Yes, @NateandAllisMom — we got that too! I think WPI is waiving app fee for everyone from this point forward. Makes me think their apps are down or they’re at least worried they’ll be down… Being in MA with its tight travel restrictions may be, among other things, affecting them.
Well. we talked it over with S21 this weekend. He decided that even though he’s already been accepted to Pitt, he might want to have a few more options on the “merit currently unknown” front besides Loyola U Maryland. So he put in apps to Loyola, Saint Joseph’s U, Goucher, and Washington College.
Mr. InfiniteWaves and I were going to use our “Parent Pick” card (we did this with S19 too 
) for SJU so this was a welcome development. As Loyola alums, we are Jesuit university fans. And SJU is very similar to Loyola, only in Philly. So, it could give S21 solid city setting options in Pittsburgh, Philly, and Baltimore.
S21 visited SJU and Goucher when we were college planning with S19. He did not come with us for the WColl visit with S19. We managed to do open houses at Pitt and Loyola a year ago. The pandemic put a damper on spring “revisit” plans for the others.
Anyway, Goucher offers another Baltimore option. And I put WColl in there as a wild card. A few of the best writers I’ve worked with (in the Baltimore/DC area) went there. I have a very positive impression of the English program. S19 got in with a great merit scholarship that put it within budget for us.
For anyone interested, there are no application fees in the Common App for SJU, Goucher, and WColl. I’ll cross post to the 2021 3.0-3.4 thread as this might be helpful there too. 
D21 submitted her transcript request to her GC in early September. I have patiently waited for GC to load it into Naviance. D21 asked GC last week when are you going to load the transcript in Naviance she got some mumbo jumbo about the GC report which is separate and apart for loading transcript. This AM I sent a pleasant but firm request for the transcript to be loaded as she could have an acceptance in hand from Bama except for the lack of official transcript. Within 20 minutes she sent and email back and said it was done. Got the notice about 10 minutes later that said BAMA had added the transcript to her application. Sometimes the “squeaky wheel gets the grease”
Woo-hoo that’s great, @burghdad ! Hope you hear something official from Bama soon!
@InfiniteWaves, sounds like your son’s in a great place and will have a lot of choices this spring!
Okay, well a little progress by D21 is typing in the Common App. But can anyone refresh my memory on is there a difference between a recommendation and evaluation? I ask because there is a yes/no question that asks if you want to have the teacher evaluate the specific college application? Is it an additional document sent to them? Sorry, it’s late and my brain is fried!
@whydannyboy We looked at Furman in January 2020 when we did a tour of some schools in NC, SC & FL. Our D21 absolutely loved Furman! The tour guides were very personable and took time to individually speak with all the prospective students on the tour while showing us around.
As mentioned, the campus is beautiful. There is a bike track that runs by campus and goes south into the city of Greenville or north toward the mountains. Greenville was a great surprise - a very walkable small city with many Independent, local restaurants. It’s about a 10-minute drive from campus. The school has a good relationship with the city, and students have many internship opportunities there.
All first-year students take a writing seminar, and the university runs CLPs which all students attend throughout their four years, learning about a variety of many different topics. The school is about 1/3 liberal, 1/3 conservative and 1/3 independent, and I’ve heard that students are respectful of one another’s viewpoints. We were impressed.
Where is that question on the CA? I don’t see it anywhere.
@homerdog I imagine your kid is way beyond it. When you add your school and go to add a recommender, it asks if you want them to fill out an evaluation for this school. It seems that on the CA they use those words interchangeably?
Ah. We never saw that question because we don’t add recommenders - it’s done by our GC through Naviance. Sorry I can’t help!
Hearing some interesting developments wrt ED and athletic recruits.
Some schools not requiring recruited athletes to apply ED, still with full coach support (mostly D3).
Recently, a Patriot league school told all of their athletic recruits (maybe just football?) to NOT apply ED. Implication is schools want ability to accept more ED candidates to lock in yield and likely, a higher proportion of full pays. Because this is DI, there’s no risk to athletes, they will just sign their binding NLIs starting Nov 11 (for non-football sports) and apply RD.
Why couldn’t a school take their athletes and a bunch of full pay families for ED? Because they don’t want to look like they are taking a larger percentage of their class in ED?
Thinking is it opens up more ED spots for unhooked students, and likely more full pays. At non-Ivy DI schools, most of the recruited athletes are subsidized with athletic scholarships.
I think most schools will continue to take the same number of students they always have in ED this cycle, but time will tell.
This all kind of sucks. I wish we were comfortable with ED!
Rick Clark from Georgia Tech tweeted his admissions predictions for this year.
1- Most colleges will receive less/flat apps this yr.
2- Admit rates at most places will go up, due to less apps/anticipated yield decrease
3- Yield decline due to economic hit to families/hesitancy to travel as far
4- International apps drop most places due to Covid in US, rhetoric or policies, aggressive recruiting by other nations.
5- Big waitlists at big & selective schools, but also more waitlist activity extending much deeper into summer.
6- Gap yr. concern not really a thing.
He does not mention ED but I am sure if yield is a concern than ED will be a useful tool.
Yeah I’m afraid D21 might see a slew of waitlists. This could drag on. And, since we haven’t visited any schools, that makes waitlists tricky. What if she gets into schools she likes but then gets some really good waitlist options. She takes the waitlist spots. When you are called from a waitlist, you have very little time to say yes or no so we’d have to high tail it across the country to see a school and make a decision in a few days. I wouldn’t want to take her to any school she’s waitlisted by just “in case” she gets off the list.
This happened with S19. He was waitlisted at Vanderbilt. We had never visited. He knew if he took the spot and got called, he’d have to make some quick decision. In his case, he was already happy with his options and didn’t take the spot. If he had visited prior to the waitlist decision, would he have taken the spot? We will never know.
It could be more complicated for D.
Rick Clark seems to be saying that this cycle will be similar to the last cycle. I hope so.
Right. If schools are jittery it might mean they accept more kids. Some may end up with some forced triples I guess but better than not getting enough of the students they want. I can’t imagine how colleges are doing enrollment management when this application season is completely unprecedented.
Since this is my one and only and not looking at any Southern colleges. D received a invitation to apply to UAlabama, no application fee or essay. I knew she would get the Tuition and $1K/yr stipend and RB for first year. But it was nice to see the application fee waiver & no essay for those who are interested. This was for that College Board recognition thing. None of her colleges even recognize that so no benefit for her.
Below are tidbits from this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/well/family/how-parents-can-support-teenagers-in-the-pandemic-college-process.html
“…this year, nothing is certain. Jeffrey Selingo, author of the new book…said his contacts at one of the nation’s most selective universities told him they expect to receive test scores from half their applicants — at most…”
“…the combination of the increased size of 2020’s gap year cohort, a trend of students wanting to stick closer to home and some financially strapped families looking for less expensive options may alter the usual application patterns. Some fear that state universities will become more competitive.”
Less international and OOS students too may mean more in-state acceptances. And then there’s a trickle down effect, I think, in terms of university systems like the UC’s here in CA.
So, our local public HS is giving an SAT test tomorrow. Yay, I think. 
We knew there could be one given at school about 3-4 weeks ago, but the outcome was uncertain, since our county had been in the “purple” (very bad) zone. A few weeks ago, we progressed to the “red zone” (just bad).
Well hopefully know the results on 11/4, which is 3 days before our “last chance” 11/7 CB-given test. Most of D’s preferred list of schools are our publics. The CSU’s are “test blind” and the UC’s are presently “test optional,” but that could change in about 5 minutes from now. And then change again 5 minutes after that. ?