Parents of the HS Class of 2023 (Part 1)

Oh yes, my son is famous for those tricks. At the end of last year, he told me he had done a backflip at least once in all of his classes (with teacher encouragement!) and the video of him doing a backflip at prom went viral :flushed: The funny thing is that he is more on the shy side, but never seems to have an issue showing off his skills. Lol. So Iā€™m sure that will continue in college.

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Yes they way FA explained it.

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You can book online. You can find on the bottom left of this page:

My daughter had similar numbers to yours, but if you can ED, that would be less stressful! We were not ready with translations and test scores at that point.

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Temple was a disappointment of the college tour megatrip summer before last, though that was more that it was what let both my '23 and '25 kids know that they want a college with a defined campus.

But the followup was worse, because they had arguably the opposite problem that @Gatormama mentionsā€”Temple kept sending emails telling them to log into their admissions portals, when they of course hadnā€™t applied and the system clearly had no idea who they were. And it didnā€™t help that when one of them emailed tech support to find out what was going on they simply received a copy-paste of the instructions that had already been sent.

So yeah, Templeā€™s IT services clearly has some ongoing issues.

On the plus side, though, while North Philly still has some rough parts, the area right around Temple has gotten way better since I lived in Philadelphia back in the 90s.

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@jmjmm my experience was six years ago. A quick look at the Admissions staff shows that the woman is no longer there. She was just very pompous in her presentation, for lack of a better description. I thought it was just my interpretation, but several people told me, unsolicited, that they had a similar vibe.

Then, D23 came home this week after meeting with a BC admissions rep at school. She too came away with a negative impression after he told her she asked too many questions (he told her and the two other students he didnā€™t want to lecture the whole time and would rather they ask questions).

Obviously these are just little things. Like I said, the BC student panel was wonderful. In the end, it wasnā€™t the right fit for my older daughter (D17) so she didnā€™t apply. Unfortunately, that directorā€™s attitude has stayed with me all this time as Iā€™ve never experienced that vibe anywhere else in touring with my four kids. D23 will probably not apply, not b/c of any of that stuff though. Iā€™ve known several kids whoā€™ve gone or are going to BC and had a wonderful experience. Good luck!

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Thank you!

I think the communication issues are common at bigger schools. My son visited most schools last year, some twice and several with open houses, and we still get emails inviting him to attend an open house at these same schools. Not that you canā€™t do two open houses, but seems to me it would be easy for colleges to categorize those who have visited and send out a separate, more personalized email such as ā€œplease visit us againā€ or something to that effect. We did have one school (Le Moyne in Syracuse) in which the admissions counselor sent a personalized email recognizing that my son visited last year and inviting him to ask questions or sign up for a different event to learn more about the campus. That personal touch is a perk to applying to some smaller schools and I give bonus points for those little things!

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My daughter just got her acceptance email and package in the mail from The University of Alabama. Definitely a ā€œsafetyā€ for her, and not her top choice at this point, but still a very exciting ā€œfirstā€!

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Child and spouse did the first application together and missed steps to fill in the SRAR and sign up for portal access.

I discovered this when I asked child to see if theyā€™d received an answer.

With a Google search, I found directions on the Pitt website that said an email for portal access would arrive within X days of applying and maybe the link to fill in the SRAR.

Do most schools have extra steps like this that go beyond filling in the Common App?

Are extra steps usually indicated on the website as opposed to inside the Common App?

Iā€™d like to know for the future so we can prevent something similar from happening.

Thanks for any help you can provide! :pray:

Twin 1 has three schools heā€™s applied to that require the SRAR, we knew that was needed as all of the admissions websites laid out the steps of the application.

Twin 2 only had one SRAR school (an overlapping school with his brother).

Every school you apply to will require setting up their individual portals. Once the school downloads the Common App, you receive an email telling you what the next steps are.

