Parents of the HS Class of 2011 - Original

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
11701

<p>Wow, i haven’t been on the thread since Sunday night and there’s been so much news posted here. Not surprising I guess since we’re now in the thick of envelope season.</p>

<p>First, I want to congratulate OMW on her S’s terrific achievement. Like others here, I’m not surprised he won the BIG award. I can’t wait to take a look the photos on shutterfly.
Also, it sounds like your grandson had a swell time at his party w/ his delicious cake.</p>

<p>Hurray to everyone w/ the Macalester acceptances. That schools sounds really wonderful. I was sorry I didn’t visit it w/ this son but I think it should be on S2’s list. It’s probably one of the few, possibly only, LACs in this country that’s urban. Sounds like it has a great vibe.</p>

<p>kumitedad – sorry about Santa Barbara. From what i gather on this thread, the CA schools were impossible this year. I don’t think the competition in NY in anything like what you have out there. The number of applications to the CA schools is simply astounding.</p>

<p>emmybet – glad your D is looking at her wait lists in a positive light. i’m thinking that there are two schools my S has yet to hear from out of his 9 pending that he would consider remaining on a wait list for, the others he’d cut loose b/c he’s already been accepted to schools that rock his boat. good to hear that your japanese D2 will make her way home shortly.</p>

<p>guitarist’s mom and others w/ WL – it’s not an acceptance but it isn’t a rejection either. obviously, we’d all prefer having our kids receive the “congrats, you’re in” notice but it’s still nice to hear that the kid was appreciated.</p>

<p>UT: i hear you on the scholarship app that went nowhere. we had 2 of those here, one of which had 7 long essays. the way my son looks at it, he thinks he was accepted to one of those schools, a tough one to pull of the hat this year, b/c his willingness to write the scholarship essay reflected his desire to attend the school. he won’t hear from the other school until the very end of this season. it will be interesting to see if he’s accepted there. oddly enough, he didn’t have to apply separately for the merit scholarships he’s received. </p>

<p>Speaking of which, he received the last merit award this past Saturday. It’s a nice sum of money, but i’m not sure how it will impact his decision. we’re not having any serious conversations until all the news is in but we have told him that we can afford to pay his undergrad but not his grad school at all. any $ in merit now, will mean money for grad school that won’t be taken out in loans. </p>

<p>pepper – as you know, i’m keeping my fingers crossed tightly for you and yours. and this drama shall pass in time.</p>

<p>welcome to the new posters. </p>

<p>like many of you, i’m distracted this week. fortunately my S1 is on vacation and is hiking w/ his dad in zion nat’l park. he hears back from one of his schools at the end of this week and the rest next week. it’s good that he’s already been accepted to some of his favorite schools. and yes, i can see the psychology working in favor of those early admits. he’s had time to wrap his head around these schools and envision himself on campus next year. it will be very interesting to watch him grapple w/ his decision in the upcoming weeks. he did this four years ago when he was accepted to all the high schools he applied to and in the end, chose very wisely. he knows himself well and has already proven his good judgement. in the last go-around, he made his final decision at the very end of the period because he really weighed the pros/cons very thoughtfully despite having a gut reaction when visiting the schools as an admitted student. no doubt, it will play out like that again.</p>

11702

<p>

Willamette University, in Salem Oregon, is also a liberal arts college in an urban environment. I think that’s why my daughter is attracted to both schools. They’re small LACs surrounded by a city. Willamette also has a law school, graduate business school, and graduate education school across the street from the LAC campus.</p>

<p>Macalester is more in suburban St. Paul than right in the heart of it. Many of the homes adjacent to campus along Summit Ave. are gorgeous!!! And it’s a short bike/run/walk to the Mississippi River. Lots of neat restaurants nearby. It’s a great area. Definitely check Mac and Willamette out for S2.</p>

11703

<p>Good idea about the immunizations. Two people diagnosed with meningitis last week in a neighboring county. One young man is a 16 year old in high school.</p>

11704

<p>ckofpng, welcome and a recommendation to get ahold of the book “On Writing the College Essay” by Harry Bauld. It’s short and a fun read. Many students find it very useful in terms of figuring out what to put in the essay, and what NOT to put in. </p>

<p>The best advice I’ve heard here about essay writing is that you want the essay to be the sort of thing where if it was dropped on the floor of the school cafeteria without the writer’s name, someone would pick it up, read it, and know exactly who wrote it. For what it’s worth, that resonated enough with D1 for her to repeat it to friends.</p>

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<p>Macalester is in a very lovely neighborhood in St. Paul. In one sense it has the feel of a quintessential college town with coffee shops on every corner, and nice, very well kept residential streets. At the same time, it sits right between the downtowns of St. Paul (within the St. Paul city limits) and Minneapolis, with all the advantages that big cities have to offer.</p>

<p>We lived in St. Paul for about 15 years, H being a Minnesota boy, and the funny thing is that we had no idea, because we weren’t looking for colleges at the time, that Mac was such a great LAC. We just knew, when we started looking for our first house, that homes in the Mac-Groveland area were highly sought after.</p>

