@Ynotgo – I love how MIT words their REA policy on their website. Makes me appreciate the school.
Oh, thanks! Someone told us having an EA would affect your chance of getting admission from other schools. GC also told us not do EA or ED. DD wants to see the whole package from each school before she commits, so she’d rather wait for RD. DH and I came to US for graduate schools, so we are learning as we go here. Appreciate your insights!
There is EA and SCEA (single-choice, early action). Maybe your GC meant not to do ED or SCEA.
With EA, you can still apply to all the schools you want and see their packages. With SCEA, you can only apply to that private school plus public schools during the early round, but can’t apply regular EA to any private schools. Complicated. It probably depends on what schools your kid is thinking about.
@eandesmom - Good luck to your S17 on all his decisions. You never know how schools make their decisions, so it does not hurt to give it a shot. I can’t believe that some kids apply to as many as 20 schools. My S16 applied to 9 LACs and our local flagship. 2 we added right before the Jan 15th deadline, just to give him more options, if he needed them.
Regarding UBC - Just as I was getting used to the idea of looking at a school in Canada, my son came up with some info about going to school in Germany! Allegedly for “free?!” I am not really happy about this and hope that it is “too good to be true,” which I suspect is the case.
Just adding that with Early Action (EA) you hear back from the school as to whether you are admitted in December, but don’t have to let them know if you’ll attend until the regular decision (RD) deadline of May 1. It doesn’t affect you financial aid offers at all, except to maybe put you at the head of the line for the evaluation. It is the best of both worlds.
@morningside95, there is something I just saw a link Facebook about US students going to college in Germany for free. Here is the link to the article (if it is allowed to stay): http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/10/1335669/-Germany-offers-free-college-tuition-to-U-S-and-international-students
Thanks for the link @mtrosemom ! We love House Hunters International, in our house, even the boys, but just turned 18 seems really young for studying abroad for all 4 years. My H says to just let him explore the possibility, which I guess probably have no choice in, and have to let this play out. I told him he needs to continue to look at the other schools recommended by his GC too. We will see…
@morningside95 that is true, you never know. It’s been an interesting process, and surprisingly, once we really started to look at tours, how quickly the field narrowed. S17 is so restrictive in his geography and school type, it made for a short list quickly. For him, it really will come down to whether he chooses an Environmental Engineering path, or an EVNS path. For the former, which seems to be where we are headed, with his restrictions, it’s a very very short list. Thankfully he should get into those that are on that list. And I suppose the icing is that thanks to the pickiness…they are all affordable and in some cases will come with some guaranteed money without even knowing final offers. As I’ve stated before it’s odd that the top schools for him are safety’s but I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and be glad he really knows what he wants.
That’s hysterical about Germany. S17 brought the same thing up a month or 2 ago. I think I looked at him like he had 3 heads.
At parent-teacher conferences. Putting out feelers for LORs. 
Haven’t done that home work yet.
Coming up with three positive adjectives is hard.
In kindergarten, the teacher asked for an adjective for each letter in child’s name. That was so hard.
I think I put down dexterous (well, he was good with legos, lol)
We had junior parents days. A parent next was saying, …beautiful, pretty,… lol… positive adjectives.
I should try… handsome… but DH didn’t read ‘positive’ part and immediately started… lazy, … 
UT and TAMU have October 15 as honors priority deadline and preferred majors (engineering.)
There really is no downside to EA because you don’t have to give them a decision until May 1st and MANY schools only offer merit scholarships if you apply EA.
For the SAT2s the AP Physics curriculum was changed in the past few years and it does not align well at all with the SAT2 Physics test. If your child has taken 1 class of AP Physics and plans to take the SAT2 buy them a study guide early because there are 3 or 4 entire units they need to learn on their own for the test. If they have completed 2 different AP Physics like 1 and 2 or both of the C classes they will be fine but most schools don’t offer both C classes and especially not for juniors. My junior will take 1 and then C senior year so there will be topics never covered. SAT2 chemistry mostly aligns with the AP Chem curriculum. People say it’s a harder test than Physics because it is not curved as much but physics is curved more because of the curriculum issue.
