Thanks, @AOP1925. She was not affected with health concerns or curriculum changes, etc. So her changes are minimal compared to others. Still, she did have some changes, so she listed them in a matter-of-fact way. I have no idea if adcoms will appreciate what she wrote or roll their eyes. Either way, this is an unusual year and that is an unusual question, so I hope adcoms read all of it without super-strict evaluations in mind.
OkayâŠbut the COVID question is supposedly the only place where one can write about COVID and how it affected oneâs ECs etc. So is it wrong to state in a matter-if-fact way what would have been? I donât think so, if written in a list kind of way (and not a âwoe is meâ kind of way). Then again, I am not an admissions officer.
This does feel like a booby trap, and I guess I am out of patience with booby traps, especially during this unprecedented time. I am hoping adcoms take what the student writes at face value, period. If a kid had something they were supposed to do all summer but couldnât because of COVID, I would think adcoms would want to know. I would think it is all about HOW the student conveys the info. Again though - I am not an admissions officer. And this is an unprecedented time and a first-ever kind of questionâŠso I would hope the adcoms realize students are answering as best they know how.
Yeah, the COVID question seems like a landmine. But overthinking it probably isnât warranted. I mean, if your kid states matter of factly what opportunities he/she missed without being dramatic, I think it should be fine. If a university holds it against the. student maybe it isnât where the student is meant to be. I kind of get tired of all the secret hoops our kids are all supposed to jump through during this process. Iâd rather just have my kids be authentically themselves and if that isnât good enough so be it.
@3kids2dogs I hope you did not delete your post because of my testy response. I am testy not at you, but at trying to guess what adcoms May or May not find offensiveâŠand my patience is worn out. Your post was important and valid and some adcoms may view that COVID question exactly the way you described. My apologies if I came across at being grumpy at you personally. I am grumpy in general at everything these days and did not mean anything toward you personally.
Congrats to all the NMSF students. S21 got confirmation today! He had a nice zoom with principal, vice principal, all 3 guidance counselors and the other 8 semi-finalists. Very thankful the school has a structured plan for next steps.
AOs/Ad Coms donât have a lot of time. It will be one more thing for them to read - so it really is a judgment call about whether one catalogs the loss of summer programs/activities/competitions, etc., against a kid whose family suffered a job loss, or maybe someone in his/her family got sick and the disastrous impact of that. I would tread carefully with this question.
Jumping on the bandwagon and agree it is hard with the Covid section - and was a big conversation around our house. We keep hearing it is for hardships not cancellations but agree if a school judges you by what you think is relevant and important to you - then maybe that is not the right school.
Our college counselors (we have a great team at our small independent school) said that they only want kids to use if for hardships. We have a few kids in our school that did not have reliable wifi, had to help run parentâs restaurant business when it flipped to delivery only or manage siblings home schooling.
One of my daughters has several medical issues and was unable to attend appointments or keep to the original timeline to be done with procedures due to covid shut downs. All of these procedures should have been done prior to her leaving for college and they told her even this did not go in the Covid section.
She will have some of her medical issues finished after she is in college now (over winter break and summer break) when it all should have been done prior to college. She will bullet point her medical conditions and lay out the action plan in a very factual way plus talk about how much school she has missed (not a lot - but she is a rock star in our opinion) in the additional information section. I know our college counselors debated this back and forth and have relationships with many AOs - the verdict was Additional Info section not Covid section. Her health is not at risk and the remaining procedures are more cosmetic at this point.
My daughter felt strongly that it should not go in the Covid section - even though my husband and I keep sayingâŠbut you couldnât keep to your schedule because of Covid!
My other daughter is a top ranked athlete in her sport and was also told that this goes in the additional information section even though her national and international team events did not happen this spring, summer and now Fall and it involves 1000s+ hours of training and now has come to a halt and she will be aged out of the national team next summer.
What a year !
My son applied ED and had a wonderful four years at Williams. We were only able to visit in the summer when the campus was quiet, but it didnât much matter since the insular mountain setting is so integral a part of the Williams experience (for better or worse). For my son the deciding factor â what really spoke to him â was the great natural beauty of the environment.
I imagine the workload could be overwhelming if the aim is to get straight Aâs, but a mix of Aâs and Bâs is readily achievable. Even though my son was considered a strong writer in high school, it took him a while to get into the groove of Williamsâ level writing. He used the Writing Center extensively for first drafts and for multiple revisions. His professors were helpful and encouraging, and highly accessible. They want their students to succeed!
In his welcome address to parents, the president of Williams said that midway through their first semester many students feel like academic imposters who were admitted by mistake. 
Overtime, though, students acclimate and the anxiety dissipates.
To my son the first year entry system with its Junior Advisors was one of the best aspects of Williams. Heâs stayed close with his entry group throughout his time at Williams and years beyond. In general Williams kids are upbeat and energetic. I believe the emphasis on sports and outdoorsy activities and arts-focused extracurriculars helps counter academic stress.
@coffeeat3 - I would have told my own D21 to put those kinds of things in the COVID section. Then again, her Additional Info section is already full with brief details about her (unusual) ECs. So maybe they will see that and understand that she put the COVID-related things in the COVID section.
