<p>My D graduated in Sept. at the age of 16 so she is currently attending our CC. She attended a rural boarding school based on Native American culture where she lived in a log cabin with no electricity. Her high school experience was far different from the norm. She has a applied as a transfer student to 4 different in-state schools and one has accepted her so far. The problem is her transcript won?t be available until May and she is taking classes over the summer so she will qualify as a sophomore. We aren?t sure if the other colleges have even looked at her file other than to see if it?s complete. Is it typical in a case like this that they would wait until her transcript is available to make an offer. I didn?t know if there was the possibility of a conditional offer, just as when you?re a senior and they want to see final grades before guaranteeing admission. Also, would her unusual high school experience and the lack of ranking and awards be seen as a negative. She also had the opportunity to take the SAT only once. She?s really nervous as I know all of you are. I posted under another forum and got no replies so I hope someone here can help. She is hesitant to call admissions because she perceives that as something they would frown upon and we don?t think it appropriate that I do it for her. Thanks for any help.</p>
<p>in unusual cases like this, we can't really tell you exactly what you should do</p>
<p>so it'd probably be best for your daughter to call admissions and ask... they won't frown upon it unless she says something bad over the phone... so don't worry</p>
<p>Hello, CarolinaMom. I probably have some of the answers to your questions, but am not sure I totally understand her situation.</p>
<p>Is she currently in her very first term at the CC? If so, I see how that raises questions in your mind as to whether other schools will give her a decision without seeing at least one term's worth of college transcript. Did the application forms provide space for her to list each course she is taking/has taken? Did they call for mid-term grade estimates?</p>
<p>You are correct that a conditional offer is possible. Is that what she has received from the one school where she already has an acceptance? </p>
<p>Her situation is definitely unique, but could very well be a positive. It's really impossible to say how the uniqueness of her situation will work - I don't see it as a negative, but it is complicated and I doubt any of us here will have enough of a parallel situation to answer your questions.</p>
<p>So, in the end, I don't think you will get all the answers you want (and they are certainly legitimate questions) without phone calls to each admissions office. </p>
<p>My experience is that her (or your) calls will not be frowned upon. She is quite young and I don't believe it will be frowned upon if you make the calls, especially as she may be in class during many of the times when admissions staff would be available. I base this on personal experience making phone calls to transfer admissions staffs for my son because of his unique (but different; had to transfer due to Katrina, lingering Katrina problems made getting some documents in a timely manner difficult etc). Every office I called was gracious and helpful.</p>
<p>What I would do: call each office. Indicate that you are calling to check on the status of her application - whether they have all the materials needed to make a decision. Explain the concern due to the uniqueness of her situation. If you like, it is fine to say that she has heard from one school, but likes <em>this</em> school better and hopes to have a decision before she has to respond to school #1. You can also say that you have heard from some schools, but not theirs, and are wondering whether they would need/like such mid-term grade estimates. I think whether you go into such a subject might depend on how the conversation goes. Do not be surprised, by the way, if the schools don't yet even have a handle on the status of her application. Depending on how each schools deadlines work, they sometimes barely turn their attention to transfer applicants until they are finished with the whole freshman admissions process - many schools are totally slammed right now (through April 1) with that part of things.</p>
<p>It is fine for either of you to make the call. It will not be a black mark on her file. Not at all.</p>
<p>Very often, you will be speaking to an administrative person in the Admissions office, rather than an actual Admissions Counselor/representative. Some schools have transfer specialists within admissions and you might be routed to speak with him or her. They almost always see themselves as there to help, rather than as the scary Admissions Judges that we see them as ;).</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if I can help. While my son's situation was nothing like yours, his situation was also different from the norm and he applied to several schools, so we have lots of experience with admissions office contact.</p>
<p>And: if you are comfortable posting more about each school's timetable (deadline for app; date they state they will give decisions; date they want her response back) - with or without school names, that might help us advise better.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your daughter.</p>
<p>Thank you both. I so much appreciate your time. Jmmom, my D is in her first semester at our CC. If I recall correctly, there was a place on all applications for her to indicate her current classes which are all transferable under the agreement with the UNC system. None of the schools requested a mid-term update and her CC doesn’t provide one. She has a good relationship with all her instructors so I am sure they would be agreeable to coming up with something she could provide each school.<br>
The college that accepted her did so unconditionally. Their director of transfers told me hers was a very unusual situation and they had spent quite some time reviewing her application. I think in their case, her non-traditional high school experience was a plus. She wrote some pretty compelling responses to their questions. Her GPA at her high school was 3.9 and her one SAT was 1200, so while not stellar, she falls into the mid-range for all her schools. She was never given the opportunity to take the PSAT. The SAT was a one-shot deal for her.
