Sept SAT was canceled for D21. She’s thrilled, as am I. She’s done. She has a decent score for most of the colleges on her list from her March exam results, and her lotto schools are now all TO. She never has to take that stupid test again. Yay!
@homerdog Your obsession with the Amherst portal had me cracking up! I recall I was caught up in it, too.
For the rest of you parents, let this serve as a cautionary tale: We got so caught up to the point of one poster noticing a tilde ~ whenever some logged in and the connection with accounting/admissions this likely had lol!
When I searched back through the comments, I noticed it carried forward to the following class and who was still talking about it? @homerdog and me 
@Meddy Right!! It was the tilde! Lol. Too funny. Good memories. Before Covid stress. Lol.
Welcome @Kerthra! Hello fellow merit chaser!!!
To add to @mamaedefamilia , if your son get 1K in scholarships from Texas Tech, that automatically gets him instate tuition and their top Presidential is 9K off instate tuition…
Also the way you describe your son. I see a perfect fit at UT Dallas, hands down!!! Their scholarships are heavy on SAT/ACT metrics. I think the top level AES had my friend paying 10K out of pocket a year including room and board
My daughter’s best friend is NMF, he is introverted, non Rah, Rah, non sport kinda guy, he will go to UT Dallas and major in CS.
D is sadly not interested in UT Dallas. She wants Rah Rah school. She has applied to Mississippi State, University of Alabama and Texas Tech(we are local). She will major in electrical engineering, computer engineering or possibly CS.
My EFC is higher than state schools (around 40K) but I can only afford a hard stop of 15K and that includes travel cost.
Also University of Arizona in Tuscon is giving fantastic merit purely based on GPA, no scores needed at all. I plugged in D’s GPA (unweighted 4.0) and it give her a hair shy of full tuition. Something to think about!
More to worry about for application writing in this WSJ story today: https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-admissions-in-a-covid-year-sats-are-out-personal-stories-are-in-11600315272
Key quotes:
“This wasn’t something you could study for or plan for, but it offers a great opportunity for students to show us what they were able to do when they just had to figure out how to make it work. That’s a unique story,” says Catherine Davenport, dean of admissions at Dickinson College
“Students should explain as well as they can the context of their lives during Covid,” says Eric Furda, dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania. “That means hunting deep for insight about how Covid affected them, how they were able to derive meaning from it, how it will impact them moving forward.”
The paths students took when the routine of their lives was removed offers a unique window into their lives, [Art Rodriguez, dean of admissions at Carleton College] says. “It did not affect everybody the same way, but it has affected everybody in some way,” he says.
Mr. Bonser [director of admission at Colorado College] says this is an opportunity for them to illustrate how they showed leadership and perseverance. And if some students spent most of their senior year in their basement watching cartoons and eating Cap’n Crunch cereal, Mr. Bonser says he understands that, too. “But hopefully at least there will be some glimmers of hope,” he says. “Maybe it will help them clarify their goals or what they are looking forward to in their future.”
@twoin18 Well, that makes sense. These schools want kids who are making the most of this time. I don’t think it means the student has to answer the Covid question though. It does mean they want to see some ECs from the last six months showing what these kids actually did during this time. In lieu of that, maybe they do want some sort of explanation in the Covid section. Most kids likely found something to do - online classes, a job, social justice issues, long-term ECs that continued online for spring/summer. All of those should be on the app somewhere.
I saw this too and it kind of goes against what I have heard from AOs, podcasters, and reps so far. IMHO I don’t think the CA FAQs and question on Covid invites the kind of response mentioned in this article. None of the supplements we have seen so far have asked about Covid either.
I can understand why they would want to know if you made lemonade, but there is a lot of talk about cutting people a break, taking care of yourself, etc. S has a couple of Covid relief volunteering entries on his activities list but is not pontificating about Covid changes in his essay, etc.
@NateandAllisMom – congrats on your S getting his Colorado School of Mines app in!!
Remember our very recent discussion about whether or not your student should write anything in theCovid section ?
Well, as if things aren’t confusing enough already, the Wall Street Journal has an article out titled “College Admissions in a Covid Year:: SATs Are Out, Personal Stories Are In.” I don’t know how to give you the link, but it’s easy enough to find.
The article states that the Common Application this year gives an extra space for students to describe how they dealt with the limitations imposed by the pandemic. Not a word implying that this space should be reserved for students experiencing severe consequences. In fact, I felt the article was saying the opposite…a new kind of demand /pressure that students explain how they dealt with the situation, “how students handled the limits imposed on them by the Pandemic and what they learned from the experience.” Ugh. so, no longer an opportunity for those deeply affected to explain their circumstances, or (for more fortunate kids) just a list of what activities were affected. This article seems to say it’s another optional (but really non-optional ) mini-essay for AOs to use to scrutinize grit and character, from what I read. More pressure for kids to demonstrate their eloquence reflecting about themselves.
