@curiositycat333, first I’d get it straightened out at the high school–make sure he gets the Physics class he should have for the spring and get his transcript fixed, then I would just follow up with the colleges that received the transcript with the wrong class listed and explain the situation, and request that the high school send a revised transcript to the schools that received the original one.
^^^for whatever reason, I don’t seem to have the ability to edit my posts, even within the 15-minute grace period, so I’m adding that, FWIW, your S should be handling the interactions with the high school and the college on his own as much as possible. Good luck!
@curiositycat333 I am surprised by 2 things. One that senior year classes show on a transcript at all. Ours only show classes completed, not current or future ones. That aside, I am also surprised that he didn’t know about this at the start of the year as our kids get their full year schedule all at once. Often they can’t make changes to 2nd semester until it gets very close or even start but they do know.
That said, I agree that your S needs to meet with his GC asap to get this fixed for spring and then request the school to send updated transcripts. For self reporting, put what he intends to take…however if it is a school that needs a transcript for the app that should be fixed so it doesn’t conflict with what shows up later.
FWIW I don’t think showing interest matters, in general, at most large state schools. It can be good for the student to learn more about the college but in the case of CU and CSU I don’t think it will matter. But, you can validate that by looking at the CDS and if interest does matter, there are other ways to do it.
@endesmom We just met with GC. She must have health on his transcript because he hasn’t completed the online class yet and it’s needed for graduation. But there are other options he could take in zero period, he could have health down instead of marching band. His GC can switch his classes at semester even now, but she can’t remove health from his transcript until he’s finished online health. (And we agreed he could finish that over Xmas break… just too much to do right now… he was up till 2:00 am Sunday night. ) But what’s wrong about it is it’s Physics that’s been replaced rather than something less academic. GRRR… I think he’s going to self report he will take Physics all year. And try and get this fixed before Cal States or UC’s need to see the transcripts.
I more wanted him to meet with a rep because I wanted him to hear more about those schools. He will have to do a CU Boulder, why me essay. And at this point I’m not sure what he’s going to say besides well other people think I’d like Colorado?? He’s seen the Oregon schools so that’s enough showing interest I believe.
@klinska He does almost all of this stuff himself. We just had a 504 meeting that I needed to be at, and so talked about a few things quickly about colleges after as a group. He doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal that the transcript sent to schools only show’s he’s enrolled in 3 academic classes for spring.
I submitted transcripts because it’s done online through Parchment & it was one of the few things I could do for him.
He’s been up till WAY WAY to late and not getting enough sleep. Taking a few small thing off his plate that needed me, since it involved $$ seems expedient.
He could say we have a FANTASTIC football team this year. <:-P
Well you’ve found got a buffalo that’s runs out at football games, a pretty cool marching band, buffalo wrangling as a D1 sport, the flatirons for hiking, amazing skiing nearby…
Or wait, something academic would be good huh.
Is there no way the GC can fix the physics issue now?
Good news bad news kind of night.
Essay was reviewed by the English teacher today who liked it quite a bit better than the previous iteration. He commented quite a bit about it showing a side of S to him that he hadn’t seen and was impressed by. And that there wasn’t a ton of editing needed. Sigh. Would’ve been nice if he’d read the essay prior to writing the LOR lol. Oh well.
S brought it to me for editing help tonight after incorporating his teachers suggested edits. He needs to cut at least 80 words I think. My first viewing.
I am less convinced it is better than the previous one nor that there isn’t still more editing needed. He is taking some/most of my edits (only cutting superfluous words lol) and then back to the teacher for another round.
It could be worse. His good friend rewrote his entire essay 3 times over the weekend and his parent still aren’t happy with it.
I really really want these apps in on Sunday!
@techmom99, I hope it didn’t sound like I was casting aspersions on RPI! We both liked the school, but it was reachier than most of the others, the NPC was not nice, and I did get a vibe that as far as D’s fit, the kids were more socially mature and perhaps not dorky enough. Of course every school is going to have a mix. That’s what can make it tough to judge fit on a half-day visit! I’m glad your S’s friends are succeeding at such a challenging school. Do you know why the two Clarkson students quit? I like Clarkson and their NPC(!), but it is pretty small and isolated.
Oops, I had the above as a “draft” ages ago and forgot to send. Better late than never
@klinska, thanks for the trip report on UVM! We visited in July, so it was a bit empty to get any sense of the students. I agree that the info session was one of the worst. D loved Burlington. She could see herself being happy at UVM and it is somewhere in the middle of the pack now.
@eandesmom, I’m glad your S connected well with Goucher. Hard to explain, but I really loved the vibe when I visited with oldest D.
@kt1969, @klinska, and @eandesmom, we’re showing $15,000 from UVM. That brings it down to “doable at a stretch,” but I think we’d need to see more since it’s not a top choice. My fear (which seems rational) is that every NPC will have overstated the schools’ generosity. Safety school, here we come!
@curiositycat333, let me know if your S has any questions about CU-Boulder that current students could answer. Oldest D is set to graduate this year with a dance major (and has taken lots of science for her previous major). Her fiance is a physics grad student who double majored UG in physics and math. And they have friends in various other majors as well. (Plus friends who dropped out – all the viewpoints!)
@kt1969, whoa, I bet Smith and MH will be a hive of activity on election day! I don’t know if MA has early voting, but I’m sure glad we lazy Coloradans can mail our ballots in.
Okay, my brain is mushy now, but I will catch up and post uber-exciting trip reports on Gonzaga and WWU (and tell y’all how I ALMOST got to meet up with @eandesmom ).
