@snoozn and everyone - THANK YOU!!! D17 doesn’t have any schools she’s planning to apply ED or EA to. The only one on her list I’m actually worried about is U of Nebraska, and that’s because she’s eligible for a pretty nice legacy scholarship since I’m a graduate. I want her to get that app in early rather than late to ensure there’s money for her. But every other school on her list at this point is rolling admissions, so she’s carving out the first weekend in September to crank them out in one fell swoop!
@curiositycat333 - We tried repeatedly to get D17 into CE classes at our local community college. Because of the way the school’s ‘master schedule’ was set up, it was impossible last year AND this year due to conflicts with AP classes. She did get a CE class (US History) which was taught on site at our school and loved it, though. I wouldn’t stress too much.
@coloradomom2015 S17 hasn’t opened an application yet. Except to get it off the table to not deal with during the school year I don’t see the point. He is mostly applying to state schools, most of which have a Nov 30th deadline with no advantage to getting it in early. I am anticipating and Thanksgiving full of college applications angst.
Most of the other schools (they are all state schools BTW) have an EA around the beginning of Nov. and final deadlines in early Feb. I’m pushing S17 to get at least one of those in by the EA deadline & preferably all. Particularly if he is looking at Engineering at the school. It would mean college apps would be done by the end of Nov, and he would start hearing answers in Dec.
We aren’t chasing money, but chasing the ‘right’ school.
Had a good conv. with S17 last night. He really does have that attitude that many seniors get of “I’m almost out of here”. There has been drama at Band Camp this week, and he’s gotten an attitude of this really isn’t very important in the grand schema of things. (Yes… except quitting band because you were pissy at this point wouldn’t look good on college apps…) I have to keep telling myself, he is desperate to move out and that makes him highly motivated to do well on his courses and do his college apps.
@techmom99 it’s kind of sad but at this point I have all the data memorized for any NPC out there. Sigh. We also do not have any pictures of set building and while I do have some of the programs, I’d have to go dig around for them! I did create a resume for S, moreso so that he doesn’t forget things when filling out the common app and in the activities section and to give him a way to structure it. I need to confirm some of the positions held. I do think the resume, as an supplement for the schools that ask and for the schools that have tech scholarship 4 for non majors avail (one on his list) the resume will only help. Can’t hurt.
We do offer drama as a class though S has never taken it (no room in the schedule) and all productions are EC’s. Which means for S, stage crew is considered volunteer activity and he’s got a crazy number of volunteer/service hours. He will be taking theater tech as an actual class this year, first time the school has offered it in a while.
@AHS2017Mom congrats on the 2 acceptances! Nice to have those in the back pocket for sure.
@coloradomom2015 our goal is 10/15 for all. Ok that’s my goal lol. Realistically it could be 10/15 for some and 11/15 for others but 11/1 is the hard date S is working against. It is really due to merit money concerns, first come first served you know? He does have a lot of EA schools and will exercise that but we need to narrow the list first. Of the 3 definitely apply, 2 are EA. The other won’t matter so much at all (in state and no $$) and as it as its own app I wouldn’t be surprised to see it come in later than the others. Focus right now is common app for sure.
@snoozn fingers crossed on the CE class still being available! We have few (or none?) kids that do DE. There is a program with the CC but that’s different than true DE and to get DE it’s quite the pain logistically/approval wise so is nothing we’ve ever really explored. A number of the kids that do the CC program end up with some fairly worthless credits and I fail to see the point for S17 and S19. S11 did it and for him, it was a good fit mentally but I can’t say it really gained him all that much from a graduation standpoint!
We can view preliminary schedules at noon tomorrow…fingers crossed! I don’t want to jinx things but aside from a “bad” teacher here and there we’ve never had an issue in HS or MS with the kids schedules, they have always gotten what they requested. And in one “bad” situation it magically resolved itself with a new schedule on the first day of school last year so was a non issue! This year may be a bit trickier but we will see!
