@TwinMom2023 - Thank you for sharing yet another positive experience about Roanoke. Based on all the feedback, I think I’m more excited than D is!
Congrats to your daughter @DCNatFan
Yay @DCNatFan ! Congrats!
COngrats @DCNatFan !!!
YAY @DCNatFan ! Congratulations to your D!
Congrats @DCNatFan !
OK so small rant. D’s school keeps making her add an in state school to her list. We’ve taken it off of Naviance and the common app about 3 times. They don’t seem to want to understand that she will not be going to school in state. I asked why they’re so insistent on adding this school. She said that it has something to do with finances and that I may realize that I can’t afford an OOS school later on. The in state was “something to fall back on”. Now I realize that there are parents everywhere who don’t understand what college actually costs. I am not one of them. D is the only student in her senior class who has gotten acceptances already. I am thorough and well aware of what I can afford. They’re really starting to piss me off.
^^. They can insist your D apply, but can’t force your D to apply to an in state option. Just do your own thing and don’t worry about it. It can stay on Naviance, but it’s not going to turn into an actual application unless your D actually applies and pays the app fee by the deadline.
Good luck.
@cinn124 I am really surprised that her school is that involved!! My kids’ schools could care less and do not even remotely show any interest in their future planning. That said, just tell your daughter to smile and nod and move on. 
Congrats @DCNatFan!
How bizarre @cinn124! They’re not going to submit the application for her or pay the fee so it’s still her choice whether to apply or not apply. I didn’t even know that the high school could add schools to Naviance or the common app.
I don’t think my S19’s guidance counselor will know where he’s applying until she goes to upload the school report and any recommendation forms she needs to do (hopefully in the next 20 days or so).
Aha! I actually did learn something at the school’s college night last night, come to think of it.
@cinn124 they told us that there were several scholarships in our state (Maryland) that were available to residents who were applying to a school (public or private) in this state. You have to go through the motions of applying in order to be eligible for the scholarships. Since some in-state deadlines for applications are kinda late (rolling admissions schools that don’t fill up) they don’t want any of their students to have a late change of mind, apply for a Maryland school, and then discover that they’re not eligible for an achievable scholarship that they could have gotten if they had had a fake school on their app from the beginning.
Your state may have similar scholarships with screwy rules. I just put a random school in the ‘will apply’ tab and we’re not doing anything else about it. Pretty sure kiddo won’t stay in state, but it makes the GC happy so we will do it.
At our HS Guidance enters a bunch of colleges into the Naviance " thinking about" action for the kids, based off their scores, interests, and past results of other kids. I don’t mind it, but our GC’s suggestions for both of our kids were mostly not places they were interested in. To her credit, they were places where the kids would’ve gotten into, maybe get some merit. They just weren’t the right suggestions for our kids. She probably added about 20 schools to their Naviance account at the end of Jr year.
My co-worker has a D19 and they were also told to include an in-state school, even though she has no intention of attending, because of something to do with financial aid. She didn’t know the exact reasoning, maybe something like mentioned above?
In some cases, there may be financial positives for a high school if a certain proportion of students, or a certain proportion of students of some particular group or another, apply to in-state publics. (That’s the main reason my D17 applied to one of our in-state publics, for example.)
S19 GC highly recommended adding a local school to the application list. The reason, which I’ve seen happen, was to have a local choice in the event of a change of life circumstances that woild allow a local college option.
1st acceptance for S! It is a safety, UT Dallas, but it’s a great feeling to have one. UT Dallas is an excellent school so if he needed to stay local for some unforeseen reason, as referenced above, we are set.
I have to admit, I think it is lovely and responsible for a HS to insist on one in state option.
No, you may not need it. But. You may be in the minority, SO many apply to schools they can’t afford without parent involvement or budget transparency. Parents get VERY angry at GC’s not having the budget talk with kids…when legally they can’t. This to me, is a bit of a fail safe that is very very smart. And while annoying to you, just ignore it in naviance and elsewhere. As already stated they can’t take you child hit submit or pay the fee!
Interesting info about applying to in-state schools. I have no idea whether my kids’ school requires or encourages it. D17 did apply to UMD tho she had no intention of going there. We were fairly confident she’d get in, but one never knows for sure. It was mainly a financial backup but I did not know that about scholarships @ninakatarina so thanks for that heads up. She ended up going out of state. S19 is definitely applying to Towson and possibly Salisbury, tho he’ll probably not be eligible for the scholarships you mention. We’ve always planned on having our kids apply to at least one in state school, even if we could afford not to. There are other factors that might come into play that you can’t foresee. For example, my h.s. Classmate was diagnosed last summer, 2017, with cancer while their son was being recruited for soccer. He ended up deciding to stay in state and now just six weeks into his freshman year, I just heard yesterday she is in hospice now, barely a year after her diagnosis. Now granted, he knew before applications were due, but had she been diagnosed a few months later, he might have missed all the deadlines and not had a local school to fall back on.
Can someone explain how the LORs work with the Common App? D19 has two LORs that are completed and submitted by her teachers on Naviance. Do these LOR’s automatically get sent when you submit an App or is there something that needs to selected or checked? Also, if a school only requires 1 LOR can you select which one you want sent?
@fwtxmom Congrats! We have our 1st (safety) acceptance as well. Feels good to have one in the bag.
@DCNatFan I don’t know about Naviance, but you enter the teachers email into the Common App and it sends them a link for uploading their LoR. Then the students can select which letters go to which schools.
Congrats @fwtxmom !!!