This. I basically helped create task deadlines and kept them aggressive enough that if it slipped a week or two, it wouldn’t be a big deal. It has worked out so far.
I’ve also seen suggestions to have one day week to go over/review status and this is when I review with DS what tasks are pending and whether he’s on schedule, what next task deadline is etc. Helps to keep it from getting overwhelming.
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S’s school has given a deadline of Oct 7 to submit all of the transcripts requests required for EA/ED and Oct 15 for RD.
We’re feeling some relief in this house. D24 has now submitted all applications due before Nov 1 (she has a huge dance performance coming on Oct 28, so she had to get it all done well in advance. Nine applications are moving through the university grinders now! 
I’m not going to lis them, but here are their categories. 1 in-state flagship. 3 OOS flagships (not top 30 types). 3 med-large private universities. 2 2000-person LACs. It’s been quite the journey to figure out where she should apply based on her interests and personality! She has four schools left to apply to–all RD because she couldn’t apply ED anywhere, and they don’t do early action. She won’t have to deal with those until the holidays, though! Anybody else feeling some relief yet as the apps get sent?
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Yay for getting so many in!
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But I will let you know if and when S24 actually does get rolling on these things . . . .
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S24 is in a similar situation. He has submitted all his EA applications. He will keep going since he has great momentum right now. Ideally, he should be done with all the applications before the holiday season. He will get much busier with school-related activities in January so the strategy works for him.
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My daughter has 2 applications in and was accepted to both as well. We are planning on 3 more to be ready to go this week. That leaves 3 that have some additional writing to do, but the goal is by mid-October. Then we can move on to honors apps and stuff.
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I just want to express sympathy for your kid’s struggle with the main essay.
S23 is a very good writer, but struggled with the common app essay as well. He found it really tough to write about himself – that was the thing that was holding him back. He felt like he was being ridiculous and braggy in talking about himself. He is also not a read-between-the-lines type person. Those were the big hurdles.
He benefitted from extensive topic brainstorming, out loud and on paper. He did some of that with parents. He was stumped but then arrived at his topic in a roundabout way, by working backward to decide on a topic. What he did was come up with a list of his interests and stuff he loves, no matter how small. He also listed interesting vignettes regarding those things. Then I helped him with a list of his strengths. He made the initial list but needed us to point some others out because he didn’t have adequate insight to understand some of his strengths relative to other people.
He knows about “show, don’t tell”, so we talked about how he has to show the AOs some valuable qualities about himself that don’t necessarily jump out in his other app materials. And he has to do that by telling a story or narrative in a way that is acceptable at the least, and entertaining at best.
He looked at all the random stuff on his lists and tried to figure out how any of it related to each other. I encouraged him to pick things that wouldn’t shine through in the rest of his app materials. For him, there had to be some kind of unique or funny element for him to grab onto a narrative.
So, he’s super curious, analytical, throws himself into obscure hobbies that none of his friends do, gets totally immersed, etc. That led to an essay with a laugh-out-loud lede about spilling something gross on his delicate project, ruining it, and then the rabbit holes he had to go down to salvage it. He tied that in with another one of his obscure hobbies. The unifying theme was that he likes to immerse himself in chasing down solutions to achieve goals that most people would consider “useless”. And that’s actually kind of apt for someone wanting to study engineering. I was surprised at how charming it was once it came together. His personality shone through in a way he never would have been able to accomplish by writing the way he would have first approached it.
Once he had the topic, the writing was quick and easy. He appreciated similar brainstorming for his supplementals, but those were a cinch compared to the main essay topic. He did very well with his apps.
He almost wrote about his love for chicken sandwiches 
. If your kid will accept help in brainstorming topics, he might find it helps the words flow more easily. Good luck – he’s got plenty of time 
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Same. Same.
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You are not alone. S24 is working on his apps (although he and I define “working” differently) but it is slow going. He’s got 4 due by 11/1 so I’m hoping that will light a fire under his butt, however, I’m not holding my breath.
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We are 10/11 deadline for 11/1 EA deadlines. Applications have to be submitted and then the school notified to send transcripts and LORs. It’s coming fast.
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I’m like, it is now October, what’s the plan for 11/1?
And to paraphrase, the response is something like, “It is only October, why are you bugging me?”
Of course, the actual response is more like a mumbled, insincere, “OK”, then relocating to wherever I am not.
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While the entire college process may not be over until May 1 (and some later with Waitlists, etc), but it was truly disheartening to watch the kids who did NOT apply Rolling/EA/ED.
While friends were getting acceptances in December+, the students who only applied during RD were dealing with some mental anguish.
Maybe it was just the kids at our High School, but it’s such a great feeling to have at least 1 acceptance early on.
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I took the advice I learned here from previous parents and made sure S24 had a few rolling schools on his list. He has heard back from two already and it has definitely taken the pressure off to have those acceptances in his back pocket, especially because he is excited about both schools.
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This is why many suggest applying to a school, as dumb as it sounds, even if it’s way down the list.
My daughter (with our permission) applied to an early one that she had near zero intention of going to - just for this reason.
in the end, she had more acceptances than most (because she applied to more) but still had the early strain when others had the acceptance in hand.
So it might be worth finding that school with the easy app and early decision - if that is an issue for your student.
It brings them a bit of relief and may also then settle them enough to refuel the jets to get back to the task at hand.
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And for the record, we have an early plan. We’ve had the same plan for a long time. The tension I am grumbling about is that the actual execution on that plan in terms of timing of different steps does not so far seem to be exactly what I remember discussing. But he has not missed a formal deadline yet, so the plan is at least theoretically still in place.
I just knew he was going to be super busy once school started, and so I keep pointing out, “Hey, this would seem to be a good time to get ahead on X, Y, or Z.” But, nope, apparently he is actually going to wait to do X, Y, and Z until the time pressure is really on, late at night, etc.
And to be fair, it will almost surely all work out fine.
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S24 has no excuses as he isn’t that busy right now. His two sports are winter and spring and while he does have an academic club (and part-time job) he isn’t overwhelmed right now - that’s what makes it frustrating. I know it will get done, but the process is painful (for me).
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And just one last grumble (because if not here, where?):
We’ve now had about 20 different versions of the “your friends are not your college counselor” conversation. Like, yes, I know you think you are ahead of where your friends are, so why am I bringing this stuff up now?
And in fact, I love your friends. Great kids. Glad you know them. But they can also be total idiots.
So do not listen to them. Nor me for that matter. But you can at least listen to your actual college counselor, right?
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D24 has 6 apps due 11/1. She is working hard on them but I am guessing they will all be submitted very close to the deadline. She’s also got to decide whether to ED or not. It’s a stressful time! She’s incredibly busy with all her activities and especially her Fall sport so getting everything done is no small feat. To top it off, she has an injury so she’s been in pain and has had a bunch of medical appointments. Just yesterday she told me how she is so looking forward to January.
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@OregonMom2024 Mostly east coast : Syracuse, Seton Hall, Drexel, Temple and a few more that I can’t remember. West coast: Willamette and Seattle University. Tuition exchange is the driving force for applying to more that I thought we would.
Very excited that my D24 finally sent in around 5 EA applications this weekend. The others have supplemental questions so hopefully in the next week or two we can get them in. I forgot how much I hate the CSS profile!
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