My son had one two weeks ago, tell your S to just be himself. Questions are typically around how you are involved in high school? what classes you are taking? what are you interested in studying? what do you like to do for fun? What do you like about XYZ college? then have some questions, ask about their experience? what clubs were they involved with, what were their favorite traditions? What was your first job out of school, etc.
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My son did one. There were a few other schools that had pre-application slots but he ignored our advise and waited too long and now all the slots are goneā¦
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Another wrinkle is our student included the current year APās in a few EA apps when answering the question of upcoming APās and has now been advised that some schools will expect him to complete them since they were listed on the app if he gets accepted. So basically have to sign up now.
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We are headed into level 3 playoffs friday. Against the only team weve lost to and the current #1 ranked team in the state. I graduated from that high school so if we lose I wont be too sad as the other team is quite good. Im just glad that my kid ended on a personal high note. With team sports he has little control over the outcome.
And beyond blessed all 3 playoff games have been at home so my d25 has been able to perform at halftime and see her brother play!
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S23 interviewed with Case Western and U Rochester. I think those are the only ones he is doing. The Rochester interview was with an admissions rep. Not sure who interviewed him for Case. He seemed pretty relaxed about the interviews. I doubt that these make a difference in admissions, he mostly thought it was important to interview in order to demonstrate interest.
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That message conflicts with just about everything Iāve heard. The reason to take AP exams senior year is if the school you will attend will use it either for credit or for placement.
I can;t imagine there is even one case of an accepted being rescinded due to a student not taking an AP exam.
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Agree 100%. My daughter is a sophomore at Stanford. Very little was open on campus last year, despite all students being physically present on campus, including dining halls and libraries which were open but had reduced hours. For at least fall and winter quarters, she would get a to-go box in the dining hall and eat meals in her room, as she was fearful of Covid. Add masking everywhere and very few all-campus parties, limited Cardinal Nights events, and that means it was challenging to make close connections. Three weeks of online only classes to begin winter quarter and also a suicide in her residence hall (an RA) at the end of winter quarter made a difficult year turn tragic. My daughterās saving grace was that she made fantastic friends though her club sport and that community seemed to carry each other through the challenges of last year. She is not a big partier but found her group and is having a very different experience as a sophomore. I have not heard any complaints about lack of social opportunities this year.
@Outlander and @shawk do you feel that the environment at Stanford was worse (or longer) than other California schools?
Yeah, me too. But thatās what the college counselor said. To be clear, there was no issue with no taking the test if you didnāt list the test prospectively on the application. But he did. And apparently some schools expect you to follow-through if you did. This quote from the UC discussion seems to suggest the same, though it sounds like at least with the UCās you can contact them later and change thatā¦
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Letās just all hope that AOs at selective colleges are smart enough to recognize that projected classes and tests are just that: projected.
I mean, my D23 put down the classes sheās taking spring 2023 on all her EA/rolling applications that required them, but the schedule wasnāt even released yet (and wonāt be til noon today), which means she couldnāt be certain if those courses would actually be offered, and if they will whether there will be time conflicts or such that would prevent her from taking them all.
And if sheād said she planned to take an AP exam, well, thereās always the chance of getting a bad case of mono the week before, you know?
And I have to hope AOs recognize that those sorts of things happen.
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Kid has the musical this weekend. I am saying NOTHING about college admissions, even as emails pile up unread from accepted schools about honors college/scholarships/fin aid. I am chugging along in the hell that is the CSS Profile and staying quietly supportive. I cannot tell yāall how hard this is.
Come Thanksgiving, the kid is mine, though. Mwuah hah hah.
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D23 has applied to 3 so far: URI, Penn State, Boston College. BC was due by 11/1 to be considered for Gabelli. 6 more to go! Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, Lehigh, Syracuse, GW. Itās a slog, for sure! SO MANY ESSAYS.
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I assume these are all RD applications?
Lots of essays for sure, but your D still has a couple of months, so should be fine. Itās good that sheās working on the essays early.
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My son applied to these 13 colleges on 10/14 and heard back from few already. Yay! Most schools are EA or rolling admissions which is nice.
UB (EA)
SUNY Albany (EA)
Buffalo State College-admitted
UMASS Boston (EA)
Le Moyne (EA)
St. John Fisher
Northeastern (EA)
Case Western (EA)
Fordham (EA)
Nova Southeastern-admitted w/ $19K merit per year (and invitation to go to Shark Preview weekend to compete for bigger scholarships, including full tuition.)
Barry University
North Park University (EA)-accepted
Xavier University
He still has Pitt and Rollins which will be submitted later today. He might apply to University of Rochester but has not visited (even though itās only 1.5 hours away) so still undecided (but regular admissions, so no rush.)
To say he is burned out with the application process is an understatement-what a marathon process! He is doing well in his 4 AP classes, a SUPA-Syracuse University-ELA class, and Spanish 5A but lots of papers & tests to balance. He is doing varsity gymnastics at his school in addition to his 16 hrs/week of Level 10 gymnastics (but the varsity season ends Friday, thank goodness!) in addition to drum lessons and preparing for area all state at SUNY Fredonia. Itās ALOT. It was totally out of character for me, but I let him take off today for senior skip day. That probably makes me a bad mom (I did not even entertain this for my daughter!) but I have been encouraging him to take a mental health day off anyway. I feel he deserves some down time after such a hectic month!
I havenāt visited here in awhile so itās nice reading all your updates. Best of luck during this crazy process!
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Oh i didnt know. Thanks.
Our school advises the opposite. List the AP classes you are taking and then decide which AP exams if any you will take. Colleges donāt care though it can of course impact credits or placement.
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Had to run around for DS Transcripts/Teacher recommendation letters to be sent. Finally, it was done yesterday, and I completed CSS profile today (Only 2 CSS colleges - Stanford/CalTech).
He still needs to complete UC apps.
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I saw that Vermont has a materials deadline of November 11 with an early application deadline of Nov 1.
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