<p>"High school students go on holiday break this weekend, but many seniors won't get much rest because they will be holed up at home or taking the laptops along on ski trips as they scramble to finish their college applications by the end of the year. </p>
<p>Some students have just procrastinated, while others, who will learn today or Friday whether they were accepted or rejected for early admission at a select college, face the prospect of pulling together new applications."</p>
<p>AND</p>
<p>"Last year, 50,000 out of the 650,000 applications processed were submitted on Dec. 31 for schools ranging from the California Institute of Technology and St. Mary's College of California to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. </p>
<p>Preparing applications at the last minute is not wise, experts say, pointing out that the application Web site's server may collapse under the load."</p>
<p>Last year my procrastinator S sent all his four applications on New Year’s Eve. I had my own countdown until he pressed “send”. This year, my D applied to only one school and she was accepted…so, Happy New Year 2007!</p>
<p>THIS SHOULD BE A HOLIDAY TO REMEMBER IN OUR HOUSEHOLD ;)</p>
<p>QUOTE:
"And with just a week until winter break, he's also inundated with school reports and extracurricular activities. And then there are financial aid forms and scholarship applications. The only thing he's been able to give up are sleep and the holidays.</p>
<p>He's not alone. Many high school seniors who waited until the college application deadline are sweating out the holiday season to get their applications in by the January and February deadlines.</p>
<p>High school guidance counselors are no strangers to the last-minute application crunch. They witness the procrastination phenomenon year after year despite warnings to students."</p>
<p>We're organized just like Rosa in the article...DD has one slot in the accordian folder for each school. The common app was done in October; the first RD deadline was Dec. 1 (submitted Oct. 24) another is due 1/1 (submitted 11/28). Got an offer from another school to waive the admission fee if we submitted by 1/12; that one was done 11/19. The only ones that aren't done are due 2/15 and 3/1. I think they'll be done over xmas break!</p>
<p>At DD's school, there's no strict rule, but they did tell us that for any Jan. 1st deadlines, you had to have the request in to your GC by Dec. 4th because of the holidays. </p>
<p>The only rule the GC's office does have it that you have to have the application submitted (or at least ready to be mailed with the recs) BEFORE you can submit the request to the GC.</p>
<p>As someone who works as an independent counselor who set up time lines for each student....I can tell you that I have still had to work in crunch mode with many applicants who procastinated and are doing things near deadlines putting me on call 24/7. It is quite crazy.</p>
<p>I have officially given up. I told S last night I wasn't going to nag him anymore and he said, "Thanks!", so that's it for me. He has 3 apps completed, 2 EA and one RD. Of the other 7 supplements, 2 are about half done, the others have been looked at, so he knows what's needed. Two are due Jan 1 and 2; the others Jan. 15. S's midterms are after the vacation, so that will eat up time too.</p>
<p>I've worried about last minute illness, last minute power failure; didn't even think to worry about things being jammed up at the colleges' end (GAAAHH!!!)
until I read this thread. But it was negatively impacting our time together to be constantly focused on this, so, from now on, I'm only complaining with my friends or on cc (cyber-friends?).</p>
<p>bethvt:
I can sympathize. I gave up with my son a lot sooner. One day I just threw all the stuff on his bed and told him I'M DONE. He did manage to complete 9 applications - mostly thanks to his school's unwavering 30 days lead time rule. I also have no idea how good a job he did on the apps. We'll see! This too shall pass!!!</p>
<p>I'm wondering if it's harder to send in the apps to the favorite schools...like "once the send thingy is clicked (or the app put in the mailbox) that's it...no chance to improve it".</p>
<p>Yeah, for some kids that's definitely a problem. </p>
<p>My son has just hated every step in the process. I honestly don't think he's stressed at all about the "quality" of the application. He's just wanted to get them out of the way. </p>
<p>I think he must be having too much fun in HS. He really is not interested in college at all. He doesn't even check his mail! I have to tell him - "Look! Here's letter that might be an Acceptance! Maybe you should open it!!!" :confused:</p>
<p>I remember this time of year well! I was tracking FedEx application packets across country on December 30, 31st, January 1.......remember a bunch of trips in the pouring rain to the Fedex office. </p>
<p>Looking back on it in retrospect, it was kind of fun in a weird way. Son had one EA acceptance though there wasn't really overwhelming pressure. Frankly, I don't think his essays on any of the non-EA applications were stellar by any means, but he got into most of the schools he applied to anyway. </p>
<p>As far as the kids who aren't exactly cooperating: You've got to figure--they're all teenagers, most of them are still organizationally challenged and may be more concerned about their latest crush than their application essay. Our standards as adults are probably just not the same as theirs. The ones that are churning out the perfectly organized essays may be the ones we should be worrying about the most!</p>
<p>Yep, while D was doing her applications (completed December 28th), I was completing one college's financial aid application, complete with estimated tax return. Then becoming intimately familiar with FAFSA, Profile, and IDOC. Fun times.</p>
<p>At this point in the process last year I think a lot of circuits got fried. Financial data, last minute decisions to apply to "one more", lots of double checking , heck lots of quintuple checking -who am I kidding? At times it was my own little episode of "Monk" but most of the time it was classic Three Stooges. I feel ya. ;)</p>
<p>I don't think "one more" has a chance of happening here. Stanford got in - he didn't even bother to have me proof the big essay - he was "sick of it". Ack.</p>
<p>Weenie - I think our sons may be long lost brothers! What he feels is "I don't want to think about my life being over" ----- college is vaguely interesting, but also means leaving a great HS experience, good friends, and a place he knows he's ok. His EA acceptance, with a nice merit award, didn't elicit obvious joy, because he opened it in front of a couple of friends and "didn't want to seem conceited". Now he's stopped looking at the mail!</p>