So we are shooting for 9/1 just because we’d like to wrap her up the application process early; she’s going to have a lot on her hands with school and a part time job once we get rolling.
The majority of our picks at this point are public universities. I say ‘our’ because if her father and I are footing the bill, we expect to have some input in where she attends. That being said, she found some excellent choices without much prompting from us. I would say 75% are public, 25% are private with an even split there between liberal arts colleges and small private universities. We are asking her to apply to CU Boulder even though she’d prefer to attend CSU if she stays instate simply because it has a stronger business program. She’s also applying to a couple of WUE’s (Utah and Utah State). I think her heart, though, is in the Midwest and not the mountains…
@snoozn and anyone else looking at WWU. Looks like they added early action this year 
Thanks for the top @eandesmom ! Good to know
@snoozn - Thanks. I looked at zeemee. I have to find out if you can use it for schools that aren’t amongst the partner schools listed on the site.
@curiositycat333 - We (meaning “I”) have started to assemble materials for the portfolio. My D will have 2 weeks between the time she returns from her current temp job and the time she leaves for her cross country trip and she has said that she will try to help S17 with his portfolio during that time. She’s more creative than I am. One of the dorm bulletin boards she designed when she was an RA actually went somewhat viral.
I have noticed that some schools permit you to submit a paper you wrote the past school year instead of an essay. Is this a good idea? S17 wrote a nice paper for US History that got a good grade and it would be so much easier to use that than force him to sit down and write an essay. Do you think colleges would look down on this as being lazy? Even if the college itself offers that option?
Simplification
While I thrive on analysis, over analysis really, S17 does not. It hit me this week how hard it is for my ADHD “squirrel” kid to differentiate from schools he’s never visited and will not until accepted.
At this point, the list has been scrubbed and culled for majors, programs, flexibility to change, music, theater, location, size, cost, aesthetics and a ridiculous metric of rankings including graduation rates, retention, “greenness” and of course the safety/match/reach factor. It’s a solid list and all meet some, most or almost all of what S wants. So, in absentia, how does one narrow it down?
It’s about fit at this point.
Key metrics are:
Location
Size
Cost
Chances
I present the cheat sheet. Assume academics are equal. I made a document that listed the schools by these things.
- Where they are in relation to other things: Distance by car or train/bus to "major" cities
- $$: A simple $,$$,$$$ ranking system
- Chances: Matches and Safeties
- School Size
- Ease of application. Own app, common app, extra supplements
I then told him that while he could apply to as many as he wants, he has to choose and apply to the following at a minimum and that overlap was ok, meaning I am requiring him to apply to 5-7 schools. Because we need merit, he needs options and this seems a reasonable completely self made up number to me. LOL! He agreed.
2 academic safeties
2 financial safeties
3 academic matches
He LOVED it! It made it so much for him easier to digest at a glance. He immediately circled 2 schools.
2 academic safeties: DONE. Western Washington University, Goucher College
2 financial safeties: Western Washington University
3 academic matches
He needs to choose 3-4 more at a minimum. 4 if none of the 3 academic matches are a financial safety. Big change is he now fees able to make that choice. Sometimes raw data is easier when everything else seems quite equal. The players that are left in the game? Of what’s left he has only visited ONE of the schools. It would be hard for me too!
academic safeties: McDaniel College, Oregon State University
financial safeties: Rowan University, Bradley University
academic matches: Rowan University, Bradley University, Ithaca College, University of Vermont, Ursinus, University of Puget Sound, Juniata, Allegheny, Temple
I am hoping a fall work trip that is TBD may get me out near some of these and he can tag along prior to acceptance trips. Who knows but it’s probably got a 50% chance.
Interestingly the ease of application piece didn’t bother him or seem to be a factor now WWU has it’s own app and Goucher has supplements.
