<p>Docufide is a company that sends online transcripts from high schools schools to colleges or NCAA Clearinghouse in our case. That's the only way our school does official transcripts. It cost $5 per transcript. I like it because it is so quick! The college gets the transcript almost immediately!</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip! I'm going to ask my daughter's counselor is they have Docufide. If so, I won't feel so bad about having her send to 8 colleges and the NCAA.</p>
<p>EDIT: Too bad, my D's HS isn't a part of Docufide:</p>
<p>Your High School Is Not Available
We're sorry, xxxxxx H.S. does not accept transcript requests through Secure Transcript at this time.</p>
<p>Welcome</a> to Docufide</p>
<p>First time adding my S to this thread and first time down this path, next is D in 2013.
S wants BFA in musical theatre, the amount of apps & essays daunting. Sure do love that common app though.
So far he has 7 schools on his list wants 3 more. Wants midwest or east coast school, hopefully one will want him!</p>
<p>Welcome to the craziness mttninfo , my S is the same year as your D. My sense is that his application process will be significantly less complicated than his sisters' have been. He is bright but runs in the B/C range of things at this point.</p>
<p>Glad things are going better blackeyedsusan, sorry to hear about your husband's health concern and the evacuation. Nice to hear others are making progress on the apps.</p>
<p>Son has gotten in a few essays (started in August) which is good (some essays I would have preferred he let me edit, first...!!).</p>
<p>It's those last 7 schools which are the problem-I told him not to wait until school started and now -- of course -- he's "too tired" or "needs to relax" after school (and on the weekends) or he's doing his pt-time lawn business or playing his musical instrument or hanging w/friends. I realize he works hard in school & needs to relax, but every day that passes I see early-admission advantages (which he needs) slipping away. </p>
<p>We also had some health concerns w/several members of our family recently -- son helped out w/babysitting little sister, and maybe I'm extreme but I'm frustrated that he couldn't make any progress on the essays while I was gone. He did fill out the data forms of several apps. Now that I'm back home I keep saying: "did you work on the essays?" He just delays and procrastinates.</p>
<p>We argued this morning and I feel guilty for pressuring him. Then again, I told him (truthfully) if you can't get it together on your own to accomplish something important while multi-tasking (unlike the summer when he had much more free time and did some essays) then how are we to expect that you can handle all the responsibilities/multi-tasking in college? It's making me nervous and I don't want to go into major debt if he can't manage obligations independently.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long vent. Just so frustrated. Son will say, "I've worked on my essays" and I look and see he's cut and pasted something inapplicable to a prompt from a prior essay (it took all of 15 seconds to accomplish that; didn't bother to even read the prompt carefully).</p>
<p>Everyone around me says: "Just relax" or "let him fail on his own." (right). Husband has forbidden me from talking about it and not a single person at son's high school (that he knows or child of any parent I've talked to) has started an essay yet. </p>
<p>Not sure if CC would feed my obsession or make me feel like I'm not alone. :-)</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone!! I told son when he finished essays I'd take him to buy new ipod earphones and maybe go to the Renassaince Faire.</p>
<p>D met with her Counselor yesterday and gave her the list of 8 where she wants to apply. The counselor suggested D apply to privates too (because they give alot of scholarship money), but of all the privates that we did campus tours (3) and online research (2) they all appear to be in really bad neighborhoods or cater to "international" students, which leads me to believe they can't fill seats during the normal process.</p>
<p>D's intended major (hospitality management) isn't available at EVERY college so we've been having a hard time locating schools, but now 6 months since we started looking into this major we found 8 very nice schools that she would have no problem attending.</p>
<p>Another thing, the counselor asked that she see the applications before they are mailed out. Everything is done online now, some schools won't "allow" me to print and I'm not about to hand over the login and passwords to the counselor.</p>
<p>Besides, I think I've learned (know) alot more being on CC the past 7 months than the counselor...</p>
