<p>There is a thread (I think under College Admissions) dedicated to the Common App. </p>
<p>A couple of things I learned:</p>
<p>Some electronic apps won’t work unless you disable your pop-up blocker. It won’t tell you that - you have to just figure it out.</p>
<p>If you have a feature on you computer that automatically fills in passwords and user names, disable that for every electronic application. Our computer was auto-filling Son’s user name into every single blank that called for a phone number or email address and it could not be overridden. It took me quite a while to figure out that I had to turn off the autofill software on the computer.</p>
<p>All kinds of issues like this will arise, so that is why last minute is never a good idea. Electronic apps seem easier on the surface, but not a lot could go wrong with a paper and pencil app, whereas LOTS can go wrong with an electronic app and some of those things are tied to your home computer and the software you run on it.</p>
<p>S’s school had a college fair last night (about 120 schools). H & S said there were very long lines at the brand name schools (such as BC), which for the most part they skipped. H & S visited many of the lesser know schools that are on “my” list generated with lots of help from the folks here at cc. I felt good when they both told me how good they felt being able to approach these admins and tell the college rep their school was a reach/match/safety and start talking about honors programs, merit, etc. They didn’t need the info session type spiel, I had already reaseached and passed that on to them. Plus because they were already on their radar and knew to visit their tables, some of the lesser known schools will now probably make S’s final list. </p>
<p>S doesn’t seem stuck on one dream school, which is good. He would love to get into a BC, but knows it is a big reach and hasn’t set his heart on it. He is the high SAT but 3.0 kid. A big mismatch. He is willing to consider schools other kids haven’t heard of. We started this process last year with him wanting a big rah rah school that has football games in 40K seat stadiums. We visited several of those D1 schools, UW-Mad, Notre Dame (big, big reach) and Penn State. He loved them until we started visiting smaller schools like Babson, Bentley, and Bryant. </p>
<p>S reluctantly used the stickers I had ordered (with his name, school, email, etc). He said he looked ridiculous and there was only one other kid using them.</p>
<p>common app—GC told S last week to look at it and the essay topics as soon as he wants to </p>
<p>essays—S will start working on them/one/whatever after the AP Lang exam, in that class and in his junior advisory class (I don’t know if non-AP takers will be working on them in class this school year)</p>
<p>Right now we’re just attempting to get a Big List together. I’ve resorted to legal pads instead of a spreadsheet for this level of analysis------some info won’t fit nicely into a cell I hope we’ll have a clearer idea after he takes SATs on Saturday as right now we’re working from the PSAT using Naviance.</p>
<p>Last night’s discussion:
–not rural
–size larger than his high school, so comfortably over 2000 students with no max size
–environmental science/studies with a public policy component (not only bio, not chem, not engineering but hugely interdisciplinary with all sciences, math, economics, history, public policy), leading to eventually working in gov’t or with an NGO, grad school or law school a strong possibility. Not working in industry.
–distance from home doesn’t matter, BUT he doesn’t want MD, NJ, deep south, pretty much anything in the midwest (so how does distance not matter? LOL).<br>
–politically aware/active student body
–not a high stress environment <strong><em>this is really important to him</em></strong>
–not a strict core curriculum <strong><em>only slightly less important</em></strong>
–would prefer to receive credit for AP scores (apparently counting his chickens… )</p>
<p>You know, making The Big List was SO much easier when he was planning on majoring in civil/environmental engineering… :eek:</p>
<p>Working on it right now. 39 schools at the moment on the “big list.” Getting ready to plan the first tour of 6 schools.</p>
<p>D wants: colder than Texas/out of state/larger than her HS.</p>
<p>The big list is way too heavy on large (over 15,000) state Us. Pretty hard to find schools (that don’t cost $50,000 a year) in the 5000 to 12,000 student range.</p>
<p>Psst - I know rah-rah people like me are annoying, but I really think he’d like Tufts A LOT. You’ve probably noticed but most top schools give credit pretty much only for 5’s on APs, Tufts included, although my D got 1 semester of English for her 4.</p>
<p>The ACT score opened up our list a bit, brought a couple of reaches in that depended on the results. We have a multi-layered list because of theater BFAs as well as BAs, some where the audition majorly trumps the academics. But we’re doing pretty well.</p>
<p>My D is willing to start on the Common app essays as soon as APs are over. She’s also getting her recs in order before school ends. Several schools start rolling admissions in Sept. and she wants those acceptances, has seen too many peers dawdle and stress out. Several theater schools require academic acceptances before she can schedule auditions. So she really sees Sept/Oct as her major application season, not Dec/Jan. I’m glad she gets this. She’s not usually a Type A, but when she’s into something, she can really roll. Hopefully she won’t hit too many snags in the meantime; I think she’s going to enjoy the essays, something that really suits her as fun and creative.</p>
<p>College Fairs, books, websites - these have all been so helpful to us in developing a list. CC is other-wordly in its helpfulness. When I say, “I read on the forum today …” her ears always perk up now.</p>