The deadlines for transfer applications has passed at all but one school and no school indicated a time for notification. Notification seems to be rolling, but not the application itself.<br>
Your recommendations to call admissions has caused me to rethink some things. I think her school experience conditioned her to walk on her merits and nothing else so she sees a call as being a “suck-up”( as she puts it). She responded to the “missing documents” section of her application status by writing a letter to each school explaining that her transcript wouldn’t be available until May.<br>
Jmmom, I also think your idea about letting them know about the other offer would be helpful. I hate to send in a deposit that might be wasted and I also hate to mislead the college about her plans and tying up a slot that could go to someone else. She really has a number one choice that she would readily accept if offered the admit.<br>
It sounds like you yourself had a trying time in this process. I can’t even fathom what your experience was like. I also can’t imagine what being displaced was like especially to such a different environment. I hope your son ended up at a school where he is happy and I also hope you are happy where you are. It has been brutal in the northeast this winter and as someone who lived in Minnesota for seven years, I can imagine what that has been like. Thanks for your wonderful assistance in this.</p>
<p>Thanks, carolinamom. Katrina roughed up my son's college experience, but we are not Gulf Coast residents. So, as he said in <em>his</em> transfer essays, what he went through was nothing compared to those who lost so much. Like most Gulf Coast students, his school (Tulane) did not open for fall 2005. But he had a great experience at a top LAC that term. The worst for him was that Tulane eliminated his major post-Katrina, which is why he had to transfer. It was stressful, but he had lots of great transfer options in the end. </p>
<p>I applaud your daughter for not wanting to seem like she is asking for special treatment. But it is quite common to check in with schools on what's missing/what they need. Especially where her journey has been off the beaten path. She sounds as though she has quite a bit to offer and I wish her success with her top choice school.</p>
<p>Were I you, or her, I would really want to check in and see whether the school feels it has everything required to give her a decision. Because her case is unusual. Although these schools haven't asked for mid-term reports, some schools do. So, if they are planning to wait on her application until the May transcripts are available, you could consider asking if they would use professor-initialed mid-term reports as an alternative. One school my S applied to wanted his own estimate of mid-term grades; one had a form with one line for each course #, title, # credits, mid-term grade estimate, and a place for prof initials. She could make up such a grid on Excel or by hand or copy it off from one of the schools that has the form (Cornell comes to mind).</p>
<p>The waiting is tough. And May seems a long time away (although my S didn't hear from his top choice school until early June!.</p>
<p>I would love to hear how things turn out for her.</p>
<p>jmmom - Thanks for more excellent advice. I will suggest that to my daughter and see how she responds. If she doesn't want to make the call, I'll do it myself. I think you are right and they will understand my reasons. My daughter's first choice is Elon and they have seen a surge in applications over the last few years. I was in New York this summer when the NY Times came out with an article about the I-85 corridor of colleges and Elon was one of the schools mentioned and favorable comments were made. I knew then that the competition was only going to get stiffer. I think their retention rate is pretty high now but we'll keep our fingers crossed that there are enough slots that she at least has a chance.
Your son had to really jump through hoops to continue his education. I recall my older daughter's school, UNC-CH, and Duke were taking in students that were impacted by Katrina. I remember thinking how awful it was for the kids but how wonderful that there were other institutions that recognized their plight and tried to help. It sounds like your son found a school that made the trauma a little more palatable. What an experience! Thanks again for your help and I will definitely keep you posted.</p>