11706

<p>Thanks SlitheyTove. We do have a book or two on essay writing, but not that one. I’ll look for it. Sounds like great advice.</p>

11707

<p>D finally got her Mac letter today and it’s an offer for the alternate (wait) list. It really is OK – a little disappointing, but the letter is lovely and cushions the ego blow. Plus, although she loved Macalester when we visited, her thoughts have been moving closer to home as time goes on. She’s into her two faves, which are both in the northwest.</p>

<p>Macalester should have been a “match” for her (although apps are up 40% this year) so it doesn’t bode well for her “reaches”. We haven’t really been thinking about reaches, matches and safeties because all of the schools have pluses and minuses in her mind. She really didn’t have a top choice when she applied… I’m hoping that will lessen the emotional impact of these letters. Frankly, senior year is stressful enough!</p>

<p>Congrats to all with good news and good luck to all of us. :)</p>

11708

<p>In regards to college essays- D mostly did the ones for the Common App (with a few extra ones for RPI and Hampshire). The main Common App one was actually done in her English class Junior year where each student spent about a month writing a personal essay and a resume. She got an A on it, but I found it rather lifeless and not immediate. But it was personal in that it spoke to what she had done, and cared about, so I offered only a few suggestions to gear it more to the Common App question (e.g. explicitly point out how she had changed from the experience). D is not an exceptional writer, so I did not think amping it up would be a good idea as we did not want her to get in someplace where she would be in over her head. So she had little help on the essay other than some editorial suggestions from her English teacher and myself, and a little mechanics help (grammar, punctuation). She could have used more assistance but we felt that doing it on her own was more important in the long run.</p>

11709

<p>I’m getting really nervous about tomorrow’s mail–which may be the first day that S2 might get notification from one of his top schools. They only notify by mail and we don’t even know if they send out all the packages at once. Yikes. Which brings up a new worry and I’m wondering if anyone else is facing this.</p>

<p>S2’s older brother goes to this dream school and I think that shades the entire process even more. Do any of you have similar situations–where the older sib is already at a very reachy school or program that the younger one is now waiting to hear from? </p>

<p>Sigh. </p>

<p>I need chocolate.</p>

11710

<p>Madbean,</p>

<p>Have that exact problem. DS is at UC Berkeley, while DD is waiting for Thursday. She will be very unhappy if she does not get in. It is not her dream school but one of her top schools.</p>

11711

<p>Madbean, </p>

<p>My D is also waiting for notification tomorrow from the same school. I appreciated your helpful posts on that thread-especially the Explore dates. It is hard not knowing if my D is in or not b/c we need to schedule a visit. Lucikly a few of the Explore dates are during her Spring break, although she’d be just as happy to miss school to visit her “dream school” if she gets in. </p>

<p>Good luck to your S2 as we continue to wait… and wait… and wait…</p>

<p>Chocolate sounds great right about now :/</p>

11712

<p>Madbean, S1 got a terrific merit aid and subsequent need aid package to Tulane in '07, and his awards have increased over his 4 years. Tulane has been very good to him, he is the first grandchild in the family to graduate college.</p>

<p>My D has been waiting to hear from Vanderbilt and the more I read about admittance stats, the more depressed I got. She just got her Blair Music/Vanderbilt acceptance over the weekend, and she will likely end up with a very good financial aid package. She was denied at her first choice, UT Austin and was consigned to her safety school, which is local and didn’t inspire her, although it has a decent music program and she likes the music profs there very much. Hearing from Vanderbilt was such a boost for her - she absolutely fell in love with it when we visited. She also still needs to hear from Manhattan School of Music, which she also just loved, but it is a conservatory and unlikely to give her much of a FA package.</p>

11713

<p>Sorry, Seattle_Mom re: Macalester. Is she going to stay on the WL? Glad she’s already in at two favorites (one of which I believe is also my D’s current fave?).</p>

11714

<p>ckofpng - Welcome. Regarding the essay, you were correct in your earier post that it was my post where I indicted that our DIL did comment about the essay often being one of the big differentiating factors in the admissions evaluation game. Our S kicked around a number of ideas and we provided pros and cons but he decided on his topic and wrote the entire essay himself. We did provide editing and proofreading assistance and asked him questions about his thought process. S called our DIL and she was kind enough to have a couple of her colleagues review it and he received some very useful feedback and comments that helped him make it flow and read better, but the writing and content were definately his. If you read it you could identify him so I guess he did a good job. We thought it was very good and reflected his transition through a summer internship program that helped him morph from a a shy introverted kid to a fun loving extroverted kid. All told, he probalby spend 4 - 6 weeks on his primary essay. He spend a LOT less on the rest of them. We will find out next week.</p>

<p>I should also say that we have also learned a lot from CC and this forum that we will use for our HS freshman D who will go through this process starting in about 2 years.</p>

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<p>I’ll agree that while I sometimes wonder if the essays were “just right,” they were what D wanted to say and definitely had her voice and personality.</p>

