Same here. S17 has no time to research schools. I researched and found schools and most got a thumbs up. Some didn’t make it to the list. He’ll thoroughly check things out when he has acceptances to consider. Focus has been on grades and ECs.
We went and checked the portals last night to see if any wanted first term grades, and freaked out over the UMD now showing as “incomplete”. Turns out one of her teachers never sent in the recommendation. Same one that she had to hound to get the MIT one in. Nice. 
I don’t know why it would show as “complete” two weeks ago, when obviously it wasn’t.
It shows the original request date as 10/10, and she re-sent the request last night, and sent an email to the teacher (she’s had her for IB Bio for the last two years) asking her if she could send it asap as the deadline has passed. Hopefully UMD won’t hold it against her, scholarship-wise, to have a teacher that’s not good with doing recommendations.
Also, for some reason NEU won’t let her in to her own portal anymore, and when she tries to re-set the password she never gets the email. So that’s fun.
We weren’t stressed about sending them off-she was more relieved to be done with it. The one thing I really regret doing is sending the SAT 2 before we knew the score-if we’d known it would be that bad she could have switched her app to MIT to RD and re-taken the test. And Olin never would have gotten it, so that’s my big regret that I made some assumptions about scores that I really shouldn’t have. Oh well, it is what it is.
D17’s super high achieving boyfriend has no safety schools (except maybe Georgia Tech), and he just interviewed with Stanford last week. I am exhausted about worrying about their friends and significant others who either have no safety net, or like D18’s boyfriend, who announced “college is stupid” and that he’s going to move to where D18 goes to college and just work in a coffee shop while she gets her degree.
Oh yeah, I love hearing stuff like that.
@MotherOfDragons Unfortunately we can’t save everyone, especially those who are in no mood to listen. Do you think just being around your D18 as she and you go through the process will have some positive effect on her BF? It’s probably not a good idea for someone who thinks it’s stupid to spend the COA, but I too hate hearing that. I just keep in mind that we’re doing what’s best for S and it may not be best for everyone.
@Fishnlines29 I agree with others–shorter is better as long as the prompt is completely addressed and the writing is well done.
@appleMAC and @paveyourpath I’m glad S isn’t the only one without a real preference as yet. He has the time for research but we haven’t had time as a family to visit everywhere. But he’s a kid who could honestly be just as happy at a small tech school or a large research uni. He’s good at finding friends and just going with it. So we may be throwing darts come spring.
@IABooks I hope so-I did get him to take the PSAT, and he’s taking AP classes this year (although according to D18 he is not liking them because there’s so much more work to do), so he’s certainly capable of going to college and doing well. His argument to D is that he shouldn’t go to college because he “doesn’t know what he wants to do”. My answer to that is that the first two years of most degrees are core curriculum, anyway. His other argument is that neither parent went to college and they are fine. My answer to that for D18 is “look at your grandparents-one set no degrees, one set, degrees.”
D18 is super headstrong, so I’ve limited my comments to along the lines of “it’s ok for you to tell him that you think college is important” because I’m so worried that she’ll decide she doesn’t “need” college, either. Ugh.
@MotherOfDragons You might try calling UMD. Something similar happened with my S’s app. All of his supporting docs were sent in and after several weeks NOTHING was showing as received. We called and they actually had everything but it was not allocated to his app (and never would have been if we didn’t call). You never know, the LOR might be there.
^^I will 
Ok, sigh of relief. I woke up to find an email from S forwarding the confirmation that his ED application has been submitted. I think he’s got a pretty good shot at getting accepted, as his GPA and test scores are on the high end of the Naviance data and his college counselor says that you definitely get a bump in your chances of admission if you apply early. He’ll know in a month, so I think I’m going to encourage him to just relax about college stuff for now. I know they say the kids should get their RD applications ready over Thanksgiving break, but he’s had such a punishing schedule this fall, I think he really should just spend some time relaxing.
@MotherOfDragons UMD only requires one teacher LOR. The GC LOR is required. All others are optional. So if one teacher LOR made it in, she’s fine.
^^It’s the one teacher LOR that’s missing. The GC one is in.
@MotherOfDragons --oh good heavens on the boyfriend! Sounds like he wants a sugar mama!!
I will admit we have a niece and nephew who are both high stats, solid kids who are working, but not in their intended field. One is waiting tables @ 27 and the other (a ChemE major who is one class shy of a diploma) is waiting tables and working sales at a company that has said they really want that degree in hand.
SIGH. Great kids. IDK what happened.
@MotherOfDragons UMD requires all materials submitted by the deadline. Call and see whether you can sweet talk them into making an exception if it’s not there. Fingers crossed for your D that the LOR is there or they make an exception! I’d be livid right now at the teacher!
Wait. Could this be true? Only one more app to complete? And D is done? That will mean our original list of about 18 wound up at 11 or 12. Wow, it’s just hitting me. What a great feeling. Her last app has a 12/1 deadline, so that should be easy peasy with the T-giving break coming up. Big financial reach, so I’m not hopeful…plus it’s practically in our backyard, so I’m not sure that’s the best thing for her. Or us.
