D23 has some tough circumstances and has been feeling kind of down about the college process till now, though she did compose a solid first draft of her main essay in mid July.
But somehow the Common App update got her fired up and she has been doing lots of research these past few days. Her friends are all excited about the process too. So I am feeling relieved as a parent.
She will not submit any apps until closer to the EA deadlines of Nov 1. We’d like her to narrow down her list a bit first and get a better idea of her priorities. Also for her it’s better to let everything she submits curate for awhile first.
She has asked me to gently push her. Research is my thing and she has a medical condition that limits her screen time for now so I pulled together an initial list of schools that fit her parameters (with some wonderful help from you all.)
We interviewed a college counselor last summer and that was intense and overwhelming and expensive. And the counselors at her school know almost nothing about out of state schools - their main purpose is to get kids to graduate HS. So I am sort of acting has her college counselor. But I’m not going to look at her Common App or even read her essays unless she asks (and I’m totally fine if she doesn’t). She is a smart kid and excellent writer.
We are going on some college visits in mid October right before EA and she is trying to decide on a region for the visits: Michigan, Colorado/Nevada or New England. We can’t afford to go everywhere all over the country so it’s forcing her to narrow down her list.
She’s also having fun watching Dorm decorating tik toks and watching 2022 sorority rush unfold currently on social media.
Good luck to you all…sounds like you’re off to a great start.
What are some good TikToks to watch for dorm decorating? And where can we follow Rush?! I know Univ of Alabama’s can be NUTS…but I have no idea how to find posts (I’m a basic Facebook, Instagram kind of person). Thanks!
I know nothing about Tik Tok (ha!) but I do know on Instagram you can look at each school’s Panhellenic account and you will see all sorts info and posts about Rush. And then each sorority at each school will post about it too. Especially right now when they are trying to encourage as many women as possible to sign up. Then once Rush is over you will see lots of fun Bid Day posts etc. D23 doesn’t follow the accounts yet she just checks them out. She’ll follow the accounts once she has committed to a school.
For tik tok and I’m sure other places I know in the past women have posted during the rush process which apparently has been controversial . . .
S23 is procrastinating college essays. The 4 UC prompts are first priority for him, then CA, and supplementals. UC essays are “outlined” but not written. I told him this needs to be finished before school starts and his schedule gets crazy.
All of my kids had me read their essays. I’m a teacher, but I’ve also been through college and grad school as well as helped my own kids and my friends kids with their apps, so they trust my opinion and guidance. I’ve seen some terrible results when kids get no help with applications. My daughter’s friend missed getting into his dream school because he failed to list junior high math on his application. It was sad and could have been avoided. I know kids who’ve written on essay topics they shouldn’t have, gone super religious with their essays for state schools, etc… I think every kid could use some guidance through this process. I certainly value my children being self sufficient, but college applications are not something I’d let them muddle through on their own.
And my kid wrote one UC prompt essay today! He has committed to one each day this week so he has time for the school college counselor to look at them before school starts. Wonders never cease…
On vacation and kiddo tested positive for Covid 2 days ago, so no essay writing going on here. And she says one of her top choices doesn’t have their prompt on the common app, or when she tries to go to that school on the app( I have no idea what that entails as I have never been on the web site), that nothing is there yet and she can’t even select what term she is applying for. Has anyone else had this happen?
Hi @Mom24boys - another MD here and now back for my second go-round with S23.
I agree with the other posters to not list your residency site as one of your educational institutions since it didn’t result in a degree (even though we learned much more in residency then than we did in med school!)
And yes, if residency was at a potential legacy institution, then it can/should be addressed if supplemental apps.
It’s go around 3rd and 4th for us. They won’t be listing residency since they have no interest in that school.
Late husband was the Dr, I just passed as one during his 6 years of cancer treatment - I would frequently get asked what my specialty was, lots of knowledge I would be happy to never have.
We’re wondering whether this year’s application cycle will be similar to last in terms of application volume at the “popular” schools, lower acceptance rates, etc. We’ve read some articles that predict declining applications due to recession, overall population decreases, etc. Any thoughts?
Want to thank all on the thread about parent support and access to common app! I love CC community forums and those who offer very thoughtful repossess. I am grateful to how it is monitored. I love that it tries to guard against toil commenting which end up really tanking the worth of many community sites.
The national center for education statistics has some great data on enrollment trends, etc. Observationally we’ve seen the average number of Applications per students increase dramatically over the past 5 years (bumped by the common app and an additional bump by test optional policies). I think theres still a bit of an unknown around the “COVD” impact. Some things I’ve been wondering. Do we have a bolus of students who deferred their decision to attend college re-entering the pool? What’s the impact of the current recession? Will we continue to see an increase in % acceptances under ED?
DS23 got his senior schedule with a major surprise. He got Economics- Honors instead of AP Economics. I don’t know if his HS doesn’t offer AP Econ anymore. I couldn’t talk to him today (In an all-week Band camp). He got 3 APs (Stats, Calc AB and English Lit) and 2 Honors (Physiology and Economics with Symphonic Band and Teacher’s Assistant)
I want him to take AP exam if he can, can you comment how it will be easy/difficult it will be wrt course/content to take AP Econ exam?
Why take an AP exam senior year? Won’t count for admissions and if he is interested in economics most colleges for the major require you to take their basic macro and micro economics whether or not you have the AP. And if they don’t require it he may want to do it anyway.
Good point that senior year APs won’t be considered for admissions. He is applying for CS/SW engineering with Political Science as a minor (if it’s allowed/available).
I’ll share another side to taking that AP exam - and that is that AP credits in a field not in your major can help with the time crunch. My 3 who have graduated all took their AP exams for the credits if they could help at their colleges. Engineering is hard; and having 12/13 hrs a semester is certainly helpful for my kid! compared to 15/16!
with that being said, they’ve not taken an AP exam in a class they haven’t had; but i do know there are study guides and even clep testing to get credit
Usually by the time APs roll around you will know what college your kid is going to so you can check the specific credit policies and see if it helps or not. I agree can come in handy, my son used some AP math credits to get his major (which required a specified and high number of math credit) but I am not sure if economics is very likely to be helpful.
