<p>Come down, just wait for all excitement when they apply to Grad. School. Then great fun really starts… believe me, UG application will look like little soft bump.</p>
<p>@amandakayak
I disagree with not jumping in. I had a procrastinator to beat all last year. My son hated writing the essays (very tough schedule and more a math/science kid). Applying to college is something you do once and never again (hopefully). If it means the difference between having the time to review your essays several times and fine tune them vs. hastily sending out whatever at the last minute - I would push. My son got all his essays out with plenty of revisions and time to spare. Got into a great school (Michigan Ann Arbor - honors program) early because he got his application in early and was able to breathe a sigh of relief (and many “thanks a lot for pushing me Mom” was heard around my house) while several of his friends had to wait till end of April to get a decision from that same school because they took their time. Then he was able to sit around and wait for his top choice schools but all the anxiety was gone because he had somewhere to go. Now he is at a top 20 school and pulling A’s (if his mid term grades are any indication). Procrastinating on your college applications is not an indication of how your student will perform as a Freshman and this is not a time to “teach her a lesson” by letting her get away with it. Th process is fraught with anxiety and doubts, much more than writing English essays and taking tests. Many students put it off and say they will deal with it another day - but that’s just their way of not dealing with the stress.</p>
<p>It’s not about “teaching them a lesson” green4. It’s about allowing them to make decisions, follow through with adult actions, and allowing them to experience consequences, good or bad, as a result of their actions. I agree that it probably has little to do with success or failure of freshman year. I just don’t believe in treating other people like their 4th graders.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, at our prep school we were required to take the SATs no matter how stellar the first set of scores was. (I think they might have made an exception for a 1600.) I definitely spent more than one night on the essay. I knew a handful of kids who took AP Calc as juniors.</p>
<p>The process today is much easier. The common app alone does that. I remember looking up addresses of schools in a large book in the GC’s office to send requests for applications. However students today seem to be much busier so they have less time to get the apps done. And they are applying to many more schools. In my day the safety was the local directional U or CC. Now it could be anywhere across the country. College research alone takes much more time.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP:</p>
<p>My S says he will apply to med school, so I think it’ll be a lot worse. But by then he will be almost 22, and I hope he will have grown up enough to face things.</p>
<p>the state systems in general were SO much stronger and less expensive thirty years ago. There was no shame attached to a top student foregoing the ivies altogether and attending state. Thank you USNews for driving a wedge between private education and the publics.</p>
<p>OP - do you have access to Naviance? All the addresses you need will be there. If you don’t have it - PM me and I will send you a link for a “guest entrance” from our hs.</p>
<p>rockvillemom - yes! I never realized the addresses were there - thanks for the tip!</p>
<p>Yes - Naviance has addresses, phone numbers and deadlines - very useful.</p>
<p>miamiDAP. Please elaborate a little more on your statement of
</p>
<p>Your DD is a junior, right? She already started grad school application? </p>
<p>My impression has been that graduate school admission is much easier than UG. I personally would love for our DD to go to a graduate school. This time, however, is 100% her decison and action. My DD is a very good student evenso she does not have quite as good GPA as your D’s all As.</p>
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<p>We started the process (in seriousness) at the beginning of junior year, did college visits in the back half of junior year, so that by the time the summer started, they pretty much had an idea where they wanted to go (a few names came on and off, and S threw us a loop with a different ED choice than we would have guessed, but the “bones” of their choices were certainly there). </p>
<p>I had them start essays over the summer. Part of this is because I’m a major J on Myers-Briggs and to me, I kind of think everything should be “in and done” by the time of the ED deadlines, instead of doing them, waiting til mid-December and then rushing everything else out in a few weeks. I recognize that as a consequence of this, I’ve spent money I didn’t “have” to, with respect to sending scores to colleges when, if they do get in their ED or ED II choices, that won’t have been necessary. But it has to do with how you think about time. For me, the Nov 1 ED is just about upon us, whereas with others, they’ll still be deciding on Oct 31 “should I or shouldn’t I”. Nonetheless, even though mine are stressing now over essays, they still are way, WAY ahead of their classmates who are still at the pick-my-schools stage and I do think in some way they’re grateful for it.</p>
<p>I don’t know… I thought it was a lot easier for my kids’ applications (2003) than it was to do mine (1972). Computers and word processing are a LOT easier than typing or printing neatly; the common app simplifies multiple applications; credit cards are a lot easier than checks; emailing is easier than writing a letter to ask questions.</p>
<p>I have two in college now. Both had complicated applications, in some cases one applied double major (music performance, already a complicated app/process at top places) as well as “regular” academic…and the process was stressful and rather drawn-out timewise.
That said, they owned the process and decisions and it was better that way.
What I hate is wealthy parents who try to game the system with costly prepping, college-admissions-private counselors, multiple SAT-taking which makes a mockery out of thoughtfully learning and aiming for a rewarding future. More about status, $, prestige. The college admissions process in higher socioeconomic areas has become more about the parents (their needs, goals), not the students.</p>
<p>Our HS requires transcript and recommendation requests to be submitted four weeks prior to the due date. Many (most) ED, Early Action, and specialized program application due dates are Nov 1…which means today is due date for transcript and rec requests :-0</p>
<p>The common app does make it easy to apply to many schools but for limited seat programs there are a second round of applications (in addition to the common app suplements) which means double the effort. The good news is, she will be done with everything within the next few weeks…and then we wait.</p>