We had a good tour, but the arrogance there is palpable. D19 took it off her list because too big, and too much (supposed) sorority drama.
I’d have told her the same thing - it won’t matter. A third of the students aren’t Catholic. (I might think along the lines of avoiding regret by putting Catholic, assuming she has some sort of Catholic background.)
[quote=“Mwfan1921, post:7667, topic:1875994”]
We hadn’t bothered touring earlier since I think it highly unlikely S21 will get in but we did watch an online info session. I’ve definitely heard that “arrogant” reputation and I do think he fits better at VT. But he’s also interested in UVA because they are expanding their data science grad school program into an undergrad program (currently just as a minor). So, we’ll see. It’s the only reach he’s applying to.
^^^ OK, that quoting was weird! I need to work on my editing of quotes skills LOL
@dadof4kids Agree that many tests have been less than ideal. with all the cancellations, it is tough to get mentally prepared for the latest one. After three cancellations, S21 finally got a September ACT seat - 3 hours away. I was going to skip it and shoot for October, but H suggested to just go for it and even offered to drive S up and stay at a hotel the night before. Still not ideal.
@JESmom typing your reply after the
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tag should take care of the issue.
Thanks for all the input. She won’t probably be formally declaring majors on most apps, she is mostly applying to SLACs. She usually picks history first, then bio or pre-health or pre-med depending on what the options are when she signs up for mailing lists or zoom presentations.
This is getting pretty specific, but on her supplemental essays mentioning things like Amherst science building could be seen as a good thing to show familiarity and fit if she plans on studying science there. But if she’s leading with history and they probably would see her more likely to be successful in history I wonder if she shouldn’t even mention it. I don’t know exactly what Amherst’s supplement questions look like, but you probably understand the point of what I’m saying. There’s lots of opportunities in those supplemental to essays to give that kind of information.
It’s also possible the way her common essay is working that she would mention being a pre-med that wants to study History. Her essay is more of a rough idea than anything actually laid out right now, but I think there is a decent chance that she kind of ties that in with the theme of her essay, i.e. having some disparate interests, both in EC’s and study areas. Not sure about that, it’s more a rough concept right now that we have discussed. To my knowledge, she has ideas floating in her head but hasn’t actually put ink to paper (more accurately fingers to keys) yet.
We would have gone up the night before, but this was literally in a one motel town, and online the motel did not look promising. We have stayed an a town an hour away, and frankly that “nice” hotel wasn’t great either. Collectively we decided sleeping at home would be better than the hour we would save staying at the comparatively nicer place or the total crapshoot at the drive in motel that was in the town.
@dadof4kids I wouldn’t have her write her essay on that. Essays are to show something that AOs can’t see elsewhere. Add some personality to the app. Something that is vulnerable and shows who they really are.
Unless Amherst changed their essays from last year, they don’t have a why Amherst question. One also has to send a graded paper.
@dadof4kids My S’s ECs and outside interests are not CS related, but natural science. He does enjoy programming and wants to apply CS. So, in his essay he found a way to link the two interests through a common value.
If your D is having trouble organizing her thoughts, you might check out the Essay Guy book, blog, Youtube or recorded course. It explores the standard catagories of essays and gives some examples. It’s a bit hard but they need to go deep and think about why they are attracted to what they are. If they are reflective I don’t think colleges will insist that they have the future all figured out.
@homerdog I get what you are saying. I don’t know that I described it that well, partially because it’s more a rough concept than a fully fleshed out idea. But it is something to be careful about definitely. I vented a couple weeks ago probably about an essay that seemed very similar that was getting some news attention for being a great unique essay. But IDK, and also it is early enough in the process I could see her writing a page and tossing the idea, or staring at a blank screen for an afternoon and scrapping it too.
When she gets a bit further I may ask for some more specific advice, either on the board or in PM’s. There are people she can go to and get help with the writing aspect of it. But very few students here apply to selective schools. The GC’s spend 90% of their time on the kids who might not graduate, or who need a boost to apply to the local directional or CC instead of working at fast food as a career. I don’t know that they know more than I do about this process.
S18 didn’t write a Common App essay at all. S19 did, but he was a recruited athlete, so honestly all he needed to do was not completely blow it off. He did an adequate job for what he needed I think. This is new territory for our family.
Sending a graded paper is one of 3 options to fulfill the supplemental essay requirement. https://www.amherst.edu/admission/apply/firstyear/writingsupplement
Right now she is pretty frustrated with her ACT score, so she told me she wasn’t dealing with the essay today and was going to do some ACT studying instead. I told her I thought she should give it a few days and focus on something else, but I think she already had her mind made up.
She saw the score last night. She sent me a crypic text (the way she usually texts to me which is annoyong) saying that she didn’t want to talk about it, but she had a plan and was studying tomorrow. I thought she was talking about the essay but I think it was the ACT.
So D came down a bit ago and said she signed herself up for an interview with Syracuse! Her first (and probably only) interview - S17 didn’t interview anywhere so this is new territory! I guess as long as she knows why Syracuse, why she wants to study what she does - anything else???
And mean girl from D’s (former) main EC is going to the in-state safety D is applying to. Time to start emphasizing that there are almost 20k other kids there; she’ll never have to deal with her!! LOL
I had a classmate from HS that was in all of my classes. We went to the same big state U with around 20k undergrads. I think I saw him less than 4 times in 4 years. I wasn’t even trying to avoid him. But if you don’t have similar interests or majors, you have to make an effort to see people. Trying to avoid one, unless they both continue the same or similar EC in college, should be pretty easy.
That’s great! Also make sure she has several good questions ready to ask and that she can tell a few little stories about herself - that is, she should be ready to talk about things like her extracurriculars, her interests, etc. It helped my S21 to think ahead of time about the 3-4 things about himself he wanted to try to talk about and to think a little about how he’d describe those things (he would have probably reverted to one word answers if he didn’t think about it a bit beforehand).
@NJWrestlingmom - I agree with your daughter and I would not do that. With the religious history of this college I would say that putting “atheist” is short hand for “my mom is making me apply here but I don’t want to come”. If this an optional question then I would leave it blank. There is zero value to answering it and once you have answered it, you have no control on how the AO reading her application will receive and process that information. In my mind, too risky.
We struggle with that. S19 dropped a number of safety options because kids he’s known since kindergarten were going to some of them - jerky kids who either bullied his friends or who were poor students. He just couldn’t see himself at the same school. That’s a hard one.
S21 is wrapping up his third, and final, writing requirement for apps. And he has decided to go TO.
Mr. InfiniteWaves and I talked it through with him. He’s at five attempts and five cancellations. Probably looking at six for six this month. All of his schools are now TO. And all schools on his list other than the state schools have been TO for many years now. None are super competitive.
Looking at another cancellation is too much for him at this point. He feels that “All the SAT will do is give me Covid and not make me look any better. I will go to the school that wants me for all that I offer right now.”
We support him in his decision. 
@InfiniteWaves that’s fabulous. Five cancelled tests. Come on. And, of course most kids aren’t able to knock it out of the park at this point with all of the stress.