Class of 2023 Parents

[soccerdad72]

Soccer has also started here, with their first preseason game tonight.

Elon was a big hit with my son, surprisingly, as none of us expected to like it that much. The hard part with Elon is that they don’t have engineering, at least not mechanical, which was my son’s first choice for majors. Now he’s thinking about his other choice of majors, finance.

 

[DisneYE]

Bumping this up to see how the summer is going for everyone.

Son has been busy between work (he's doing maintenance work with a friend of ours back at his old middle school), some college tours and summer workouts with the soccer team. We have our last two college tours of the summer next weekend (NC State and Elon), because once August 1st rolls around, he'll be full time into soccer season.

He's already working on filling out a lot of the Common App - his goal is to have it completed by the time school starts (August 18th), so once the school's open for applications, he can pretty much just click 'Submit' and send them off. Looks like 6 or 7 schools he'll be applying to, with a couple of them (Purdue and Clemson) being ones we haven't toured, but if he gets in, we'll work on booking admitted student tours.

Good luck to everyone on their senior years!

Daughter class of 2023 also working on her common app.
She's applying to 12 (!) but her preference is the 3 in FL (FSU, UF and UCF).. she's done tours of all 3 and is in SAT range for the three but at the lower end..she's also in the honors program at her HS, has done lots of volunteering, has a high GPA. We shall see. Our preference is also that she stays in FL... she's our only child and would be hard for us if she decides to go to a school that is too far from us.
How important is it to schools that an applicant toured or didn't tour? is it a major factor? she's only visited 5 of 12 she's applying to.

 

[soccerdad72]

How important is it to schools that an applicant toured or didn't tour? is it a major factor? she's only visited 5 of 12 she's applying to.

My understanding is that it's a factor ("demonstrated interest"), but I don't know how much weight it holds.

 

[RangerPooh]

DD picked up her senior class schedule yesterday. School starts Monday. Senior pics were completed in May, and yesterday she took her yearbook photos. We have not begun the college application process, but on her to-do list this week is to schedule an appointment with the local university that has her program. She has two in-state options for school that offer her program of study, so we're not too concerned about where to apply. The in-state tuition, in-state high school graduate scholarship, and tuition discount that we have working for the state kind of made the decision for her.

 

[bethy]

Joining this thread! DD got her senior pics taken yesterday and the sneak peeks look gorgeous!

She has lots of quirks and preferences and somewhat unique circumstances as a college applicant so that makes the process a little more involved and less straightforward. We are still carefully finalizing her list together and are doing one more round of out of state visits before early applications are due in November. She is applying early to every school on her list that allows it. Her list will probably be around 10 schools since we are shopping around a bit price wise and merit scholarship wise.

She has a rough draft of her main essay done and is meeting with her rec letter teachers as soon as school starts. It's all very exciting and a little stressful!

 

[bethy]

Daughter class of 2023 also working on her common app.
She's applying to 12 (!) but her preference is the 3 in FL (FSU, UF and UCF).. she's done tours of all 3 and is in SAT range for the three but at the lower end..she's also in the honors program at her HS, has done lots of volunteering, has a high GPA. We shall see. Our preference is also that she stays in FL... she's our only child and would be hard for us if she decides to go to a school that is too far from us.
How important is it to schools that an applicant toured or didn't tour? is it a major factor? she's only visited 5 of 12 she's applying to.

From what I understand the importance of demonstrated interest varies by school. In general, the smaller the school the more important it is just because the admissions officers have time to notice haha. You can google the topic for each school. And err on the side of caution buy demonstrating interest just in case - this doesn't have be done just in person it can be by reaching out in many ways to the school.

 

[anjuan]

Like others my daughter has started to work on the common app and her essays, etc. She's applying to about 10 schools and we've visited three of them. since all but one is out of state (and the out of state one is purely a backup). They all take the common app so that helps! She's going test optional because even though she has a really high GPA with honors and AP classes she hasn't done well the 4 times she took the SAT. She also has to wait until school starts to actually start applying because the school counselors don't start writing recommendations until then and they don't make transcripts available until August 22.

She's taken her senior photo for the yearbook but we're waiting for the fall to take her other senior photos.

I know this year is going to fly by!

 

[DisneYE]

From what I understand the importance of demonstrated interest varies by school. In general, the smaller the school the more important it is just because the admissions officers have time to notice haha. You can google the topic for each school. And err on the side of caution buy demonstrating interest just in case - this doesn't have be done just in person it can be by reaching out in many ways to the school.

Thank you for this Bethy,
Your reply prompted me to encourage by DD to reach out to schools she's really interested in but haven't toured in person... I think I'm way more stressed out than she is about her prospects.