Scores have been ordered for the 2 schools and I moved them into “applying” in Naviance so transcripts can be sent. Which is how I found out WWU had added EA. I also found out something interesting. Earlier in the day S received his draft schedule and it listed a different counselor name on it. Hmmmn. I checked the school website, still showed his current one as assigned to his last name range. When I moved the schools into apply, for the common app school I got a giant red message that said
You have not been assigned to a counselor in Family Connection. Contact your counselor to request a counselor assignment for your account.
Ugh. Not that it matters, he had zero interaction with the current one.
2nd draft of the essay is done, he meets with a “reviewer” on Monday to fine tune and then we can get moving on the actual common app.
Senior pictures arrived yesterday too. REALLY pleased with them!
I’ll note that DD’s naviance also shows the same message, despite the fact that her small school has one GC, who has already written for her. So I think it doesn’t really mean anything. Maybe at the start of the year, the GC has a meeting with the kid, and then checks a box, and then she is “assigned” in naviance.
Our school’s Naviance is SO annoying right now. Doesn’t it know students/parents are trying to apply to colleges?
I know some families may not start the process until after school begins, but some of us are trying to utilize summer break to get ahead of what will soon become an active Fall season!
I love how the 1st thing I see on our HS page is: “Welcome 2014-2015”.
No ACT or SAT scores have been entered on S17’s page since 10/2105. I was told by the GC that Administration (the County??) inputs these; not the school or student.
Under profile, Naviance (and as a result, the Common Application) lists his previous GC’s name/e-mail/phone even tho we’ve been communicating for the past week with the new GC over schedule changes. BTW – still unresolved & school begins in a week.
LOR – “upgrading the system” – what happened to the 2 requests made in May/June?
@eandesmom – how do you get a school onto the “I’m Applying To” section? Does it show up after you’ve submitted an application?
@thshadow that could be, a formal assignment has to be made in the system regardless of who it really is. We also have a message about a late august update regarding LOR process (it did not’ prompt for that) but to use is as until then and to stay tuned for updates.
@MomStudent2017 we havea similar upgrade message and ours says late august. Maybe all will happen at once? How frustrating though.
Only the student log in can move schools in our version, I was logged in as S (with his permission lol). Basically you check a box next to the school and then click on “move to colleges I am applying to”. It then gave a drop down that asks you to choose what type of app (ED1, ED2, EA, EA1, EA2, RD etc) and thn some options like send transcript, send mid year report, send final senior year transcript. That’s as far as it went. I can’t tell, as it’s my first time how/when the LOR request comes into play but I do know they require it to go through naviance. As most of the potential schools on S’s list will b EA I want to be on top of that piece especially and have the list pretty set by day 1 of school with naviance updated accordingly.
Which gives S 2.5 weeks. The good news is upons seeing his schedule and the upcoming workload hitting much closer to home he agreed that he would be far better served to get a lot of the app stuff done in th e next 2.5 weeks and not be stressing about it. It doesn’t hurt that I ordered him is “college” laptop yesterday, he has no excuse (SLOW mac at the moment) to not get things done once that arrives!.
Holy typos batman. Patio sun glare! Lol
D started school yesterday and will begin her two concurrent enrollment college classes on Monday. She actually admitted to being nervous which is unusual for her. I really wish I could invisibly sneak into the back of the classrooms…
@eandesmom, as a person who over-analyzes and then has a hard time explaining my wonderful discoveries to anyone else… =D> and ^:)^
Also, thanks for the new word on WWU. I’ve been too scared to move anything to the “will apply” section because I wasn’t sure exactly what chain of events I might be setting in motion! We’ve been back and forth on visiting WWU and Gonzaga as they are both high-interest schools for D. Right now I’m leaning toward saving visits for post-acceptance but I’ve kept our visit reservations that I set up for October.
