<p>Yes, I do LOVE cc! younghoss, I’m calming down, I promise. It’s posts like yours that make me laugh at myself. The “OMG” comes from having a 12 year old dd, I guess-lol. I will go back to my “supportive” role as just plain mom and make sure that he is fed and has clean clothes. I think he does have a back up plan with his current AP Physic teacher for a letter so it will just have to be mailed in.</p>
<p>Yes, DS is more mature than I am. I have to face it. He is so laid back about the whole college process and I am a nervous wreck. He never once studied for a darn thing. For weeks before the standard tests, I tried not to nag him but made nice little suggestions to at least try a practice test. Nope, he did no such thing. Got a 33 the first time and made his own decision to take it again without any extra prep and got a 35. I did congratulate him but bad mom that I am, I had in the back of my mind, “What could he do if he studied?” I started planting the seed this summer to get a head start on the colleges essays but nope, nothing from him again. That’s probably why the whole application thing was wearing on me. He did the entire supplement on Sunday afternoon, once over and done. I should be happy that he did at least spend some time on the common app essay and just learn to trust his instincts. It does tick me off that he didn’t write and rewrite when most of his friends are spending lots of time on their apps but if he made it this far flying by the seat of his pant, I have to let go. </p>
<p>He doesn’t even have a dream college, says he’s just going to apply broadly and decide when the finaid packets come. I did tell him he could get money from Alabama and some other schools but he isn’t interested in any of those and has his fall back plan of community college then transfer to a UC if nothing else comes through. Yes, he’s very reasonable unlike his mom who is crossing fingers and holding her breath and really doesn’t want him to go to a cc! He told me that he wouldn’t be surprised if he gets rejected from most of the schools he’s applying to because those are the odds and he is proud of himself for just taking the chance. Hmmm, nice to have a bunch of strangers remind me of what good luck I have, thanks!</p>
<p>I wasn’t sure about my son’s essay at all, but he ran it by his AP English teacher, his GC, who ran it by a Middlebury College admissions officer he knew and then I ran it by a friend who read essays for UVM admissions (my son wasn’t applying to either of those schools). They all loved it. I decided to keep my mouth shut. Son was accepted everywhere he applied.</p>
<p>Regarding letters of recommendations, this is between your son and his teachers. My son made himself a spreadsheet online with deadlines for everything he needed to get in. Maybe if your son did something like that it would help your anxiety level.</p>
<p>I’d have to agree with most reponses… I wouldn’t sweat it too much. I doubt a fragment on an essay is going to make or break his acceptance. My younger S had a few on one of his essays. He was trying to make a point and come across as young people speak. He was accepted at Stanford, Princeton, Yale, MIT, etc. Only rejection came from Harvard. I don’t think it made a difference. I was worried though… guess it comes with being a parent. Good luck.</p>
<p>If you really think a couple of sentence fragments will get him rejected from a college,you need to take a chill pill. Seriously. Step away from the applications. </p>
<p>Some of the best writing in the world is imperfect. </p>
<p>It’s pretty amazing how much mom is freaking out over this.</p>
This is the sentence in the OP’s first post that jumped out at me as I did a close reading (I was also an English major). </p>
<p>A college admissions essay is more like a work of creative writing than it is an exercise in English grammar. It is supposed to be expressive and, if at all possible, individual. The readers will not “grade it” on grammar–they will see that these fragments are there for effect. (Misspelled words would be a different matter.) This is why the teachers at his school liked it–they are comparing it to hundreds of other admissions essays that they have seen–while you and your husband have not seen many, if any. So relax. They are more likely to be expert in evaluating this kind of essay than you are.</p>
<p>OP … to give you warning I’m going to tweak you for your position.</p>
<p>So, let me see if I got this right. You have a kid who you academically pretty mush left alone and he is a great kid, a high achiever, tested well, his teachers like and wrote good recommendations, and teaches who like his essay … all doing it his way. Now at this point you want to jump in and direct his work more than you have while he was creating all this success? Does that describe the situation accurately? Does is really seem logical for you to intervene now?</p>
<p>PS - SecondToGo did not allow Mom3ToGo and I to see any of his applications until after he submitted applications. He then showed us his work … and his essay was not very well written; at best the quality of writing was adequate. That said I thought the content was terrific … if the goal of the essays are for the schools to understand the applicant SecondToGo hit a home run letting the schools know who he was, who he wants to be when he matures, and what he wants to achieve in college and “get” from the schools. Given, IMO, he over performed in admissions I’d guess his far from perfectly written essay didn’t hurt and in fact helped him.</p>
<p>My daughter works in her colleges admissions office. Her job is to crete the “folders” and match up rec letter with the applications etc. It’s is an arduous process. First they input the applications, so then they have something to match the letter to. This takes time. Then you have transcripts.</p>
