@LoveTheBard@nadotenmom Is Pitzer really easier to get into the Haverford? Patzer while easier to get in than there many of the other Claremont, is still a lottery school IMO. I looked Pitzer up on Naviance. (I’m from S. Calif & have a lot more info about Ptizer.) At my school 11 kids applied last year and none got in. Only 3/37 over the past 4 years… and one was clearly an athlete. And the stats of these kids were mostly in range. All the Claremont are lottery schools, they are small & even if you have the stats don’t have great odds at getting in.
nadotenmom, Personally I wouldn’t do ED at all in your case. Our school councilors discourage kids from applying ED if they don’t know where they want to apply. Remember ED is BINDING. That means you are singing something that says you will go there if accepted. Much better to apply to both placed RD, that way he gets a bunch of acceptances & rejections and can then make a decision based on things such as cost. Get another chance to look at a few schools & really make up his mind.
My S17 applied to one school EA, that’s he’s likely to get in and everything else will be RD. Has only sent in one application yet. (It’s driving me nuts…since most apps are California public schools & they must be in by the end of Nov.)
My daughter’s application to Macalester went in today (RD, not ED, but if you get the RD application in by the 15 November ED deadline the application fee is waived), after she finished her supplemental essay. She wrote what was essentially a meta-essay around Macalester’s horrible, horrible prompt (we have a multifaceted, diverse student body, so what would you bring to it?), which she did deftly enough that I think it works, though it certainly is a high-risk high-yield approach to it.
And her application to Alabama’s Blount Program is also now in, after having written a much more boring essay for them, and taking a basically found-art approach to the freeform prompt.
Next up: Earlham EA, followed closely by Alabama’s University Fellows.
dropping in to congratulate everyone whose Dc is submitting their apps – jealous here but we’ll (hopefully) get there. Did submit WPI last night. 6 major ones to go – Dec. 1 for a couple and we plan (will the starts align?) to get others in by mid-December. By then we should start hearing back on a few EAs - guess many of us will know a lot more about some options in a month or so. Then the long wait till end of March or early April will be a “slog” for sure.
Congrats @dfbdfb and @CA1543 on submitted apps! And, also @dfbdfb for 1st to page 1400!
QOTD: Isn’t it stressful to finally hit that Submit button? We have 3 to hit today. Probably could have been done last night, but D/we start second guessing when it gets late. Maybe the essays would benefit from one more read through. Were all the paragraphs pasted. Was the right version pasted, or did you update the app with the final version? Did you paste the right school’s essay in? Did you click the right radio button for the essay response? Are there any spelling errors in the Activities? Are they ordered appropriately? Ugg. ~X(
QOTD: DS was like that for days with his one submitted app so far. And, since he’d read the essays so many times, he started to get overly critical. He asked his online friends from his summer program how they got up the nerve to press Submit. They said they finally just got frustrated and wanted to see it gone. That’s about how it happened with him, plus some reassurance from me. And, wanting to post video of submitting on Snapchat.
@Ynotgo That’s funny. Especially the part about snapchatting the Submit. Reminds me of those YouTube videos of kids videoing the reading of Ivy Day decision emails.
@mommdc Yes, Pitt is in the bag. We have visited once, and will be there again a week from today. Hoping for good weather
@tinrodd Good luck on UGA! Looked long and hard at their Genetics major for D.
My S had to dance around this type of prompt several times. His demographic brings NOTHING to the diversity offering basket. He wrote about living in the depths of NYC and how diversity is ubiquitous and how he never even considered it an issue until he was instructed to do so. Hopefully someone will like it. It’s genuine, that’s for sure.
Good luck to everyone waiting to hear EA decisions this week! Fingers crossed for you all. DS finished his pro/con list and decided on Haverford. Let’s hope he wins the lottery! Thanks for everyone’s feedback and advice, it was helpful for me to have a sounding board and I appreciate your willingness to engage with a newbie!
I think urban residents have some opportunities to show some differences especially compared to the suburban candidates that make up a huge number of applicants.
** Stressful to hit Submit button ** Yes… worried there is something more one could say. The essay could just be a bit better. There is something S17 forgot. The one he’s hit submit I figured out about 3 things I wish he had said afterwards.
We know every application DD submitted is not perfect. But we decided we simply can’t worry about them. She just need to hit ‘submit’ and keep working on her next application.
QOTD - My S17 is very self-motivated - sometimes to his detriment. He has always been one to do what he needs to do on his own without input from us. We got one opportunity to look at his CA Essay and provide suggestions/edits. Any supplemental short essays from individual schools he did completely on his own. This is where my stress comes from. :((
QOTD: Not stressful. Son17 submitted his apps to the best of his ability. Were they perfect, probably not. I just go with the thinking that the schools will see somebody that worked hard in school, participated in some different activities, and did pretty well on his testing. If they don’t like him because of a typing error or something, then I don’t want him going there anyways. He should be a decent candidate for my most of his applications, so that takes some of the worry out. I’d be more nervous if he applied to the schools with less than 10% acceptance rate.
DS agonizes over the diversity prompts, too. For one, he wrote about his empathy for his transgender sibling’s struggles. He says it feels a bit surreal to have written that and other things pre-Nov. 8 to people who will read it post-Nov. 8.
S has now submitted 10 apps. I think his essays were not outstanding, ordinary at best. He has gotten in already to his safeties with merit money. I am trying to let it all go…Hopefully, 4 years of great academics, EC’s, and test scores will prevail over the importance of essays. I am not expecting his ED to work out…He has many long shots in the next group. He will not do anymore applications, until he hears from ED. I know this will likely go on till April, and must remember he will be good no matter what…
Stress upon submitting: No stress from my daughter (or me)—the stress is from me nagging reminding her about upcoming deadlines. She’s completely happy with the idea that there may be imperfections in her application, because she’s an imperfect person, and she’s okay with that.
The diversity prompt: The really big problem my daughter has with the prompt is twofold. First, she feels like it’s a “guess what teacher’s thinking” sort of situation. Second, she also found it disingenuous from a school like Macalester, in particular, given that the one common thread from everyone we talked to there when we asked what the one biggest negative about the school was, was that there’s a tendency toward left-leaning groupthink, some going so far as to say that that results in people saying all the right words but not really doing anything to go along with them. With that as background, it came across to her as a “tell us how diverse you are so that we can feel no guilt admitting you, and you can feel no guilt about anything ever”. (And this is coming from a kid who’s pretty solidly left—I can only imagine what it feels like to someone more conservative.) Not the intent, I’m sure, but still.
@dfbdfb we are struggling with that Macalester prompt as well. So much UGH. At least Whitman’s is more fun “We’re known for the Walla Walla onion, which is both delicious and has many layers. Tell us about some of your layers that may not have come out in the other parts of the application and how they will fit in our campus community” or some such thing.
Has anyone heard anything from Western Washington? We applied on the 31st, got an immediate (like, literally within seconds) email acknowledging the application but then nothing else. Unless, that is, the child has neglected to either A: check her email or B: tell me anything about what it said.
I’m envious of those of you with kids who are really engaged with the college search. My D is working hard on applications (and AP homework, and debate tournaments, and Model UN and… and… and…) but I can’t seem to get her to spend time investigating and prioritizing the colleges on her list. It’s frustrating but I can’t nag much b/c she’s operating at full capacity pretty much constantly now. I just hope I did the right research and found good matches for her. Time will tell I guess.
