Great for him, he is almost done done!
Can I ask, does this mean he is now leaning towards bigger schools since 7 of these must have EA and I am not used to seeing EA at LACs…?
I often think how sick AOs must be of generic or overwritten essays!
I just want to add an asterisk to your D20’s situation, which is so amazing. I am guessing she is an excellent writer - I am not sure average writers could pull that off because even writing in a ‘real’ voice can take time and effort and even stress for many writers, particularly 18 year old ones. Well done for your D20 though, I like hearing how deeply the writing came from her.
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2/8 are small EA, 1 small ED. The others are big. He’s engineering focused, but will apply to some LACs in the RD round. Hopefully he will have some early acceptances and be able to tailor his list in Dec.
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There are some interesting videos on this topic (“Essays AO’s hate”). We watched a video recently. One of the AO’s spoke of the Mission Trip essays. The AO commented that “Your mission trip may get you into heaven, but it won’t get you into Harvard” 
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You have done great research which means a lot in finding a great fit. And he could get into his ED and be done in December!
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I wonder what AO’s think of these 1-week $$$ pay-to-play type college summer programs and essays written about those. I understand that AOs read the same things year after year, but what are kids supposed to do when there ARE life changing injuries, health issues, etc… I’d rather read about their growth from these type of experiences rather than some course a kid took that inspired to be “fill in the blank” as a career.
As much as I agree with the dialogue that the Class of 2021 had a really tough year in terms of admissions, I think our class of 2022 kids have it just (if not harder) for this application cycle. Our kids were essentially locked down last summer (esp here in CA) and this summer as well so many opportunities are still online- at a time that they were probably needing to get out and do things to figure out what it is they really want to do.
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Agree with this 100%. I think that is why it is so hard for kids like my son to put together a list - he isn’t really sure what he wants to do. Also, I’m guessing for many kids ECs will be on the light side this year - so few opportunities during Covid - especially for those of us in states where Covid was taken seriously.
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I recently read a piece by an AO who said that if you can believe it, she’s had two kids write about when armed men trying to assassinate their family and how they escaped and the lasting effect on their lives. She found herself thinking, “The last kid wrote about it better.” But her point was that it’s not necessary to write about something extraordinary if you write about it well. Yes, they read a tons of stories about sports, life changing injuries, etc. But that’s because kids are 18 and they’ve only had so many experiences. That they should just write with heart and honesty. Easy to say, I know! Now if I can just stop my hand wringing over my S22’s essay which he has informed me I am not allowed to read until after he hits the Submit button on the Common App a few months from now…
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Agreed, those programs are likely not compelling or revealing much interesting about the student.
There is a bit of a trap when the students are told not to write about generic or overused topics but at the samet time, there are really no “unique” topics left because just about everything has been written about. Add onto that, it is a challenge to write about those challenges you name because they are supposed to avoid any losing of perspective/entitlement/contest between whose is worse.
This is tough on them.
What helps me reconcile the above (and apologies for those seeing me post this repeatedly, I just love it 
) is the guidance from Hack the College Essay (https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/uploads/1/0/9/5/109505679/hack_the_college_essay_2017.pdf). Basically it focuses much more on how to write the essay in a real and interesting way rather than focusing so much on the topic itself. This guidance shows that just about any topic can be made revealing and authentic (or not!).
On your comment about the relative experience of '21s and '22s, I happen to have a D21 and an S22 so I have been in it both years. My take so far (and this could change as time goes on!) is that they are rough for different reasons so it depends on your specific kid which would be harder on them. Here are some examples:
Harder for 21s:
- No one really knew if Test Optional really meant Test Optional - there was no precedent to use like the 22s now have
- More challenging to craft the right list because very few visit opportunities and very little virtual content available during the first 6 months of the pandemic
- So many uncertainties about life circumstances, lost jobs, not knowing what college they could afford, what aid schools would provide
Harder for 22s:
- Signifcant lost time on Extra Curriculars
- Longer time with online school for many which might have hurt grades, development, mental focus on college, etc
- Confusion over what data to look at to assess college chances
I hope people don’t think that 22s have smooth sailing relatively - I think the AOs certainly know what they are up against…
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Regarding the college summer programs, I tend to think: Is it a piece of the student’s overall narrative? Or a one-off experience that is portrayed as fundamentally changing the kid’s future path? If the former, the program seems fine as application fodder. If the latter, the threshold to be authentic about that would seem quite high.
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Just to add to @smiles2122 post…I believe it’s harder for 2022 students to get teacher recommendations for college apps. My kid was online for portions of 2020-2021 and also the school had a block schedule of 9 or ten week courses, so the teachers really didn’t get to know the students. My kid has had 2 teachers decline requests to write recommendations because of the short class time and not enough info to use for the rec matrix.
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Agree with everything you wrote. But also another roadblock for many - visiting far away schools. We are in CA and just don’t feel comfortable travelling 6 hours on a plane to do a walking tour. I was lucky with my D20 as we visited many schools on the East Coast, but S22 had a difficult time choosing a list.
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The admissions folks have seen it all, so I don’t think that the students submitting stories about death, mental health, and other hardships have any actual edge when it comes to admission essays.
