Even though there are a lot of Californians there and they would like it to be a UC, it’s not " UC Boulder" it’s CU-Boulder. We charge them OOS tuition!
@techmom99, thanks for the reality check–I got info on the incoming freshman profile for Geneseo, and while D’s GPS is below the middle 50%, she’s solidly in the middle for SAT, even accounting for old/new SAT concordance, so I thought she might be OK there. Further digging shows that 96% of students are in-state there, though–that might not be so great for an OOS kid. Bing was at 79% in-state, which also seems high, but maybe that’s average for an in-state flagship? D currently want’s to major in political science/global studies, but she hasn’t specified more than that yet, so it’s still fairly broad. I’m not even sure she’s committed 100% to poli sci–but my guess is that she’ll settle somewhere in the social sciences. She doesn’t play a sport (not particularly interested in watching sports either, but really only has aversion to big-time sports culture).
For those of you bemoaning your Naviance/transcript and LOR request process, etc–I feel you! Our school is changing its electronic grades/scheduling system this year. It was supposed to have transitioned over the summer, but the principal just announced that it won’t be rolled out until November 17. The day 1st quarter report cards are issued. I have no way of checking my kids’ grades/status until then. Naviance will be updated Oct.1. LORs go through Naviance, but transcripts are an old fashioned paper request (with a one-time fee of $15). I feel like I’m juggling knives with all of this!
@techmom99, what about SUNY Albany? Better match for stats, and perhaps opportunities for government internships in the state capital. My Google-fu is failing me–whatever it was that told me that Geneseo was 96% in state is not coming up for Albany–I need to dig the Fiske Guide out of my D’s room. Any idea of whether it’s considered a commuter/suitcase school?
OK… so I don’t have the nomenclature right…(It’s all very confusing) I though it was University of Colorado Boulder and Colorado State Fort Collins. I’m very aware it’s not a UC, as I’m one of those Californian’s.
@klinska, go to college navigator and you can add 8 favorite schools and compare up to 4 side by side. Very helpful.
Given all the extra work it’s going to take to apply to CU-Boulder I’m starting to wonder if pushing Colorado schools was really a good idea. It’s the only one of S17’s schools to need a counselor letter, a teacher recommendation, a supplemental “why us” essay.
I’m worried that after filling out the OSU, Cal State & UC Applications he will start having application fatigue. Will have spent the effort to ask his counselor and teacher for the letters & not need it. And then when December hits, he will decide it’s just too much & not bother. It’s not even top of his list & it’s expensive. I do think he’d like the school, it’s match school (as long as he doesn’t apply in Engineering) and it fits most of what he wants in a school.
Part of me is still hoping to get him to add CS Fort Collins & that won’t be much extra effort if he does this app. Plus planning to do this app him open if he gets interested in some other university before the end of application season. And I want him to have OPTIONS come next spring.
It is University of Colorado at Boulder, but never abbreviated UC, always CU, probably because of those snobs on the left coast! Occasionally I’ll get one of those mass produced offers for a tee shirt or mug that calls it UC, and we all know it is NOT official (you know, like the shamrock t-shirt you can buy with your “Irish” name on it, and that Irish name can be Chen or Swartz).
CU is a wonderful school but it is expensive. I think it would be worth an extra essay. My daughter didn’t need a teacher rec for admissions, but did for a scholarship so she was happy she’d ask a teacher for one in the fall.
I personally find it odd that it is CU. CU to me should be Colorado University. UC would be University of Colorado. But for whatever reason that’s how it is.
@curiositycat333 I do think it would be worth it for the extra essay and CSU would be hardly any extra work at all so why not apply and visit if you get into Boulder, easy enough to do in one trip. I honestly think it’s ok to play the parent card and force one parent pick application, especially if it isn’t too much extra work.
As for the dates, yes, technically I think you have an unofficial window to get in transcripts, scores and letters and then the fafsa/profile window is separate. However, they don’t publish those dates so who really knows? If you are requesting LOR’s via the Common App then I am not sure if those requests “go” early or not until you hit submit. But, in the case of 3 of his schools with EA dates of 11/1, the notification dates are in December so there isn’t a huge window.
@klinksa UGH on the system changes, we have similar issues though it is current more limited to the online grading dashboard
OK I just looking it up their web-site site says you need one letter of recommendation. Perhaps he just needs one the letter from the teacher OR the counselor letter. If he has a choice he should go with the teacher rec, since this teacher has known him since freshman year & will write him a very good letter. And the counselor is brand new. I should have S17 look at this, perhaps he doesn’t have to get a counselor letter at all. I just thought that all common applications required one.
