<p>My guess is that his GPA from a prep school but nonetheless it fits in this thread.</p>
<p>mantori –</p>
<p>You see the Stanford Common App supplement as compact? I’ll admit to only looking at the ones that S was thinking of applying to, but I’d say the Stanford one is on the lengthy side, as is Brown. This kind of reminds me of the bad homework syndrome where each teacher expects a couple hours being spent on study and homework for their class, ignoring the fact that the student may have 5 or so other classes. The only different with the apps is the student gets to choose where they apply but let’s face it, the top places ask for lots of responses because they can.</p>
<p>Flavadad and oldport- D plans to combine her Chinese with international business. She has sat in on Chinese II classes at a couple of schools and thought they were pretty easy, but she spent jr year of high school in Beijing with SYA. Some school interviewers have been very impressed with that experience, others not so much, depending I think on whether or not they have been there themselves or know someone who has travelled there and understands how difficult it is. She is considering a SF bay area school, but I wonder if Chinese language skills are valued there, as there is such a large Chinese community.</p>
<p>
hmom- I thought you reported your niece got into Stanford with a sub-3.6 GPA. What was her hook/ major tip factor? Why do you think Dartmouth is necessarily more “numbers oriented” than Stanford?</p>
<p>FindAPlace, it seems “compact” wasn’t the right word. I guess what surprised me was that there were numerous short-answer questions, rather than one or two full-blown essays. To me that seems easier, but I’m sure that’s not true for everyone, and it’s not exactly “compact” either.</p>
<p>I find the short answer format harder than the long essay format. It is a challenge to fit the fullness of what you like to convey in a few sentences. In a way, it’s like writing a poem - frugal with words yet rich in meaning. Finding the right words and expressions is paramount here. I noticed my son spent more time on the short answers than the long ones.</p>
<p>My S has also spent more time on the short essay responses (there are more of them, as well.) The sole exception was when he chose to be a bit daring with his Common App response to elaborate on an EC. He wrote about how piano playing makes him feel and did it in a poetic style, in about 20 minutes.</p>
<p>Just a few hours until the Stanford and Rochester deadlines, and the young man is still typing away. Well, typing for a few seconds, followed by long silences, followed by a little more typing. I’m just staying calm…staying calm…staying calm…STAY. ING. CALM.</p>
<p>Happy New Year to everyone!</p>
<p>S1 just clicked the “send” button on his last app. He sang and danced afterward. Completing these apps was definitely a major undertaking. The last few days were particular hard for him as he sloughed through one app after another. </p>
<p>I noticed his interest in completing the apps waned as the days went by. It was obvious that his UChicago acceptance took away much incentive for him to apply to more schools. He finished all but one app on New Year’s eve. He wanted badly to rush through the last one, but I stopped him after looking at the clock - it was 11:30 pm already. I didn’t want him to miss the big new year moment. “Son, do it tomorrow, come over and let’s watch the big apple fall.” With a deep sigh, he walked over and, within seconds, his face beamed with excitement as we started our countdown.</p>
<p>Mantori, I am one of the many parents who has been following your son’s journey. Your posts have been very thoughtful and real and much appreciated by many of us. Being a parent can be sooo frustrating at times. We wish we could shake our kids and make them do what we want, but we can’t. Instead, we have to let go and let this be their journey. Ugh…much easier said than done. Perhaps that is why I spend so much time on college confidential! Hanging out with all of you helps me to step back and nag less.</p>
<p>Please know that many of us are right there with you, rooting for your son to finish his apps in time. And if not, well, maybe it wasn’t meant to be! You’ve done a great job supporting him through this process and he already has some great choices, with scholarship dollars to boot! </p>
<p>Keep us posted…</p>
<p>I usually post on the 3.0 - 3.3 thread, but I thought I would pop over here and congratulate everyone for meeting the Jan 1 deadlines and I wish you all the best of luck. I’ve learned a lot from the posts here, and have passed on some nuggets of wisdom.</p>
<p>S2 has applied to Claremont McKenna as his dream school. It’s a real reach for him, but a great match for his passion for policy and government. He’s already gotten accepted to some great schools, so I figured he should take the chance - that’s the only way to find out!</p>
<p>mantori, hope your son finished Stanford and Rochester apps. I second 2girls4me’s comment.</p>
<p>mom2sons, hope your S2 gets in his dream school. The results on this thread showed reaches are definitely possible, especially if there is a match in passion.</p>
<p>Now that the apps are done, I’m left with an empty feeling. It is still too soon to start my tax return, yet it seems there must be something else we can do and should be doing - an after effect of working intensely for too long and suddenly coming to a stop? I guess it is like finishing a cross country marathon and somehow you still need to wait for a few months for the results :eek:.</p>
<p>For those parents of kids with completed apps, what do you do now - on the college front of course - before your are ready to work on your taxes?</p>
<p>Take down the Christmas tree, the lights, and the rest of the decorations…</p>
<p>Oh, on the college front - I guess now would be a good time to finally throw out (or pass on) all those mailings from the colleges our kids did not apply to.</p>
<p>^That’s my laugh for the day. Thank you, mom2sons :).</p>
<p>Some of them are good for starting fires. (In the fireplace, I mean.)</p>
<p>We ritually burned the College Board “Blue Book” and all the torn out practice tests at a summer bonfire after S1’s graduation. S2 plans to do the same thing!</p>
<p>I hate to say it…and don’t really want to say much about it yet…but last night ended in raised voices and a few tears. The Stanford and Rochester applications got submittedpossibly on-timebut waiting until the last minute carries obvious risks, and I’d say my son managed not to avoid any of them.</p>
<p>Responsibility to people whom you ask for help, responsibility to people whom you ask for money, responsibility to people whom you ask for recommendations…all topics of conversation last night. I guess that, at 11:55 p.m., I just wasn’t in the mood to shrug my shoulders and say, “Oh, well.”</p>
<p>Today will be a better day.</p>
<p>Upon reflection, there is one interesting thing I’d like to share. DS1 finished the app to a mega-reach school in early December. I suggested the essay topic for the supplement. Even though he thought he could develop it into a good essay (and he did), I noticed that he wasn’t completely at ease with it. So rather than submitting the supplement after he completed it, we sat on it. </p>
<p>Three weeks later, while talking about the Rohan essay from UChicago, I suggested maybe he can be more creative with the mega-reach school essay and suggested a few more examples. He said he’ll think about it. I sensed his creativity was set in motion. The next day, he came back to me with an original idea that I thought was just fantastic. He completed the draft in an hour and spent the next two days polishing it. He was very happy to replace the old essay with this new one. </p>
<p>He certainly gained by having a completed app in hand early so that submitting it on time was never in danger, and used the remaining time to see if his mind can be stirred into creating something better, and in this case, it did.</p>
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<p>You did what I would’ve done in the same situation, with raised voices as well. I’m glad your son completed the two apps, raised voices and tears notwithstanding. Congrats! Now we wait, or should I say hibernate?</p>