My DD’s high school has a deadline of today (10/18) to tell the counselor which schools she is applying to. This ensures that the counselor will send any supplemental documents to the schools by the 11/1/2023 deadline. Keep this in mind because the application needs to be complete by the deadline, not just have the common app submitted by that date. My DD is able to give the list to the counselor to have her send even though she is still submitting some of the applications through the common app.
I am trying my best not to ask how S24 is doing every day. Its hard as we get close to the deadline. Our goal was to apply one some of the schools last weekend but that did not happen. New goal is to apply to few of the EA schools this weekend.
His Common APP essay/Personal statement essay is done per him I am not reading it. He had it reviewed by the counsellor and if they are both happy I am going to leave it alone.
He is done with supplementals for 2 schools. 4 more to go for 11/1 deadline. Goal is to apply to 2 schools with out supplementals and 2 schools he is done the supplementals soon.
I keep reminding him he needs to finish UMD and Purdue first as if you don’t apply EA at these schools for the major he is interested in he wont have a chance. He still keeps them to the end
Our school has the same, but it was earlier in the month. Apparently very few of the students met the deadline and they got scolded by the counselor yesterday. (My daughter is one who DID NOT update them that she had decided to apply REA to one school.)
Two days ago I promised D24 I would no longer ask about it. She made the strong point that I didn’t bother her brothers and let them do everything themselves. She was right.
I swear these kids had a big online meeting where they came up with this scheme where they would all seem to agree to a plan, blow off that plan, agree to a backup plan, blow off the backup plan, and get things done at the last minute (if at all), so as to maximize parental grief.
And yet I have this odd feeling this is not the first time this has happened, and kids have found colleges to attend anyway . . . .
Chiming in as D24 is also a last minute kid. Called her today (she goes to a boarding school) to remind her that Nov 1 is 2 weeks away, and she said “are you sure”? She’s applying to one ED, two EA, and one rolling, three of which she’s also submitting an art portfolio. She’s completed nothing. I really hope she can find a college that loves a procrastinator!!
Yup. The stress is real, though. I mean he’s got one app in - it’s just that his ED app has a lot of supplementals and they need to be thoughtful so . . .
I actually totally get. Push a button, ask a bunch of strangers to judge the worth of everything you have done . . . kinda intimidating, and things like writer’s block, and plain old procrastination, make sense in this context.
S had completed his ED and EA entries in the Common App last week. He is sitting on it, instead of submitting. He is getting cold feet on the commitment part. There is no excitement.
Our kids are going through so many emotions right now. I try to replace my anxiety with compassion. Its hard!
ED can be really brutal. I mean, if you have a clear favorite (and it is comfortably affordable), then great. But so many kids seem to be doing it strategically even when they don’t feel that same strong connection (at least not yet), and I get why that would not feel so awesome.
Yes, he has thought about this school for many months now and it ticks off all of the boxes for him. He likes it a lot, but in general he is not excited about any school. In a way I guess it’s not a bad thing.
I definitely think it is bad to get wrapped up in just one reachy “dream school”. And if you are just not the type to get super excited about colleges this far advance, that is definitely within a healthy range of attitudes as far as I am concerned.
So in my ideal world, we’d call a big summit and kids would all agree not to ED strategically, and then maybe no one would need to ED strategically!
But instead they often feel compelled, which is . . . not great.
Our older one had a deadline 2 weeks before the EA deadline because the outside college counselor gave a hard deadline (for obvious reasons so they could have enough time for essay reviews). So waiting last minute wasted using that essay review resource AND we had to be on call to review drafts because no one else is going to do that 9pm the night it was due! Some things got done 2 weeks before, some the night it was due. The funny thing is looking back my kid said “The college process was so easy with me, you were so lucky”
He doesnt get the hype of the rankings (he goes to a ultra competitive school where kids shoot for the ivys), and is a bit risk averse. He knows how hard the admissions process has become. His friends wonder if he is not reaching high enough, but he is content with his decision. Just not super excited. It’s all relative. His ED school is a US News “Top 50”.
I feel for each and every parent with a procrastinator kid right now. D24 mentioned something about still having 3 weeks. NO, NOT 3! Two!
Her take is that she doesn’t do her best work when overwhelmed, so staying calm is important. And that me being stressed is making her overly stressed, when she has it under control.
She has suggested I stay off the forums and focus on something non-college related until Nov. 1, and it does make sense, so I will see you all then, with her final completed EA list and hopefully a lot of stress relieving yard and garden work done.
OMG. This sounds remarkably similar to my situation. My kid finally showed me a rough draft yesterday and it was . . . rough. There’s a seed of a good idea, but it isn’t conveying the central ideas that she wants. Two weeks is still plenty of time, but I’m also concerned about the November 1 EA deadline for Macalester. Alas, she’s hasn’t started the supplemental essays either.
That said, back in the halcyon days of the mid-90’s, I am pretty sure I didn’t begin my own personal statement until a day or two before my application was due in RD. It somehow worked out. On the other hand, there’s no way that 1994 me would get into the same colleges in 2024. I’m fully aware of my parental hypocrisy–the advice I give my kid today is far from the advice I followed when I was my kid’s age.
