S17 announced at dinner that he would be ready to submit his EA apps tonight. Really?? It’s 10:25 and not done yet.
Good news is it may be raining tomorrow evening which might mean the band performance for the game might be canceled, which would mean more time to work on the apps.
@kt1969 Did I ever mention to anyone here that my daughter tuition actually went down after her sophomore year. She was at a small LAC and during her time at school they “flattened” the fee schedule. Instead of trying to have costs close to the big boys, they decided to use cost as a recruiting tool. Tuition was lowered for everyone, making it more obvious they were a cheeper option but fewer scholarships were given out. (Before their official cost was close to other schools, but almost everyone they really wanted got some sort of a scholarship.) D12 basically lost her scholarship, but we ended up paying $1,500 less a year out of the deal so it wasn’t a problem.
Several schools tried this lowering of tuition for everyone, but I haven’t heard of it being successful. How did it work out for your daughter, @curiositycat333 ? It seems people like getting merit aid, even if it is a wash in the end. Sort of like perfume sales, the higher the price, the more they want it.
Ohio University fixes tuition, r&b and fees for all 4 years based on matriculation year rates. Other schools offer 4 year grad plans where they pick up the difference if it takes longer. Temple is one and I know there are others. And others just don’t raise tuition much as the national or yes, have cuts.
WA state implemented a statewide tuition cut phased over several years and capped increases. Granted it wasn’t so great for the overall value of my prepaid tuition plans which are tied to that rate but in the big picture it is a great thing. COA at our flagship this year is almost 3k less than last. I’m not sure about all the Cal State schools but Cal Poly has had minimal increases in the past 3 years, our overall costs have remained flat.
News! AP #1 is in… UofO. Oregon State should be in this weekend. Both schools are solid match schools. Feels good to know he’s at least applied one place.
@twoinanddone I have no idea how it worked out for the school’s recruitment. D has graduated and I haven’t followed how this change has affected their yield.
Our overall cost stayed flat. Room & board costs did go up slightly. But we didn’t have huge fee increases year-to-year which was nice. For a small LAC we paid just a little bit more than if we went DS to a UC.
@kt1969 – re 15 more schools, S17’s list is currently at 20 (!). He plans to cut some, and I see maybe 4 he is likely to drop, but I’m not sure how he will approach the rest.
Haven’t seen an essay yet. One is done (I’m told), but I asked that S17 have it reviewed by his college counselor at school before I take a look at it. Looks like S17 finally made the decision not to go ED, but there is still an 11/1 deadline for merit money consideration at Purdue. After that, the next deadlines aren’t until the end of Nov/beginning of Dec.
S17 got an invitation for a paid trip to one of his schools–it is one I thought might drop off his list, but this invite may have raised it up higher. Son wants to go. It will be his first overnight at a school, but arranging the trip with school will be tricky.
CONGRATS to those of you whose kids are getting admit letters!!
So after thinking about it after the input from this thread, I asked D what she thought of applying EA to UVM and she thought it made sense, so I think she’s going to go for it! The deadline is Nov.1, so I don’t know if it will really happen, but when I told her what the deadline was she didn’t dismiss it out of hand, so we shall see.
I also saw the announcement from Goucher. I guess that’s something to be grateful for. I agree that I think there’s definitely something psychologically appealing about feeling like you’re “getting a deal” or being rewarded for “merit” when there’s a discount off the sticker price. You don’t get that same thrill from just having a lower sticker price. It’s ridiculous, but real. I just need to keep reminding D (and myself) that the bottom line COA is what matters.
@kt1969, we’re not at 15, but close, so I get it! If D gets it together to finish the essay by Nov. 1, she could ostensibly hit the submit button on several of her apps–there’s no harm in submitting an RD application early is there? She still will have supplements to do for a couple (including her ED due November 10), but the main work will be done.
Congrats to all of you who are getting your apps in–you are an inspiration!
