<p>Anyone else feel like they are way behind the eight-ball??? I can't even tell you how much remains to be done here. </p>
<p>On the plus side: She knows where she is applying, and it's a reasonable list. She has the materials. Common App filled out. One essay written. Great SATs, grades, GPA, "additional talents." </p>
<p>On the down side: A few essays yet to go. Many applications due in a month. And she doesn't really know where she wants to go. She is now unsure about the school that has been her top choice for ages, and nothing has taken its place. For that reason, it all feels very mechanical right now.</p>
<p>I feel that we have been running late on everything about this process, from visits (a grand total of 2) to applications. </p>
<p>Anyone else in the same boat? Anyone who has been there and lived to tell the tale?</p>
<p>Ahh...it's not crunch time until 2 days before the deadlines. That's when your head starts turning around in circles. As far as where she wants to go, she'll be able to weigh her options and decide up until May 1. Can you do college visits on spring break? It wasn't until all the merit scholarship offers were available was D really able to make her decisions. And, she worried about it up until the end. Now, she says she couldn't have made a better decision. Good luck!</p>
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Ahh...it's not crunch time until 2 days before the deadlines.
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<p>LOL, so true. Yes, there is time. They’ll get it done.</p>
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I feel that we have been running late on everything about this process, from visits (a grand total of 2) to applications.
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<p>At this point two years ago, S had one EA app done and had spent much of his Thanksgiving break working on new essays to finish his UC app for a Nov. 30 deadline. He had yet to crack any of his other apps. He had an involved app deadline in mid December next, and then a number of common apps and supplements due by the January deadline.</p>
<p>His last visits to a couple of schools occurred near the Veterans day weekend in November. His college list was a plan A, then plan B type of thing depending on the outcome of his EA app. All the teacher recommendation and GC stuff was in for the EA app, as well as his full list and their deadline dates.</p>
<p>He had many AP classes and a couple of heavy ECs with competition schedules on weekends. Being our first, I never thought he was behind. It was hectic though. </p>
<p>I find myself spending more time at CC. It helps to reduce anxiety. D hit the submit button on her UC application Sunday which contain five schools, 2 safeties, 1 match, 2 slight reaches. She also applied to USC last week. So I'm a little bit relaxed, she knows she is going to a college. The rest of her applications to other private schools using the common application can wait until Jan 1. She did finish the Common Application and she's using her Xmas break to complete the supplement essays. She has yet 4 essays to write.
Last night she went to a concert with her boyfriend to celebrate the fact that she got her UC application done.</p>
<p>Pushed submit on the UC app last night. One EA app already in. One essay left on the app due Friday. One school dropped from the list because it has too many supplemental essays! I am way more uptight than she is about it all.</p>
<p>But then I remember how haphazard my own application process was, and it all worked out in the larger scheme of life just fine. She will go to college. And where ever she ends up, there will be pluses and minuses and she will continue growing and changing!</p>
<p>I would say many seniors end up finishing out their applications over Christmas break because so many schools have a Jan. deadline. However, students need to remember to get the needed forms taken care of that come from their high school, including recommendations, transcripts, etc. You can't walk into your guidance counselor's office two days before break and request this stuff and expect them to also meet the deadline, when they will be off for two weeks. Once you're sure those tasks have been taken care of, then there's still time to polish off the other stuff, even if it means sticking stuff in the mail the last week of December.</p>
<p>Her counselor and 2 teachers told her they already sent the letter of recommendations. She asked them very early on. In fact, D has received postcards on all of them except one tippy top school. She has 2 interviews coming up this week and next week.</p>
<p>Last month I hauled 4 packets with supplements to the post office, and D hit the "submit" button on the CommonApp 4 times: 1 huge reach, 2 safeties/matches and 1 slight reach. DD has several essays to write for her other schools (4 more!!), but I'm not too worried - she is a prolific writer. Most visits/overnighters and interviews are complete... Recommendations and GC forms have been requested in September... I guess I should stop freaking out - DD is not in a bad shape after all. It is the wait that is the worst part (and fights over a big state research U that she does not want to apply to)!</p>
<p>"I wonder what parents are going to do from Jan to April. The waiting is going to be long."</p>
<p>Scholarship applications, interviews (yes, you HAVE to shower before the interview, please check the parking and directions before you leave, no, you can't wear that), checking the mailbox excessively, checking CC excessively to see what other people have gotten in the mail. There's lots to do. :)</p>
<p>"Otherwise, lots of Yellow Tail to calm the nerves!"</p>
<p>This time last year. My son had been to 3 west coast colleges that he visited spring junior year. He didn't see any more until accepted students weekends. The only reason he'd done essays was because he applied to two school EA neither of which used the Common Application. He reused those essays for the Common Ap, but still waited till the last minute to send the rest of the applications in. I thought though the worst period was the long wait from December to mid-March waiting to hear. He did all the school work paperwork at the same time as the EA applications.</p>
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I wonder what parents are going to do from Jan to April. The waiting is going to be long.
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<p>January to April is FAFSA, CSS Profile, SAR and IDOC H*ll. To all schools without even knowing whether your child has been accepted. That's in addition to scholarships.</p>
<p>Heron, the fun could be just starting! I know of a top student who got into a bunch of great schools, including an Ivy, who didn't make up her mind where to matriculate until the VERY LAST MINUTE, the second-to-last day to make the decision. Part of the "problem" was that she knew, in truth, she could have been happy at ANY of those schools. But she put her family (and herself) through a waiting period far more agonizing than the application process itself. Today, she's a very happy sophomore at Wesleyan.</p>