<p>Tonight was the big Concerto Concert that D was selected for back in January. She sounded beautiful and looked gorgeous in the dress we got in NY on the audition trip. Her saxophone didn’t look too shabby, either! We were very proud of her. Her private teacher (on another instrument) from grade 4-6 was there, so that was a very sweet reunion (she teaches the other girls who were soloists).</p>

<p>Two girls in the house as of 5 a.m. tomorrow when I take JD2 to the bus. She’s sad to leave, a little nervous about what she’ll go back to, but I think she feels right going back to her family. We’ll miss her - she’s a darling. College D comes back from a trip Thursday night - and D2, JD1 and I leave on a school trip Friday morning, then Sunday when we get back, D1 will already have left again for college. My house should have a revolving door! But that means spring break will have started, which will be a very welcome relief.</p>

<p>I think in the next 3-4 days we’re going to get several answers - at least 3 of D’s remaining schools are saying 3/24 or 25. Wow.</p>

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<p>ckofpng : I think you will find this blog from U of Chicago admissions office from last year on wait list quite helpful. </p>

<p><a href=“https://blogs.uchicago.edu/collegeadmissions/2010/03/some-advice-for-students-on-th.html[/url]”>https://blogs.uchicago.edu/collegeadmissions/2010/03/some-advice-for-students-on-th.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>emmybet, best of luck to your daughter in the upcoming days. my S, i think, will only hear from one school this week – on fri. Wow: by next fri, he’ll hear from the remaining schools on his list. It really is only a bit more than a week away!</p>

<p>good luck to everyone waiting to hear news this week and next. it’s so hard to believe that this phase of the process is nearly over. oddly, i’m both a bit nervous but also zen at the same time. i feel some underlying jitteriness, almost like you feel when you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, but yet, i know that my S will land just fine b/c he already has options that please him very much. he is, however, waiting to hear back from his ED school which deferred him in December. next weekend, the next phase will begin: he’ll have to sort through his options. </p>

<p>i can’t wait to join all of you who are already in the next phase, beyond the uncertainty zone.</p>

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<p>Back home for one night only as tomorrow night we are going to another tournament. This trip we just came back from was for two college visits. Shock of shocks, d actually likes both of the schools. Hasn’t made a decision but says she will do a lot of research after coming back from the tournament and also wait to see if she has gotten into the honors program at one of these colleges. The one bad note for both was her allergies really were bad there but I think it was probably worse then normal since we headed south and spring was more along and she didn’t get used to some pollen and then more pollen. It was more pollen right from the minute we landed. One of her first comments was as we were leaving the airport walking to our rental car and she said she didn’t like it because it was too sunny. I said, well they have cloudy days too. SHe quickly realized it wasn’t the sun bothering her eyes, it was the pollen. But two schools she likes and now for her research and my figuring out finances. </p>

<p>Congrats to all acceptances.</p>

<p>I do feel for all who are waitlisted and rejected.</p>

11719

<p>Hi everyone! I was away for a couple of days and missed so much!</p>

<p>Congrats to the newest acceptances, MIT finaid $$$, scholarships, etc… </p>

<p>Ckofpng – welcome. I second SlitheyTove’s suggestion of the Harry Bauld book and the “dropped on the floor” test. The book is a great read even if you don’t need to write an essay. I also agree with others that you don’t need to hire a professional to edit your kid’s essay, but I would say 1-3 adults who know the teenager need to proofread it before it gets submitted. I would also suggest starting on the essays early, preferably in the summer before the senior year. I “suggested” that to my S and while he was complaining all summer, he told me many times after his apps were submitted that it was a wise decision. </p>

<p>If anyone is waiting to hear from Rice, they sent their decisions this evening. </p>

<p>I am pretty sure we will have to wait until April 30th for this to be over. So far S got accepted to 7 schools and still waiting for 2 March 30th decisions. To finally commit to one college won’t be easy; we spent a lot of time researching those schools to find a good fit when we were building the list. S would be happy in any one of them, so turning most of them down will be stressful.</p>

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<p>Seattle-mom, I know what you mean about the supposed match that puts your kid on the waitlist. One of my daughter’s school’s looked like a slight reach going by various web site stats and a definite match going by naviance. But she ended up on the waitlist. She has seven schools left to hear from. I’ve pretty much given up on the two reachier ones and am worried about the others!</p>

<p>On the essay: I like the “drop on the floor” test! At several info sessions (at college visits), the admissions people talked about how important it was for the student’s voice to come through. A couple suggested that you only have other people check for spelling/grammar, i.e. proof-read rather than edit. I think the adcoms know how to tell a slick pro-written essay from a student’s own work most of the time. And some will slip through, but you just have to do what feels right and not worry about gaming the system. (i.e., cko’s daughter did it the right way!)</p>

<p>My daughter had a couple of friends read hers and give her some general feed-back. My husband and I both did proof-reading.</p>

<p>And yes, if she’d dropped it on the floor at school, anyone who knew her would have known who to return it to!</p>

<p>Last thing to add: I love the idea of madbean’s son attending X-Men University!</p>