@RightCoaster I don’t take that in a bad way lol and agree about the level of applicants lol. I just do not like those B- 's! He had a super strong junior year and this looks like a bit of a backslide even if it’s in his normal pattern. And yes, it’s a challenging load with a kid who is overloaded on the EC side, and I feel bad that I didn’t realize UVM would want 1st quarter. I hope you are right.
Argh. I don’t even know what D’s first quarter grades look like! Quarter closed last Friday, report cards come out on 11/17 (which is when the new online grade access system will be available for the first time). Progress report was incomplete (teachers are not required to provide progress report information unless the student has a C- or lower). Her AP Stats grade was troubling, everything else she had a grade for was OK. Hope @RightCoaster is right that a C won’t be an issue! Just sent an email to the GC asking how to get 1st quarter grades in. Ugh.
Thanks for the input everybody. Yes, Snoozn, my son has already been accepted to Colorado State and it is high on his list. He’s actually 7 for 7 on acceptances thus far – he has pretty good and somewhat unique ECs, like he is a magician and a model, along with being a 3 sport athlete and a State contender in pole vaulting. But Colorado Boulder, Appalachian State and Virginia Tech are 3 out of his top 6 choices (he likes the outdoorsman stuff), and he hasn’t heard from them yet; thus the dilemma about the most recent ACT score. Based on the feedback from CC, and his high school counselor, I think we will submit the October ACT (the September ACT was already submitted), which will give him the extra point on the Composite (25) and bolster his previous English score with his new 27.
@lakevicking My son’s applying to Boulder as well. I think he’s likely to get in for A&S but not in Engineering.
He hasn’t seen Colorado but both Boulder & Fort Collins fits all of his requirements. (Except it’s $$ for out of state.) It seems like everyone on this board has been encouraging me to push Colorado State. Haven’t convinced him yet, I’m waiting till he works on the Boulder app. (I don’t think it’s that different) But he needs to get his University of California App in first. (UC Santa Cruz is now one of our top choices.)
I’ve been busy. Haven’t looked as S17’s grades in the past week. We aren’t at end of quarter yet though. Not looking at it today. S’s grade have been looking good in all but Physcics and I know he’s been working hard at that class. (Huge amount of homework.)
CU and CSU are very different schools.
As I suspected, S’s email bounced for the Ursinus Portal. Must have been a comcast issue the day(s) that both UVM and Ursinus sent them as when both resent, no issues. Glad I called.
Odd. For the 3 schools he has applied to and has portals, none show FAFSA in (none show it not in either, it’s a bit odd). But we did get an email today from one of his 12/1 deadline schools saying they have it, only school to have done so, so far and we filed a while ago. Ugh. I don’t really want to call the schools to check but it seems odd.
@eandesmom I find the lack of FA info on the portals annoying. D17 has applied to 4 schools, all have portals of varying sophistication, and only one shows that the FAFSA has been submitted. The rest either have it blank [UVM] or don’t seem to have a place to check for it. Guess we just have to assume it’s all okay? I submitted all the schools on the FAFSA at once so if it got anywhere I would imagine it got everywhere.
@kt1969 I tend to agree, if one got it, they all did or at least all on a single transmission should have gotten it. I did call Ursinus who seemed surprised and dismayed it wasn’t on the portal but then confirmed they had it. FA and Admissions systems may not play nicely together or it may be due to the earlier FAFSA dates that they just don’t sync up this early as it’s normally so much later. UVM says no awards till early mid march anyway so I figure why bother calling until we hear on admissions there. Ursinus makes a big deal about the 11/1 as the deadline for merit and wanting FAFSA so I wanted to confirm on that one.
Schools ‘pull’ the FAFSA information when they are ready to import it into their computers. It is not sent from FAFSA so just because one school has it doesn’t mean they all do. It is sort of like FAFSA loads up a box of information and the school ‘picks it up’ when it is ready. In prior years many schools didn’t pull the information into their own computers until some time in February even though you could file it on Jan 1. I suspect things are the same now, that not every school is ready to pull the information immediately (October) but will wait until Nov or Dec for their first pulls.
@twoinanddone if that’s true then do you think there’s an issue if we go in to delete schools to add more?? (like a month after we initially filed)
No, you are allowed to delete and add more schools. Think of it as FAFSA getting 10 letters from you to deliver to schools with all your information in those letters. FAFSA sorts those letters into the mailboxes for the schools, and some pick them up immediately but some wait and pick them up when the box is full. Once the letters are put into the boxes for the first 10, you can go in add 10 more letters without changing the first 10, and FAFSA will deliver those new letters.
Thank you for clearing that up @twoinanddone !! DS is applying to 11 schools so DH thought he had to confirm that one school had downloaded the FAFSA info, delete them then add the 11th school. I’m glad to hear we can proceed without fear.
I agree with @kt1969! there should be a more consistent approach on putting a financial aid checklist on the portal. We shouldn’t have to hope for the best regarding delivery of financial aid info.
Yes, thanks, I’ve been worried about it! @twoinanddone
Hi everyone! Just another update I have some good news and some bad news. For bad news I checked my Oregon application today and it said Decision : “Holistic application review” Im not positive on what that means but based on what others have said on this website its very similar to being “deferred” or “waitlisted” so now I’m very nervous that I can’t even get into my top school, let alone pay for it 
But for good news, I received a select candidate application from Hofstra and they waived the $70 application fee! This weekend my Dad and I are visiting Ithaca and Hofstra and possibly Adelphi so I’ll let you all know how that goes. Thank you all for being so supportive and informative, it makes going through this process almost alone a lot easier.
Also I retook the sat this past weekend and I’m feeling a little confident in it, hopefully I can at least super score!
@eandesmom Got an email to the seniors/parents today from the GCs saying that after first quarter grades are finalized at the end of next week, they will be sending them out to any schools that the kids have already applied to [whether they ask for them or not, I guess]. Interesting.
@kt1969 oh I would not like that at all! Our naviance has a spot to request mid year updates to be sent but nothing regarding quarter grades. Ugh.
@kt1969–our school does the same for EA schools–as long as the school is identified on the transcript request form as an EA school. We made some last-minute changes at the deadline for several schools, made the changes in Naviance, but never updated the form. Grades won’t be available for another week or so, so we’re still in good shape. The GC sent out all of the school materials well in advance of our earliest deadline, so it doesn’t really impact us there, but she will need to know where to send first quarter grades, so we’ll be updating the form tonight. Not sure what happens with midyear reports–I’m assuming they’ll send those to all schools when available, regardless of EA/RD status.
“CU and CSU are very different schools.”
How would you describe them as different, other than location? My S is planning on engineering. His college counselor identified CSU as one of the schools that is more collaborative than competitive. CU is very strong in aerospace which is what my S is eventually interested in. Would appreciate input from those of you that know both schools.
CU is the flagship. It is bigger, has more OOS students, is the ‘big city, big lights’ school and CSU is the land grant school, more low key.
CSU, CU and CSM (Mines) all have civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering, but the specialties are stronger at one or the other. For aerospace, I don’t think there is a question that CU is the place to be (or Air Force Academy). It’s Colorado School of Mines for petroleum and the mineral type engineering and CSU for more of the industrial engineering. They are all good, and if you have other preferences like size, cost, community you can make any of them work, but they are different.
My daughter is in civil engineering at a school where most are in some type of aerospace or ocean engineering, but she likes being in the small department. Most of her courses for the first two years were more mechanical in nature, but she still likes civil.