@NYC2018nyc I think this would be wildly different for kids aiming for different match level schools, academic and financial. Also habit makes a difference as well.
For example, D17 had all her apps submitted beginning of Oct. including all her RDs. She didn’t do any additional apps after that. S20 is shaping up to be the procrastinator who waits until the last minute. He is most likely busy writing apps during holiday season if he doesn’t pick a school to ED and gets in.
Again, most D17’s close friends did ED to their 1st choice that were matches academically and financially. They all got in during ED cycle and didn’t need any additional apps.
As to the timing of apps my DD17 did them in the summer, and reviewed them in with her teachers the first week of Sept. She filled out one late addition on Halloween night for a Nov. 1 EA deadline but had received most of her acceptances before that one was sent. She had all acceptances in hand by Christmas Eve. — Of course she was looking for merit and had some wonderful EA acceptances so there were no top 20 admits that she was waiting on. She has advised her brother to do the same strategy but he seems to have his own ideas. We’ll see how he feels once in the midst of senior year.
For us, a lot will depend on whether D gets into a 5-week abroad summer program. Not sure she’ll have enough time to work on her apps once she is back in August. But she plans only on applying to UC’s and a couple of privates EA/early application for scholarship consideration, so she should be done by Nov.
@lkg4answers My D17 did SCEA to an Ivy, got deferred, and then spent all of Christmas break completing the 11 other apps that were supposed to be “mostly done” before the SCEA notification date but weren’t. It was a rough couple of weeks! She also left for a student exchange on Jan 4 so it really was one-a-day from about Dec 19 to Jan 2 with a couple days off for good behavior! No way I’m letting D20 wait on the other apps if she does EA or ED somewhere…
@lkg4answers I think that is totally within your DC’s control. There is no reason the applications cannot be done by then. Will knowing vacation is coming provide additional motivation for getting them done?
@NYC2018nyc I would be very leery scheduling a December vacation if I had a kid who was not totally motivated to get apps done by Nov.1. They also would have to have a history of getting things done on time. My D17 was done with all apps by Nov 1, I think…maybe some Honors College apps came a little later. It was the way to go.
DD20 May be getting an early lesson in the additional challenges of obtaining information from a larger school. We toured a school last fall that has a unique program. She has been emailing to find out when a program open house would be. She was given a date so we booked flights and planned the rest of our spring break tours around that program open house. Now there is an even better option at the end of the week when we will have already moved on to another city. The travel plans cannot be changed. She is frustrated that “no one told me” about the 2nd option. I understand but think it is a good lesson for her of the extra effort that a larger school might require in order for her to be fully informed of opportunities. I also suspect that the specific presentation will be very similar on the two different days so no real harm will be done.
My kids are the odd ones, they all were/will be one and done They get their apps done just before senior year starts in August and then we wait on the GCs to release transcripts (mid to late Sept). Some colleges have special summer programs that you need to apply for after you are accepted but have early deadlines, sometimes early admissions gives you an edge on selective programs, merit aid may also more plentiful earlier. Also they can use the rest of the year to work on local scholarships without stressing about their application.
@3scoutsmom I’m glad it’s not just us. D20 only wants to apply to one, maybe two at the most. It makes me nervous when I see others who are applying to so many schools. My older sons applied to 3, 3, and 5 schools but two of them were already sure of where they wanted to be. BTW, I’m glad to see you post. I was concerned about you.
Looks like there are about 7-8 schools on O’s list right now. 3 of them are reaches (academically and/or financially) and the others are matches/likelies which should all financially work, but as a family we wanted to see how the money piece will work on those options before ranking them. We are lucky that O. understands the money piece is as important to the choice as programs and fit.
O. is planning on submitting all applications as EA. Knowing this process could be done before next Christmas is a relief for all of us, and the plan right now is for this summer to be a big push for completing applications, as well as a couple of weeks in Paris. It is good to hear from those who have btdt that our plan is reasonable. O. already has 2 teachers who have agreed to write recommendations, will need 2 more to in total for the colleges under consideration.
In California state decisions come out in March. So being done by Dec/Jan isn’t going to happen unless the kid decides she has no interest in any UC/CalState/CalPoly which is unlikely.
