I don’t have access to D21 email, ACT, or common app. I am left to just bug her and remind her…She did submit the 2 non essay applications yesterday Alabama and Clemson.
I was looking at an email from Miami (they solve the email problem by sending the email to both of us) and although they are test optional they still require test scores for Homeschoolers, athletes and nursing students. I know we have quite a few homeschooler on here so I thought I would let you know.
No access to S21s email here.
I have access to everything for both kids. D21 never checks email. I am very thankful for the advice on CC to create an email for college. D18 is somehow signed in on my phone so I am always getting her emails thinking they are mine. The only way to pay for tuition is through D18’s school’s account.
A couple of weeks ago, D21 locked herself out of her Apple Id, it was 17 days of torture 
She is under strict orders to give every password to her dad!
@mm5678 I technically have access to D’s email because she uses my computer to log on sometimes, and the password is saved. I would tell her if I wanted to look at the college emails, and I really don’t think she would mind. There’s nothing terribly private in her email because that’s not how she and her friends communicate! When I heard that some schools were sending fee waivers for participating in virtual events, I made a deal with her. I said if she got additional fee waivers I’d give her half the proceeds. 
By the way I checked yesterday and found that 2 of the 10 LAC’s on D’s list that charged application fees last year don’t have them this year. Bonus!
I set up D21’s college email address about six months ago and I have access. She only uses it for the college stuff and College Board. I was planning on talking to her tomorrow to see how she wants to work the Common App stuff. I’ll definitely have access but I didn’t know how much she wants to do on her own. For S19, I set up that account and added his schools. He was then in charge of entering his essays and activities and answering the rest of the questions. We printed each app out before he hit send so we could proofread a hard copy. That was helpful and we did find just a few typos or weird spacing issues he wanted to change.
D21 does all of her essays in a Google doc that is shared with me and the teacher she is working with. When they are complete, she marks them as “ready to send” and then she can just copy and paste them into the Common App.
I keep a spreadsheet with all deadlines and keep it updated. I include the deadline for the app and then columns to check off - supplements complete, transcript requested, transcript sent, interview requested, interview complete, recommendations sent, app sent and first semester grades sent (if RD, most schools request them).
I started a new thread for the Posse Scholarship interviews this year, “Posse Scholarship 2020”: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/class-20xx-community/2192682-posse-scholarship-2020.html#latest
I thought it would be a good idea to post the link here. My D21, was nominated for the scholarship and received info about her first round interview. If anyone has a child who is nominated this year or an older child who was nominated in the previous years, could you please chime in on that thread? TIA
My son is generally very responsible but is lousy with checking email. He was long ago overwhelmed with the amount of college email that came to his old email account after the PSAT.
We have access to all of the accounts I have to admit. I took over the stressful process of trying to repeatedly reschedule the test dates. He never would have sat on the highly trafficked ACT site last week for two hours trying. However, we know when to step off - not to write any content or contact anyone in admissions for him. I do think parents have a unique perspective to share with their kids about what makes them special and different, so they can help brainstorm with essays but should never write it.
I plan to push him to get ahead of deadlines since school is starting two weeks late and the August SAT is now cancelled. The goal is for him to get most or all of his EA short essays done and revise his UCs and personal statement by the end of August (after his community college class ends). He also needs to do some research on list schools and specific UC majors, and attend a few more virtual events. Finally, he has to do 4 types of apps for the list so lots of data entry. I’ll help him prioritize and then plan to make Sundays the day to check up on his college stuff and honestly I might have to write note to myself to stick to it. I’m going to try that Trello site someone suggested here I think.
I yesterday noticed some students’ parents on Facebook had tagged their kids in response to a college’s app launch post. Some of the kids must have been ED because they even had banners around their photos with the school name. What do you think of that kind of social media posting hive mind?
Wow! That is pretty bold and obnoxious! My son and our family have been very private about the whole college application process. It helps reduce stress for us and for our kids. I would NEVER post where he is applying ED! That is pretty presumptuous.
I’m impressed with how organized a lot of you are! My S21 has written 3 different drafts for his common essay and the other day wanted to start all over in an entirely different direction. I know he is overthinking it but he wants it to be just right. He’s putting a lot of pressure on himself since he knows his essay will carry more weight without a test score.
Hoping to start the Common App this weekend.
Are any of you concerned about communication with the guidance counselors and high school post grad departments? My son’s GC is about to have a baby and we have had no response from her over the summer. He was assigned to her in January after a switch up at the school. I worry that she will not be fully engaged.
They still haven’t fully announced the plan for school which starts in 2 weeks. I think it is going to complicate this process if the office isn’t submitting transcripts, etc…
Ahhh! Just more things to stress about.
To each their own with social media posting. It’s your social media life and you can post what you like. I, personally, don’t post anything about my kids without their permission. They are 19- and 17-years-old and need to live their own lives. What S21 is doing, and deciding, regarding college is his personal business not for me to share.
That’s why I have all of you!
We have ZERO guidance from our counselors, even pre-Covid!!! In our high school, unless you’re a “problem” student or a Student Council darling, you pretty much fall through the cracks and ar won your own. CC (especially some specific college forums) and this Class is 2021 forum have taught me everything I need to know about navigating college applications and the whole process in general. We have no Naviance. The few times I have emailed my son’s counselor (had to look up who it even was on the school website because he had no idea himself), the response to my questions have either 1) been extremely vague or 2) i’ve been met with a “wow! you’re really on top of things!”.