@snoozn Yes, we do have early voting for the first time this year. Not doing it myself…kind of love the buzz of voting on election day. Hopefully it will be a decent day for her to interview. 15K from UVM is great! Really not expecting any money from them, unfortunately. Will look forward to your trip reports…not schools we are looking at but I always enjoy hearing about other places. 
@snoozn, I just reviewed our UVM NPC results and we’re at $15,000, too, which, I agree, sounds too good to be true (especially for a public). it would take the $15K to keep the school in the running, because again, as in your case, the net price just touches do-ability with that aid.
Biting my nails waiting for SAT scores to come in tomorrow. Trying to just be happy with where D is at–I think she’s got a reasonable chance at most of her schools with the highest scores she currently has, so if they’re better, that’s just gravy, and if they’re worse, well at least we’ve got what we’ve got.
Anyone got any tips on how a kid can politely nudge a teacher to get the LOR done? We are now exactly two weeks away from the due date for D’s ED school–I really would like to forestall any last-minute drama, but a large part of me feels it’s obnoxious to nag/remind someone to do something when they’ve still got two weeks to do it (if someone did that to me at work, I’d not be happy).
@klinska So your D is doing ED at American and EA at UNH? Just curious why not doing EA at UVM, if it is her 2nd choice. At least at our HS, the admit rate for EA is definitely higher.
UVM questions for those who have visited - Did they mention their engineering program, or better yet, did they include engineering facilities on the tour? We keep going back and forth with UVM bc our state flagship (UMass) is supposed to have a better engineering program and would be half the price. But then I think S would be happier in Burlington than he would be in Amherst. My other hesitation with UVM is that they are 70% OOS students. That stat (provided by an AO at a college fair) seems pretty high and made me wonder if they are rejecting in-state students in favor of full pay OOS students.
I’m glad to see UVM on a few lists here. I don’t post in here much, but I like to see where your kids are applying. My son’s stats are a tad bit higher but I think his personality and study habits match the group I like reading about the different schools you are all looking into, very interesting.
My sons #1 safety would be UVM, over UNH, and Umass.
UVM has a lot going for it and I prefer it to the other 2 as well.
Cool downtown.
Access to internships in town.
Safe.
Fun.
Ease of travel ( airport, right off a non congested highway)
New dorms and new Stem building
Access to nature ( hiking, biking,sailing, snowboarding, new skatepark)
lots of clubs and activities for the kids
decent education
I personally think UVM has more to offer than the other New England state schools. Each school may have it’s own programs that are “better” but I think UVM offers a very well rounded package for students.
I like reading about the schools out west. I thought my son would like to go to CO,UT or Seattle for school but he has decided to stay here on the east coast.
Good luck to your kids getting apps in!
@kt1969, UNH is one of D’s safeties, and they state explicitly that going EA increases chances of merit consideration, so that’s why we’re doing EA there. UVM is more like a match for my D, and we are counting on her fall quarter/semester grades for her matches/reaches so the plan was to go RD for these (except for American, where ED gives a sizable advantage). We don’t have enough data points for UVM in our Naviance to show that EA gives an advantage, and frankly, until we visited last week, we didn’t realize that it was so high up on D’s list. I see that in the Common App all of the GC materials have been submitted for all schools, so it could be that if D’s SAT scores give her a boost, we might change UVM to EA–but D is going to have to scramble to meet that Nov. 1 date (essay is well in hand, but still needs some tweaks, and we still need a sit-down to review activities and questions). Plus, as noted above, LORs are still outstanding and with what I’ve been hearing about CB and sending scores, it’s unlikely SAT scores will be in by the deadline. It is what it is!
@jmek15 UVM is building a really nice new Stem Center there this year. Under construction. I did take a tour of engineering with my younger son19 who may want to go there. They had a lot of good internships and some cool projects they worked on.
I wouldn’t worry about the 70% number, plenty of VT folks. Just like all states, the kids often want to leave to go explore other options. I don’t think Vt produces tons of college ready kids every year that want to go there…
Your son would qualify for merit and maybe Honors college with his stats. I think it’s a better option than UMass. Im not a fan of Umass although the biz school and nursing seem decent.
My younger son19 is thinking of going there for engineering and has talked with the soccer coaches about playing there. He would have a great time. It’s a good fit for him. Son17 is more biz focused and it’s not as ideal for him, but still #1 safety.
Actually, just looked again at Naviance for UVM: there is a higher acceptance rate for EA, but the stats are higher, too (higher than my D’s). That’s the thing with EA–it’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of hope that one’s chances are better, but it’s generally a more qualified pool, so it’s logical that the acceptance rate is higher. For a student with my D’s stats, it seems risky to try to swim with the highly qualified fish.
Bear in mind the Vermont has less overall students than many states. They would not be able to fill the flagship with the size of the HS qualified students in the graduating class.
@klinska according to UVM’s data, there is a slight uptick for EA admission rates. 71% for RD and 73% for EA. I don’t know that EA at UVM helps with merit but it would for any scholarship apps.
@snoozn we will see. I do think Goucher likely has the best chance of potentially “exceeding” the NPC offer based on stats and other factors (male from WA lol). They are very gender imbalanced which may be in S’s favor. That said, I share your exact NPC fears. Which is what is making me a bit nervous about scheduling a trip to visit the unknown list of accepted schools but I am going to have to commit here shortly.
For our HS, UVM’s EA admit rate is 77% and RD is 62%. GPA stats a bit higher for EA, SAT about the same. We shall see!
One really nice thing about UVM EA is that we will know early it looks like either November 10 or December 10 according to the website. I like knowing Early.