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Ugh, I continue to loathe this new CC format. I canā€™t reply to all the things I want to reply to, and tag everyone, without doing it manually - so time-consuming.
@sllemon on - itā€™s not that we need to know anything about Temple itself; we visited last year and he applied. Itā€™s just that it took Temple the longest out of all S23ā€™s applications to download it from the Common App. And that was a month ago. And thereā€™s been no acknowledgment at all, no portal email, no nothing. So I was wondering whether this was SOP for the school.
My kid, the way he puts it, he wants a city and wants to roam said city. Like, walk out his dorm and be in the thick of it. He doesnā€™t like that at Temple, one wrong turn could get him in a really dangerous situation. Yes, I know the Septa is on campus. He still feels like he has to travel to experience Philly. May as well be at St. Joeā€™s or something, is how he put it.
@AmyIzzy - the $25k no matter what at Fordham is the epitome of aid displacement. Itā€™s why we avoided schools that donā€™t allow stacking. Like, they figure out what they think you should pay, and no matter what you do, what scholarships or aid you bring to the table, thatā€™s what they will charge you.
@Hlauburn congrats on Bama! We are still waiting for an email.
@Kombucha22 I donā€™t know what to tell you about most schools, but highly recommend searching for and visiting an application checklist for every school, just to make sure. I know Iā€™ve found stuff there that is totally not mentioned on the Common App.

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Search engine is not working for me so if I missed the definition, apologies, but what is SRAR?

Itā€™s a separate software tool that some colleges use to assess a studentā€™s transcript. D23 has had 2 applications that require it, but as @Momof3B said, itā€™s pretty obvious from their applications when they require it. Itā€™s not something secret.

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ā€œSelf Reported Academic Recordā€ - essentially the equivalent of an unofficial transcript entered by the student.

Thereā€™s a central repository where you can enter your data just once and share it with schools that use it (but many donā€™t and will require to enter your grades on their application)

https://ssar.selfreportedtranscript.com/

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Self Reported Academic Record.
Itā€™s a laborious process by which you enter every class & grade in high school and itā€™s then linked to various colleges that require it; doesnā€™t negate the need for an official transcript at the end of the year for students accepted and planning to go, but it avoids waiting for the dang guidance office in the interim. (Thank God Pitt uses the SRAR this year, because sonā€™s counselors STILL have not completed the school report, or sent any transcripts).

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About your S and Templeā€¦I have a D20 at Rutgers Camden. She is not known to roam much but she will take the train to Philly to walk around. But I have a D23 who is a roamer. She loves to ride her bike or skateboard and explore new places. Rutgers Camden is not the place for her. Iā€™m still looking for schools to put in her list that are good for roaming. I worry about cities where she could unknowingly end up in high crime areas or unpopulated rural areas where cars speed along on country roads not expecting someone to be riding on the side of the road. Something like Ann Arbor would be ideal but she thatā€™s not going to happen.

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Great area to roam - Ithaca NY (Both Ithaca College and Cornell).

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I echo this! Such a nice area. We did some ā€œGlampingā€ in Ithaca (the wimpā€™s version of camping) and loved hiking in the state parks and just the cute town, in general. My daughter loved the Farmerā€™s Market we went to and bought some paintings from a local artist. She did visit Ithaca College (for music studies) but felt the diversity was lacking and didnā€™t like that the music rooms were in the basement with no windows. Some of her friends attend Ithaca College and love it. Just wasnā€™t for her.

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So, in general, if a college does not stack merit, we should expect this same type of limitation? Colleges like this decide that we can pay X (generally matches up to our EFC) and they expect you to pay exactly that each year, right? Good to know!

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It really depends on the specifics. Since your kid is in the running for the full tuition scholarship at Fordham, itā€™s worth drilling into the details with the financial aid people there: How would they reimburse him if he wanted to be an RA? Which campus jobs (if any) would he be eligible for? Some things stack, some donā€™t, and some ā€œsemi-stackā€ā€“it really is idiosyncratic.

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