@klinska Yay on UVM! They don’t have a supplemental question/essay so it’s an easy app to add once you have your main CA essay done. Hopefully she can do it. One thing to think about is that if it’s in pretty good shape, she can submit it and then change the essay before her ED deadline. I am thinking my D may work on hers some more also.
@klinska YAY! I agree, if the essay is done (or will be in time) it’s a super easy app.
UVM posted a FAFSA early filing incentive scholarship. Now, I expect that to only go to folks who have need defined by their FAFSA EFC but I found it interesting.
We are down to a word debate in a few spots on the essay. He may or may not swap out but it’s pretty subjective and I’m fine with whatever he chooses. Plan is to upload it on Sunday and hit submit. Realistically we could pull off WWU tomorrow before homecoming but I told him not to worry about anything until Sunday.
However…before we submit the common app schools, he needs to fix his activities section. And yes, I am going to play the parental card on this one but am compromising. Nothing in the additional info section for these first 3 apps but the main activities section should be much stronger if he edits it. We may add a couple of btly links in the additional info section and expand info (or upload the resume for the one school that asks for it) for the next round but I think the reworked section is now strong enough it’s livable.
of APPS - my D was planning on submitting 5-7 but it is probably going to end up being 12. There are 4-5 schools that she added to the list this week* that 1) have no app fee 2) don't require CSS 3) don't require extra writing 4)will accept ACT scores on HS transcript. I told her there is no harm in sending an app - worse case is you'll have more decisions come spring :)
*technically they have been on the list for a while - but not in her top 5…but she is coming around on loving her safeties
After S17’s submitted his first app last night. I’m questioning a few things. This was UofO, it was a fairly simple app There wasn’t any obvious place to mention his commended NM (or any awards) - perhaps he should have put it in the “anything else we need to know slot that reads like it’s to mention LD’s”, he didn’t mention being a LIT (Leader-in-Training) at camp although his essay is about an experience there. There were only 3 slots to put EC’s down and he put Marching Band, Band & his Engineering club. And he didn’t do the optional essay. Should I have pushed him to write the optional essay??? The place to add the LIT stuff might have been in the optional essay.
I’m going to second guess all these things until we here from them. It’s a high match school for him, Naviance shows is as almost a saftey. (15/17 kids got in from our school last year.) There really wasn’t much to the app. It’s a lot simpler than Common App or the UC. Crossing fingers. Now I know to bug him about the above issues before we hit send.
@curiositycat333, your S is probably OK without the optional essay, given his strengths and since he addressed the LIT experience, at least obliquely, in his essay, I’m sure it will be noted. But really, why torture yourself by second-guessing? As someone who is prone to doing exactly that, I definitely feel you, but unless there’s a mechanism for adding on to the application (there might be, since it’s not CA), you gotta just let it go. I’m trying to make my checklist of things to review with D before she hits submit on any of her apps–but I know we’re probably going to overlook something. Argh.
My general rule is optional is not optional. I wouldn’t worry about the LIT if it is in his essay unless it is not obvious that is where the experience is. Did they have a main essay and then a supplement?
Generally speaking at huge state schools like U of O it’s super stats based and the rest as minimal impact and I think the EC’s he listed make sense. But yes, I would think listing academic awards in the additional info area if it isn’t covered elsewhere is a good idea. That said the SAT score will speak for itself and I am sure they know the cuttoffs.
@stlarenas I am tempted to check on the ACT score report option on the transcript for a few schools that S has fee waivers for. They aren’t really on his list at all though so it does seem a bit silly and I guess my thinking was that they will still be there for RD if the Dec results are terrible.
D17 had a nice interview with Knox at a hotel in Boston. The guy is maybe the dean of admission or pretty close but also the New England district person, so he will be the one reviewing her app. She submitted the other night and he told us that he had looked over her app before meeting her. Hadn’t occurred to me that they could do that so quickly but it makes sense. I don’t remember any of you looking at Knox…it is a CTCL school in Galesburg IL. Quite small at a bit over 1400 but very diverse for a small school and seems like a really cool place. Haven’t visited and won’t unless she gets in. He mentioned that they only have maybe 20-30 kids from New England so I am thinking that will work in her favor. She thought the interview went pretty well.
