<p>I have begun to find it very frustrating looking at D's upcoming band schedule. I am sure thousands of kids before have figured out how to get it all done, but geeshh! They don't want the kids taking any SAT's (Subject Test included, which is what D needs) in October because they are at competitions every weekend, but of course ED colleges have October testing as their deadline. Also with Common App not coming online until August, band and others (ie, football, ROTC, etc) are already in full swing. Then when school starts, this kid leaves the house at 7:00 am and is home no earlier than 7:30, but typically 8:30 and has homework for 7 AP classes. Please reasure me these apps will get done!! (I REFUSE to do them for her...lol) She is gathering all her info for the Common App now and getting her ducks in a row, but she can't start the race till the gun goes off so to speak.</p>
<p>Yeah, fall of senior year is the worst. I was also worried at this point in time last year due to my D’s E.C. schedule and academic load. </p>
<p>But the applications will get done. I assure you. Just don’t plan any optional activities- don’t plan a huge Halloween party at your place this year. And don’t plan a Christmas vacation until after you hear from the ED school ;)</p>
<p>Our HS has a competitive band with a massive time commitment from mid-July through the end of October, yet my S and many other kids managed to make it work - in fact, several of the his classs top 10 were marching band kids. The school did not stand in the way of SATs and other scholastic activities, though there was one Saturday in October where many of the kids missed practice due to it being an exam date.</p>
<p>collegeshopping, they’ll get done. If you want to get an early start, know that the Common App essays don’t change much year to year. She could get a couple knocked out ahead of time.</p>
<p>Junior parents and younger, learn from this post: Try to get all the testing out of the way by the end of junior year!!!</p>
<p>D has a busy fall as well and getting in the tests is going to be a challenge. The senior class retreat is the weekend of the first ACT in the fall, and the state XC meet, which her team will likely qualify for, is always the day of the Nov. SAT. We really should have thought through a couple of spring choices like not taking the May SAT because it was the morning after opening night of the play and attending the second week of SLS which interferred with the June test date. Her SAT scores are solid, but she’s one to always want them to be better. Hopefully the first taking of the subject tests will be successful.</p>
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<p>Yep, I have a drill team D, so same difference. At one school I asked if the application was live now…the admissions officer kept discouraging the students from starting on it now “because we won’t begin to look at any of them until late September or early October…” Okay, that’s fine but NOW is when she has the time to do it.</p>
<p>Many admissions officer said their favorite college essay topic was “Topic of your own choosing” so I wouldn’t worry too much about the Common Application. If you haven’t taken the subject tests and need to, I think the band director is going to have to hear “tough” from you. It’s nearly always better to take those subject tests in the spring when the material is fresh, I wish more schools made it clear to their students that they really ought to sign up for them in May or June of junior year.</p>
<p>We are in the same boat, only it is football in S’s case. Most nights he will not get home til 6:30 or 7 pm, then faces several hours of homework. He is only taking 3 AP classes, I have no idea how students like your D take 7 AP’s. Fortunately, we took the advice given here to take SAT 2’s at end of school year so testing is done. S has been told he will start working on his essay this week, preliminary common app is now on line. My hope is S only has the supplimental essays to write by the time school starts and some fine tuning on his essay.</p>
<p>I suggest starting the essays now and getting as much done as possible.</p>
<p>Saturday tests are a problem for our band kids because we have football games on Friday nights. They don’t get home until after 10 PM, a fifteen hour day, and are terribly sleepy the next morning. It’s impossible to avoid with the PSAT; for the SAT, I’d cancel the ECs and get the testing done in October. Early November is always stressful and the kids are worn down by the end of marching band season.</p>
<p>You’ve got to get the applications sorted out before September, even if the list is not finalized. An ED/EA strategy is important. Take all the possible colleges, list the testing and application deadlines, and schedule the applications, one per weekend. You might also summarize the number and type of essays needed. The first two or three apps are the hardest; don’t let your child start with his/her dream school because writer’s block might set in. Have them do the easiest app first for a warm up; a state or safety school is a good candidate.</p>
<p>Many essays can be recycled; plan on one that’s fairly general. Have your student jot down five to ten topics that demonstrate a unique quality or a crystallizing moment. Go over the topics to see what can be effective in a limited number of words; not everything is suitable for a brief college essay. Have them try expanding on three or four favorite topics and then push a couple of them through the rewrite and refinement stage. Having these at hand will make apps (almost) a breeze.</p>
<p>Our school administers the PSAT on Wednesday during the school day. I recall several times when a neighboring school requested that some of their students (and it seems they were band students) take it at our school mid-week. Our counselor was happy to accommodate them.</p>