<p>missypie - I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many lovely smaller state Us there are. Most of the WI ones are about 8-12K students, and I think many SUNYs are, too. They don’t always make the “best of” lists, but then you find out that they’re quite wonderful.</p>
<p><Pretty hard to find schools (that don’t cost $50,000 a year) in the 5000 to 12,000 student range. <</p>
<p>I am pretty amazed at the cost of some of the schools we are looking at. 50K+ a year for what I consider a mediocre education. </p>
<p>Missypie, Thanks for the tips on the common app. I have already “asked” S to be prepared to start working on essays once he is done with school (and testing).</p>
<p>We are doing a fair job of narrowing our list down to a more managable level, not quite there yet.</p>
<p>We have a spreadsheet too and are making some progress. Had a good week last week visiting 4 of the main schools on the spreadsheet. D liked Rochester and Case a lot - that was very useful, since these two kept cropping up as her best matches. Interestingly, she seemed to like Rochester a bit more than Case. She liked the CMU campus and tour, but felt that it was a bit too techy school for her. Cornell was a short visit - the campus is lovely - she didn’t have any strong feelings one way or the other about this one. Since we were in the area, we did drive by Syracuse, Oberlin and Princeton - none of these impressed her enough to make it onto the list - thank heavens! The list is long enough as it is…</p>
<p>The schedule/stress level is intense right now at home. She had a meltdown last night and left for school this morning, refusing to speak to me. Sigh…I am guessing we’ll have more of these the next few weeks (months?)!! If we can survive the next one month, we can begin to think about recommendation letters, senior year schedule and then maybe, just maybe think about essays and the common app!!</p>
<p>Cost of schools - I had this column in my spreadsheet - but am figuring it’s pretty close to useless right now. Most of them come in around 50K, some are a bit more, some a bit less. Nothing too significant.</p>
<p>Missypie - D also wants a school of about 5K - 12k students - and finding one like that with a lower cost seems next to impossible. The lower cost schools are almost always public (state) schools and the size is huge.</p>
<p>It seems you all are narrowing and refining lists, I’m working on S to add some schools. The main criteria is having a video game design major, second is being near at least a small city rather than in the middle of nowhere. More schools are adding the major, but it is so new at many that it is difficult to evaluate.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine him starting any essays before the fall. It is both a blessing and a curse that he is a no-stress kid. It can be difficult to light a fire under him.</p>
<p>My oldest did a great job of researching colleges and found 1 small public (TCNJ) and three smaller private colleges that she applied to, and she received merit scholarships from all three to make them cost comparable to the public college. She was not a stellar student (A-/B+ range), but looked for colleges where she would stand out and still get a good education. They do exist.</p>
<p>TCNJ is one that is on the short list, I have heard good things about it and hope to visit this summer when D is in NJ for a tournament. Did she end up there?</p>
<p>I’m actually surprised at how many private colleges are much lower in tuition than the
“biggies.” With so many well-known schools charging $50K/year, there are many where the tuition/room and board are more like $30K. They just do tend to be less famous. </p>
<p>You can do a search on the College Board site specifically for tuition, also grouping by location, size, etc. We’re finding everything is quite variable.</p>
<p>My '09 son wanted a small LAC within 5 hours of home. He had great success with merit aid at those, even though he was one of those high scores/lower GPA kids. D won’t consider schools of that size, so I’m starting from scratch.</p>
<p>mamabear - No, D turned down TCNJ as too close to home (10 miles). But we know many people there and it is a great school. She instead attends Marist College and is very happy there (small, friendly LAC). </p>
<p>None of my college research for D is helping me with S now (accept for an understanding of the process). My son expressly does NOT want a LAC.</p>
<p>Ldinct, all of his were in Texas or Oklahoma:</p>
<p>Oklahoma City U
University of Tulsa
Austin College (Sherman, TX)
Southwestern U (Georgetown, TX)
Baylor
St. Edwards (Austin, TX)
Trinity U (San Antonio)</p>
<p>Awards ranged from $8000 to $18,000, for schools that were in the $35,000 to $40,000 COA range.</p>
<p>Well SAT2s this weekend–
APs start next week with Calc and then three more the following week.
The finals
SAT1 (retake)
ACT (retake)</p>
<p>The ACT put schools previously out of reach into a less reachy place. Pretty interesting really how the scale of the ACT vs the SAT can bring some schools closer to home.</p>
<p>Our student was bummed to see that the section the proctor messed up and interferred twice is the one subsection that dragged the whoe thing down…</p>
<p>OMG - I didn’t realize the Common App for the fall was already available and the essays were online. I had better get to it and print it–</p>
<p>oh–and the lovely GC at school—let’s just say I am doubtful… :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I looked on the website and I only see the 09-10 version of the Common app.</p>
<p>Now that the college (and high school, for some people) academic year is coming to an end, how many college did you guys visit, if any? I visited two, but wish I could have done more.</p>
I hope we’ll have a clearer idea after he takes SATs on Saturday as right now we’re working from the PSAT using Naviance.</p>
)</p>