<p>Warriorboy…our GC is not the easiest person to reach as she is so busy. I will have to ask my son how he feels about asking her. She had told him that she hoped to see some humor is his essays since he is so funny in person, but they aren’t funny essays. I wonder if she will comment on that…but it is not easy to write a funny essay unless the topic itself is funny!</p>
<p>Having been down this road before, I suggest on the so-so essays: give it a little bit of time. Getting a first draft down is a big first step. Give it a couple of weeks, then see if you can encourage them to pull it out and take another whack at it. They may look at it and go, “Ick, need a new topic that I actually care about,” or they may see a new way to word it so that their passion comes thru. </p>
<p>S’07’s first draft was a rambling thing that was too long, contained some good ideas but wandered from one point to another with no real focus. I nagged him for 6 weeks to work on it, to no avail. Finally one night he sat down, and in 2 hours he cut the front half off the essay, focused on the back half, expanded that idea, and ended up with an essay that was true to himself. It just needed to “percolate” in his head for a while.</p>
<p>D told me she wanted to write about a topic that frankly scared me. I told her to do it if she wanted to, but warned her about the two big pitfalls I saw. She told me she could avoid them, no problem. But when she finally sat down to write it, she couldn’t get it to go the way she wanted. A day or so later she had another idea and threw the new idea down on paper. The new idea is much more promising, more true to her own personality. I haven’t seen the rough draft yet but at least she is enthusiastic about it.</p>
<p>mom60 and Cardinal Fang, my S2 certainly sounds like your kids. Thanks for the insights. Like many kids with ADHD, he does much better when he avails of the support of people who can help structure his time and tasks. He does seem to have settled down from the time he was in a large school which did not understand how to work around his condition to tap his inherent abilities. I found the Pre-College forums here where I’ll try to get information on how to do some college planning.</p>
<p>I have never seen any of my children’s essays & they have never asked me to review, critique and so on. That is their personal preference, although I do believe they have asked each others’ opinion. I would expect with the #4 child it will go the same way.</p>
<p>Proxima - I’m not sure, but I think that there are some colleges that accommodate ADHD and students with learning differences. There may be a list that someone more knowledgeable than me could direct you to.
Good luck with your college search, and my son is just 1 year ahead of yours. My son’s particular challenge seems to be in test-taking. However, this is not a professional diagnosis, just an observation.</p>
<p>On the other topic under discussion - essays! My goodness, I’ve been checking some possible early action schools, and my main intention so far, is that the essays for these EA schools, in my sons case, need to started from his junior year!</p>
<p>On essays, a friend of mine told me that he collared an admissions officer during a recent visit and asked how important the essays were (smaller LAC). The answer he eventually coaxed out of her was a little disheartening: if the essay is really exceptional, they often discount it on the possibility that it might have been written by someone other than the student. </p>
<p>Personally, I’m not taking this too seriously, but it does make you think you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.</p>
<p>From what I have read in publications etc and online it should be the “voice of a 17-18 year old student”. Members of admission committees etc have been quoted as saying to each other “I think the parent wrote a pretty good essay” and then throwing the app into the denial pile. As these people read 1,000’s of essays, they are probably experienced enough to tell the difference between a 17-18 year old and a Baby Boomer Parent or worse-a professionaly written essay, bought and paid for.</p>
<p>One more thing…we have heard from many GC’s, college counselors and admissions officers:</p>
<p>At large publics where they get more than 10’s of thousands of apps if stats are not there, they dont even read the essays…some would venture that they never read them even if the stats hit…</p>
<p>At smaller privates, publics and LAC’s: essay is MUCH more important…and they are read…</p>
<p>Soooo, for RTR, (because of your list), don’t fret too much: I would have an english teacher look over the essay </p>
<p>warriorboy: since we know your prospective list is LAC filled, essay could be much more crucial…</p>
<p>I worry about the essay for a different reason. D has her issues in math, but she’s an amazing writer (professional, believe it or not) with a very unique voice who’s had the benefit of high-level advice and editing through her professional experience for the last two years. As a result, it doesn’t necessarily look like the typical 17-year-old’s writing because it isn’t. All of that shows up in various places on the application, though, so that may clarify. I can only hope it makes up for those Cs in math.</p>