@techmom99, I would be inclined to send an essay rather than a paper. My understanding is that the purpose of the essay is to help AO’s see the student’s personality and “get to know them” as much as possible through 650 words. If your S is applying to any colleges that require the essay, he’ll have to write one anyway. For my own kid I might do the paper thing if they were only applying to a couple of big stat-driven U’s and had fairly high stats.
@eandesmom Thanks for the info regarding EA at WWU!
@brindlegreyhound I was a bit surprised by it to be honest they’d focused on applying early at our visit and that acceptances could start as early as November but I wasn’t expecting to see EA added.
@snoozn I know exactly what you mean! I did have two oops and ugh moments over this. I guess in a way I am glad I started with just two lol. I sent both ACT’s to Goucher, thinking that they superscore and they are one that does not. It doesn’t hurt anything but it’s $12 I didn’t need to spend and ACT makes it a pain to send different test dates! And then…ugh. I realized that with the major tweaking of the list I hadn’t noted who was CSS profile and who requires the NCP form. We’d cut all the schools that had the NCP form, but with the changes…Goucher does use it which means a definite waiver request. UGH. The good news is that I looked at the waiver form and I can’t see how S wouldn’t get it but the bad news is I’m going to have to ask someone to write a letter on his behalf. Good news is I think we have the right person that should qualify to do it.
I am not sure it did any good to move them to apply to be honest but I wanted to make sure they were queued up for LOR’s given EA timelines and transcript sending and our late start date at school which is still 3 weeks away. However since the LOR function isn’t even there and it’s unclear if S needs to update resume in Naviance or can just give the resume to the LOR teachers…not sure it means a thing to have moved them!
@mamaedefamilia is WWU still on your list? I thought it was off for some reason. It was a nice surprise to see it, I like knowing we will have an answer by 12.31 on WWU. Even if you expect something to be a safety,knowing early will be nice!
What is is about McDaniel College that attracts your son to it? It is really heavily recruiting my son, sending numerous emails and brochures weekly, and I have looked at its web site numerous times but don’t know that it’s for him. I know a boy who currently attends and he loves to write. He is very happy there, according to what his mom told me when I ran into her last week.
We finally have THE list - and there are a handful on D17’s final list I never expected to see:
She’s looking at a finance or accounting major, wants to stay in the west/midwest, preferably near family but not so close Mom and Dad are on her doorstep every day…
Reaches: U of Arizona, Purdue University (primarily due to distance, cost and how tight-fisted they are with merit aid)
Perfect fits: Creighton University, Drake University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Colorado State-Ft. Collins, Iowa State University, U of Idaho, Boise State
Backup plan: CU Boulder (It’s 15 minutes from my office and 40 from home, and loaded with former classmates. Not her top choice but if push came to shove, she would attend. SHE added this to the list.)
Hubby put together this FANTASTIC workbook of rankings, costs, financial and merit aid stats, locations. We started out with 400 choices, dropped it to 166, she whittled it to 13 and then finally 10 last night.
Of these, two are waiving her app fee, one is willing to hand her a nice chunk of cash for being a legacy, two are WUE (Arizona is only WUE for specific majors so I’m not counting it…) My money right now is on Drake or Creighton, though having a 2nd generation Husker would make me proud!
Part of our stress is that hubby works for a large corporation who’s been cutting positions right and left this year, and we are very concerned he may be cut. If that happens, we gotta have choices that we can afford to help cover on one income. So, sadly, a lot of privates came off the list because we CAN’T assume she’ll get scholarships from them. We aren’t looking at Ivies - we’re trying to be realistic. So, even our reaches are fairly safe.
@eandesmom Yes, WWU is still on the list! I would love an excuse to visit Bellingham on a regular basis! Kidding aside, we were really impressed with the campus, the academic programs, and the friendly, articulate student guides. A few kids from my daughter’s school end up at WWU every year, and it’s a small school! Oddly enough, we ran into a classmate in the Seattle airport. She had just completed her orientation and is excited to be attending WWU.