How are you all doing getting 11/1 apps in? We still have the last one to finish. Also spent some time last night getting the remaining info for the CSS, so I will be entering all that and submitting both FAFSA and CSS later today, hopefully.
@kt1969 , my S16 applied to Knox. He ended up choosing another small CTCL school (Beloit) but we visited Knox a couple of times and thought it was a great little school. But, for whatever reason, their accepted students day was the least compelling of all the college events we attended, and it dropped out of the running for my son that day. (On the other hand, on our first visit we had the absolute best college tour/tour guide ever-- made ME want to apply!)
@kt1969 Knox looks nice, I couldn’t get S to consider it (or any of the midwest CTCL schools) but it seems cool.
We are doing okay…I think. Hope. Some TINY word changes on the essay and it can be uploaded. Frankly he should be doing that now as it will take literally all of 5 minutes, but he is a bit sick and is laying on the couch “preserving” his energy so he can make it to homecoming tonight. Kid slept for 13 hours straight and hasn’t done much since getting up other than 2 homecoming related errands. Cancelled all of his other scheduled activities today. I’m trying to nag him to do that today as that’s all we need for one app. The other 2 have some activities list work still (which he is fighting me on) but are scheduled to get done tomorrow night. So hopefully I have an update soon with progress!
I’m a little frustrated as he could easily easily do it all now, hit submit on 3 and be done with it for the weekend but am biting my tongue. Mostly. Which makes me wonder if it is really that he doesn’t want to go to a youth group thing tomorrow night and the apps are a good excuse. Hmmmn.
D has been steaming along in the app process. She submitted seven, six of which are due Nov 1. She also applied to CSU (due Dec 1) because they don’t have anything extra and she said you can’t apply to honors until you’re accepted. CU-Boulder and Gonzaga are due Nov 15 and both have extra essays, so I’m glad she’s getting a little break. She has six RD schools of which three require more essays.
She talked to her GC on Friday and was told that the LoR was done and submitted and that D needed to do somethingsomething in the CA. So, Naviance shows the teacher LoR’s “submitted” and GC still sitting at “requested,” just the same as it’s been for over a month. And I didn’t think CA had anything to do with LoR’s for schools with Naviance. She’s going to talk to GC AGAIN on Monday and I hope my head won’t explode before then.
I’m also wondering if there’s any reason to wait on applying to RD schools unless you really rushed something in the CA and plan on improving it.
@kt1969, that must be a relief! I had “tax issues” this year and it looks it might take another week or so before I can import data. But at least I have the FAFSA started and my stupid PIN or whatever it is that I forget about every year.
@curiositycat333, has your S done the OSU app yet? D really hated those six stupid 100 word essays! I have no idea what she wrote for them and am not going to worry about it. As for optional essays, I’d highly encourage my D to do them, but if she really didn’t want to then she probably wouldn’t put in much effort to write a good essay.
@Hankster1361, a paid trip sounds like a good possibility for high merit as well as getting an in depth look at the school – great opportunity!
@eandesmom, yep, she did waive the FERPA and Naviance shows a notice that CA is linked and FERPA is waived. All her LoR requests went through Naviance, so I don’t understand why the GC’s is the only one not showing up as “submitted”. If the teachers know how to submit to Naviance, seems like the GC should! But apparently the GC said something to D about submitting through CA. We searched CA and didn’t even see a section for that. D might have misunderstood what GC was saying about the CA, but definitely was told the LoR would be submitted Friday. If D can’t talk to her Monday I’m definitely going to call and see what’s going on.
There is a section to manually enter the GC’s info I think, is that it? I can’t recall if that auto populated or not. Weird. I can’t recall if that was in the common app or WWU. Odd that The LOR’s worked fine and GC’s isn’t!