Re: Senior grades. Applying EA means apps are generally in (and often decisions are in) before 1st semester grades come out. That’s good…unless you get deferred, in which case 1st semester grades could make a difference. And yes, many, many high stats kids get deferred, even from their safeties. More than you would think. Yield protection seems to come into play.
@NYC2018nyc D19 applied to a few schools EA and a few RD. She procrastinated on the EA’s, getting them in around Oct 29 for a Nov 1 deadline. But once those were in, some of the RD apps were pretty much done, since they didn’t have any additional essays. For the one or two that had additional essays, the RD deadline was Jan 15th, so she had time after the holidays to finish those up. So, you’re probably good making holiday plans, if you have some EA’s on the list.
I am definitely in the camp of get those apps in and done before December rolls around if at all possible. However, S20 is likely only applying to 4 schools and a program at the Community College (his back up) so his experience will definitely be different than someone applying to double the colleges. He’s extremely debt adverse and isn’t 100% sure what he wants to study, so as much as he’d like to go away and have the college experience, he’s waffling on whether that’s wise to do at this point in time.
School counselors have started holding sessions with Juniors and parents on college planning. S20 is struggling with the prep work. Too much college talks in HS and home ( I am guilty?!) made him want to avoid the process. Maybe this mandatory exercise will force him to open up and think through what he really wants from a college. One section in the prep work is to provide a prelim college list. I see that section remains blank. :-w The idea was to get it completed this weekend so it can be handed in. Then the counselor will schedule our meeting. Friday night was a game night. Saturday night became a sleepover. Today is super bowl for sure. It seems he has again successfully avoided/delayed the task. I am not sure how to get him to divert some attention from those “fun stuff” to college search/discussion! I will take 10%, even 5%!
I have a question about safeties. Does one need more than 1 true safety? Our in state flagship will be the cheapest and getting in is not competitive with his stats (honor college might be). Unlike D17, S20 is fine attending our instate if he can’t get into his reaches. I was looking at Pitt before, but given its OOS scholarship trend, I don’t think it can compete with our instate anymore. His interests are more and more shaping up to be CS aligned, our instate is actually not bad in CS. DH got his degree there and knows the department pretty well. The only concern is the size. S20 likes close knit campus. But I can’t find anything else that come close to our instate, on ranking, cost, and location etc…
I’m going to encourage my daughter to apply to at least 2 safeties simply to have the luxury of a choice. I think it depends on the kid, but some kids like the psychological boost of choosing a school, not being left with only one choice. We’ve known several one and done families where they are truly excited about their sure thing. We’ve also known several who applied to one safety and a handful of reaches. When all the reaches didn’t work out and they were left with no choice, it seemed to make the one safety feel undesirable. Most went on to be perfectly happy and received a great education, but I do think there’s a bit of a boost to have at least two choices.
So I’m off on a long weekend college tour trip with D20 and had one of those conversations last evening where I realized that she’s still a little clueless about the process. I was asking about a senior friend… does Ben know where he’s going next year yet? D’s answer - Ben knows but I don’t know where. I asked why that was… is Ben keeping a lid on it? Or what? D - no, we just don’t talk about that sort of thing. You know, we’re in high school (I’m rolling my eyes…). Anyway, I said, “so how do you know that Ben already decided on a school if you never talk about college?” D’s answer - “well it’s already February… I’m sure they all know by now.” Ummm… screech… hold up… let’s have a little talk about the timeline of how things are going to go for the next year and a half! I’m like, time to start getting interested in your future, kid!
Similarly… we are officially touring Oregon State and Reed. Unofficially we are getting a tour of U of Oregon from a friend later today since they don’t do Sunday tours. My older daughter goes to Willamette and we hung out with her for a few hours yesterday afternoon and met her new roommate who asked whether D20 was also looking at Willamette. D20 looks at me and says, “am I?” (official answer is - unlikely but since we are here anyway if you want to look around a little …) (unlikely because D20’s major interest is less aligned with Willamette’s strengths than D15’s).
Anyway, at some point I hope the kid starts driving this bus and I can step back and just be the consultant rather than the lead.