<p>ignatius
Thanks! I like your D's thoughts. My S does not realize yet that he did this and no doubt will feel the same. I was/am only a little concerned because it was the head of admin that spoke and clearly made a point about how many rec's. to send. Oh well--it is done now and could be complicated for him to talk to his chosen teachers. The second school that S sent 2 is much more likely to not care. My H keeps chuckling about the things I bring up as a concern....</p>
<p>I think my son would feel the same way. He has said that one of his top priorities is that the school really want him. A school that "took off points" for sending in an extra rec letter would lose points with him.</p>
<p>just wanted to say that TwinK has now submitted three apps. She still has the supplement to finish for one of them but this is almost the half way point for her. Two of the three are admissions safeties which she would be dleighted to attend the other a match which she would be beside herself to attend and they all have rolling notifications. Yeah!!!!!!!!! He AP Bio teacher is writing her a rec. He apparently has an infected computer and has had to redo her letter. Hopefully it will be ready tomorrow then we can check two off as complete! </p>
<p>I am kinda liking the anticipation I already feel waiting for answers from TwinE's priority app schools. It feels a little like Christmas in October.</p>
<p>Someone once said that nervousness and excitement create the same physiological response so it is all in how we look at those butterflies and palpitations. I prefer to lable them edge of the seat anticipation. :D doesn't that sound more fun?</p>
<p>ignatius your D has the right idea. I am pulling for her!</p>
<p>S has three submitted and just 2 and a bit of a supplement left! AND! his GC will have all sent tomorrow. hmmm-he needs to check on one of his teacher rec's. Whew--just will be so happy when the riddle is solved. Congrats to your D's Historymom.</p>
<p>OK, I can finally join the happy throng of parents whose offspring have submitted apps. My D did her first 2 last night. She is now on a roll, and enthusiastic about completing the last couple. </p>
<p>Last night, helping her with the credit card in hand, was the first glimpse I've gotten of her essays. She has not wanted me to read them. The strength of her essays definitely won't be the deciding factor in any schools she is admitted to. Hopefully whoever is reading them will appreciate the fact that the essays were written by a 17-y-o clearly without a lot of parental input!</p>
<p>I am kinda liking the anticipation I already feel waiting for answers from TwinE's priority app schools. It feels a little like Christmas in October.</p>
<p>Son doesn't worry about anything (seriously), so I am the one with feelings of anticipation. It promises to be fascinating. Son has applied to 8 schools; has been admitted to his financial safety. His scores are at or above the 75th percentile for all schools....seems like all should be matches....can't think of a reason he wouldn't get into all of them, but I never hear of anyone getting into all of the schools to which they apply.</p>
<p>ChiSquare, congrats for letting her do her own essay! My daughter wrote the same ones! Grammatically fine, but I would have added more metaphor and literary allusions....I hope they give extra points for self sufficiency!</p>
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<blockquote> <p>whoever is reading them will appreciate the fact that the essays were written by a 17-y-o clearly without a lot of parental input! <<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>I have to believe this as well. At his insistance, my only involvement in DS's essay was editing for grammar and flow. We had three rounds of this until the final version. I made a couple of content suggestions, one of which he followed. The rest he felt strongly about leaving alone. I kept thinking "this is not the way I would write this" and had to remember that <em>I</em> was not writing it. An admissions rep during an information session at one of the LACs on our list stressed that they could tell the difference between essays written by 17 year olds and those written by adults. Hope so. At this point, it is what it is. The school that accepts him will be seeing the real him and it will be a real match where he will be happy. It's that thought that helps keep me in the passenger seat navigating through this process.</p>
<p>Ignatius, thanks for the congrats. After our glorious day on Sunday, we've come to a full stop. I sort of expected this and must be content. He has his ACT retake on Saturday, so I'm just staying in the background until that's over. Come Sunday though, his final early application will be completed and then we can rest a bit.</p>
<p>I'd love to hear how essays are truly evaluated. There are students who are excellent writers, so the reader can't assume that professional quality essays are necessarily not the work of the student. </p>
