Question about Common App activities fields, should students use present tense verbs to describe activities they are still currently involved in, and past tense for those in past? Or past tense active verbs for all activities?
My son has three fall open house events scheduled to attend in OctoberāRPI (EA), Lehigh (RD), and Case Western (EA)
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Last year my S23 did the first, to emphasize which things were ongoing. Iām not sure it matters a lot though.
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My daughter has no interest in visits. Iām trying to convince her. She says sheād rather go in the spring. Weāll see. I feel sheāll be busier then. She has had official visits to 2 of the schools and then visited in 8th grade to another. S22 is at Alabama and while we didnāt do a tour, we did spend a couple days there, so thatās good. That leaves 4 more.
Just make sure she is engaging on-line otherwise schools may think she is not truly considering going.
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We have done only virtual or local events so far, but plan to save the visits for when we believe she will be invited for scholarship weekends in Jan/Feb. and then maybe another admitted student day or two. Seniors get 4 days excused for college visits at our school.
There is one school where we havenāt put in much effort, but they donāt consider demonstrated interest and tbh we only applied because they are known to give better scholarships than one she prefers, but the school she prefers considers the first a peer, and tends to offer more when asked.
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yes, she can submit the one that is ready.
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Good point. I just double checked and the only ones that list it as important are Tulsa and Michigan State. Iām not worried about Michigan State at all. Tulsa is tough. It has some programs she is interested in, but itās really not easy to get to. I think probably if she doesnāt visit, she wonāt apply.
Yes, weāve done several. Very helpful to visit!
Our S23 absolutely refused to do any tours or info sessions, in person or virtual, through the entire process until after acceptances. Even then we made him visit his first choice before accepting or he probably would have skipped that too.
I did worry a bit about some of the match schools that are known for tracking demonstrated interest, though most if not all of his reaches didnāt look at demonstrated interest. (With one match college in particular infamous for tracking web activity I did a bunch of online browsing of their site and their virtual tour, etc. myself hoping he would get credit for our home IP address, LOL. But that was the exception.)
Anyway, it worked out fine. In hindsight, it was even smart of him, versus our older kids who did do so tours. Our oldest talked himself out of some great schools based on pretty minor things from tours and accepted student days. If you donāt tour, you donāt get too invested in colleges that may not accept you and once you are accepted you can look at your options with the certainty that they are all available to you and fully invest in them.
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My oldest didnāt like to tour either. He was class of 2022, so couldnāt until senior year and then they were almost all just outside, so I understood his point. He kept saying, why tour? They all have buildings, lol.
It saves some money too. It can be pricey to tour a lot of them. And, she has a favorite, that is a safety and affordable, so I probably wonāt push too hard for all of them. Iād like to get the 2 further ones in this fall and can leave the 2 in easy driving distance until accepted student day in the spring.
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How are applications going for everyoneās kids? So far, so good here. S24 has a long list but is steadily chipping away. Hoping to turn in the first few apps this week.
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Well, behind schedule, to be frank.
I knew once school and S24ās fall sport started, we would bog down. But my urging to get the first application submitted before then (which would then make others easier) was to no avail.
Hopefully we will finally get that submitted soon, but until we do I will be a little anxious. After that, though, hopefully it will get easierāwe really only have three early schools, although two more might require early applications due to scholarship deadlines.
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Same story here. Kid is at their main EC today (and every Saturday). Didnāt get that first app submitted that will make all the rest easier. No recent progress on essays. A weekly chat has not moved the needle. Iām trying hard to be chill (doesnāt work very well).
The good thing about the way this kidās list shapes up is that there are about 3 due Nov 1, two due a month later, and three due in Jan, so they are relatively well-spaced. Iād still love to add to the list because I feel itās a bit limited (mostly reaches) though for the time being, only schools with EA would need to be done right now.
We have one last tour coming up over fall break, plus a local info session for another school on the list that does them in various cities.
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Good progress for D24 on her personal statement, sheās gotten feedback from her college counselor at school and may tweak it a bit but she feels good about it. I have not read it and am not sure Iāll be asked to! Sheās chipping away at her activities list too.
We have a 3 night trip to MA next week, itās a long way from the PNW where we live, but this college has been on her list since she started thinking about college two years ago, and she has Fall Break, so we have the time and interest and will go tour, info session, etc. It really is a long way to go for 3 nights, with no non-stop flight possible but weāre looking forward to the mom/daughter trip.
We will visit a second LAC while weāre there since itās close by. Then a final visit/fall program for seniors at a LAC about a 4 hour drive from home, late October. This is a school she may apply ED to if the MA schools donāt edge into first place. We have already been to the campus twice.
Weāve toured many schools over the past year and a half. She has a good sense of what sheās looking for and she has a good list, with safeties, matches and reaches. The 4 hour drive away LAC is more of a safety/match, has the vibe she wants, the programs she is interested in, and she met and liked a few current students at the summer camp she worked at in August, so other schools would need to be extremely compelling to be considered over this one. My hunch is that facing a heavy course load and a potential stack of supplemental essays, this school will look more and more appealing to ED, and she might be one and done (counselor feels confident about an ED admit there, given her stats and their acceptance rate). We have also already done a financial pre-read there and she would receive a nice merit aid package, which certainly makes it even more appealing.
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We are behind schedule. Most of the school we are applying have a deadline of Nov 1 to Nov 30. And he is not yet done his Common app essay and he is struggling with the flow of the Essay. he still has to do about 10+ supplemental essays so not sure how he will get around it.
Plan is to apply for a few by Oct 1st week but not sure if we will be there.
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Well you are all making me feel a whole lot better about how it is going here. Music supplements are going great but not a single movement on the general application or essay writing. Today was supposed to be the day but zero has happened. UGH!
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S24 might be even a little behind where most of your kids are. He has some ideas jotted down on his essay, but nothing that I would call a draft. He does have a tentatively final list of schools to apply to. Dates range from November 1 to January 1, with most of them closer to November 1.
With school work picking up, and some family things we have going on, and a couple of college visits to schools that weigh demonstrated interest scheduled, Iām definitely nervous about him getting the main essay and supplementals done by the end of October!
ETA: he just walked downstairs to tell me not to bother him because heās going to be working on his essay! 
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S24 completed his first application in August. He made a start on his essays for two other schools. Labor Day weekend he was accepted at the first school. At that point he said that maybe he wouldnāt apply anywhere else. We convinced him to at least apply to the two schools whose applications he had started. He says he has finished those essays and is waiting for counselor feedback before submitting. Now he says he might apply to a fourth school after he finishes his NM essay. But he also has to write scholarship essays for the first school, so maybe not.
Iām not sure how to advise him. He likes the first school and would be happy to attend it. He also likes the two schools whose applications he will be submitting, but both are reaches. Will he be sorry in spring if he only has one option?
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D24 had to do her common app essay for a school assignment last year, thankfully. But this summer we talked and she changed her prompt to the one about gratitude, so she wrote that over the summer. She got all of her 6 apps in last month, but now itās like pulling teeth to get her to do the honors college application. We have one acceptance, and itās impossible to get her to resolve issues like the one app that still needs a teacher recommendation.
But she is adulting and emailing AOs when she has issues (though she drafts the emails and sends them to me to edit if necessary before), so I guess that is winning.
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