<p>reeinaz glad your son was alright. very scary.</p>
<p>Bappy1 - congrats on th PSAT scores. the wait is always the hard part, even when you are pretty sure it will be good news</p>
<p>Reeinaz~ That is so scary, glad to hear that he is ok. </p>
<p>DD is registered for the Feb. 11 ACT, and has been in full study mode, I think. </p>
<p>We are close enough to drive to several schools that DD wants to visit, and are pinning down some dates. I doubt, though, that I will be able to make winter/spring visits to MN and IA vacations 
I think we may do a visit to Boston at the end of March, that would be fun.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that your son is okay, though it must have been scary, reeinaz.
We have our individual GC meetings next month. Would love to have a good reference book about colleges to streamline my research on the list we will get. What do people think is the most useful and honest book about colleges? I am looking for something that covers the basics as well as āvibeā type stuff.</p>
<p>ree, glad your ds is OK! Puts this all in perspective.</p>
<p>Ds played in a soccer tournament the past two days. And now heās at a sleepover after a surprise bday party for one of his best friends. Think Iāll get a lot of work from him, sleepy and with two playoff games on TV today? Iām going to tell him that he has to finish his summer program app and essays tomorrow and cant even think about going anywhere with friends until theyāre all done.</p>
<p>I just wanted to say how thankful I am for that advice from Fineartsmajormom. I do not have a '13, and itās too late for my '12. But, I plan to implement many of your suggestions for my '15 son. Thanks for taking the time to share your process here. :)</p>
<p>Fineartsmajormom: I will try to keep your suggestions in mind. Nice information.</p>
<p>Can anyone share their thoughts on EA? Should you apply, even if you may be deferred? My thought is if dd plans to apply EA, it might get things going? Does it hurt to apply EA if you are more likely to be accepted RD?</p>
<p>DD will meet with HS counselor this spring. Counselors are meeting with sophomores in groups, and then juniors 1:1. Should she share what we`ve already done, or just go and listen? Any thoughts? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>VBCMom,</p>
<p>The answer to your question is complicated by the fact that for some schools, EA greatly increases your chances of acceptance, but for others it does not. You will need to do specific research into the Common Data Sets for the schools your child is considering. I found this info at College Data dot com. Hope this helpsā¦</p>
<p>VBCMom: I donāt see a downside with EA, but I do with ED. As far as I can tell, if youāre going to have your applications done by November anyway, and a school has EA then thereās no downside because itās not binding. You can wait till the Spring to tell them yes for sure. ED is binding, so unless your student is absolutely positively in love with that school and you donāt need to see a FA package, Iād say ED should be avoided. </p>
<p>Iāve already told D2 that her apps all need to be done before Thanksgiving. Iām just not having it linger over the holidays & having her snappiness make us all on edge. Sheās fine with that; she doesnāt want them hanging over her head anyway. Sheās got one school for sure that has EA, so sheāll do that, plus there are a couple of rolling admissions. No ED for my house. Iāve seen too many kids change their minds on major, feelings about distance, etc. between fall & spring of senior year. </p>
<p>As for the meeting with the college counselor: can you talk with a more experienced parent to see what to expect from the meeting? I think itās always helpful to share what youāve already done so they donāt go over basics & waste both sets of time.</p>
<p>When my older d was applying, we were told that there is no downside to EA; if youāre not accepted EA, youāre thrown into the general RD pool. My d was not accepted EA to MIT, but was accepted RD</p>
<p>reeinaz Ā How scary Ā IĀm so glad your S wasnĀt injured. I know I would be shaken up for quite awhile Ā I hope everyone recovers quickly. </p>
<p>WTG, Bappy1Ās D! </p>
<p>Perazziman Ā I think you have the right idea about what kind of teacher to ask for LORs from . . . sheĀs seen him in different situations over a long period of time . . . and since sheĀs an English teacher, she should be a decent at relaying her sentiments. For some summer programs, S doesnĀt have much of a choice Ā they ask for his CURRENT science and math teacher. S says they donĀt really know him outside of good grades, punctuality, and class participation. Hopefully, he will have more options with college apps as he has a couple past teachers with whom he has dealings with in other capacities. He was able to use them for a couple apps . . . so theyĀll have their LORs all ready to roll come next fall!</p>
<p>MomofNEA Ā I donĀt know about books, but did you see that thread that was all about colleges that have the same feel? Something like Āif you love this college, youĀll like this one too.Ā </p>
<p>VBCMom Ā my understanding is that of ROBD as long as your D has her test scores where she needs them and you donĀt need to show improvement in first quarter senior grades, etc. </p>
