@NateandAllisMom You make a good point about firstgen. I am a professor at a medium-sized public university on the East coast and we are about 40% first gen. Enrollment and retention are huge issues for us right now, and administration has made a big push to have as many F2F classes as possible to keep students on campus (which is critical budget-wise) and engaged in classes. At risk students seem to have a lot more trouble with online learning.
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UC had platform issues so extended til 12/4 but CSU extended til 12/14I wonder if its related to what you shared. We are in CA so Iām selfishly hoping it is down 
U Rochester extended their RD/ED2 deadline to Jan 20th
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I wish the apps are down for University of CA colleges too. My S21 has applied to 5 UCs. Going by the deadline extension, can we predict the same for UCs too? And UT colleges too? (UTs have extended their deadline for another 2 weeks same like CSUs)
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On this forum, I think one of the parents said west coast college apps were up. So many different info. Good luck to your kiddo! We are from CA and my kid applied to 6 UCās and Cal Poly, too.
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Welcome to all the new members! I think we have a very balanced group of parents and students compared to my previous childrenās college admissions cycles.
I also have learned a lot from reading the previous years feed. I also regularly follow the 3.5 2021 thread as my D21 is a high achiever on paper but much more comfortable in schools ranked 25-50:)
No admission decisions today so I think we will get some action 12/14. D21 continues cool as a cucumber and acts as if we arenāt even deep in this process. She is having a great semester
academically. Misses her ECās and sport but happy to just take some time to chill with her pod minus the extra pressure dances, sports, ECās can create. Itās a strange silver lining and Iām enjoying my ābonusā time with all of my family as we continue to navigate work and school from home. Realized today how weird it will be when we all jump back onto the crazy treadmill that was life BC (before COVID)!
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@JanieWalker I understand. But I really like your idea. Unlike your D, mine is still struggling to get all of her supplemental essays done. I mentioned the idea of celebrating each time an app is submitted and D21 suggested I might buy her something from Sephora for every app she submits. 
That is not going to happen.
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There is a great college for every kid and yours will find his/her perfect college!
I remember when I took my child 2 and 3 on college visits and didnāt really know what it took to get into some of these schools. Were their grades good enough, were their ECs enough? What is the magic sauce? They didnāt invent something. Were we wasting our time? Etc.
But, at one school the presenter made a great point. He actually said not every kid here needs to have been the President of something. (We always hear about these kids who are the President of EVERYTHING). He followed this up with something to the effect of, āwe donāt need thousdands of Type A personalities running around hereā. Perfectly said IMO and so true. Everyone finds their happy place and it doesnāt need to be a Harvard. Just keep that in mind and your average student who is really a star will be just fine!
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@GoldPenn @JanieWalker usually I end up being the one to hit submit, because I put in the credit card info and then just push the next few buttons to finish the process. She seems content to have me press the confetti button a few extra times for her. Please donāt tell her that some people get more. 
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UW apps were up 10% at one point. I would guess that UC is more in line with UW than CSU especially with going test blind. Just a guess though.
Thatās so funny. For my son it was the opposite. When they were ready to be submitted he wanted to be the one to enter the credit card information and follow through. Made him feel more involved in that process. After that he hasnāt much cared about any of it. 
I guess Iām a hybrid. Lol. My D22 wanted to enter the card info and managed the application too.
But it was my card. Lol
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Son wanted me to enter credit card but heād push submit to activate the confetti. Iād take a picture of the confetti, and another of him smiling (or not) next to the screen shot.
Guess I wonāt admit that H and I were so thrilled when he completed CA that we elected to give him a new pair of Chucks that were originally to be a Christmas gift?!
He was surprised when we handed him the boxā¦and told us we were silly, but ā¦he was pretty excited nonetheless.
Like I said, I think we want this process over as much or more than him. 
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Are your kids checking the college individual portals regularly? Mine has applied to 9 with 4 more on his list. It seems like a lot to check. Thanks to you all, I now know you donāt just fill out the FAFSA. A lot of colleges require CSS. They cost $ so do you wait? Several have 2/1 deadlines but would love the strategy since they donāt tell you acceptance decision until March timing. Seems like more $ to submit and get the profile for the colleges your kid applied to. Am I thinking about this right? Thanks!
@mommalue Two years ago one of mine applied ED so we had to fill out the CSS for that school for FA. Two other schools she was applying to has the CSS as well but I noticed their due dates were significantly later (maybe Feb and March) so we figured why pay if she might get into the ED, which she did. With my other one who didnāt apply ED but pretty much made up her mind where she was going, that was our tact as well, just wait to apply. It turned out the first one didnāt get any FA so it wound up saving the money for the other one since if the one didnāt get it, the other wasnāt going to either so we never applied.
So, if you can hold off on waiting, I would wait to see if your kid gets into the school first.
This go around my son is applying to 10 schools and only 3 donāt have the CSS. We arenāt wasting our time filling it out since weāll have the same issue as last time. I did fill out the FAFSA however, which is something you can still do.
As far as the portals, no neither of us really checks that regularly. His friends all share the info with each other and schools generally email. We set up one unique email account for college info only. I literally cannot believe the amount of schools soliciting him to apply and some still saying he can get merit money. I thought that was only for EA schools and most of these deadlines have past. It was best thing we did. Set up email exclusively for college apps. Then he can use it going forward for school specific stuff, billing ,etc.
A new pair chuck t sneaks are always a cause for celebration. I fill out the CA will you get me a pair. I wonāt get in anywhere with my stats and 30 years too late but it will be worth it. Lol.
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To be honest, #4 and #5 are my last, and Iāve never even seen a college application. Iāve hired SAT tutors, helped edit essays, and research what colleges do and donāt give merit. Dd21 is incredibly organized, her twin brother is not, so sheās helped. I give them my credit card for scores and applications. I donāt have access to any portals, even when they are in college. If it wasnāt for my daughters I would be involved with my son.
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Every family does this differently. I think our kids are both highly organized and motivated but D21 (and S19 at the time) had 4-5 hours of homework a night plus time-sucking ECs. (Dās have continued - shes back to dance just twice a week but yearbook has been a full time job!)
I have zero problem hitting send on apps for her. She did all of the work and entered her activities list and her essays. I have copied and pasted her essays for her from her google doc into the apps. Hit send after she has said they are all ready to go. I have access to her email and her portals. She never checks them but I do - about once a week. Things do pop up sometimes that you might not get an email about.
Thereās no reason for me to add more to Dās plate when Iām basically just playing secretary. We are paying for college so I expect to be involved. S19 went away to school and did just fine even though I managed his college search.
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That sounds pretty familiar. I am an underpaid (unpaid) research assistant/secretary. I donāt do any original work, but will help with some of the logistical busywork that this process entails.
The ironic part is that IRL I pay someone to do this stuff for me at work because I am a pretty lousy secretary. I guess D is getting what she pays for. 
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I gotta say Iām surprised how little chatter there is about ED decisions here on CC and reddit. Normally by now the threads are hopping with anxiety ridden students and parents over analyzing every detail.
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