<p>After agonizing if he should keep tweaking the essay my son finally clicked the submit button on the Penn app. I think it becomes counterproductive to read your essay over and over after awhile.</p>
<p>Only one app left and it is complete except for a tweak here or there. Whew 11 schools done and complete (well one scholarship app left that is due by Feb 1).</p>
<p>What an adventure</p>
<p>Oh boy, do I remember that feeling! I think I must have re-read my Princeton ED application five million times before I submitted it--I honestly think I could recite the whole thing for you without looking at it!
So nerve-wracking, but what a relief to be done with it! Now the wait begins (and if you though the app part was agonizing, just wait...).</p>
<p>My daughter clicked on the last application the day before Christmas. She submitted 10 applications with art supplement. We also wrote recommendation letters for her. All she has to do now is to keep up her grades until Jan 15, then she will be able to enjoy rest of her senior year. She said that at this point she doesn't even care any more about which college she will go to - well, maybe until end of March.:)<br>
One good thing that came out of this process is that my daughter definitely knows herself better now. 10+ essays will do it for you.</p>
<p>I think the whole world waits until the last minute.</p>
<p>My daughter, who actually got into her ED school, has not been able to get together with any of her friends during this Winter Break. They're all home, finishing their RD college applications. Her only contact with them is when they send her draft essays to proofread.</p>
<p>Had my daughter not gotten into her ED school, she would be frantically writing applications, too. She had started applications at 6 other schools but only finished 2 of them. The other 4 had lots of essays.</p>
<p>"We also wrote recommendation letters for her." What does this mean, oldfort?</p>
<p>Congrats to all for finishing the applications--now to have some vacation time!</p>
<p>Congratulations to all who already relaxing and enjoying the rest of the break. My daughter was asked by some of her schools to submit a copy of a research project she won an award for, so she took it in to her dad's office today to be copied and put them in the mail. H's office assistant kindly made her an extra copy, and D looked at it later. Apparently, the pages fed through the machine randomly, and after the first few pages, the rest were all out of order. Poor kid.....panic, near tears, then a conversation like this:</p>
<p>D: (wailing) Now I'll never get in! What can I do?!?!?! Can you go on that forum thing and ask the parents what to do?</p>
<p>Me: (soothing tone) Now, hon, calm down. I'll try, but what do you think they would say?</p>
<p>D: I don't know....(sniff, sniff, then brightening)....that I should mail new copies tomorrow and ask the person who opens the mail to put the new one in my file instead?</p>
<p>Me: (mentally).....YES! She IS ready to survive on her own.
(And I'm sure that's what all of you would have suggested)</p>
<p>Some schools allow one recommendation letter from employer, sibling, parent, friend, or anyone that may know the applicant well. One school actually said, they get the most interesting letter from parents - at least the most insightful. 3 out of 10 schools allow parent's recommendation. These are all supplements. I had fun writing it and my daughter got a kick out of reading it.</p>
<p>Now if the parents were brutally honest, those recs might make interesting reading. ;)</p>
<p>drizzit and others who have made it this far: CONGRATS!!! I remember this process like it was yesterday, even though it was two years ago that my son was doing this thang. If I recall correctly, he had several apps that he didn't push the submit button on until literally minutes before the deadline! :eek: I wish all of your kids the best as they begin the "big wait"!!</p>
<p>ReneeV~</p>
<p>Kudos to your D for keeping it together! This process is enough to reduce ANYONE to a blubbering mess, especially us parents! :eek:</p>
<p>oldfort~</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, Duke is one of the schools that allows an optional recommendation letter of that kind. My best friend wrote one for my son, but I would have loved to have done it as well! :) </p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>I think it's given that parents would be just a bit biased (I don't understand why any school wouldn't want to accept my D.:) ) I think we give the adcom a different prospective of our kids.<br>
Yes, Duke is one of those schools. As a matter of fact, I read some where that a girl thinks the reason she got into Duke is because of her mother's recommendation letter. I got inspired when we visited Princeton and the rep told us that some parents write recommendations for their kids. They enjoy reading those letters.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If I remember correctly, Duke is one of the schools that allows an optional recommendation letter of that kind.