@twoinanddone It’s like people who say "Cali’ as short for California. Drives me up the wall. I don’t know anyone who uses that except on T.V. including my kids & their friends.
@curiositycat333 and @eandesmom - thank you!!! I was starting to get worried. D17 has now brought ‘The Binder’ to the counselor, who now understands why she’s so serious. It’s a matter of scholarships and, in a couple of cases, meeting the deadline for honors programs. She has decided to apply to honors for U of Nebraska and U of Arizona; Nebraska because they have a dedicated honors program for business students; Arizona because she really likes what she’s heard from current students and because she received a personal call from her admissions counselor encouraging her to apply.
Here’s the tally so far:
Accepted to: U of Nebraska, Iowa State, Arizona State, U of Arizona - official transcripts have to be in by Jan. 1.
Heard back from (with positive feedback): Creighton, Drake - but they need transcripts before they can accept her so they’re in pending status
No response yet: Purdue, Colorado State, Boise State, CU Boulder
Also, we didn’t get any inkling on scholarships, either - I know she should get legacy from Nebraska, but there’s a form we’re supposed to receive we haven’t yet, so there’s that…
@twoinanddone, personally as a local, I agree with you about CU-Boulder. We made D17 apply there as a safety given the fact they’re only 15 minutes from my office and 40 minutes from home. But they’re expensive even for locals, I think. Not as bad as U of Denver or the other privates, but compared to CU-Denver for sure.
@curiositycat333 I’d call the school and ask to clarify. Most schools want both and it is often a specific form on the counselor side. If Boulder is Common App (I think you have a choice there, common app or their own) you can actually download the counselor form and it will show what they have to submit.
@coloradomom2015 wow! That’s a lot of acceptances so far and impressive that they are all in! I did some due diligence on scholarships yesterday for S’s list. It doesn’t appear any of them have early due dates or are tied to the initial app. It looks like on two of them we should get official links after submission as long as he indicates intent on the common app (though it isn’t needed, the stuff is on the website), and on another he may recieve an invite based on his app (I suspect he will but you never know) but again, it’s on the website. I still need to dig into one more school but all of their scholarship stuff is within their portal and S needs to sign up so we can dig around. UW was about the same price as CU-Boulder but thanks to state legislation has dropped down (all in state schools dropped). Not that it helps us as S17 isn’t applying. A co workers daughter ended up at American as it turned out to be cheaper than CU-Boulder for her.
I’ve heard really good things about Barrett honors (Arizona). S wants nothing to do with honors programs but he will likely apply for a community service/social justice scholarship that would require a dedicated housing situation for year 1. However they only give out 6-10 of the scholarships so the odds may not be in his favor on that one but I have no idea what the pool looks like.
CU-Boulder is pretty expensive, I think about $12k for instate but $14k for engineering. Instate students get $75/credit hour or about $1000 from a state fund. Other state schools, like UNC in Greeley are quite a bit cheaper, I think around $8000 and possibility of more school aid.
I’m very prejudice, but I think CU is worth it. I do know a lot of kids in Ft. Collins or the other schools who are very happy. Mesa is popular. I think 5 or 6 kids from my kids’ California high school went to Mesa, and another 6 to CU (more to CU than to Cal or UCLA!). Still others swear by Ft. Lewis, but Durango is 8 hours away from the metro Denver area, so a student could get to Wyoming or NM faster, and to Lincoln in the same amount of time.
CU has just always been CU. Even the school song is ‘Dear Old CU’. U of Denver is always DU and no one would ever say UD, always DU. I do know why University of Florida is ALWAYS UF and not FU.
@klinska - Thanks for being understanding. After I hit submit, I began to think that I had been too blunt about Geneseo. Another thing about Geneseo is that it’s literally in the middle of nowhere. One of my friends was going to visit with her D and their car went into a ditch in the snow. After the car was pulled out, she turned it around and went home. Her D wound up at U Buffalo and loved it.
I have not heard that Albany is a suitcase school in the way that, for instance, Stony Brook, is. I was just discussing Albany with some friends tonight. There is apparently a $5 bus that goes right to the city and Amtrak is about 2 1/2 hours away. It’s possible to go into the city for a show or a ball game and get back to school the same night. Albany is the capitol of NYS so there’s lots for a polic sci major to do. I don’t think Albany is right for my son because its theater tech is not strong. I don’t know about the poli sci department. I checked some stats and they seem at odds. They say that students come from 47 states but that 95% of students are instate. Either there is about one student from each of the 46 states other than NY or the OOS stat is wrong.