Maybe I’ll squeeze another app out of her. Baker’s dozen.
On to D20 pretty soon!
Did any of your kids take the ACT Aspire? Son17 did better on his ACT vs SAT. He was just naturally better at it I guess. Son17 is done with testing though. He never took the PLAN, only took the psat as a sophomore & jr.
Son19 recently took the psat at our school, but I was wondering if maybe taking the ACT Aspire test might be more beneficial? He might be better at the ACT too. I don’t think our school offers it though, and i have not been able to find out how a student can get access to the test if their school doesn’t offer it.
Thoughts on the test?
@RightCoaster Your S19 can take a practice ACT from a book after you have the PSAT score to see how it compares. We don’t live in an area where ACT is popular, so DS found that it was the better test for him from a book test. (Math may be lower in 10th depending on where he is in the math sequence so far.)
I think the Aspire was coming out when our kids were in 10th or 11th and had some delays being released. Typical for Class of 17 to have tests being changed all around, of course.
@Ynotgo son17 took the practice ACT from the book and maybe even online if I remember right. It helped.
Kids normally take the psat here, I just don’t know if a real class room Aspire test is even available to us. Just looking for feedback, thanks!
Some of us actually answer “Questions of Yesterday” rather the QOTD.
Submit button
Totally a relief for D and me – I feel like I’m following her lead. Where we are now, she fills out app, checks over carefully. I check over carefully, then she submits and what’s done is done.
Diversity question
She’s only had to answer one that I know of (part of a cluster of short essay questions), but she didn’t show me any of her answers. As an autistic bisexual I guess she doesn’t have to stretch far to make a diversity argument. But I hope admissions finds those who appreciate and support diversity to be just as valuable. Kind of by definition most people aren’t diverse, right?
Stopping at targets
D removed one reach after I showed her the financials. Out of NPC’s which show merit, theirs was awful. Even if they offered twice the likely merit it wouldn’t be enough. And they had an essay – not worth it. Another uber-reachy school in terms of merit (yes, it’s Smith), stays on the list, period. Then there’s a reach and sorta reach which she’s already applied to. On the targets, COA varies and she sees different schools worth different amounts of debt. It’s very much a “we’ll see what happens” process now.
@NerdMom88, I hope the less invasive surgery will work and best wishes to your D for a speedy recovery. (Plus I hope you keep your hair!)
@MotherOfDragons, I had the same issue with oldest D’s super smart BF (now fiance) only applying to lottery schools and ignoring my suggestions to at least add some schools like Georgia Tech or Purdue. Nope. He ended up applying to our state flagship after the deadline and got in thank goodness, then graduated as the distinguished graduate in his department. So not all hope lost for your D’s BF.
Stopping at targets
We’ve always been stopped at targets. We couldn’t find a single reach that would be affordable that S17 wanted to apply to. Just as well, I stress that safeties are really targets and the targets are really reaches as it is!
Diversity
I think S had to answer on one app but I honestly don’t recall.
Submit button
They really should be triple checked but honestly, have not been. I have downloaded them all post application and can’t see any errors so…I guess it’s ok. I should print them all out though and confirm. Everything was triple checked before the essay was uploaded but a final check seems to be something my S has zero time and inclination for. The 3 that remain have not had that process applied yet so need to be checked.
@RightCoaster we use a local test prep place that allows the kids to take a practice test for both the ACT and SAT to determine which is the better fit. I plan to have S19 do that at some point in the spring. We will see how his PSAT comes back and he will have a summer prep class of some kind. I think. Then again, that kid might be fine with Khan on his own. Either way though I do want him to do a diagnostic ACT.
@MotherOfDragons UGH UGH and UGH! On all of it. Missing LOR’s and already checked out boyfriends. So is that is life plan, work at a coffee shop? At least go to CC while you do that. A lot can change over junior year, I wouldn’t worry about it too much at this point, beyond a watchful eye and just making your your D is on track for what she wants.
@NerdMom88 I also hope for less invasive surgery. HUGS!
@snoozn I feel your pain a bit, if S ends up at his in state safety after all of this, I will wonder if it was worth the exercise. I expect S19 to be more work.
**S/bOTD
When you want to get some info from admissions, e.g. portal info, app status, etc., do you:
A. Have your child call
B. Have your child email
C. Call yourself
D. Use your “child’s” email (i.e. the fake one in their name that you control) to email
And don’t deny it - I know a lot of you have (D)…
I think we’re split between B & D, though C would often be the easiest…
I always wondered what PLAN was in Naviance. Our HS only does the PSAT in junior year. I’m wondering how to get D20 to take it her sophomore year for practice, but I’m not sure you can just go take it at another HS or testing center? Short of that, I guess just find some practice tests (PSAT or SAT), or work on Kahn.