<p>I really feel sorry for some of the kids who do not have parents to help them out through this process. Last night, I was helping my D's boyfriend locate colleges with him on collegeboard. With his intended major and minor, and the fact that he wants to go to a D1 or D2 football college in the southeast, I found him 15 lovely colleges that he would love to attend. I told him what he needs to do now is look online at all of these 15 and decide which fit him best.</p>
<p>JerseeyShoreMom--maybe GC just wants to review the essays? Perhaps you could print those & show her? Maybe she'd have some useful tips; if not, you could disregard the advice. Agree on not handing out the passwords...</p>
<p>Maybe ... we ran her essays through an essay critique forum and received very positive feedback with minor changes. I hope the counselor doesn't decide it's not suitable for sending or have anything negative to say.</p>
<p>Does she seem like the type to do that? My son filled out apps on the Common Application--GC had no approval/disapproval ability. At the most, essays would help inform any letters of recommendation that GC would write (greater insight into daughter's extra-curriculars, etc.). As long as your daughter is fairly confident and wouldn't be put off by any possible negativity, seems like there's not much of a downside.</p>
<p>JerseyShoreMom, my older son's GC only asked about what topic he chose to write about. She never asked to read his essay. Also, she did not look at each application. She had a checklist, and he needed to check off what was sent online, and anything else would be enclosed by the school along with his transcript, and recs (everything from the school was sent in one packet).</p>
<p>Could you explain tell me more about the essay critique forum? I would be interested when my younger son applies next year. Thanks. You can send a PM if that is better.</p>
<p>As far as applying to private schools, perhaps the GC is concerned about OOS public U costs. Many public Us do not offer much FA to their OOS students. Perhaps he thought that having some private school options too might help ensure something that ends up being affordable, since he/she would not know your efc. If I remember correctly, you and your daughter looked in the south, where sticker prices are somewhat better than OOS publics closer to us (ie: UConn, UVM, Penn State). He/she probably sees that some of those OOS public U options are becoming less possible financially for many families.</p>
<p>Yes, the cost of in-state tuition here is $10-$11k. The cost of OOS colleges in Florida, NC, and PA (at least the ones she is applying to) are $15-17k.</p>
<p>For an extra $5k or so, she can go to her dream school OOS.</p>
<p>She's only applying to one in-state college as a safety. It doesn't hit dead on with her major like the schools in Florida and NC, but I told her no matter what, she still needs to apply to at least one school in-state.</p>
<p>One private in Florida that we took a tour told us that they would offer her $7k tuition right off the bat. The tuition was $30k, minus $7k still left her with $22k. I didn't see any bargains going with a private.</p>
<p>JerseyShoremom, theren't any bargains out there for my kids. Perhaps the GC was hearing that privates are less costly than OOS public schools. For some kids that is the case. It would depend upon EFC and the individual schools.</p>
<p>JerseyShoremom--I think we are in the same state (nj). Isn't Rutgers up to $20k a year, including room/board? Maybe the $10-11k is tuition, only.</p>
<p>I've found out of state schools that are only $6k more than that, for the whole package. People are shocked how high the NJ in-state is. It's much more than, say, instate for MD residents (& Rutgers isn't spectacularly better than U of MD, I think...)</p>
<p>Jerseyshoremom- Have you looked into Univ of Denver. When my child looked about 4 yrs ago they were on the lower end tuition wise for a private. They have a beautiful new hospitality building. They also give some nice merit aid. They also offer EA that helps to get a school in the bag early.</p>
<p>Jolynne, 6k more is true for some out of state schools, but I think some other schools like UConn, Penn State, and UVM are considerably more than that. Even 6k more a year per child is a bitter pill to swallow, but that is a matter of choice. You are right, that Rutgers is 20k per year with room and board.</p>
<p>That's true, northeastmom---Penn State is $30k plus just for tuition, OOS, I think. </p>
<p>It's all painful to think about, but I keep thinking of the scenario (discussed above) whereby the more expensive school (as per ticket price) eventually ends up costing the same ask the less-expensive school because of various forms of aid. That's one reason son is applying so broadly, to so many schools, because we are (wrongly or rightly) considering the financial piece to be an open question which we'll figure out once acceptances come (if they most hopefully do!!!).</p>
<p>Hope that strategy works....</p>
