We went to the USF open house in Tampa campus today. It is a nice campus and the tour was very informational. DS24 said that it looks better inside than outside visit.
We came to know that decisions will be out by December 8th.
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Not sure if this is allowed:
I’m helping my friend’s cousin (1st of 3 kids to head to college).
- top choice = in-state UMass Amherst for Psychology
==> ==> Should she apply EA or RD?
Test optional
Her WGPA = 3.38 (out of 5),
her guesstimate UWGPA = 3.1 (I haven’t calculated it yet).
She’s thinking she can get mostly A’s this Fall semester (maybe not).
I think she should apply EA,
but her HS counselor suggests RD to wait for those As.
Thanks.
Make sure you re-calculate the GPA using the Mass department of higher education calculation, that is what UMass uses. I’ll link it if I can find it.
I have heard that UMass Amherst fills up majors in early action, and there are a lot more denials, relegation to second choice majors, & waitlists in regular decision. But I don’t know how likely psychology is to fill up. It is one of the most populous majors there, I think.
ETA: here is the calculator, this page also has a link to a PDF that gives the details of how the calculation is done in one of the appendices
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As a general comment, I’ve heard from AOs that grades towards the end matter more than earlier ones. Getting a B or C in a math subject the first year of HS can be somewhat undone by an A two years later. So in that regard, concurrence with the counselor’s advice.
Maybe an even better reason to wait is thus having a semester with a higher-grades goal firmly in her mind, vs “I got in so now I can take it easy”. The former gives her the best shot at success in college, and that’s what really matters in all this more than admission (though understandably admission is what people are focused on now). Head to college with the mental motor all revved up rather than having been idling for a semester or two, because in general the coursework starts out hard and then keeps getting harder, year after year. But doable, if you don’t let yourself get behind the curve.
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We waited for RD with my 3.2 son and I’m glad we did. He had much better grades for his senior year first semester and it may very well have affected acceptances and merit aid. What you could do is confer with the AO. They should be able to tell you, if wearing an extra semester will shut them out of their preferred, major, or hurt their acceptance in any way. We had to be very clear with his application that we wanted those grades considered because it took forever for grades to be finalized and submitted, it may have been February and I was kind of losing my $hit with the school at that point lol.
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OK- S24 just submitted all but one of his applications 
10 schools total. Two are total reaches, three are likelies, and the rest are targets with a couple being hard targets. The one he did not submit is because there is some sort of glitch on the Common App “Academic” section for the school. No matter how many times he fills every section, when he hits “continue”, the green check mark does not appear. Super frustrating. I would have him just not do that school on Common App and do it using their own application, but we just went through their own application via a you tube video and there is a lot of information, including inputting activities, etc., so a LOT of extra work. Really frustrating. He is reaching out to admissions tomorrow to see what they say. It is for University of Kentucky in case anyone wants to know. But otherwise things are moving along. He has a couple schools with rolling notifications so hopefully he hears back from those in the next few weeks. Now if I can only get him to check his email…
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That is very impressive. DS24 has applied to 3 schools so far. He is working on essays for the 2 reaches and one of them ( UF) takes only common app ( I believe). He has a target to finish them by end of the month.
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D24 submitted 7 of her 9 apps tonight… still working on supplementals for the other two. So exciting to see the on-screen confetti and get to this point! Will be a long wait for some answers but she’s cast in the fall play so that will eat up a ton of her time until almost Thanksgiving.
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We had to get stuff in early b/c his football takes up all of his time. His goal was by beginning of pre-season (8/19) but a month later I’ll take it!! He also only had a few supplemental which makes a HUGE difference. Some of these poor kids are writing so many essays.
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D24 still slogging through essays and has found it to be difficult.
But today she got accepted to ASU and U of A. Got $5k/yr in merit at U of A (we are in state) so that’s a nice discount off of the $12,786/yr of tuition.
Kiddo is working at Taco Bell this evening. Likes this job much better than the summer job at McD’s.
Choir director agreed to write LOR for the 3 LACs she’s applying to. D24 is really happy about getting into U of A. Her merit award was more than I expected so that was nice!
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Congrats to everyone with submissions and confetti! S24 isn’t done with his Common App essay. Also, his recommenders haven’t submitted letters yet. Can you apply without letters?
The 3 schools that D24 has acceptances from so far are rolling admissions schools which have auto-admit criteria based on GPA & test scores. And letters of rec are only required if you’re applying to the honors college, which D24 is not doing for ASU or U of A. She’ll apply to the NMSU honors college, but that app is separate and isn’t due until December-ish.
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Congratulations on Arizona. D24 has been accepted, but we are out of state.
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Yes you can submit them before the letters are done, the colleges will then give the applicant a portal to log in so you can see when the letters and transcripts are received!
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Great! So it’s really just the essay holding S21 up. He wrote three pages and is editing down. It sounds very chatty, just like him talking. Partly because he dictated it in speech to text😉.
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Got more info…ASU admitted her to west campus. Boo. That is not ideal at all. Don’t want my kid living in Glendale for 4 yr. She won’t be attending ASU.
I know this may not be something people care about. US News released their college rankings yesterday.
Looking at it, FL schools have better rankings (than before). FIU is tied with UCF!
DS24 and we care about rankings as the same way schools are looking at our GPA/ SAT and class rankings.
We know that there will be all the bias/controversy on how it is arrived.
Frustrated w/UNM…their Common App just doesn’t work. They shouldn’t be listed on the Common App then!
Learned from D24 that the word on the street about students are notified of merit scholarship $$ a couple of weeks after your acceptance letter notification goes out.
I’m a tad afraid that D24 is going to gloss over the essays and do a half baked job because she has writer’s block. I think that I’m going to ask for a meeting w/D24 & counselor so we can talk about it together.
D24 still needs to:
- create her Scholar$ account on NMSU’s website for merit scholarships & other scholarships to apply to.
- work on NMSU honors college application. This will require 1 teacher letter of rec, so D24 needs to notify the teacher of what the deadline is.
- submit her UNM application.
- make sure she’s requested morning of Sat 10/28 off of work since she’s taking the ACT that day.
- finish common app essays & college-specific essays for the 3 LACs she’s applying to.
- submit U of A housing application ASAP w/$175 non-refundable housing application/deposit.
- contact each of the 3 LACs to get more info about scheduling a choir audition for their music performance scholarships…we will then need to make travel arrangements based on whenever those are. 1 of the LACs we haven’t visited yet, so we will do a campus tour and all that jazz on the same day.
D24 submitted housing application for U of A today and we paid the $175 non-refundable housing application fee. Tomorrow, she’s going to set up her Scholar$ login for NMSU and also apply to UNM. And she declared, “I’m all college’d out for today.”
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S24 just got accepted to Alabama I am thrilled for him. This is the first school he has heard from and he loved it when he visited. He should be hearing from a couple more (rolling) in the next month. Then the rest by December 1. It feels real now 
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