Same boat here. D24 still polishing personal statement. We have a meeting today with her college counselor where D24 will give us all an update of her progress. I love that her school has the kids really take the reins on these meetings, and I’m also curious to hear her counselor’s take on her updated list. She has 3 EA apps all due 11/1. Last night she also decided to add our state flagship which also has an 11/15 app deadline.
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In fact unless it was one of the few colleges with a very high yield rate, I would think a college with a low gap and a high rejection rate was perhaps yield protecting.
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Same plan here. I planned a great trip for winter break and do no want him holed up in a very expensive hotel room writing essays. Will not submit until he gets the Ed result (except of course for the three schools that have scholarship applications due in Nov and Dec which I also find a little annoying)
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Ha, me too.
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We’re 2 for 2 as well. DS is only applying to these two OOS schools, so with the exception of honors college applications, he is done. Attending scholars days for both schools next month, then the wait for NMSF → NMF. It’s a long wait, but I think he will appreciate having the hardest part behind him.
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I went to financial aid night at DS’s school last night. The FAFSA overhaul is going to link directly to the IRS for tax info, which should actually make filings easier. The speaker estimated it should only take about 1/2 hour. The CSS Profile seems like that will take a while and includes a lot more in assets.
The loan options after exhausting stafford loans are insane. He said private loan interest rates can run between 3.75% and 21%! Parent Plus loans have a 4.2% origination fee on top of (a less insane) interest rate. Madness.
On a brighter note, DS is meeting with his guidance counselor today to talk about a few things and get comments on his personal statement. Hoping to lock that down soon so he can focus on supplements.
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I don’t know if this is different from the “IRS Data Retrieval Tool” that we had last year, but here’s 1 input.
Yes, many many families have used this tool w/out any problems.
But the ones w/ trouble is because it’s basically a black hole and you don’t know WHAT info is retrieved and populated into what data cells, and in the end the tool spits out some number.
I prefer to input every number myself for the calculation, so I know what info went in.
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@OregonMom2024 I am also an Oregon mom :). Good luck to your daughter. My daughter hasn’t turned in any apps yet so you are ahead of us.
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Same situation here for us. S24 will be submitting the first EA application on 10/15. Not clear if he will be able to make it. We might have to change it to RD to focus on ED application.
I’m expecting that ED won’t work out. It’s a super reach and he won’t be happy unless he gives the Brown a try.
S24 has 4.0UW/35ACT/11AP classes (6 in senior year). Still, all indication is that it will be unlikely he will make it since he doesn’t have significant awards.
He asked me to help with his gmail situation a couple of days ago. He doesn’t get any personal emails from friends (I guess kids don’t email) and had 7000 unread emails. sigh.
He made an unfortunate mistake in ACT sign-up that he wanted the colleges to contact.
I’m in the process of helping him by unsubscribing emails from colleges he is not interested in and removing spam.
7000+ unread emails.
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My two cents is any time the numbers are that good, it is worth a shot as long as it would be comfortably affordable. Very likely your S24 will pass their version of an academic screen, and after that, truly anything can happen. It definitely is not just about awards and such, no matter what some people online seem to think. It is truly about the person, and whether the AOs in question develop a clear and compelling vision of how the applicant will fit into their college.
Anyway, good luck!
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We are one of those that can not get the retrieval to work. Pain in the butt. Worked great in 2018 but years after nope. So after I enter data, I then have to send the school my complete tax forms which again is a freakin’ nightmare. I hope this new system works.
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It appears that another student from D24’s smallish high school is going to Williams as a recruited athlete via ED. With respect to D24’s Williams’ ED prospects, is this a good thing, a bad thing, or nothing?
For context, we live in an semi-rural area of a quasi-underrepresented state and our high school hasn’t sent any students to Williams in at least the past 7-8 years. If it matters, D24 is very likely to have better stats (rank, rigor, and test scores) than the recruited athlete, although I’m sure that the recruited athlete is strong academically if Williams gave a passing pre-read. I’m guessing it’s nothing, but I thought I’d tap the collective wisdom here.
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S24 is in the same boat. Really outstanding academics 3.99UW/1580 SAT but no awards. Good ECs, but they are typical (varsity athlete, lots of ongoing volunteerism, a couple of academic clubs) - nothing really unique (as he says - I didn’t get a start on curing cancer this summer, mom). His ED is a long shot (as it is for all unhooked kids) but was worth a try.
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Has anyone’s student taken the ACT on the computer instead of paper? If so, how was it? How were scores compared to previous test?
Unanswerable question. If it is their first choice does it matter?
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I’m not an expert, but I would lean towards not being meaningful. The semi-rural, underrepresented state is probably a good thing for Williams ED.
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My guess is it doesn’t matter. My kids’ HS did caution prospective ED’s on Williams if there were already multiple recruited athletes committed. But we’re in an area and at a school that is if anything over-represented. I can’t imagine they see a student they are otherwise interested in and say “oh, we’ve already picked one student in 7 years from this school in an area where we are underrepresented, better not overdue it.” 
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S is planning on submitting all EAs and the ED on Oct 15. He’s mostly done but will use the time to keep reviewing CA essay and supplmentals. Not sure if it is a good strategy but I am going with it for now.
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So for context, our HS tends to send like 0-2 kids to Williams, and some other similarly-selective LACs and Ivies and such, per year. I am led to believe more are admitted, since some people end up choosing between multiple such colleges.
Some of those are recruited athletes, but the sense I have gotten is that usually doesn’t matter. Like, if Williams has a recruited athlete from us, but a couple more applicants it also likes, it will admit all three. And then maybe that is a year we enroll two, but maybe also just the one.
So in our HS, I wouldn’t worry about it. I gather other high schools might have a different context when it comes to certain colleges, but off hand I would think yours is not such a HS.
Edit: By the way, I think we already went through these numbers somewhere, maybe in this thread, but to briefly review . . . in their last CDS, Williams admitted 254 people ED, and then also 1048 people RD, of whom apparently 323 enrolled, for an RD yield rate of about 31%.
You can actually see how this sort of fits with the hypothetical I gave above. If there is one ED/athlete admit and two RD admits, each with a yield chance of 31%, then the distribution of outcomes looks something like:
1 enrolled: 48%
2 enrolled: 42%
3 enrolled: 10%
This explains why normally we end up like 0-2, since we don’t always have that recruited athlete (I’d guess we average well less than 1 a year for any NESCAC specifically, but several a year for the NESCAC collectively, but then legacies might be part of this too . . . ). Although maybe it could be 3 in a year we get a recruited athlete and they get lucky with yield.
Anyway, this is assuming people who get admitted RD if they are not recruited athletes, but I am skeptical Williams would mind admitting someone like that ED instead.
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You are all sending me into a tailspin of panic. D24 is still trying to firm up her list. She will apply early somewhere, but she does not know where yet and she has yet to step foot on most campuses on her list. But heck, she has at least two weeks to decide, maybe even four. So that’s good, right? Plenty of time.
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