Check each college and each scholarship they offer. Most colleges do not require the FAFSA for merit.
Which schools require FAFSA for merit aid? If they donât, filing fafsa will have nothing to do with the awarding of non-need based aid.
He has an interview with Hamilton on Saturday and has attended several virtual sessions with them, including a virtual high school visit on Friday with the admissions rep for our area. Hoping this pushes him through.
I am frustrated with my D21 HS. Applied to Alabama and Clemson. All that is needed for the application to be complete and admission to be offered, at least to Alabama is a a transcript to be loaded into Naviance. She filled out the request form on Naviance over a month ago.
Additionally I know Clemson normally admits high stat kids about the 9-10th of November. Would love to have those two acceptances in hand. However we are at the whim of the high school to load the transcript. UNC EA application due on October 15 still waiting on not only transcript but LOR to be loaded onto Naviance. Donât want to be a pain but I am day or two away from an email to the guidance counselor
I have a trip planned in November to Saint Louis University and Alabama including a specific program at the Alabama nursing school. However as of right now both Missouri and Alabama are on the PA travel restriction states that they ârecommendâ 14 day self quarantine after return. How are others who have been out doing visits handled this? Also the trip requires multiple flights. How safe have our airline travelers felt these days?
BTW, Iâm about halfway through the new Jeff Selingo book previously discussed on this thread and itâs very good. Apart from a little too much background information, I find it helpful. Unfortunately, there is not a ED that makes sense for us but he encourages that. He also explains behind the scenes scoring of applicants at the schools he observed and itâs making me feel a bit better about S being test optional this year.
@burghdad we are in the same situation. I emailed the GC and asked if possible to at least load for DS rolling admissions schools and he replied that it would be no problem and done that week. I waited 10 days and then forwarded our previous correspondence and just asked very politely when the transcripts would be uploaded. I did not reference to our previous correspondence as it was there in the email exchange. Clearly he did not recall or bother to read it as he just said they were working on it and would have it in during October, never acknowledging that he had indicated it would be done alreadyâŠ
Not that I necessarily think he would hold a grudge but at the same time I do not feel so bold to remind him or direct him to the previous correspondence. I cannot imagine it is so difficult to do but at the same time I do not understand why the schools do not look at unofficial transcriptsâŠI really dislike the college admissions processâŠ
@NateandAllisMom I just finished reading the book and it was very interesting.
I came away thinking the applicant has no idea what these schools want that particular yr and why they admit one student over another.
Itâs uncomfortable to think about how subjective it is. Makes me glad S has a list on the longer side.
Univ of Akron ?
This is the reason my D21 has an incredibly long list of schools - each one of which she would be happy to attend. She could get into the majority of them or âonlyâ the state safety (which is still a good school, hence the âonlyâ in quotation marks, but she would prefer one of her other matches or reaches). She is a good fit for each, and she has excellent ECs and regional awards and leadership etc., but she is not a recruited athlete, she does not have submitted scores in the 1500+, she is a white girl from the northeast, she is not first gen, she is homeschooled (with lots of college courses etc, but still), her main EC is weird and will either be greatly appreciated or it will just plain raise eyebrows and confuse folks, etc etc etc. So who the heck knows what will happen. Hence a very long list that most people on here would scoff at if they knew the number. Itâs somewhere between 1 and 30, lol. Sheâs hoping at least one of her matches/reaches âgetsâ her and invites her to attend. But the process is truly unpredictable, and I will be so glad when she has at least one acceptance in hand.
@JanieWalker Sounds like a well thought out plan of attack. God bless her that she is willing to completed the required essays for âsomewhere between 1 to 30â schools.
@JanieWalker - No judgments here! ?I think itâs wise and if my S would apply to all the schools that he liked and would be happy to attend, heâd be in that same range. (He just doesnât want to write all those essays. But Iâd be a happy momma! Choices are always good, IMO!)
Thatâs why she started writing âWhy Xâ essays back in early June. She finished almost all the supplemental essays and the Common App essay before her classes started this fall. She correctly guessed most of the supplemental essay questions based on the previous yearâs prompts. There is no way she could have managed all of that once fall kicked inâŠshe had a bunch of things to do last summer, but there was more flexibility and she could fit in about an essay and a half a week with her schedule where by now there is absolutely no way on earth she would be able to get it all done. I think she wrote around 18 supplemental essays plus a few little short answer (very few words) questions. Each was well-thought out and took time - she had visited all colleges except for one multiple times over the years, she took notes, she remembered who she spoke with etc, and so the âWhy Xâ essays came fairly easily. Still, there is no way she would have managed that once her classes began. She also did all her interviews except for two (those needed to wait until she actually applied before she could schedule them). Now, even though she is finished the bulk of it all, she is still getting thrown curve balls, things neither she nor I expected to have to deal with at this point (see my U of Rochester post above). So both she and I will be very very very very very happy when she gets the first (and hopefully not the only) acceptance, so she can feel that all that work paid off and that yes, she will definitely go to college next year.
She is still considering applying to the U of CA schools, though she is now 100% burnt out from writing college application essays. So if four of her already-written supplemental essays donât already fit into the U of CA prompts somehow, then either she wonât apply or she will submit the worst burnt-out writing she has ever produced in her life and the U of CA application will be useless because there will be no way sheâll get in to any of the CA schools (unless one of them values burnt-out and rambling essays). :neutral:
My D23 is watching this process and already knows she is not applying to more than ten schools when her time comes. She is much more picky about what she likes and what she doesnât like, and one thing she knows she does not like is having to write eight hundred million essays. 
Thatâs just born out to be false thinking from my experience. D19 had two friends who put UNCCH at the top of their lists. Both had visited the school junior yr. Both denied, one ended up at Vandy and the other at U Mich. I donât think either one of them even applied to UCs. And it really doesnât matter how strong you of a student you are in state CAâŠunlike UNC where acceptance to Chapel Hill is pretty predictable, the tippy top kids in CA often do not get into their UC of choice.
Just saw S off the to the ACT. S did the best he could to prepare in 12 days notice but the practice tests were very lopsided. Sigh. Hoping for the best and quick results.
Can anyone please advise how long ACT took with the summer results? Thanks!
Good luck to your S today, @NateandAllisMom !!!
I think ACT w/o writing is turning around scores in about two weeks.
Sorry Iâve been MIA around here. My S is in crunch mode with 8 apps to finish by Nov 1. Hoping to submit the first batch tomorrow and another this weekend. After Nov. 1 he has a few more reaches heâll likely submit but most not due until Jan 2 so heâs got some breathing room.
These EA deadlines are brutal for my procrastinating son, esp. on top of a tough course load. Of course, I told him in Aug he should knock more supplementals out, but . . . here we are.
@AlmostThere2018 - Totally hear you. I love my son dearly butâŠhis lack or urgency ups my anxiety. So⊠I just sent my son a text saying Iâm done with nagging. The fewer choices he ends up having is of his design.
@123Mom123 Same here, I am done nagging.
Sometimes kids put stuff off. A lot of S19âs friends wrote a bunch of essays during winter break right before deadlines when it finally hit them. They did just fine in admissions even for top 20 schools. Of course, as adults, this makes us nuts but some kids need to have the fire lit under them I guess.