Parents of the HS Class of 2023 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
4488

it’s crazy on the level of evaluations of course to apply. Our low population state (which is here for basically all kids who want to attend and meet minimum requirements) just asks "have you had four years of english? four years of science? three of social studies? - and that is it - final transcripts sent upon decision to attend.

the SRAR was much more thorough. (for FSU). every class, grade, school attended, etc shown. FSU calculates its own GPA based on the SRAR. I’d assume the more elite, the more thorough. Havent done a common app yet; just online apps at each college.

Does common app ask for each class like SRAR?

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4489

Given my experience with D17 and D19, I thought so—but, given D23’s applications, the answer is no.

However, some colleges do ask for something similar on the Common App.

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4490

We are going to an open house in October so I will definitely follow up if he is interested. Thanks!

4491

My kid with the skateboard also!
The way he’s been investigating colleges is literally Google Street View.
And so I started doing it, because I know what he likes.
Because of this perspective, I ruled out any place where there wasn’t a tall building within view :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

We’ve also glamped near Ithaca - great vacay spot but too sleepy for my kid.

@AmyIzzy you really have to individually question the colleges. As in, get their policy on outside scholarships in writing.

Fordham’s is particularly whacked – it is definitely not related to financial need, which is so annoying:
"Presidential Scholarships, Semifinalist Scholarships and Excellence in Theatre Scholarships are reduced by any other tuition specific resources. These scholarships are adjusted for one-half of other non-tuition specific outside scholarships and resources.

Otherwise, outside scholarship are first applied to any unmet need remaining as calculated by the Office of Student Financial Services. If there is no unmet need, awards are reduced on a dollar for dollar basis in the following order: Federal Direct Subsidized Loan, College Work Study, and University Grants."

Here’s Trinity’s policy:
“If you do not demonstrate financial need, an outside award may be added to any merit awards up to Trinity’s cost of attendance. If you do demonstrate financial need, an outside award when combined with other sources of funding, cannot exceed your financial need. In such cases, outside awards will generally reduce work-study and need-based loans; however, circumstances may require the reduction of your federal, state, or institutional gift aid as a result of external funds.”

Generally speaking, meets-need colleges have these kinds of policies. Generally speaking, public Us do not, and many allow stacking. The Jesuit schools I’ve researched have allowed stacking, fwiw.

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4492

That is super helpful! The bottom line: we need to research fully issues like this before committing!

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4493

On another note, I just learned about this Northeastern Promise. Am I reading this correctly that whatever merit and grants/financial aid package offered for enrollment in 2023-24, would remain intact for all 4 years? Our 2021 income dipped a bit from 2020 (my husband is self-employed) and we will have 2 kids in college for that first year only. So our EFC would probably be lower than normal (as per FAFSA which I’ll fill out in October) with those combined factors. So it would be great if the package would stay the same all 4 years, but seems too good to be true. They also promise to increase grants to match tuition increases, which is nice. If anyone has knowledge of this, let me know if I’m understanding this correctly. Obviously, step one is getting in, no easy task!

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4494

I can say that is SOP for some schools. DS has an application submitted to George Mason on Aug. 3 and they still have not downloaded it. Another school, also applied the same time, emailed him a month later to tell him they do not start looking at applications until October.

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4495

Oh, that is good to know; tysm

4496

Thank you so much. I didn’t know this about every school having an individual portal, so I will stay on the child to keep an eye out.

The number of emails received is huge. A year or more ago, I suggested having a separate email for all of the marketing messages. DC said no. Now, I think the dozens (hundreds?) of emails are making it hard to find the relevant ones!

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4497

Thank you! I also thought we were all done once we had filled in the grades on the Common App. I wonder if this has changed since D17 and D19’s application time or maybe they just didn’t apply to schools that wanted it separately.

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4498

Many schools track demonstrated interest through emails they send: how many were read, how many links were opened, etc. So it’s important to use the same email for both the application and subscribing to the college’s mailing list.

