<p>cgm, if all that others post on CC is so offensive to you, then stop reading and posting on CC. Becsuse you aren't going to change anyone's mind with rants such as the above.
ta-ta.</p>
<p>As a poster who DID NOT do her kids applications, I would like to say that I did not find anyone's attitude superior in this thread, except for one.</p>
<p>Mostly due to my ignorance of the whole college application process, my older D applied to 13 colleges (too many unnecessary safeties and crazy far reaches) on her own with only proof-reading and chasing the Fed EX guy done by me...GOOD TIMES!!!</p>
<p>Then I stumbled upon CC just in time to give older D a plethora of knowledge she could use to pick which college she would attend. And her choice was indeed the best she could have picked for herself. Now, armed with knowledge and experience I am my younger D’s administrative assistant and researcher. The spreadsheet and filing system developed was based on what poor D1 went through last year. This year, all D2 did not wish a repeat of last year’s drama (trauma) and completed everything for her 9 (perfectly balanced safety, match, reach) colleges by the end of October…except one supplement for a college that required 2 short answers and one long essay. And yes, those would have been finally completed TODAY…the DEADLINE…after she was up all night for a New Years Eve party (at our house, no less!) Watch this be the far reach school that accepts her with merit $$$! And yes, I hate to say it…these were the best essays she has written.</p>
<p>So, as the last bit of college application was submitted today, it has been a much more enjoyable and bonding experience to be my D’s administrative assistant than it was sitting on the sidelines watching my other D struggle to meet deadlines and make sure everything was complete in her applications. So, to the OP…we live and learn (to be organized…sort of)!</p>
<p>Curm – I am also branded with a "H"!
cgm - Who are any of us to judge or be judged? Different experiences bring us to different ideas on what works best for us. I'm not offended by your opinions, because they are just that...your opinions. And I'm as interested to read them as I am those who happen to see things from my side of the stream.</p>
<p>Here's a real admissions mistake: my S just sent the wrong version of his common app to a school. It included a version of the secondary essay in the "additional info" section with another school's details and name in it. </p>
<p>He was supposed to delete the essay and upload an activities grid, because the essay went on the supplement for the second school. </p>
<p>The classic. </p>
<p>I don't know if there is any way to repair the situation. I wonder if it is even worth while paying the fee....</p>
<p>If its any Consolation ;) to you, this is not an uncommon mistake. That's why sometimes an extra pair of eyes helps to read things over. It happened to 2 of my son's friends, and they were both admitted to their schools in spite of the wrong school name.</p>
<p>I never witnessed the "classic" error (another essay destined for another school; or a mixup in naming the school..)</p>
<p>BUT, the schools must know that they are all part of a list.</p>
<p>Why not just have the kid call the staff tomorrow and find out how to refile the substitute essay.</p>
<p>I just can't believe they don't have a system. This must happen all the time.</p>
<p>Deep down, I believe they want the best students for their campus and would like to read the intended essay MUCH more than tripwire a kid who rushed last-minute.</p>
<p>Good luck and hugs</p>
<p>I don't really buy into the notion that students are so busy that they cannot waste the time to fill out an application. I also don't think it is right to fill out applications for your child unless he or she requests you do so. Doing all the administrative work may all deprive a student of the needed organizational skills that one would need later on in life.</p>
<p>Crikey this is really tiresome.</p>
<p>Fudgemaster, doing the administrative work transparently may also TEACH the student how to handle a complex task. </p>
<p>For some "doing" administrative work means buying stamps. For others, "doing" administrative work means sitting in the same room to answer "Mom's maiden name" without it taking too long to hear the answer.</p>
<p>For others, "doing too much" means subscribing to CC for tips and shoptalk.</p>
<p>You know what? Tomorrow night, a college intern is moving into our house for a month to help H with his archaeology project. I'm really excited. I'm going to wash her linens and set up the empty bedroom for her. Nuts to this thread. Sorry to dear Timely who began with something delightful.</p>
<p>Wow, after reading through all of the posts, I kind of lost track of the whole point of it.</p>
<p>Back to the OP - the biggest mistake I think for us was missing a deadline. Carnegie Mellon has a deadline of 1/1 - except for Art which has a deadline of 12/1. So my d applied there as an undecided major. But I'm not sure that's a huge problem.</p>
<p>Also, the financial aid stuff is ridiculous !! UMichigian actually suggests submitting FinAid documents even before the application is submitted, as early as October.....</p>
<p>My d only applied to 6 schools - and 2 of those are safeties.....I wonder if she should have applied to more ?</p>
<p>Good luck with the final results !!</p>
<p>NEMom2-The reason the College of Fine Arts at CMU has an earlier deadline is to allow time for portfolio or audition submissions. If your d wants to transfer into Art, then I'm sure she could, pending a portfolio, but be aware that the programs are set up with a very specific curriculum, so she may end up needing an extra semester or two to finish (not an inexpensive option). I hope she finds a great creative environment to develop her talent. Good Luck to her</p>