[/quote]
I wrote a rec for my daughter at the only school she applied to that mentioned parent recs - Duke. She wasn't accepted, and I've wondered occasionally whether ot not something I said moved her off the accepted pile into the waitlisted pile. I don't really think so, of course, and fortunately, I'll never know!</p>
<p>Our agreement was that I'd write the thing and she could review it and then decline to send it. She submitted it, but without saying a word - and there was a funny, pursed-up expression on her face as she read it.</p>
<p>I wrote a recommendation for my daughter for Centre College. It was an optional thing. I think it's just another way for schools to get insight into applicants.</p>
<p>Congratulations to those whose kids have finished all their apps. My D finished all her Common App stuff (all her schools accept it), but needs to finish supplements for the 1/1 and 1/15 schools. My blood pressure is rising as she shops, watches tv, and hangs with friends --- if only she would spend a little time on apps, I would feel so much better! The problem is, I know that when crunch time comes and D panics, the whole family suffers!!</p>
<p>
frazzled~</p>
<p>I am absolutely SURE that your letter to Duke was not responsible for your daughter's rejection. Duke clearly lists that letter as "optional" and says that it will not be considered formally in terms of the criteria used for admission. But I can certainly see how the result would leave you with a sense of "I wonder why....." I know that when my son was rejected from Yale, we picked apart the application tiny piece by tiny piece to see if we could find a "why," but of course we couldn't! <em>lol</em> </p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>Whenever my mom loses her temper with me these days, which is more often than I'd like, she threatens to write me a negative recommendation. ("When they see what you're REALLY like you'll NEVER get into college!") :eek:</p>
<p>Frazzled1 - it's called guilt. As parents we feel responsible whenever something bad happens to our kids. My D is the oldest one - wonder how I am going to do when she leaves for college. I guess it will be a different thread.</p>
<p>Kelsman - Told my D that she couldn't leave the house until everything was done and that included the supplements.</p>
<p>I cannot imagine producing a letter for either of my offspring which could avoid crossing the line of parental pride and knowledge to what was information for others. Because both of them entered college in my field, I probably knew too much objectively, but cared too much subjectively....sigh....glad that never was an issue for us. Perhaps it would be more revealing about the parent than the applicant. I wonder if this is not hand in hand with the helicopter parents, unbilical cell phone cord generation. The relationships are quite different now than they were in the olden days....sigh.</p>
<p>lorelei~</p>
<p>Good points. That was why I asked my best friend to write my son's optional rec. ~berurah</p>
<p>Congrats to those who are finished with applications, or have been accepted into their ED schools. I sent my first two off yesterday to Bowdoin and Bates. I think I am more nervous now that I have sent them, than I was before I sent them. I liked having them in hand, and knowing I could change what I had written. Not anymore! I have two more to do, but the deadline isn't until Feb 1, so I have a bit of time to finish things up. Then I all I have to do is wait for my ED II notice for Bowdoin in Feb.</p>
<p>Best friend's recommendation is not biased? Dartmouth asks for a recommendation letter from a student's peer. Why? To get an unbiased opinion of the student? No. Maybe the school would like to know something a bit more about the student, outside of academic and regular ECs. How well parents and friends regard a person can tell you a lot about that person. </p>
<p>By writing a recommendation letter for your kid does not make you a helicopter parent. At the end of the day, if the kid does not have the GPA or SAT score, nothing will help. When I was applying to schools, I sent out 2 RD applications, got into both schools.</p>
<p>Please, oldfort, do not think I meant that writing a letter made you a helicopter parent. I was considering the difference in how parents of this generation are involved and know about so much, whereas previously, this did not happen. It is quite consistent with how things are different. I am old (and tired) enough to understand the benefits of knowing less! Just know that I was not being critical nor judgemental. I admire anyone who could write a letter like that which would be appropriate and satisfactory to both parent and child. Good luck to your whole family, because I understand what a family process this whole thing is!</p>