<p>Regarding essays, I’ve seen mention (Common Data Sets?) that the essay is compared to the SAT/ACT writing portion to check consistency. “Voice” would be evident then …</p>
<p>zoosermom, my DS has the same problem - poor math scores. He has excellent writing skills. The teachers at his school really push the writing - “math may get you into college but writing will keep you in college”. I hope S has done well enough in math. The application review process is subjective in so many ways. Good Luck!</p>
<p>There might be hope. Jr in college son called today. 3rd day of classes. He needs to order a couple of books from some online places. I tell him to use his debit card and I will cover the cost. As the day goes on I begin to think that by the time he gets around to ordering the book he will already be behind. I text him this evening to send me the info and I will order and pay for them and have them shipped to him. He texted back, Thanks but I already ordered them. I was shocked. Who was this young man and where had they taken my “manana” son.</p>
<p>Wow…last day of the last college touring trip of the year coming up. We’ve now seen Brandeis, Goucher, George Washington, Clark, Hampshire, UMass, Skidmore, Bard, Ithaca and Cornell. Today, U of Rochester. Then we’ll squeeze in a few more local places (Tufts, BU and Wheaton) on fall Saturdays.</p>
<p>Naturally, our son fell in love with Cornell, which he has the slimmest of chances to get into…I’d say no chance, except that this year’s Naviance at his school shows a kid with lower GPA than his getting in. The kid probably had some mega-hook or other, but regardless, I’m fine with treating Cornell as our uber-reach if it motivates the lad to work like a crazy man for his first two terms. Even if that doesn’t get him into Cornell, it’ll help him everywhere else.</p>
<p>Nighchef, I agree and glad you’re letting your son apply to Cornell. It does help them keep their eye on the ball and you just never know. My second has a big reach that he fell in love with so I’m watching the same situation unfold.</p>
<p>nightchef - so where will your son be applying?</p>
<p>So far he’s got eight schools he’s definitely going to apply to, in rough descending order of reachiness:</p>
<p>Cornell
Brandeis
U of Rochester
Skidmore
Clark
Ithaca
Goucher
UMass</p>
<p>He’s also going to look at Tufts, BU and Wheaton, so that list might expand a little before we’re done. </p>
<p>It’s a fairly reachy list, but the good news is that he loves Goucher, which is a near-safety for him, and is very happy with Clark, which is a good solid match. And he’s OK with UMass if need be. So he’s extremely likely to end up somewhere he will feel good about.</p>
<p>The three schools we visited that didn’t make the cut were George Washington U, Bard, and Hampshire. GWU just felt a little too corporate (my word, but I think that’s more or less it), Hampshire was too rural, and he had a more or less allergic reaction to Bard, which his parents shared.</p>
<p>nightchef - looks like a great list.</p>
<p>My ds wants to visit a few larger schools. (We will visit UCONN) Can anyone suggest picturesque larger schools for a B student? I think his largest school has around 6,000 kids…</p>
<p>warriorboy…I cannot believe your school visiting stamina! I personally wish I could visit a few more, but my work schedule makes it really hard to take time off. My S is so not interested in seeing anymore schools anyway, which kind of worries me just a little because all of the schools he is applying to are one “type” (big and public). I just wish we would have visited one smaller school…although he has been on smaller campuses before for summer or other programs, it’s not the same as taking a tour when college is in session. UConn is certainly a much larger school, and what about BU?</p>
<p>I looked up Goucher on our Naviance, and every kid who has applied there (wide range of GPAs) from our CT high school has been accepted, so it does look like a good safety for your S nightchef. But your son must have some awesome SATs and ECs if you are looking at Ivy League schools; no one from the 3.0 to 3.3 (weighted) GPA range has been accepted to Cornell or Brandeis from our high school. In fact, no one below a 4.0 has ever been accepted at Cornell. Does your son have less than a 3.3 weighted average?</p>
<p>Another school to consider - Wheaton in Massachusettes…our Naviance shows some kids getting in there with low Bs and high SATs.</p>
<p>I think URI, UMass, UNH and UVM are NE options for you. The equivalent schools for PA, NJ, DE, MD, VA and NC are tougher. I do not know for sure, but think WV, SC and FL may be easier.</p>
<p>My son is a B student. SAT of 1000 (will retake in October). His list so far:
Marist
Endicott
Stonehill
Iona
Elmira
Suffolk</p>
<p>What do you think his chances are?</p>