One thing I wish we had done when my D applied: create a new email address that both the parent and kid have access to. Many high schoolers aren’t good with keeping on top of their emails and sometimes miss important ones like interview requests. Having an email that the parent can check themselves definitely helps.

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4499

As another said, it’s the Self Reported Academic Record. You can input the info into the Common App and some schools will still want the info input a second time into a different website that connects to their portal. That little detail isn’t always clear, so I’m going to follow what @Gatormama said to read through checklists on every website of every school applied to…

I naively thought that each college would share their checklist inside Common App.

I agree with Gatormama about Pitt. Thank goodness for the SRAR! Child’s school doesn’t have 11th grade grades on the unweighted transcript–only on the weighted!! I sent an email and no reply, so spouse sent a second email and may call.

Also, I see now I could tag people and reply to several people in one message instead of many messages. So, my apologies if I wrote too many messages. LOL! On mobile, it’s a challenge to reply to several people at once. Much easier on to do on the laptop.

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4500

For roaming, you might look at Kalamazoo College. We visited this past summer. They have bike lanes, and it’s a downhill 5-10 min ride into the “city.” The city has worked to revitalized itself and you can get to ponds, trails, and music venues easily. Campus is pretty, too. If your DC is into the idea of a small SLAC that isn’t rural, this might be worth a look at least.

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4501

Definitely. That would have been the best solution. Actually, now that I think about, I think that’s what I recommended to DC. Oh, well!

Spouse and I now plan to check after every application here on out.

4502

It is a lot to keep up with! With each of my kids, during their junior year, I insisted they make a separate email for all college stuff(Common App, SRAR, school portals etc) so that nothing gets missed or overlooked. I have the login for those email accounts as well so that I can monitor.

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4503

Colleges know that students use multiple email addresses, especially when it comes to college applications. There is other data (ex. address, high school, phone, etc.) that colleges use to link multiple email addresses to the same student.

My recommendation to students:
Do not use your high school email. If you have it listed on College Board or ACT, you can log on and change it. It may have already been sold to some lists, but changing it now will prevent future sales. The volume of emails is only going to increase as colleges try to woo you into applying.

Have a designated college email. Create an email that is easily identifiable (ex. James_Smith23 @ gmail). Use this for College Board and ACT. Use this email for school tours, and signing up to receive information from schools. If a college rep visits campus, use this email when signing in.

Create a VIP email that is only used on applications. Make it similar to your college info email (ex. James_Smith27 @ gmail). Emails sent to that account are important as they are only from schools that you applied to. That email is where you will receive information specific to your application. Check your spam folder often as mass emails to applicants about setting up portals, applying for financial aid, scholarships, etc. often get sent to spam. This email is where you will receive information about acceptances, accepted student events, housing, etc. It will be quiet for most of the year but, after admissions, you will receive a lot of emails that require you to take action and they will be sent to this account.

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4504

Most schools will send you an email after downloading your common app with instructions to set up an admissions portal on their website. That’s where they will communicate with you about items outstanding (recs, transcripts, additional financial info) and where you will upload things if needed. They will also send admissions notifications through the portal and you will accept or decline their offers through it.

Good luck with Pitt and all others!

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4505

Wow, did not know that either. Thanks for pointing it out. Others, can maybe add as and when they discover extra steps in applications at colleges their children are applying to…

4506

I definitely recommend following the discussion thread for each school that your kid is applying to (if you haven’t already). Very often, important information and updates are shared on those threads rather than here.

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4507

Yes, they definitely link all addresses. How do I know? One of the colleges D23 applied to put her name in her portal as MY NAME. We couldn’t figure it out but our best guess was, because I had made the appointments for her visit to that campus, I had put my name down or something and their systems scraped the data. A quick email to her AO fixed it of course, but it opened our eyes to the tracking procedures.
Editing to be clear: they had her legal name, from Common App. They had her “preferred name” as mine.

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