<p>Wow, this whole thing with cgm is getting ridiculous. Again, my son wasn't attending club meetings or sports practices. He was attending classes -- high school from 7-4 PM during the day, and evening college classes -- and doing lots of homework, including participating in an email Latin study class. We have a very complicated school and home situation, and because he was busy <em>doing his job</em>, I helped him with the administrative work. He also <em>helped me</em> by doing things like taking out the garbage and recycling, tutoring his sister, and participating in the household. Our choice was <em>our</em> choice. My son was more independent by necessity at a far younger age than many kids. If you think that means he's perfect and has "mommy and daddy" to do things for him, well, whatever. I still find it funny that the same person who complains that other parents do too much for their children does her kid's laundry and folds their clothes. But again, as others have said, none of this has anything to do with the OP's question, which was very cool and helpful.</p>
<p>In high school, a student several years my senior submitted packets of supplemental information to colleges about a month before admissions results were released. His big mistake: not changing the school's name in the cover letter. He emailed all of the schools he offended and apologized for his mistake-which might have unnecessarily called attention to the problem.</p>
<p>DS had one EA school that wanted FA info VERY early. </p>
<p>Now that we have entered the happy seaseon of FAFSA, I'll continue in the OP's vein and share our FA mistake: I remembered that PROFILE had to be filed by mid-Nov., but the school's FA form had to be submitted by 11/1. Oops. I filled it out by 11/1, but forgot to submit. Missed that by a day. No worries -- they still told us we wouldn't qualify for anything. :( (COA is $5.5K > than our Institutional Methodology number, plus high med expenses, so we thought it was worth trying...)</p>
<p>And a reminder: If you want a PIN to use as your electronic signature on FAFSA, get it now. It takes them a few days to email it to you! Do not wait til the last minute to complete the forms and then realize you'll be late because of the PIN delay.</p>
<p>These are forms DH and I will be completing, not DS. He may have to sign, but we're putting together the data.</p>
<p>Stupid Admssions Mistake here was neglecting to print out paper copies of essays as they were written by D. Our computer crashed a few days before a big deadline and I wasn't sure we'd get the stuff she needed off the hard drive. Even better than printing would have been to email the essays to an online mailbox so they could have been accessed from any computer.</p>
<p>I also wish D would have been more interested in campus visits sooner. The way it turned out she had weekend rehearsals all spring Junior year and Governor's school and journalism camp during the summer. When we finally tried to visit schools in the fall of her senior year, some were full on the limited weekends we had available.</p>
<p>I am so glad we did the campus visits before applying however. Those visits combined with her major (Linguistics) narrowed her applications down to just three.</p>
<p>" . . . And a reminder: If you want a PIN to use as your electronic signature on FAFSA, get it now. It takes them a few days to email it to you! Do not wait til the last minute to complete the forms and then realize you'll be late because of the PIN delay."</p>
<p>What a great heads-up! Thanks you, CountingDown!</p>
<p>As for the "show them tough love during college applications" view -- Ridiculous! This is not the moment to teach a life lesson. Too much at stake financially and in terms of their educational trajectory. Just a really odd viewpoint that has to have some underlying issues behind it. Every sane parent I know is very involved in this process. Hiring the essay ghostwriters or consultants or private SAT tutors does strike me as gross. But helping with the gargantuan administrative challenge of putting out a lot of applications is just responsible parenting. These are 17-year-olds for goodness sakes! That's still very, very young. They need help - at least if they're shooting high and trying to save their parents money by putting themselves in a position to compare multiple financial packages in the spring. I guess I feel a bit sorry for parents with kids who haven't worked hard in high school and are now scrambling to try to breathe life into applications with no meat to them. I guess that would be more of the same enabling parenting mistake. But the folks here on CC are by and large from a very different camp. Their kids "bring it" throughout high school and it is appropriate to help them with their applications.</p>
<p>Our son's college admissions process was stress free and quite simple because he did all of his work jr year, ie carefully researching which colleges he might apply to. As a result he avoided the following pitfalls, applying to too many colleges(he applied to "only" 6), procrastinating, applying to predominantly "reach" colleges(all his were strong match/safeties), and perhaps the most important thing, recognizing that he would be happy which ever college he ultimately attended, ie there was no such thing as the perfect college to find.</p>
<p>I think you ought to keep that one, originaloog!</p>
<p>Insufficient postage is pretty embarassing. But this is hysterical:
[quote]
This is how we got DH's job as "faceless bureaucrat" memorialized on one of his apps.
[/quote]
Did you ever hear whether or not this was noticed by the adcoms? It certainly shows the family has a sense of humor, so that can't be a bad thing!</p>
<p>I loved this, too!</p>
<p>My job was entered as "Queen" on one app, but we did manage to update that entry.</p>
<p>Queen? LOL!</p>
<p>I may have to amuse myself with interesting parent jobs. How about Pole Dancer? Or retired Ringling Brothers Clown. Or Hooters Girl.</p>