@homerdog, I agree. We’ve had a front seat to watching this all unfold. For me, it was a reminder about how the competition was greater than ever, and well-qualified students who may have been a shoo-in for admissions at some other time received surprising news. My daughter was one of those students where one particular school was concerned. Having been down this road before, I know that sometimes when things don’t initially make sense, things happen for a reason.
I wonder if there will be some opportunity for our students to see some of these schools in the spring to help make their decisions. We really could use an in-person visit to possibly two or three in particular.
Oh gosh yes, we need to visit schools. Most of D’s schools will at least allow a self guided tour so we can walk around campus. It’s going to be more work to piece together a visit that is meaningful and can help with decision making though. I’m sure there will be admitted student zoom sessions. We might want to connect with students we just have a peripheral relationship with just to get a better sense of what the school is really like - maybe kids who went to our high school but we don’t really know them well. Also D is on ZeeMee and I highly recommend it. Kids join each college’s chat and get to know other prospective students. Many also post links to snap chat groups. For D, a big part of her decision will be based on how she thinks she fits in with the other students.
@homerdog My daughter is in the same exact position, she has two schools that are tied and both offer what she is looking for academically. She is looking to see where she meets students that she can see herself connecting to for the next four years. The challenge she’s facing is that she’s heard from one school, and there is almost a 3 month difference before she’ll hear from the other school, so she’s not sure how to navigate. Should she seek out other applicants not knowing if she’s going to get in? Or just wait to see if that university is even in the cards? She is already establishing relationships with people who are seriously considering the school she is already admitted to. She is afraid to get attached to people and have that sway her decision. This is not easy (but a good problem to have).
Something to keep in mind when reviewing fit regarding accepted students - many kids will just join and lurk, never posting, etc. so it’s important to realize that the group that posts is just a subset of the whole.
I think that EA schools sometimes get the edge when comparing them to RD acceptances. Your D should probably start digging deep on her EA acceptance and try to feel really good about it and then wait on the RD one. If the RD school comes in for her then she’ll have to be ready to compare the two.
Our neighbor was accepted to ND in EA but her first choice was Michigan. ND spent Jan and Feb sending all kinds of info and connecting her with students and she went to go visit (this was 2018). She started really liking it. So much so that, when Michigan accepted her later, she had kind of moved on and decided to go to ND.
@homerdog Makes sense. BTW, both universities are EA, one released mid-Dec and one releases decisions at the end of February. Her front runner was the February decision until she started meeting prospective students from the other school. Now she’s torn but doesn’t know if she has any reason to be since her fate has not been determined at the second school. It will be a fun two months!
I have a quick question about team sports during covid and the common app activities section. My S21’s team has been practicing (though not competing) this fall, but S21 has not been able to participate due to health risks (the team is not following national covid guidelines for this sport). He is still part of the team. In the activities section of the application, what should he be saying, if anything, about being on the team/not being able to participate? I’m assuming many students are dealing with this for all sorts of activities. Do they just say “can’t participate” in the description or not include senior year at all?
I recommend searching out a current student at each college/uni who attended your high school. We did this with 3 different schools that my D21 was considering for ED that had no current visiting. It was super helpful for her to have someone who came from her same school/cultural background and hear their experience at ‘X’ school. This was especially important as each of these schools was in a different part of the country from where we live. My D21 is excited to go to a new part of the country and have new experiences but found this very helpful in making decisions. We actually visited 2 of the schools and did our own very complete tours with 2 of these students. It proved to be the deciding factor for D21.
Williams has scheduled a few virtual sessions for accepted students to meet each other next month along with two additional days set aside in April for Virtual Previews. Maybe NESCAC schools will all be similar in that they are moving forward with virtual Accepted Students days? Anyone have a school say otherwise or leave room for in person?
Williams (and I think most NESCAC campuses?) are closed campuses for spring. Students can’t leave campus and no one is allowed on campus. I haven’t heard any word of that changing. One has to think it’s going to hurt their yield in RD. I absolutely assume admitted student days will be remote.
I would say “can’t participate due to COVID-19 concerns.” My daughter had to switch out of a dual credit class at the last second after she had submitted the Common App because her father and I were uncomfortable with the way the class was being handled in regard to COVID. D21 sent a short and to-the-point email to admissions officers letting them know of the change and why. No big explanations, just a “felt unsafe due to COVID.” One of the admissions officers sent her a very nice response, saying that she understood completely and she highly doubted anyone would penalize her in any way for the course change. I think they want an explanation (because maybe someone would not participate due to other reasons), but just a simple and short sentence is fine. JMO of course.
My daughters’ sports tournaments are all virtual right now (which is interesting to say the least), but if they had gone back to being in-person, D21 would have written a "would have participated, but they are being held in-person without strict COVID safety precautions so I do not feel safe participating at this time). That would be honest and no one would penalize her for that, especially not with a track record of having done those tournaments since middle school.
IMO if your child is on the team, participating in some way- practices/conditioning/team building activities/leadership they are a full member of said team in these COVID times. It should be listed as such.
Maybe your’re overthinking it. If they are on the team, list it. It’s a global pandemic, if colleges are going to judge kids for something like that then what has this world come to.
In some ways kids who played sports this year deserve some credit. My S21 has been running preseason for x-country for almost 6 months with a few starts and stops. In the end it looks like he will actually get to compete in February. That’s a six-eight month long preseason as opposed to a typical 4-6 weeks. I’d definitely give any kid who did that full credit.
We had an issue with our S21 and team sports too, because we’re in a state that shut down sports in March and hasn’t allowed any HS sports or club sports since (you can get 5 kids together to “practice” but they can’t be within 6 feet of each other). Our state’s college teams have had to move out of the state. Our S used the additional info section of the CA to explain what our state’s situation is, and what he’s doing instead (gave him time to join other clubs, all virtual). Everyone says “don’t use the additional info section” but he did, and it was apparently fine, since he got into his ED school.
Thanks, everyone. For the remaining two apps, he will include without qualification (to include explanation means he uses up characters that he needs to describe activity/role). He’s been varsity for 4 years and played 2 years before that.
Speaking of activities, did any of your kids include independent and solitary study/reading/research? S21 did not but I’m thinking he should. These last two apps are reaches for him so trying to make sure he gets everything he can in the app.