<p>Yeah, yeah, yeah, the kids <em>could</em> start working on their applications now but this is summertime and the livin’ is easy. Or should be. Parents of rising seniors, please don’t lean on your kids too hard right now. I know you are all stressed out, and I know it infuriates you that your kids are not yet stressed out, but seriously, chill out. I suggest you encourage your kids to think of essay topics and jot down some ideas but don’t stress them out. They will be stressed out enough in the fall. And stressing them out now will not reduce their stress in the fall.</p>
<p>She did her testing in the Spring, but at the time the colleges on her list did not require SAT subject tests. The list has changed and now they Subject tests are not available until Fall. I wonder why College Board does not offer testing in the summer. You would think there would be a market for it.</p>
<p>Dance studio was pretty good about excusing from company practice for testing (thank goodness!). It was a real juggling act and with ED, D had no choice but to work on apps in the summer.</p>
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<p>I don’t see it as stressing them out at all…my D wants to get started. Spending an hour on an application when the rest of your day consists of sleeping in, watching TV and Facebook = zero stress. Spending an hour on an application after getting home late from your EC and doing homework for multiple AP classes = mucho stress.</p>
<p>Agree with missypie. What is the reasoning for the August 1 Common App live date? So many kids could and would get started over the summer when their workload is much easier. At the very least, they could be thinking about essays and application questions. Our school starts late this year - August 12th!! It has started as early as August 2nd in the past. July would be a much better time to get started on college applications.</p>
<p>Agree with missiepie. What WOULD stress my D out is if she were not, at this very moment, getting everything done that possibly can be done now…planning multiple essay topics, writing first drafts, familiarizing ourselves with the draft Common App, reading her AP summer assignments, continuing to research and visit colleges.</p>
<p>She knows what her fall will be like (most likely a lead in the musical, continuing lessons/recitals/performanes on 2 instruments, preparing for college auditions on one, multiple ECs/service hours, Senior Leadership position, NHS, APs and Dual Credits, maintaining the super-high GPA, it goes on and on.</p>
<p>She works some R&R into each day, but these are also days to accomplish some big objectives that will make her life SO much more sane (if sanity is even possible) in Sep-Dec. I encourage her approach!</p>
<p>Very scary, indeed. I don’t know how these young adults balance it all, really. My son has either been away at football camps or working this summer…and his pre-season conditioning started last night. Granted, that’s only 3 hours per day…but it’s six days/week, at his school which is 40 minutes away. </p>
<p>He only has 2 of his 4 AP summer reading books completed, and needs to write a 5-7 page essay for one of them due the first day of school (he will save that one for last). There will be quizzes on the other three. </p>
<p>A rough draft of his common app essay is due for his AP English Class the first week of classes… and I feel I am constantly on him to dedicate 30-45 minutes/day to prepping for his last crack at the SAT’s in fall.</p>
<p>He has another week away at a leadership institute in August, and ships off with his team to ME for pre-season camp the last week of August. He needs to fit another three-day roadtrip for additional college visits in there, somewhere. And then practices will be daily after school…with games either on Friday evening or Saturday afternoons… right through Thanksgiving. I feel more stressed than he?!?</p>
<p>For those of you heading into “The Season,” I did help get my DD organized. I bought a file box and a few folders. I made up a chart on the outside of each folder that had deadlines and requirements (which ones needed what tests, etc.) and put thm in order in the file box for earliest deadlines first. I asked DD to do one application per week. </p>
<p>It worked pretty well. I also used the folders to file anything that came in the mail from the school.</p>
<p>Senior year was overwhelming in so many respects. If you have a child who needs organization assistance, you can really help lower the stress level by doing some of it for him/her.</p>
<p>I made a Google Calendar for my son to keep his deadlines and commitments in order… and that truly helps. I need him to feel a greater sense of urgency in completing some of the less immediate ‘to do’s’, since they all seem to culminate at the same time. I feel like I am constantly at him to chip away at his list. No fun. I may just try your tickler file approach, MD Mom. Thanks.</p>
<p>We went through this last fall. While you are correct that you don’t want to be doing anything on the app, I think it’s appropriate for you to be involved to “project manage”, to the extent that your child wants you to. </p>
<p>I don’t think the Aug 1 release of the CommonApp is a big deal. Most of the info. is pretty standard "fill in the blank’ stuff. The essay prompts don’t change significantly so work can be started on the essay. Also, in D’s AP Eng Lit class, they spent a lot of time working on the essays – the teachers recognize what’s going on. </p>
<p>I did make a table of all the due dates for apps, etc. One school had a Dec 1 EA due date so we blocked out a bunch of time over Thanksgiving break – at one point I was literally sitting across the table from her, keeping her on task. Because all her apps were CommonApp schools, once she got the first one in, she was able to finish all the others shortly after. NYU has a funky supplement so that was the only one that didn’t get submitted by the end of Thanksgiving break. Having it all out of the way by mid-December made for a much more peaceful winter break.</p>