<p>I also had a doc of labels I made up for the guidance counselor, HS registrar and two teachers who gave recommendations. That allowed me a back-up check to see that all trancripts had been sent, recs requested. </p>
<p>I made up pre-stamped, pre-addressed (& return addressed, w/address of the HS) envelopes for all four parties, above. We requested son’s info be sent to college during summer before senior year (administrators/teachers were slightly perplexed by this–registrar a little irritated) so I wanted to make things as easy as humanly possible, for them. </p>
<p>Son applied to 20+ schools, so it was important to make the process managable for those who were helping him. But, these early apps totally paid off in terms of acceptance outcomes…</p>
<p>A great tip I read here is to include a postage-paid, self-addressed postcard with the envelopes in which teachers and the guidance counselor mail their recommendations. It takes an extremely long time for most colleges to update their websites with application materials received. It was very comforting to get those postcards back. We printed off labels with a brief message, “College X has received your teacher recommendation from Mrs. Y” and stuck them on the back, and also printed mailing labels for our home address. The colleges are evidently quite used to receiving these. All of the postcards were returned with either a date stamp or a handwritten note of when the recommendations had arrived.</p>
<p>Jolynne-- I’m not sure what you mean by this:
“a doc of labels I made up for the guidance counselor, HS registrar and two teachers who gave recommendations. That allowed me a back-up check to see that all trancripts had been sent, recs requested”</p>
<p>What was on the labels? do you mean you made labels for the envelopes (easier than handwriting if you are sending 20 apps) w/ the college addresses?</p>
<p>mdemvizi-- I know what you mean about the spreadheets-- sometimes it’s better to have each item catagorized separately-- you must be a visual learner! jk</p>
<p>the collegeboard.com’s “my schools” list and calendar and a Highlighter. We didn’t color code but you could. Plus a folder with a grid the “y” axis being the schools the “x” being the required documentation. Filled the grid in with dates sent.</p>
<p>I had twins each of whom applied to 9 schools so that was 18 schools we needed to keep straight. We were helped tremendously by EA. All apps for one of my girls were submitted by November, for the other they were all done by Jan 1.</p>
<p>Oh and I didn’t see the selfaddressed post card tip 2 blue talked about until January so my one D didn’t use it except for 1 of her schools but it’s a really did help ease the stress of wondering if the app file was complete!</p>
<p>White envelopes. I buy 500 big white (9x12) envelopes at a time from Costco. I use them to organize everything. I have white envelopes for health insurance, taxes, trip planning, and so on. </p>
<p>So when the kids applied to college… white envelopes. I wrote the name of each college on the outside and everything related to the app for that college went into the white envelope. General stuff went into an envelope labeled “college general stuff KID’SNAME” (since they were both applying at once).</p>
<p>If I wasn’t so cheap, I’d buy different colored envelopes, but since I am, I settle for different colored Sharpies for writing on the outside.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip on Google docs! I’ve always wondered how difficult it would be to use them, and it’s so easy. A great way for kid and parent to both be working from the same page, so to speak. </p>
<p>Jolynne’s label advice is great. You can use the same technique but skip the labels. When S applied, we had a Word doc with all the college addresses, and simply printed batches of envelopes directly on the computer. That allows you to choose the proper return address for each recommendation or counselor report. Added a stamp to each, and gave them to the recommenders. They made S look very organized :)</p>
jk</p>