<p>I posted here that I originally hated Son's essay. I got some excellent advice and talked Son through the essay to get to the bottom of what he was trying to say. Once we had done that, there were a couple of more layers of depth to what had originally seemed shallow and trite. So yes, I was his advisor/sounding board.</p>
<p>Then Husband read the essay, too....he was able to point out a couple of muddled sentences I hadn't seen because I had read it too many times and knew what Son was trying to say.</p>
<p>Re the essay:</p>
<p>I read that if the "voice" of the applicant came through in the essay, his/her parent would be able to pick the essay out of a pile of 50 essays or so. I would have nailed my d's after reading the first sentence. Reading her ending sentence - alone and out of context - would have identified her</p>
<p>I do have to say that d worked long and hard on that common app essay over the summer. It went through so many tweaks and rewords that I lost count. She did take comments from Dad, me, and recently her English teacher. </p>
<p>It took more-than-a-few rewrites to get across her point. It took more-than-a-few rewrites to cut it down from 800+ words. It took multiple rewrites to polish it. Probably the thing that strengthened her essay the most was cutting out bits and pieces to get a better length. It made her focus on content and remove extraneous wording. I doubt any of her other essays (supplemental or scholarship) will be as good, since she just really doesn't have the time to put as much effort into them now.</p>
<p>Yeah, that is where having a ruthless editor (like mom or dad) comes in handy. Toward the end, son and I cut out a couple of his favorite sentences because they went off on a tangent and added nothing to the essay. </p>
<p>As for picking out Son's essay from a stack....I think I could pick Son's out from a stack of thousands....if the admissions officer reads the essay all the way to the end, I can guarantee that she will have never read an essay like Son's. Don't know if the admissions officers will like it or not, but they won't read another one like it.</p>
<p>S1 finally hit SEND on three of 'em. So now it's butterflies for months on end - on top of the Angst of getting three more done in the next week and a half, and two more done before January 15. (S1's school has some seriously strict rules about when things have to be turned in.)</p>
<p>There were a couple of significant goofs in the very first version he sent out. Interestingly, I'm not feeling horribly stressed about that. He corrected the only one that might have had serious repercussions (accidentally checking the "ED" button instead of "EA" . . . .WHOOPS) via email. And the others, well, if the discussion heads in that direction during his interview, he can talk about it. Or maybe not. I honestly believe that they're not the sorts of things that would make or break a decision, if some committee is on the fence about him. </p>
<p>I guess we'll find out. Meanwhile, I'll finish going gray and grinding my teeth to nubs.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all who've gotten those first ones in! Yay, TwinK, ChiSquare's D, SueD's S, missypie's S, oregon's S, and everybody else.</p>
<p>Yes, congrats to those who've been sending out the apps!!</p>
<p>Apologies to the dads who post here, but I think I've just figured out how I'll be whiling away some of the time between now and decisions: The next Daniel Craig, um, I mean 007 movie comes out Nov. 14. </p>
<p>And there are a couple of trailers already online. :D</p>
<p>nothing like some high quality [s]beefcake[/s]....uhmmmmm drama cinematography and adventure to take your mind off your stresses ;)</p>
<p>pooo, my strikethrough didn't work :(</p>
<p>When we were in Venice, we stumbled on the filming of his first Bond movie....everyone was going gaga but we had no idea who he was.</p>
<p>See? Not beefcake - CULTURE. The new one was filmed mostly in Siena. So, you see, it's a learning experience. Look, kids, here's where they run the Palio! See? There are the flags from the different contrade. And there's Daniel Craig. . . .</p>
<p>Oh, I do enjoy the Daniel Craig, I mean James Bond, movies.... Thanks for the heads up: we are going to need to activities to distract us, right?</p>
<p>Back from THE official visit this weekend! It went very well and she is still thrilled about attending. Whew! Got sized for uniform for next year and met more future teammates. Looks like she will get housed with other freshman players in an on campus apartment. Not sure what I think about that. Need to mull it over some more.</p>
<p>Good to hear re: the new Bond. I'm definitely looking for distraction. Have gone back to work part-time; that's helping! Daughter (age 7) & I were hoping to see the new Harry Potter but that's been pushed back to the summer (boo).</p>
<p>NorthMinn--that's great, hope your daughter enjoys getting to know the teammates.</p>