What helped in our case was to sit down every day (or every other day) for 15 minutes and do some work on the application. There are lots of mundane pieces, like which school the parents attended or entering his AP scores or entering his transcript, etc.
It may seem rather overwhelming right now, but seeing progress makes the task more doable.
S22 is not done with his first essay. He is working on it in his English class though. 
I actually have no idea what supplemental says he needs done by 11/1 either. Iām more concerned that he hasnāt decided if he is applying ED or not, but that would be a 11/15 deadline.
āAnd another oneās gone, another oneās gone. Another one bites the dust.ā
After a visit to her school today,Tufts is off the list. That leaves just 6. I want her to just stop researching and submit now before she finds fault with the remainder!
D22 very interested in Tufts. Can you provide some details?
I will PM.
Quick clarification because several have PMād. D22 felt academics and campus environs ticked the right boxes, but she didnāt feel like she would fit in to the social scene. D22 is quirky but not edgy. She is not disinterested in social justice issues, but they do not define her either. Seemed they were looking for a different student than her, and she recognized it so took it off the list.
Tufts is D22s high reach school. Hm, sheās neither quirky nor edgy. Sheās liberal but no social justice warrior. So it might not be a fit. The plan is to only visit if she gets accepted, so we might never find out 
She did drop her other high reach, Middlebury, from her list due to location. We are in the deep South and getting there seems too complicated.
I would not rule out anything on the basis of my D22s thought process. Perceptions are so subjective and others may not have felt the same way viewing the same presentations.
One of the Tufts essay choices: C) Where are you on your journey of engaging with or fighting for social justice?
I donāt think your D misread the vibe.
Like the vibe or not, I think it is a great question for the application. I suspect many people either self-select whether to apply or not after reading it, which means that hopefully no one goes there unaware of āfitā for them.
Exactly. This question provides good info on determining fit and makes my D more interested in applying.
Parent of S21/D24 checking in on 2022 like I promised another 2022 parent. Hugs to ALL of you parents. I know itās really frustrating, and full of anxiety right now, especially for the moms and dads who are the single point of contact for your kid among the two parent system. Your kid is either just fiddling their thumb with ED essays (my S21 was and the worldās biggest procrastinator and also had such a tough time doing these self-reflection type essaysā¦AP Lang essays, no prob). Or they actually really care and are stressed out and you canāt do much but give them hugs and loves. Or itās just so overwhelming (I mean, the common app platform takes a lot of getting used to!).
Itāll all work out and, yes, your kiddo will drive you nuts even after they are accepted somewhere. That was another aggravating phase for us!
My only advice is to sit down with your child in the next weekend or two and ask them about their list, their plans for schools they have on the list, and how they plan to prioritize the essays and what role they want you to play (reading, editing, giving feedback, etc). I found that getting it down on paper forced my son to tell me and pen his plan. It also helped me to determine what role I was going to play to help him and how to allocate time for it. This often meant last min reading and me staying up lateābut I saw his plan and I planned for it so that I would not lash out at him for last minute requests since they were all on the plan. But let them plan it. Keep and eye on a couple of must apply target and safety colleges but let them deal with the rest. If they want to go to those schools, kids will figure it out. Their kinda amazing GenZ like that.
One more thing, if you can afford it, please have your kid apply to the safest of safe schools. My son didnāt do this. He had āsafe/targetā schools and so many reaches. We were very naive living in CA where we thought getting into a UC (not Merced) would be reasonable. But UCs are so competitive no matter your GPA. S21 was thrilled with his admission results and the UC results but many of his UCs were announced later in March, he was waitlisted at Cal Poly SLO (which he assumed was a slam dunkāthat school is so wacky with who and how they determine who gets in with such limited app info) and that was a ton of unnecessary stress where had he applied to another UC or a CSU, life wouldāve been lived with a little less stress and a little more mental confidence.
What we did was make a list of all the Common App schools on his list, and then we (I) made a weekly list of tasks that had to be completed that week. We went over this task list at our weekly meeting (he picked Wednesdays at 7 pm).
Applications were submitted not based on EA deadlines (earliest deadline = Oct 18) but on those schools that āonlyā had the Common App essay. 
As of now, he has submitted 7 applications and there are 5 to go. 4 of the 5 have November 1 EA deadlines, but we have our internal deadline of October 5.
Wow, Iām impressed that he has submitted 7 applications already!!!
Would you please share the schools that donāt require an extra essay?
Close here. He has finished the basic stuff on the common app, but has done nothing for the essay or solidifying letters of recommendations. Iām sure soon that ship will sail and heāll be out of luck for schools that require them.
He tells me this weekend (we have Mon/Tue off) will be it. Heās going to crank through and get a ton done. I actually made him a detailed his, in order, of what needs to be done so he can just do the work. Iām tired of him telling me heās either too busy or needs a break. Itās always something! And then a big sigh and saying heāll get it done. Well, I hope.
But, he did get 2 apps in and was accepted to both. They are both affordable and I think heād be good going to either. So at least there is that! And he did write his essay for National Merit. I was not very sure that was going to happen with the amount of procrastination Iām seeing.
I would like my son to send some apps (many are done) but we are waiting on counselor and teacher recs. Can we send the apps even though no one has completed recs? He has already āassigned a teacherā etc but our school seems late on these recs. We just had the parent zoom meeting on these questions parents have to fill out. Do we have to wait until all info there before we send? It could be 3 weeks for us (thatās what the GC said).
We were encouraged to submit the applications to get the ball rolling and then let the rest trickle in, scores, LOR, transcripts, SRAR etc
No need to wait. Your son can go ahead and submit his part.
S22 submitted 4 applications if I count the NMF application. He already got accepted into one university. Of course, those left are more complex or not part of the Common App. He is also not entirely sure if to consider more schools or not.
@CAMother ā the five schools on his list that do not require an extra essay are Roanoke College, U of Mary Washington, U of North Carolina Greensboro, Virginia Comm. U, and Christopher Newport.
Heās working the rest of his list based on the shorter amounts of writing.
S22ās school has a deadline of this Friday (Oct 1) for requesting letters of recommendation. All but one school on his list require 1 teacher recommendation. He has to decide how wed he is to that one school, if heās going to request a second recommendation. He already has his first teacher rec request done.
I created a table of S22ās list of colleges. The number of recommendations required is one column. Additional college essays for each one is another column. A good way for him to gauge whatās going to be needed. Most are simple, āWhy X college?ā But there are a couple doozies in there, too.
Finally, itās fair to say weāre targeting one college in particular. S22 will apply EA to that school, plus EA to one or two others. The table has columns of (i) application due dates for EA, ED, Reg Decision; and (ii) when decision notifications go out. If S22 is accepted to his #1 school (Dec 15 decisions go out), heāll be done. No need to write all the other essays. If not, lots of writing over Christmas break!