My son studied poli sci at SUNY Plattsburgh and the department seems strong there. Plattsburgh’s stats are not as high as Albany’s and it gives merit money. There is (or used to be) a scholarship calculator on its website. These scholarships are merit based, need is not a factor. My D also attended this school and both kids got money. The town is very cute, there is an Amtrak station 5 minutes from the school and Montreal is 30 minutes away. It’s not really a suitcase school but both of my kids made local friends and would occasionally get invited to someone’s home for a real meal. Plattsburgh has about 8% out of state but is known for its international population. My D’s best friend from school is from NJ and she has friends from Tanzania and Mongolia that she met there, amongst other places. I am a big advocate for this school. The only reason S17 isn’t applying is that the theater dept isn’t as strong as he would like.
Well, this thread’s been zipping along recently. D and I (okay, mostly me, but her too) have been obsessively checking Naviance waiting for GC and 2nd teacher LoR. When she originally asked them for the LoR’s she said she needed them by the end of September. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Here’s the dirt on UC vs. CU from CU-Boulder’s website (I had looked it up years ago actually because it always bugged me!):
@klinska, I’d suggest taking a closer look at CSU. I keep pushing it for everyone, but I’ve only ever heard good things from local parents whose kids have gone there. If my D wanted a big U it would be very high on her list.
@eandesmom and @“Queen’s Mom”, I share your existential angst regarding “What the heck should I actually be doing here?!” I feel strongly that a smaller school with a quirky and/or geeky vibe and smaller classes would be the best match for D. But now I worry that I’ve just raised expectations about going to one of these “great match” schools and none will be affordable. Maybe I should have just done CU, CSU and WWU and let her quick-add a couple of nice sounding privates. But if I’d gone that route I think I’d be regretting it even more now! We’ll just have to see.
@eandesmom, congrats on your S finishing up a great essay! My D isn’t done but the latest draft looks really strong. I’m pretty sure she’ll be done this weekend.
@twoinanddone, my oldest D is one of those locals who was psychologically committed to a private and ended up at CU (for financial reasons). But it was quite ironic (I’m probably mis-using the term!) that part of the reason her first choice school was first choice was due to a prof who is literally the only prof in that field (a style of dance) in the world. Middle of sophomore year that prof came to teach at CU and is D’s adviser now. D is relieved that things turned out the way they did!
@MomStudent2017, congrats on the acceptance! At least Nov 1 is still pretty darn early to get the financial offer and start figuring things out.
@curiositycat333, as per above I will push applying to CSU. Also, I’ve been watching *Narcos/i with H and S18, so when I hear “Cali” I think of the Cali drug cartel in Colombia!
@coloradomom2015, wow, you sure are ahead of the game, congrats!
@snoozn, are her apps in? In speaking with our CC who is wonderfully responsive (as opposed to the GC who hasn’t responded to a question from Weds yet) it sounds like the teacher LOR’s will not show up, can’t be uploaded/sent until the application to the school itself is in. Which just means changing it to “I’ve applied” in Naviance.
I get it, the school doesn’t want to send stuff until you do, A kid could move a lot of schools into the “I’m applying” bucket, requests things and then never actually submit an app.
I think there is some regret either way. Regret if you don’t explore other options even if they may not be affordable or regret that you didn’t and that amazing offer may really have been out there.
Although if a child takes longer than 4 years, erring on the side of the financial safety does become even more important. You are lucky that there are 3 options your D likes and are affordable. I spent a lot of time this week really crunching numbers and I just don’t like them at all! I suppose it only takes one to make the right offer but I fear we will end up in your D11’s scenario and at that point there is only one option. I think I am going to revisit one school with S tomorrow. Application wise, no extra work but it is an extra $62-74 in fees so…UGH. I signed him up for their mailing list which he will hate BUT if he gets a waiver for doing so (implied) then it’s worth it as a backup. No rush on it as they don’t offer EA and it’s a safety on all counts. I’d just really like one more financial safety in the mix and he knows it.
I have no regrets that a school ‘might have gotten away’ or that my kids, who each applied to just one school, should have applied to more, should have had backups, could have gotten a cheaper deal. One of my kids is always happy with her choices and makes anything work. The other is a ‘the grass is always greener’ type and I thought she’d regret her choice the second she made it. Nope, not this time. Don’t work yourself (or your kid) into a frenzy. There are thousands of colleges. You can make any one (or any dozen) work just fine. It’s okay to make the choice before the applications are even sent. You don’t have to apply to schools your student will never go to just to have a choice next spring. There were lots of choices, you just made them before applying.