To be fair, we are a Title 1 school, with a large minority population…there are 1100 kids in S21’w graduating class. Around sophomore year, friends who had older kids clued me in on the fact that we wouldn’t be getting a whole lot of “guidance” from the counselors, especially if your kid is targeting highly selective schools.
We hired a professional college/academic advisor-counselor at the end of Junior year to help navigate the college application and essay writing process. It’s been well worth it.
Congrats @MomofOne! Wishing your D success!
Neither of my kids started a new email account for college apps. I can access S’s email only because he often uses our desktop and has left it open so many times. He hates that I’ve looked, but I had to say something because his mailbox said it was full and items had to be deleted!
Why do they need new accounts for college, besides missing the emails?
@dadof4kids - my bad. I did not read the Tulane letter carefully - it references a free application which is a moot point since they have no application fee.
Because D (and S19) set up gmails back in middle school and get nothing but a ton of dumb emails there from things they liked to do when they were 12. The college emails would be lost among emails from Nike, Pinterest, etc.
Having one email for college stuff keeps it organized. Now that S19 is in college, he just uses his college email address (the one assigned by his college) and started a brand new gmail he intends to use forever. He no longer gets email to his “college search” email address and never looks at the old middle school one.
I told S to set up another email just for college, but he claims I never told him. I have since told him to set up a college folder and set up rules so the college emails go to that folder.
Especially since Georgia hasn’t exactly been handling COVID well (as a Georgia resident, I feel quite able to comment on this).
One county here did actually start school already, and in person. Apparently in that country 95% chose in person, 5% chose remote learning. It’s a more rural county, so I thought to myself, maybe their numbers are actually good. Then I checked. Nope. Horrible numbers. And masks encouraged but not required. Oy.
To clarify about Facebook, I’m just guessing that the ones with the Notre Dame border around their picture are going to do ED because other colleges might see that. The post didn’t actually say that, just the parent wishing them luck. On one had, they definitely track interest at that school, but on the other hand, it seemed a little over the top. Dunno.
We are thinking of asking my son to post a couple of pictures of his hobby and a volunteer position which are both unusual. I think if I were reading, I’d be curious enough if the essay was good to search on Google in a positive way, not just to check up for potential negative stuff. It’s kind of fun to see what someone looks like. But I don’t think we will tag him on the school pages, just have him follow the pages.
@Kanfly Yes, I am concerned about GC and LORs since D21’s teacher just had a baby. We can order our own transcripts to schools outside of Common App, so that’s great, but GC needs to do Common App. Not meeting up with new teachers and making those connections won’t be great either. I’m not sure my GC would recognize my D, he has so many kids to keep track of.
I had to laugh as I sat with D inputting her SRAR. First 2 years, 8 year long, Jr. year 16 semester, Sr. year 8 block. It was such a mess.
I had the kids set up separate email for exactly the reason @homerdog said. They have gmail accounts that they rarely check, because 90% of it is crap they don’t care about. That email address for both of them is strictly for college stuff, everything else goes to their regular email.
I have access to pretty much everything for D21 and S19. S18 I have more limited access, because he dug in and I have chosen not to fight about it.
I try to not get involved with anything unless I think it’s necessary. W will sometimes remind D of things in her email, which really annoys D. W also sometimes forgets to “save as new” after she opens things. It’s a bit of a problem honestly and really makes D angry when she misses seing something herself because she doesn’t see it as new. So far I am keeping access, and being somewhat successful at keeping mom under control so that doesn’t change.
Checking email was a CONSTANT issue with S19. He was an athletic recruit, and would get pretty frequent emails from coaches. Eventually I just checked it daily myself and made sure if he had anything that needed a timely response I could double check that he was on top of it. Usually he wasn’t. I repeatedly told him that in college I wouldn’t be there to help so he had to stay on top of this himself and check every day.
When I visited him in October he had a goal/todo list on a whiteboard by his door. The bottom items would change, but the goals didn’t. Also the top todo item didn’t ever get erased he just wrote things below it. The permanent todo item and #1 on the list in all caps was CHECK EMAIL EVERY DAY!.
It is nice to know that sometimes they listen, even though they don’t always show it!
D would kill me if I put something on Facebook. S got really annoyed with people posting schools they were visiting and offers they were getting. He said “People will know where I am looking and who has given an offer when I post where I am going. If anyone wants more info they can ask but I’m not posting it.” He felt like a lot of the other stuff was premature bragging.
D’s is already being asked fairly regular1ly where she is going to college next year. Most people around here don’t apply to selective schools, so the kid pretty much can choose. It’s a pretty normal question fall of senior year around here. Someone even told me that she is going to have to make a decision soon when I said no idea really. Usually that means the kid might not end up going anywhere.
She does NOT want to go over places that she did not get accepted to with anyone, probably ever. So she needs to give a generic answer. My stock answer is that she is applying to a bunch of schools that are all hard to get into, so we will see in the spring. I think she is saying something similar. I told you guys where she was going to ED, because you don’t know us. If I posted that on social media she probably wouldn’t speak to me for a week, and would black me out of the rest of the application process.
S21 just tells everyone he will attend UT or TAMU, he doesn’t mention applying to other schools. 95% of people here have never heard of any of these schools and he doesn’t want to get into a conversation as to why is he even applying to other schools when his is auto admit and UT and TAMU are the best schools on earth ?