<p>I am sure many, many kids have not started their essays yet. Andhow many have done research on colleges beyond being dragged on visits?</p>
<p>As for GCs working during the Summer, my understanding is that they are not paid any extra for doing so, so it should not be affected by budget cuts, but it is up to each GC whether to check their email during the Summer or not. Given that it is often difficult to change classes once school begins–and that choosing a college is usually no less than the second most expensive decision a family makes-- I would hope that GCs are compensated for–and expected to–having a greater email burden in the Summer (especially for rising seniors) than teachers.</p>
<p>Ours has not started his essays yet, but he’s been working full-time for the past three weeks, and also had a musical theatre production in the evening for a while. So it was understood from the beginning that the serious push for essays etc. would not start till his job ends, which is after this week. College visits also start next week. August is going to be College Mania Month.</p>
<p>yabeyabe2–if it weren’t for FA, college would be the <em>most</em> expensive decision our family has made (other than the decision to reproduce in the first place, of course…). Four years at any private college, without aid, would cost more than our house did when we bought it back in 1990.</p>
<p>yabeyabe, if you lived in NC for example, you could send your child to a public 4 year college for about 1/2 of what it costs in NJ. Wouldn’t you love your COA to be 12k vs. some number over twenty thousand per year! I’d love it, but we reside in NJ.</p>
<p>My son has started brainstorming ideas for the essays. He’s lived a pretty simple life so writing about a significant person or event is a little difficult. He’s stuck at this point but hopefully it will get better…</p>
<p>No essays here, have visited one school so far this summer. Need to schedule wisdom teeth out as well, all four of them. It will all work out. That is one school more than his 3 sisters visited as rising seniors!</p>
<p>No essays yet. No studying for ACT. 40 pages (out of 300) read of one book, she has 2 books to read. 3 drawings done (out of 20) for AP Studio Art. Location for Senior Project worksite not secured. And… she wants to apply EA to 7 schools and plays a fall sport.</p>
<p>Sigh.</p>
<p>On the plus side, I went into the hs and ran into a main office secretary who changed D’s course list, from regular Statistics to AP Statistics. They haven’t started scheduling yet, since the budget wasn’t settled until early July.</p>
<p>I know the essays don’t really need to be done yet, but the football commitment is huge once school starts (about 35 hours per week) so there is barely time for him to sleep then. I can’t imagine he will want to be writing essays. </p>
<p>He is working a lot this summer (about 40 or so hours per week) and does also have daily football workouts, but there’s still plenty of time in the week to be writing. He would much rather go out and have fun. I do understand it…these high school summers are wonderful times…but I do wish he would get started!</p>
<p>Ready to Roll: I hear you an do totally sympathize. My two had soccer last fall and I felt just like you did but somehow it happened.</p>
<p>To how many reaches is your boy applying? What my two did last year was create a suitable essay for thier safeties all of which were due in November for EA and then worked a bit harder for the reaches which had due dates in Dec and Jan. If you can get him to read the prompts then maybe he’ll mull them around and when the time comes he may surprise you as the “spring fully formed from his head” One can hope anyway ;)</p>
<p>Historymom…it’s hard to know how many are reaches because they are all publics and something tells me it will be a lot harder to get into them this year because of the economy.</p>
<p>At any rate, most have early action and have to be in by November 1st, so no such luxury. Frankly, now is when he would have the most time to do them! He has had the prompts for a long time; he just doesn’t like to write. Considering that I pretty much write for a living, it’s especially frustrating.</p>
<p>RTR I totally hear you. DD plays volleyball, also a fall sport. It “only” takes up 3 hours per day after school, and the season ends mid-November. She’s working about 25 - 30 hours per week this summer. She and I have discussed REPEATEDLY for OVER A YEAR that the essays need to be done BEFORE her senior year started. This sounded like a great idea to her, until the summer actually arrived…</p>
<p>Well, all 3 of us sat around the table last night to look at the commonapp. Good news is that out of the 12 schools son is interested in, only 4 have an application fee. Yeah, and for one of them I will just ask him to wait because he should receive a priority application. If he does, I will only be on the hook for 3 application if fees if he applies to all 12 schools. If he cuts down the list it will could cost me even less.</p>
<p>zoosermom, I learned that they exist after I annoyingly sent $50 to one school for my oldest child, and then they sent a priority app. to our house. They REFUSED to refund the $50, but changed my son’s commonapp to a priority app so he could learn about his acceptance early. After that, I just made a mental note of schools this child (my current applicant in this house) is interested in, and if they offer those choice apps, priority apps, VIP apps, etc. I am not going to have my son send off the commonapp for those schools even if the app fee waived. I will wait to see if those applications are mailed out instead (many offer much quicker notification of acceptance decisions).</p>
<p>We spent very little in the last admissions round for D#3, heading off to Alfred in August.
Probably under $200, due to Priority Applications & schools having no fee on the Common Application. I believe she applied to about 11-12 schools. It was a pleasant surprise, after spending mega bucks on D#1’s & D#2’s fees. Hope the trend continues with S…</p>
<p>I am not complaining, but I did spend much more for apps. for my older child than I will have to for my younger child. I just wonder if that is because of the difference in type of schools my younger child is applying to, or a sign of the times. Perhaps I am a bit more in tune with priority applications than I was the first time around.</p>