night 
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<p>A disorganized teacher is the bane of every student. I make it a point that if I mess up due to my disorganization, I try to overcommunicate what is happening, give extra time, remind students to remind me to update an assignment or reopen it.</p>
<p>Some teachers are not that way. AP classes are essentially college classes, so I’m telling my son that disorganized teachers will be the norm not the exception depending upon where he goes to school.</p>
<p>Get this - one of the things he needs to do by midnight tonight is an essay! But the prompt is much more narrow and well-defined, and completely unrelated to him, so I’m sure he will have much less trouble getting it done.</p>
<p>My son submitted 4 apps yesterday, so all of the schools with November EA deadlines are done! I checked Naviance and his GC has already sent some of the school information to two of the schools. One teacher recommendation has been in since September, and the other teacher promised us he’d upload the recommendation by today. It’s definitely a relief.</p>
<p>I write for a living, and one thing I made clear to my kid is that there needed to be early drafts of any essays, multiple versions if possible, Once those were in place (I didn’t read them), I felt she could manage her time, although I strongly advised an end of Thanksgiving weekend for RD.</p>
<p>^I agree with this. It may seem fine for high achieving kids to just crank these out at the last minute. But there ARE high achieving kids out there who have been drafting, polishing, editing for a while, too. In most cases that will give them an edge. College admissions is a lot more competitive than HS English class for most kids.</p>
<p>Six of seven early apps are submitted, yahoo ^:)^ Somehow my daughter didn’t see the “optional” essay for Providence College and will be starting, working on, and completing that before Friday so we can get that in as well. Lots of discussion last night about what optional really means. Yea, a full pay student with equivalent grades/scores can probably get away with it. This school is on the list because of merit aid and I don’t see them shelling out any $$ to a student who can’t be bothered doing the “optional” essay. </p>
<p>And a question ~ the one recommendation that should be the best of the bunch (and awesome) isn’t completed. The teacher mentioned to daughter on Friday that she is working on it. What? She emailed this teacher in August to request the recommendation to ensure that there was plenty of time. Should I email this teacher as a polite reminder?</p>
<p>Schools are used to the recs coming in a few days late and most don’t penalize students for it. They have so many apps to review that they just start with those that are complete. If it gets to a week past due, then it is time to prod the teacher again. As long as the teacher has mentioned it recently, I wouldn’t worry.</p>
<p>I am so grateful to have found this thread! I knew there had to be other kids out there like my D but I had no idea she (and I) had so much company. I can’t even say that she’s procrastinated exactly but she’s been busily nonproductive writing essays and scrapping them for at least the past month. I admit it, I’m a highly anxious parent and the stress of this is painful. For her it’s mainly perfectionism that’s getting in her way but I can’t discount the effect of a crushing senior year course load on top of that.</p>
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<p>Oh man! That just sums up my frustration. How can this kid not see that there’s a hard deadline looming and DEAL with it? </p>
<p>NEPats, don’t e-mail the teacher. That should be done by your dd.</p>
<p>I hear you about the crushing senior year. </p>
<p>I like that my kids were(are) very active academically, socially, and athletically until the very end of high school, but man, it makes it tough to apply to college.</p>
<p>Tufts finally got rid of their optional essays because they couldn’t get anyone to believe they were optional. They incorporated the same type of questions into the required ones though I think. Optional essays do often give you a chance to show another side of yourself - for example the one my son answered was to imagine what the US would be like if the British had won the Battle of Yorktown. He ended up writing a piece that consisted of excerpts from imaginary historical documents from the 18th c to the present day. A lot of fun and it was a chance to show a part of himself that really wasn’t anywhere else in the application.</p>
<p>Well . . . the essay had been brainstormed and a prompt and general approach decided upon. Now he will let it percolate some. I still have the pick axe in my Amazon cart but won’t order it yet.</p>
<p>D’s ED application is complete. Well, except for one final piece—the parent recommendation. I promise, I’ll finish my essay tonight. Really. No more procrastinating on CC. Well, maybe just a few more minutes. </p>
<p>S was also one of those high achievers who always gets things done. Drove me crazy last year turning in a couple of EA applications with hours (or minutes) to spare, depending on what time zone they were basing the deadline on! I agree that this is good practice for letting go.</p>
<p>OP here. Thank you everyone for the great comments and advice. It helps to know that there are others that can relate to what you are going through!</p>
<p>@NEPatsGirl, a tried and true method is for the student to write the thank you <em>now</em> rather than waiting for the LOR to be submitted. In most cases this will produce a very prompt submission by the late teacher. An email can be effective or if it’s getting really late and reminders haven’t worked, D could actually drop off a handwritten card and nice chocolate (or whatever she would have done as a thank you later in the process) just expressing her sincere thanks for taking the time and mention what has been important to her about the class and/or the relationship. This is likely to get a faster result than more reminders. </p>
<p>That’s a great idea honeybee63 
I’ll mention it to my daughter when she gets home. The one thing that is a bit different i think than the “norm” in this case is how close she is to this teacher and how small her class is. There are only 109 kids in her class and my daughter had a class with her last year that she was the only student for the second semester lol. To make it more fun, they often went to a restaurant together for lunch/class. I’ve met with the teacher informally and she considers my daughter her “mini-me” and is pushing hard for her to attend her alma mater and I know she’s a bit disappointed that we didn’t consider ED. I know the letter is going to be phenomenal, wish it just weren’t going to be “late” :(</p>
<p>It’s anxiety. This is really common in type A, perfectionist kids. My daughter didn’t apply anywhere EA or ED because the pressure was just too much. Plenty of kids don’t know where they got in until March or April. It’s stressful, but not as stressful as the period she’s in right now. Step back, meditate, pray, and let her do what she wants. She’s not going to throw her life away.</p>