<p>Unless you wNt to drive everyone nuts, step back. And if I were you and son does get rejected from an ea school, don’t say, oh told you so, it was that sentence fragment…in the grand scheme of college application parts, scruggs, grades, ecs, recs, course load,other applicants, college acceptance rates, etc, a sentence fragment has zero influence.</p>
<p>Adding to what Hunt said, not only have your kid’s teachers read a lot more college application essays than you have, the essays are going to be read by admissions staff, not English instructors. Their standards for good writing are likely to be pretty high – after all, they are reading up to 40-50 of these things a day, day after day. But they have no particular interest in enforcing the rules of standard English grammar.</p>
<p>I do think they would react badly to sentence fragments that looked like mistakes. But a sentence fragment for artistic or rhetorical effect? Not a problem.</p>
<p>(And, for that matter, not really a problem in standard English grammar, either. Literature major with honors, here, child of an English teacher, and sometime high school English teacher myself. From your description, it sounds like I might disagree with your reflex to mark it “WRONG”.)</p>
<p>On the other hand . . . When my daughter wrote her first first draft of a college essay, her English teacher liked it so much she copied it and used it as a teaching model. She marked it up and made some suggestions . . . and missed about half-a-dozen grammatical errors that were pure sloppiness. I felt like pulling my hair out! But that was a common problem for her from middle school forward. She was a very fluid, sophisticated writer, always way above grade level. Only one or two of her high school teachers read her stuff carefully enough to be able to challenge her to get better.</p>
<p>This assumes the teachers were able to see the mistakes! Essays do not come with the same canned answers printed on the back that the Teachers’ Editions have … to have.</p>
<p>Once again, thank all of you for your replies! I am delighted that I posted here and had everyone help me put things back into perspective. Yes, I needed a kick to let go so thanks.</p>
<p>I agree that now is not the time to start telling him what to do and second guessing his work. I reread it and it’s a good essay. If he is happy with it, I am not going to say another word about it to him. Thanks again for letting me vent and helping me to see the error of my ways! I have NEVER read any admission essay so I’ll leave it up to the experts and DS who likes and has faith in his teachers.</p>
<p>He just went to his math teacher and he was writing the recommendation when DS walked in so that is all set too! I’m just going to give him a hug and a pat on the back when he comes in today and every day until he leaves for college.</p>
<p>Yes, if nothing else, I’ve found out that I am not alone stressing over some aspect of this college application business. I’m glad that I caught myself fairly early in the process so I can straighten up my act and just be supportive and loving for my son. Thank you again!</p>
<p>“I’m just going to let this go. He has done everything right, on his own, up to this point and I am proud of his efforts.” - Good call. It’s his essay. </p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better, my son had an essay which had a few long, complicated run-on-ish sentences. I didn’t say anything because we had him working with an essay reviewer to help him on topics and tone (so i could stay out of it). One of his college acceptances from a top notch school came back with a handwritten comment - “we feel your passion”.</p>
<p>^ yup … I have no way of knowing but I believe the roughness of my son’s essay probably supported the idea that it was his and not coached or ghost written.</p>
<p>I read my S’ essay last year and suggested several changes. He incorporated some and rejected others. Same with my D who applied to a college summer program last year. I can say both essays were definitely in their voices.</p>
<p>Both got in where they wanted to.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned that you should have advised your S to have backup teacher LORs…never would have occurred to me. My kids asked who they wanted to ask and that was that.</p>
<p>How do you even approach a teacher for that? “Hi, you are not my first or second choice teacher but I’m hoping you can be on standby to write me a letter of recommendation in case one of my primary two teachers flakes? I’ll be contacting you at the last minute, when I’m sure that I don’t have letters from both of the others, who I think will write me better recs than you would. Thanks.”</p>
<p>I am also a college English professor and a novelist. These essays are CREATIVE non-fiction which often uses unconventional strategies. There is a difference between a fragment that impedes communication and one used for emphasis by a talented writer. These essays are often read by recent grads. I don’t think an innovative style will hurt your son. The essay is not a grammar exam.</p>
<p>^^^“CREATIVE”^^^ Yes that is the key here. OP’s son may be a budding Tom Wolfe whose novels have pages of fragments fragments rat a tat fragments swirling swirling.</p>
<p>Did not care for essay DS submitted a few weeks ago. But likes others, he stood stubbornly by his words and refused to take much direction. So just now I went back and read it again. With a few weeks between now and the last time I read it, it took a whole new tone. I actually like it now. I think it was just so different from what “I” thought it should have been that it was a shock initially.</p>