I have reread her statement in the COVID section many times, debating over this issue, and each time my gut says to have her leave it in. It tells what would have been and what she did about it in the service of others. Thereâs nowhere else where that info makes sense. So if she gets rejected based on that then I guess it definitely wasnât the right college for her.
Maybe she should apply to those U of CA schools after all, just in case she did this 100% wrong though.
Iâve been to Williams, the Berkshires are a beautiful, tranquil place to go to college.
Congrats to NMSF students! Does the letter come via email or regular mail? S21 has 225 and state cutoff is 220 but he hasnât heard anything yet. Thanks very much!
Still waiting here for NMSF notification too. Yesterday was day 2 of virtual school and different online systems Crashed on day 1 and day 2 so I think the school has their hands full. Sure would like the recognition though.
D21 is using the addl info section on the CA to add comments about how Covid affected her summer ECs and will leave the actual COVID section blank.
@Jdjd3kids - congrats to your kid! The letter came from the school. My kidâs GC handed it to him yesterday.
D isnât using the Covid section. The one big EC she had for spring did have a few meetings before Covid shut things down so that activity is in the activities section explaining how she was chosen for the EC, what she accomplished in the meetings she did attend and then briefly mentions that the culmination of the experience was cancelled. She has two ECs that happened this summer in place of what she would have done and those are in the EC section. Because one is an online class and one is an EC revolving around BLM. itâs pretty clear that they are choices she made because this summer was different than expected.
She did miss some ECs this summer, but most kids did and Iâm hoping that painting a positive picture of what she DID do will be a good thing.
I also donât think this section will make or break anyone.
Did you/your D do virtual admissions sessions at the schools she applied to? If so, what was their guidance on the covid question?
It is also OK for her to email her AO and ask how they prefer applicants treat that question. Yes, there can still be double speak and land mines in these communications, but having a direct communication is preferable to guessing.
My thoughts on the COVID sectionâŠ
Among the experts there isnât a consensus about what should be put there. Itâs all happening as our kids apply. I know what the U Chicago AO said, but theyâre very likely to get a high number of apps with a list of activities that didnât happen. Are they going to throw those out? Nah.
I do believe if you can get the details in somewhere else itâs great to leave it blank. The last thing you want is for your child to come off as a whiny privileged kid.
Right now, and this might change, my D plans to write about ECs she lost and the new quirky ones she picked up. Sort of making lemonade from lemons,
So, just curious, why wouldnât she just write about the âones she picked upâ in the activities section?
@homerdog a nice surprise this morning to see you back. ?
Iâm sorry for those who have less clear-cut situations of what to use or not use the COVID space forâŠS21 is lucky in not having anything close to big enough to put there, but I know others have scenarios that are trickier to figure out.
S21 has finally started back to school. His homeschool hybrid (2-3 days a week in person, other days independent workâŠjust as itâs always been but now more similar to what some other students are doing as a result of COVID) started this week - the day after Labor Day. He goes Tuesdays and ThursdaysâŠusually it would be sometimes Fridays as well, but Iâm not sure theyâll do Fridays in-person this semester. His two younger '23 sisters are 100% remote for the first semester (what we chose at their public school). His hybrid has just 12 students, and as of now, I believe only 3 are in person, though 1 or 2 others might shift to in person later in the semester. They are being pretty strict about who can be in-personâŠthose with jobs outside the house where they interact with a lot of people, for example, have to do online. (There is a family member of a teacher who has an underlying condition, so there is, perhaps, extra caution, but we understand that, and numbers are improving but still not great in GA).
Being back to school is so good for him - it definitely invigorates him (though in a few weeks it will also be exhausting him due to the homework load, haha). Heâs starting the year with, among other things, Asian history, literature, and philosophy (shifting to African in 2nd semester) and reading âDeath by Black Holeâ by Neil deGrasse Tyson. He just bought a car (has been saving for one since he was probably 11) and drives himself to school.
The funny thing is that I commented to one D23 the other day about how weird it seemed to have S21 gone at school all day (given that nobody here has been gone at school all day since March 12th)âŠand then it hit me how much stranger yet it will feel when he leaves next Fall, not for a day at school but for college.
Heâs reluctant to name any top choices of schools, but I think I have a sense for the top 3-4 and hope one of them works out in terms of acceptance, affordability, and how COVID goes for them this year. 3 of the 4 are early action, so it wonât be all that long before he knows, but one is RD.
@JanieWalker I am inclined to have similar thoughts about the covid section as you. I actually do not know what my D wrote because she did it on her own, but I probably would have told her to list the couple things that she was supposed to participate in that were cancelled (if not mentioned somewhere else in the app)-Girls State/selective opportunity/volunteer activity. In the early days of covid, I donât think she went anywhere besides run in the neighborhood for a month because we were concerned about her brother who is immune-compromised. Now, she gets out about once a week to grocery shop. I donât know what it is like to be an admissions officer, but I would think if that is not the kind of stuff they want to see there, it is easy enough to scroll through and disregard, but I obviously donât know. It doesnât sound like the section was too specific? Maybe different schools consider different things. Everyone seemed to miss out on things, but Iâd like to know what they missedâŠwere they going to be captain of sport team? Solo at the big concert? Participate in tutoring after school? Just my thoughtsâŠ