When our S16 was writing admissions essays we actually had a conversation about this. His concern was that he had too “easy” a life: two parents in a stable household, no concerns with income, attended good schools, and enjoyed many summer vacations. On top of that, he was not a strong writer - he was tech guy whose “creative writing” assignments in high school read more like a lab report. My two recommendations to him was to understand three of his traits that he wanted to relay in his essays, and to do so in a way that would make a reader want to get to hang out with him. So he started writing very early and after numerous revisions he had a strong set of essays for his applications. I believe it was his essays that earned him many acceptances.
My D22 is a much stronger writer but I am concerned that she does not want to start work as early as S16. I hope this does not introduce stress as she nears application deadlines.
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I love hearing everyone’s different perspectives on the essay! I think after going through this once before, and reading online (probably too much) insights from AOs, and hearing people’s experiences here on CC, I’ve come away feeling like the topic of the essay is less important than an authentic reflection from the author that evokes a feeling of “I’d like to meet this kid” from the AO.
I think the time needed to write the essay probably lies largely with the skill of the kid.
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It seems like I posted on this thread awhile back about my apathetic D22, yet here I am again with seemingly no more idea of what is going through her head than I had back then. My self-created deadlines as to when I thought she would start to get serious about college have come and gone…Spring Break…end of school year…end of summer. Senior year starts next week, and nothing has changed.
Just a few days ago we were having a casual dinner, and she was in a talkative mood. I thought it might be a good time to bring up the college subject…no real luck!! I even thought I was being sly when asking about the college plans of her classmates. Despite the fact that she talks about how close she is with certain friends, she says she “has no idea” where they are even thinking about applying.
Prior to her leaving for her beach vacation this past weekend with the other side of her family, she mentioned that she was going to take her laptop and that she “might” research some colleges while she was gone. She said she would like me to email her a list of schools that fit the few parameters she has actually voiced…large, state universities, primarily in sunnier locales. She comes back tomorrow, so I am cautiously optimistic that she will actually have an opinion about a few places.
She is a top 20% student who will graduate with the full IB diploma. Her ACT and SAT were slightly above-average. I encouraged her to take the ACT again in both June and July, but I was informed that there was a “scheduling issue” as to why she did not get around to testing either of those dates. She says she will take the ACT in September to try to get in the “30 range”. Whether she actually takes it or whether she puts in any effort to prepare for it is anyone’s guess.
A good deal of my frustration comes from the fact that I am a non-custodial parent; and even though I am with D22 throughout the week, I do not have the benefit of being with her day-to-day. My ex is also college-focused but over-inflates D22’s admission chances at schools I firmly believe are out of her range with her current stats. Therefore, the sense of urgency is only coming from me. While I do not like constantly being the “killjoy”, I worry that my daughter is the type of kid who will continue to take a cavalier approach to the looming college application process and then get resentful because she was not accepted to a college she deems “academic” or “top ranked” enough.
Lastly, I am concerned about COST. My ex, however, is not. Our two in-state flagships are VERY competitive for admission. My D22 will definitely need to get her ACT score up, write solid essays, and get her application in ASAP to have a chance at admission to either of these schools. Obviously, going out of state means more money; but if she will commit to bringing her ACT score up, she should be able to offset some of those OOS costs with a little merit money.
I have probably gotten more out of this thread than any other on CC. It is nice to know that I am not the only parent with a enigmatic child…one who is actually a motivated student but who has no motivation when it comes to applying for college.
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I am constantly surprised at what my kids DON’T know about their friends! My daughter told me one of her very close friends was transferring, and when I asked where, she said she didn’t know! I had to ask the friend herself when I picked up my coffee at Peet’s! How do you not ask where??
Re: worries about ex over-inflating your D22’s admission chances - maybe you could suggest more targets and safeties in the effort of having the customary balanced list or because of all the unknowns around covid, so she doesn’t take it personally, or think you don’t think she’s capable?
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Same for us. S22 and D25 generally know very little about what their friends are up to. With D25, we experienced this in the high school application process this past year. She didn’t know much about where her close friends were going!
Collegevine did improve their Chancing engine this year. Of course it still has limitations like any tool (or human) would have but it might help to have the common, objective language with your ex. If your D inputs all her information and potential schools, the tool will show which it thinks are matches, reaches, etc and percent chances and at least the tool is saying so and not you. Last year it seemed too optimistic (which wouldn’t help you) but I looked at it again more recently and it seemed more realistic. It tiers Extra Curriculars so I think it is a little better than the average engine.
Of course, if your ex sees 15% chance and thinks that is a strong chance, then the tool can’t help with that. 
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@smiles2122 Thank you for your insight on the accuracy of the College Vine chancing site. I’ve been wondering about that since our school’s Naviance is not very helpful because S22 is applying to colleges that nobody has applied to recently so there is nothing in the scattergrams. Also, he’s only met his counselor once in 3 years so they never discussed what would be appropriate colleges for him. We were going purely on Common Data set information and were not sure how much to trust College Vine, which is currently showing his list as pretty balanced. Fingers crossed that it’s relatively accurate!
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Sun and engineering made me think of Auburn. It’s pretty interesting that a point on the ACT – from 28 to 29 — can result in $5500/year more in scholarship funds
Our minister had a son who was going to Abilene Christian. He tried to persuade his kid to take the ACT again to boost his score to get a bunch more money. He even offered splitting the extra money but nah, he was good. 
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