<p>Now that finals are over, S is finally starting to work on the summer apps. IĀm so glad heĀs going through this process now as a trial run . . . he clearly needs to work on essay writing! ItĀs not his strongest area, and yet it apparently carries so much weight as admissions/scholarships get more competitive. Maybe he should be looking at summer programs for essay writing! S is seeing how much work college apps will be next year, on top of everything he does. We were just discussing last night that he will definitely be getting the common app essay out of the way in the summer, and like ROBD said, heĀll have all his apps in early if at all possible. I think next Christmas break will be spent doing scholarship essays!</p>
<p>I posted this also in the ACT forum, but am wondering if anyone has any idea about this?</p>
<p>My DD is registered to take the ACT plus writing on 2/11. Her admission ticket says ACT Plus Writing. When I just looked at the testing dates for this year there is an * by the 2/11 date that signifies āACT Plus Writing not offered on February 2012 test dateā. Any ideas what this means? DD has received no notice about the test w/writing no being offered that day.</p>
<p>Midwestmom: I thought the * next to the date meant that the test wasnāt offered in New York on that date.</p>
<p>I seeā¦when I Googled it I took a link that went to directly to registration datesā¦in other countries! Whoops! </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Phew! D2 is taking them that date as well ONLY because the school administered one in March doesnāt have the option to have the writing section.</p>
<p>First time joining inā¦ D13 went on her first college visits today, without meā¦ I unfortunately came down with the flu and had to stay home, so she went with DH. Weāre in Iowa, so she went to see Wartburg and Luther, both fabulous schools! Iām depressed because I wasnāt there for her first visit, but I know there will be others. They called after the morning visit to Wartburg, she really liked it (knew she would) and found lots of positivesā¦ Will be interesting to see how she/they compare Luther to it. </p>
<p>Itās interesting to see everyone posting about traveling for visits to other states. D13 has no interest in going āawayā. When I suggest looking at other schools that she would like or fit at (eg, Carleton, St. Olaf) she doesnāt want to consider it. Iām not sure if thatās because sheās very close to us and is kind of a homebody, or if it has to do with her being on the āyoungā side of her class. Regardless, it doesnāt hurt my feelings too much that she doesnāt want to be more than 2-3 hours from home! </p>
<p>Thanks for letting me join the thread, Iāve been lurking for quite awhile, so it should be fun to participate!</p>
<p>Tina</p>
<p>Tina:</p>
<p>Iowa resident also. If you have not investigated Truman State yet, do so. A great option for those wanting an LAC type education but perhaps not at a small sized school. We visited Grinnel and Luther and S just does not like the small LACās. We both liked Truman much better.</p>
<p>Hi Repeatb! Welcome and so glad you came out of lurking :)</p>
<p>D1 is a bit of a homebody as well, and even though she went OOS, sheās still only 3 1/2 hours away. She likes to come home every 4 weeks or so. Iām waiting for D2 to see that light but trying not to push.</p>
<p>Didnāt realize that we had a couple of Iowa families here. Do yāall mind telling me what you know about University of Iowa? On paper, itās one of D2ās favorites because of their writing program (sheās applying to their summer program but isnāt holding her breath since one of her friends who is a published author didnāt get in) but for me itās too far because of multiple plane changes. And real winter. And while they have an undergrad writing certificate and creative writing track, itās their MFA Writers Workshop that is really the big program. Thanks :)</p>
<p>I teach at UIowa and live in town so know it fairly well. Campus is compact for a U with 30,000 students and sits in downtown Iowa City. I think it (and Iowa State) are under appreciated for the quality of education you receive. Any specific questions?</p>
<p>Sorry about that RobD! That will teach me to multitask.</p>
<p>Repeatb~ I would love to hear about your daughterās vistis. Wartburg is on DDās list, as are some other small Iowa schools. </p>
<p>Truman definitely is a great value. DD hasnāt talked about it as much as the small LACs she is interested in, but I did see it up on her laptop. I think DD is concerned that it may be too conservative for her, and that it might be too big. I think it seems like a perfect size. I think we will visit just to check it out. </p>
<p>DD took her first ACT practice exam today, she did not enjoy it. She is average at math, but an exceptional reader. I hope that her schools will look at the scores on her subtests, but wonder if they see many kids with a 36 on reading and a 22 on math.</p>
<p>Someone asked upthread about EA. The only real reason Iāve heard to not apply (non-binding) EA if it is available, is if the studentās record would look better with a little extra time. For example, grades have been improving, especially if there was a poor freshman year, so having the full first-semester senior year grades will be advantageous. Or, re-taking the SATs or ACTs to improve lower-than-expected scores.</p>