Nice to hear!
How is essay writing going for everyone? For my DS23, it is very much a work in progress. My DD21 happens to be a strong writer but my son is more âto the pointâ type of guy. His additional argument is that for the colleges he will most likely apply to, essays are probably not that important. Apparently, LORs are also âoptional.â I have told him that he needs to put something together that is coherent and easy to read. We shall see how that works out.
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NAU has a very easy application, no essays required.
Son got accepted within 2 weeks. And 9k x4 years scholarship given.
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Did he use Common App or the schoolâs application?
I am not sending my kid to AZ.
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The school app.
I am not a huge fan of AZ political climate either. However, I personally feel that way about most red states. Iâm trying not to totally let my own thoughts factor into his decisions.
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DSâs school college counselor says âleave nothing up to reading between the linesâ. If itâs âoptionalâ, but will give them a better picture of who you are, turn it in (with the exception being standardized testing which is a whole other process of determination). As a former AO herself, she feels that the more the AO can see you as a person, the more invested they become. She also feels it guards against the AO unconsciously coming up with some scenario that wonât necessarily work out in your favor (student didnât feel âinvestedâ enough in the school to write an essay, student couldnât get letters of recommendation, etc.). IF there is a reason to not submit something or if something you have to submit doesnât present you in the best light possible, she highly recommends using the additional essays (especially the ones that ask you if there is anything else you want them to know) to explain yourself.
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D23is filling out the Common App on her phone and I said maybe it would be better to do on her laptop - she told me itâs called the common APP and she cannot do it on the computerâŠI see this process is going to go smoothlyâŠon the bright side, she started it on her own, no nudge from me.
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We have been giving deadlines to work towards and pushing for progress. Itâs starting to come together. DS23 has the common app filled out, personal statement complete, and working on supplemental statements. He has 3 to write, 1 of which is nearly complete. School starts in about 2 weeks and heâs on track to have apps submitted by then. He is waiting on his final course list to be sure he got into the courses he requested last spring before submitting any applications. He has the recommender requests sent but they havenât been on campus yet so the teachers and counselors havenât done those pieces. He asked for LORs last spring and we know one teacher already wrote it. The other agreed to do so. Hopefully they are able to get those in the common app in the coming weeks. My assumption is schools wonât process his application until those pieces are in.
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Personal common app essay done (will have to be reviewed by the counselor and me but not sure he will be taking many comments), common app started but needs a lot of work, numerous supplemental essays not even started.
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Dying to know whether D23 has made any further progress but holding myself back from inquiring. She sure is enjoying her summer with her friends though which I see as a big positive!
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I keep reminding myself that Iâve set her up for success and will continue to remind her of timelines and be there for support. But at this point Iâve done a lot of what I can without her taking the ball and really running with it. It is mostly in her court now.
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2022 Mom popping in. My D22 was not motivated at all over the summer before her senior year. Yâall donât stress about it! Once she got back to high school and her peers were talking about colleges and the guidance counselor starting talking about colleges she put together her apps pretty quickly. She also completely changed her mind about where she thought she wanted to go. She really needed some non-parental motivation and found that at school.
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Thatâs reassuring!
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I thought Iâd share that my D23âs digital SAT score from the pilot study came back and it was lower. They allowed kids to participate only if they were taking the March or April SAT to be able to norm them digital SAT scores. Thatâs why it took so long to get the scores. This is the first time in the development period that kids have the option to actually use the scores, or they can choose to delete them. I will recommend my daughter to delete them.
She came out of the test thinking it was easy. Itâs shorter and also it uses AI to present questions of increasing difficulty for the student from what I understand. I wonder if this is why my D23 did not do as well. She is sometimes better at hard things than easy things. I donât know if itâs an attention thing, like harder questions force her to stop and think, rather than click through without really focusing. Or if itâs just a quirky thing about her.
I kind of regret now not having her do the June SAT. I guess I could talk to her about August but she hasnât prepped at all and isnât in study mode.
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2 apps are in. These ones didnât have a supplemental essay so they were quicker to be ready. Trying to keep the momentum going!
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D23 is plugging along slowly but surely. She is no where near submitting apps yet but thatâs OK. I was so excited to see her email admissions at each school yesterday for the first time and establish interest and contact. And then receiving the encouraging replies back was exciting for her and made it pretty real.
She did have a good discussion with her friends about requesting LORâs as soon as school starts and who they each were planning to ask. At our school this timing is fine luckily and not too late.
Also, although she has steadfastly preferred larger schools I convinced her to visit her first ever LAC - University of Puget Sound. Just to see what a LAC is like and to have possible option closer to home. Itâs true that in her situation she could probably benefit from additional support there. Itâs urban location might lessen the small school downsides.
Also Washington State University is off the list. We arenât even going to go visit. I finally conceded that if she hates the idea that much then itâs just not worth our time and money to visit even though itâs close (and cheap!)
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If itâs close enough to be a cheap and painless visit, I vote for making the visit. S20 had preconceived notions of which schools he wanted to visit and which didnât meet his vague ever-shifting and almost non-existent criteria. Some of the schools I âdraggedâ him to after he said he had âno interest in seeingâ ended up being on the list of schools he/we considered post-decision release.
Kids (well, my son at least) sometimes donât know what they might want, because they havenât really done the research necessary to determine what the experience might be like at various schools.
Another thing I (and he) discovered during our round of visits was that a lot of schools were very similar. And the ones that were different fit into buckets with many other very similar environments. For us, there were very few buckets (countable on one hand) that contained all the different types of campuses/schools/experiences.
Visiting WSU now might enable your daughter to realize on a visit to a âdesiredâ campus âOh, this reminds me of WSUâ. Which might in turn make her realize WSU isnât really a bad option. Maybe.
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Yes you are totally right. I have gone back and forth on this all summer. There are just so many fundamental things she already dislikes about it - the 3 main ones are:
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In the middle of no where and rural conservative farm country. She is NOT a country girl. Iâve been there quite a few times over the years.
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The above is too much like home, and sheâs trying to get away from that.
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WSU has just started classes and she has watched all these people she knows from her small town high school go off to WSU. And so she worries it will be like high school all over again esp if she goes greek which she wants to do. I just talked to a recent alum yesterday and she shared that she found it hard to have a fun social life there if you werenât greek.
I know itâs a bigger school but itâs not really with the town being being so small and isolated . .
UGH - also sheâs been raised as a rabid UW husky fan so that doesnât help!
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Oh and the final deal breaker is they donât have her club sport which is her stress reliever and hopeful opportunity to meet people and make friends etc. So thatâs one that canât be made up for - itâs not a sport she can just start up a club for either.
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Feeling better today. S23 has decided not to apply to one of the schools he toured. It was âokâ when we visited but having to write a âwhy this schoolâ essay is what sealed the deal. He couldnât really come up with a ton which made him realize that school was not one heâd be happy at. So heâs applying to 5 now. A few top choices (one of which heâs likely to get into and two where it may be a stretch but not a huge one) and two others that heâs considering âsafetyâ schools. Final essay complete. Still waiting on his schedule for this year which is required for one of the schools heâs applying to. LORs have been requested but not inputted in the common app yet. School starts next week so Iâm sure the teachers are busy getting ready.
The waiting will be hard. I donât want to wish away his last year of high school. I just want to know he has gotten into a few places, ideally his top choice.
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