Ohiodad51,
I must have missed it - what your kid wants to do? What are her goals for her college years? Maybe I am wrong, but it looks to me that you are after Merit awards. As OH resident whose D. applied only in OH with the exception of one school and having similar stats to your kid, based on my kid’s experience, Miami (OH) and Case were clear front runners in our quest for the Merit awards. However, the school choice (in my kid’s case) was largely determined by her professional goal. So, neither Miami, nor Case will fit your kid if her goal does not fit with either of these excellent choices. I am not talking about just one program, I am talking about whole aspect of the college experience that should fit the student. However, the Merit award was close to the top of my kid’s criteria which largely was dictated by her professional goal.
I think it is unreasonable to expect a 17 yr old to have a solid professional goal. A few do. Many change their minds when they are exposed to new areas of study in college.
@Ohiodad51, why would she be changing her personal statement on the CA for each school? Again, if the essay is real and compelling, it does the job. I think she should concentrate on writing a really good essay in the first place, not plan on fiddling with a so-so one later.
When S applied to colleges, IIRC the only one for which he had to do a substantial amount of new writing was the University of Chicago’s Uncommon Application. He actually enjoyed doing that one.
@Consolation, that is a really good question. I think I have seen two different schools of thought expressed in the advice I have seen here. One is that the CA essay should be a “real and compelling” (to use your words) look into her soul as it were, and the other that the CA essay should be “tweakable” to highlight different aspects of her personality that may appeal to different schools. My gut tells me you are right, and that the idea was to identify colleges that fit her, rather than try and tailor herself to fit certain colleges, if that makes sense. But I am really in the weeds on that point, as the older kid only applied to one school.
Thoughts?
That makes perfect sense, and I think you should follow that path.
My younger son sent exactly the same Common Application essays everywhere. I think his essay for describing a favorite extracurricular knocked it out of the ballpark for him. But he worked hard on all the supplemental essays and that’s where he paid attention to what might sell best at each school. He thought afterwards those essays were much easier to write if he had actually visited the school. The only school he got into that he hadn’t visited was the U of Chicago. There he had a lot of fun with the uncommon essay by then part of the supplement, and the “Why Chicago” essay which was aided by the fact that his aunt and uncle had attended. (He mentioned some funny t-shirts for example.)
Same as @mathmom
My son put much customization and thought into his supplemental essays for each college. He researched the colleges online and visited them, so he was able to be specific in answering questions like "Why do you want to study X and why at OUR college? "
But, he kept his main Common App essay the same for all his applications. Whether it was “compelling” would depend on the reader, but it was “real” and kind of cute.
A few kids we know did try to improve their main CA essays over Christmas after ED1 deferrals or rejections to big name schools.
I looked back and found that ohiodad51 has a son at Princeton. So I think he knows all of this advice already. I did not realize that in my earlier posts and thoughtt he was going through this process for the first time with his daughter.
While maybe different schools, it’s always easier the second time around. Not such a big a learning curve.
Actually this is really the first time for us. My son is an athlete, which is a very different process all together. All of the sorting and list building was done within the context of the recruiting process, and at the end of the day he applied to one school. The only advice he ever got from all of the coaches recruiting in both the Ivy and the NESCAC about his essays was “don’t screw around and take it seriously”. Within the recruiting context, no one cares about admit rates, fit, vibe and showing interest. All of that occurs well before the app hits the admissions office.