@greeny8 I have a foreign language hating kid who stopped after 2 years and has been accepted to selective schools and is in the running for very prominent merit scholarships. It really depends on the major and what they would be substituting for the Latin. If it’s study hall that won’t look good but if it’s something that makes sense then it should be completely fine. She should make sure though that her counselor will check the most rigorous box for the counselor recs if she stops taking Latin. There are a few schools that are very focused on foreign language–I know Yale was one so if that’s an intended school I would check in with them too.
@mshopeful My daughter is considering ED for Columbia too but that’s a very tough call. I definitely recommend visiting Columbia as it was very different from other schools we toured. The campus is beautiful and doesn’t feel nearly as urban as you would expect but the students seemed very mature and well dressed compared to the other campuses we visited. In terms of diversity we weren’t 100% sure on fit either. The dept for her intended major just blew her away though.
Great idea, @2muchquan! Our conferences are next month. Thanks for the tip!
You are very lucky @eandesmom! My S16 was pretty easy as he was mostly interested in good LACs in the Midwest. We visited all but Reed and Whitman out your way, and had a very nice time. S17 is my heads in the clouds dreamer! He was gung ho for schools in NYC area last fall, then schools near nature this winter, so we’ll see how long the Germany thing lasts!
@morningside95 S17 was like that for the longest time, all over the board. He’s really recently zeroed in on his desired path, passionately so, and it’s the first time that everything he is saying adds up and truly seems “him” which is really exciting to see. Huge personal growth. Before that it was definitely a dartboard approach.
In many ways Reed is his dream school, we will tour in April but realistically there are other programs that are simply a better fit. If he does get accepted there and monies are actually offered, it could be a wild card but I think it’s a long shot at best. S19 is going to be either very high or low maintenance, there is no in between with that one. No matter what though I have a feeling it will be a lot of requested travel for touring. We were very lucky with the older 2, both had a single school in sight and got in so we have been a bit spoiled and are due I suppose. DSD 15 did tour more than her top choice but not a ton.
Maybe if you ignore the Germany comment long enough it will go away on its own. That historically works wonders with my S17. Germany hasn’t come up again.
@dcplanner Your comments re: SAT II lines up exactly with what D’s Physics teacher told me today. I’m going to change her test date to the fall. He said the October test would be scored and available for Nov. 1 deadlines. I’m skeptical…anyone happen to know?
@2muchquan, test scores don’t have to be sent in with the application, so even if the test scores come out a little late, that is OK. D15 took the SAT for a 2nd time in October and got her scores in plenty of time to send to her EA schools.
And thank you for your info @dcplanner. S will be taking the Physics C mechanics AP test and the Physics SAT 2 test. His school doesn’t have an AP specific class, but they used an older AP test for their 1st semester final and he did ok, so I think he will be fine with the AP test. I will get him a study guide for the SAT 2 based on your suggestion. FYI, I like the picture you’re using for your “avatar”.
@2muchquan – until this past year, I would have replied ‘no problem in taking Oct tests for score reporting’. CB ran into issues in sending the scores via rush handling this past fall. Emails flying around about CB refunding rush handling score…colleges were generally understanding as many were affected by same.
ACT changed their essay format for Sept exam and there were still some students waiting for their essay score end of Oct. I think ACT calls it complete score instead of composite. I may have that wrong as my boys have only taken SAT.
But…my older son took Oct SAT and was able to send scores w/o having to pay rush fees. Of course, that was the year all colleges extended their ED app deadline b/c of new CA rollout debacle…
My son is also thinking of taking Physics in the fall, hoping that he will have learned new material during the first six weeks of the second AP C class. He is talking about USH SAT II this spring also…and maybe Latin. It becomes too much testing, IMHO.
Thanks, everyone for your training on EA!
@dcplanner, DD is interested in Columbia too, as an Econ/ Pol Sci major. Thoughts? Also consider Georgetown. Any insight there, as I assume you are from DC?