My daughter didn’t have the ‘only professor in the world is at X’ problem, but she did interview with several schools/teams and the coaches have left (one before D even would have started; she loved the coach, didn’t like the school). You can’t pick a school based on one thing, no matter how great that one thing is.
How has everyone else fared with the dreaded activities section?
S and I had our weekly meeting yesterday and, as expected he had not yet started that section. Which meant that was his major “to do” yesterday. What was not expected (by me) was that he wanted me there with him the entire time he was working on it and how long and painful the process was. Distilling his info down like that was so out of his frame of reference he really really struggled with it (and really thought it was stupid, why do they need this…all of that) Painful. While I can appreciate that he really wanted it to be one and done, it took FOREVER. It did not help that he flat out refused to do it in word or google docs first so he could cut, paste, move things around. Which meant more than once he lost info as the CA timed out on him. Not to mention the fact he’s going to have to put it all into word for WWU as it is! Which makes me wonder if I need to figure out some format for him for that one, on the positive side he will be able to expand as much as he wants. Needless to say I didn’t get anything of my own done yesterday. He did send the “final” version to another adult to review and input which is in both of our best interests!
That said, I have a vent and a question.
Vent. The selections do not allow you to combine multiple sports on one line unless they are all either school or club. As a result, currently, 2 JV single sport seasons for different sports did not make the cut. Related to the first vent. Martial Arts is not listed as a sport! Judo is but that is it. Super annoyed that he had to choose “other” for TaeKwonDo (@snoozn you must be in the same boat). Even if it is item 10 on his very full list.
Question. All activities simply cannot fit. Some didn’t make it in due to space issues, others due to classification issues. Do you any of your students plan to include these in the other info section or just let it go entirely? 2 of S’s schools allow for a resume so it can be addressed there but the others do not. The kid has no academic honors so I hate leaving anything out!
Painful as it was, I feel really good that he will be able to submit his 2 CA EA 11/1 schools most likely next weekend (as thankfully they don’t have any supplements!), worst case the weekend after. He still needs to start his WWU one but can leverage everything out of the CA. That was supposed to start this weekend but the darn activities list really took up the whole thing! I’m hoping we can hit submit on the 2 CA 10/2 and WWU on 10/9. The next round is full of supplements so I want to get these done as I expect the supplement round to be a bit painful.
Looking at the SUNYs is giving me heart palpitations. I think it might be really too late in the game to be taking a look at something this new (to us) I have no reasonable way to parse what I’m seeing or make sense of it. It also seems like the SUNYs really don’t attract many OOS students, which seems weird to me because they are a good deal monetarily and seem to have an overall decent reputation. Something isn’t adding up. I tentatively have Albany and Purchase on the list, but I don’t know if they make sense for D or not.
@eandesmom, we don’t have the activities problem (D is very light on ECs). D will manage to get 8-10 activities listed (and we’ll need to do some work on arranging the order)–how much can you actually say about an activity in the space they provide? Are you supposed to “spin” this information in some way? For example, for crew during sophomore and junior years, all she’s said is that she was on the team (she didn’t have any leadership role). Am I missing something?
Our weekly meeting was a little disjointed, but I sat with D as she finally loaded all her “applying to” schools in both the Common App and in Naviance. She now has interviews with 3 schools, one school is coming to her HS separately from the college fair (she can’t interview when they are local), she’s officially got LOR requests in to the GC and two teachers–still need to submit the transcript request (but I need to make a copy because her list is still so long she wouldn’t be able to get it on one page). I tried to get her to reconsider some of her choices and narrow down the list some, but we didn’t make a lot of progress–we got rid of 7, but added 2 (not including the SUNY schools). She wasn’t willing to swap some schools out, but was willing to add what I think are better choices for the geography. Had a heart-to-heart about her top choice and how it was unlikely to be affordable, so she is no longer considering it for ED and now will apply RD, which I think will mean she won’t get in. Sigh. We’ve scheduled visits for October 10 (Clark), October 19 (UVM), and November 11 (St. Lawrence). SAT this coming Saturday! At least she’ll be done with testing then.
Still no real work on the essay, but I can see that it’s on her radar. The next month or so is going to be nuts.
we used these as reference tools
http://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/2014/11/23/how-to-write-your-common-app-activities-list
http://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-write-about-extracurricular-activities-on-your-college-applications
So yeah, to an extent there is some spin involved. Very much like writing a resume.
I am sorry about the ED scenario but we are in the same boat (not that he has a for sure top choice though) and I agree, it’s best not to risk it. I wish all ED schools also offered EA, just to put
S is on stuff today (in service day) hopefully it’s not at the expense of homework but I am glad to see he is doing some things.