<p>Your strategy is exactly the same one we used with our older son. He applied to public, to private, to medim/large schools (not very large schools) and small LACs. He applied to a few OOS publics, and privates. I have no regrets about how we approached this, even though he applied to a few more schools than the average applicant. This allowed us to compare packages. The spread was amazing. Also, the gpa required to keep awards varied greatly, and the average % of financial need met varied greatly (I did not understand that part with our first child). Even schools that meets on average, a high % of need, did not necessarily have the better package for our son than a school that on average, meets less financial need. To me, this is a big guessing game, and it is a lot like shopping for a new car (you know the sticker price, don't know what you can get off that price but it will be something below the sticker price, until you try to actually buy it). JMO. Good luck to your son in the admissions process, and with the aid packages!</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Sorry for the long vent. Just so frustrated. Son will say, "I've worked on my essays" and I look and see he's cut and pasted something inapplicable to a prompt from a prior essay (it took all of 15 seconds to accomplish that; didn't bother to even read the prompt carefully). <<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>You're not alone Jolynne. I had a lulu of a rant at my son on Sunday over his resume. He'd actually made one after some strategic nagging on my part, but it was really rough. As soon as I started to make suggestions, I was getting push-back from him and that was it for me.</p>
<p>My rant lasted a while; encompassed the whole process this time, right back down to why are we doing all of this? The answers eventually led him to see that we all want the same thing for him and that I'm there to help him get what HE wants ... I'm not the enemy.</p>
<p>At the time, I had no idea if any of it sunk in. Well it has, thank goodness. Two days later, he handed me an unbelievably stellar resume (he'd actually researched resumes online!) and yesterday he met one on one with his GC. He's been cheerful and talkative since my rant also. Is it possible that he's been made more comfortable knowing where he stands and his stress over the whole process is shared? It seems so. I'm praying that was the last rant on this issue. They come about once every six months or so. We'll be in a whole other boat come spring time :)</p>
<p>So rant away. It may pay off. Even if it doesn't, you'll feel better and be ready to take on the next challenge. For me, that will be the essays. Sigh.</p>
<p>I love my son's senior seminar teacher: she had all kids submit a college essay for an assignment. THAT got him to sit down and finally finish at least a draft of something, as he cares about his grades!! Once that puppy is done, (and this teacher will help with great feedback) he just has a couple of short answers for the Common app. THEN there are three short supplement essays, and we can complete three applications--the first wave..... Everything has seemed to hinge on the Common app essay--argh!!!</p>
<p>northeastmom--glad someone had a similar strategy. I'm thinking that once you get accepted, schools will send out fin aid packages (assuming you've filled out the FASFA & relevant scholarship apps for the school) w/out any binding acceptance required first, from the student (sounds like that's how it works, if your son was able to compare packages). The financial side just seemed so variable that we almost didn't consider it in making application choices (except to have a few financial safeties, on sticker price alone).</p>
<p>SueD--glad that your son had a turn-around (after your rant). At least you were able to put in there that you are working for your son's best interest--sometimes they lose sight of that, when we seem to be just nagging them.</p>
<p>I talked to some friends & re-thought approach to son (venting here really helped, also). I realized that now maybe wasn't the time to be forcing him to start working on the life skills he'll need for college (cooking for himself, doing all his own laundry, college apps alone, etc.) during this critical time. One thing (or 2) thing(s) at a time, and the goal right now is to get these apps done in a quality manner, while son maintains a (very necessary) A average in school. So, if it means I'll do some laundry and other catering over the next few weeks, so be it. </p>
<p>SJTH--son's creative writing teacher did the same thing. Frustration w/son--he thought he'd 'do' the essay in class, when I suggested that he do the essay at home, then give the teacher something to review/correct in class. Hopefully it will be a useful experience. Definitely would like to see another editor in the mix, other than mom!!!</p>