Article quotes dean of admissions to U Penn: “Students should explain as best as they can the context of their lives during Covid…that means hunting deep for insight about how Covid affected them, how they were able to derive meaning from it, how it will affect them moving forward.”
The article also quotes AOs from Dickinson College and Colorado College.
Ugh. I have a headache. My D is in the throes of the CA essay doldrums…stuck after several drafts, and will have three supplemental essays to write (I know that many kids have a good deal more). Today she said “I am so sick of writing about myself. I wish I never had to write “I” again!” I don’t have the heart to tell her about this. I hope the great consensus is that I won’t have to.
It makes sense that AOs want more /different input from students in order to make decisions now that SATs and junior/senior year actitivities have had to to be curtailed but darn It, our kids have already gone through the prep and the stress of signing up for the SATs, even if the tests never happened. Do AOs have any idea how much anxiety and pressure they are adding to the mix by this added Covid Section (and the inconsistency about what is, and is not expected? ) Or is this just irresponsible journalism?
ah, @Twoin18, , guess I was writing my post at the same time you were writing yours about the same thing!
I suspect that kids with few EC’s they would still wonder why. This is how I look at it-if I look at my kid’s application and wonder about something and if it isn’t explained anywhere, then it is going to be left up to the AO’s interpretation. Is that going to be okay? That’s the decision to be made.
How many kids applying to selective colleges would feel confident enough to admit spending months in the basement watching cartoons and eating Cap’n Crunch? What colleges would really expect kids to feel they would be supported (not to mention applauded) writing those kinds of things, even if they’re true, and even if they led to great self-awareness in the end. You’ve got to be kidding me?
I haven’t read the article but based on the pieces that you and @Twin18 shared, I am thinking it’s a sloppy piece where the writer went in with a point of view and found quotes to support it. Maybe I shouldn’t jump in til I actually read though, right?
Anyway, I am sticking with telling S to leave it blank. My S has plenty of ECs. Yes, his life has changed due to COVID and some opportunities missed, but nothing in a dramatic or irrevocable way, and I don’t think trying to craft a COVID ‘growth’ story to share on apps makes sense for him. He has other things to write about pre-COVID.
@homerdog, re schools wanting kids who are making the most of their time, last spring soon after schools were shut down I mentioned here on this thread that my D (normally NOT a crafty kid) had enjoyed the afternoon making origami birds. I mused briefly that I wonder if some kids might write about their discovery of simple/new pastimes that they never had time for (pre-pandemic). You voiced quite strongly that AOs and college counselors were warning that students were NOT to write about anything they did during the pandemic as that would add too much pressure during a stressful and tragic time. I explained that I didn’t mean that they should write about achieving anything meant to impress anyone, just small things they did/learned or simple pleasures re-discovered as a way to cope or to doing something constructive or to create a bit of happiness. But nope. Everyone agreed that that was not appropriate. I guess things have turned full circle.
Luckily, I don’t have access to any of S21 portals So I won’t be able to check constantly. He was annoyed at me when I asked him to check his portal for TAMU looking for the six tabs.
True… and in some cases, what about the kids who were shell shocked or undergoing some sort of depression but not realizing it. Manifested in ways such as eating comfort food like capn crucnch or whatever and retreating to their basement. Unless severe, most probably wouldn’t even seek help with SIP!
I really feel for these kids… the schools who are asking for this should clarify the question then… IIRC someone posted the actual question and it certainly seem to imply to use that section to say how you were impacted negatively (and thus your coursework impacted). Not how you may have had an epiphany or awakening during this time period.
Too much pressure and they are just still kids, really.
@inthegarden while I don’t think I would put the origami making in the Covid section or in the EC section, I do think it could be an interesting essay if there’s a spot for it on any apps, depending on the question and how its answered. Finding solace during a hard time by learning something new and writing about that time could be pretty powerful if written well.
Like I’ve said before, D missed out on a few things but nothing mind blowing enough to mention it. And her Covid lockdown time was clearly not dreadful even though it was stressful for her as it was for all students. No Covid essay for her. She picked up two new ECs this summer and I’m sure the AOs will notice they are new and assume that’s what she pivoted to once her planned activities were cancelled. Her planned activities related to her long term ECs so, while they would have continued to tell her “story”, they didn’t add anything new. At least the two things she did this summer tell the AOs even more about her interests.
@Faithabove - (I’m chuckling: my DH and S21 asked me to buy Capt Crunch a few weeks ago and yesterday I bought myself the Peanut Butter one bc I knew I needed it!! Before Covid I hadn’t bought Capt Crunch in likely 10 years!!) ??
@123Mom123 – My solace during COVID has been swimming (laps) and nightly ice cream. I am hopeful they counterbalance each other! 
@AlmostThere2018 - That is a very sound combo!!! ?