 

[soccerdad72]

It's Senior Night tonight for my son's soccer team. The season isn't over for a few more weeks, but this ended up being the best night to do this (which works out well, because it's supposed to be beautiful, weather-wise). Hard to believe that after like 14 years, soccer will be coming to an end.

 

[DisneYE]

My DD finished applying to all her desired schools a couple of weeks ago.
She applied to 18 schools - most via the common app.
Amazingly, she's got 2 responses so far, and both positive, both schools she really likes.
We're ecstatic - More so myself because one of them is really close to us and I have hopes she'll decide to go there.

To others with kids applying/have applied and getting accepted by multiple schools:

What criteria do you or your child use to decide which school to attend? Proximity, cost, scholarship?
Do you have a say in your child's decision?

 

[JLTraveling]

My DD finished applying to all her desired schools a couple of weeks ago.
She applied to 18 schools - most via the common app.
Amazingly, she's got 2 responses so far, and both positive, both schools she really likes.
We're ecstatic - More so myself because one of them is really close to us and I have hopes she'll decide to go there.

To others with kids applying/have applied and getting accepted by multiple schools:

What criteria do you or your child use to decide which school to attend? Proximity, cost, scholarship?
Do you have a say in your child's decision?

I'm not a parent, but I can't imagine parents having a say in their child's college decision. Discussing pros and cons? Absolutely. Helping them see things they might not have considered? Definitely. Setting a hard limit on how much you're willing to pay? Of course. But I genuinely believe that within those parameters, it has to be the child's decision. It's the first major decision of their adult life, and sets the stage for all the decisions yet to come. Just my two cents.

 

[soccerdad72]

18 schools? Wow - I thought our son was on the high side for his 7-8 that he's planning on applying. He got his first one in last weekend (Clemson), because the early decision date was October 15th and his counseling department requires 10 days notice to send transcripts and recommendation letters. We're hoping for him to get the other 6-7 done by tonight or tomorrow. He still has a supplemental essay he needs to finish which he's working on today. Seniors are off today because Sophomores and Juniors are taking PSATs.

On a separate note - his final home soccer game is Saturday. Seems like just a few weeks ago the season started. They have playoffs after that, so hoping for a couple more games, but we'll see.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

My DD finished applying to all her desired schools a couple of weeks ago.
She applied to 18 schools - most via the common app.
Amazingly, she's got 2 responses so far, and both positive, both schools she really likes.
We're ecstatic - More so myself because one of them is really close to us and I have hopes she'll decide to go there.

To others with kids applying/have applied and getting accepted by multiple schools:

What criteria do you or your child use to decide which school to attend? Proximity, cost, scholarship?
Do you have a say in your child's decision?

Haven't been around the boards for some time, but love this thread, so I'm jumping in.

Our daughter's applied to 10 schools, most via common app as well. Accepted by one already, Michigan State University, which took just two weeks for their decision, though it's one of her safety schools. She's applied to a number of elite universities, three Ivys included, but getting that one in-state "yes" takes the pressure off of her mentally, even though she's fairly certain she won't accept MSU's invitation

She's gone away to summer camp for a month every year of her life since 4th grade, so we're not your traditional empty nest parents. We're used to her & her sister being away from the home & know that there's a good chance it'll be easier on us than other parents. That said, we'd personally love it if she'd stay in state, University of Michigan specifically, & we've discussed the merits of getting best value out of her choice, but we're willing to allow her to go where ever she chooses. It's not lost on her that she's very lucky that her parents can afford the tuition at any of the schools she's applied to & she's put in the hard work to get herself into position to meet the academic criteria be accepted by every school she's interested in. It's now all about whether or not she fits the community each university's trying to build. The way we see it, putting your incoming college freshman in the driver's seat of where they eventually want to attend college is one of the biggest decisions they'll make in their life. Affordability aside, as long as they've shown maturity & the ability to be thoughtful in their decision, the choice should be theirs to make alone

 

[DisneYE]

Haven't been around the boards for some time, but love this thread, so I'm jumping in.

Our daughter's applied to 10 schools, most via common app as well. Accepted by one already, Michigan State University, which took just two weeks for their decision, though it's one of her safety schools. She's applied to a number of elite universities, three Ivys included, but getting that one in-state "yes" takes the pressure off of her mentally, even though she's fairly certain she won't accept MSU's invitation

She's gone away to summer camp for a month every year of her life since 4th grade, so we're not your traditional empty nest parents. We're used to her & her sister being away from the home & know that there's a good chance it'll be easier on us than other parents. That said, we'd personally love it if she'd stay in state, University of Michigan specifically, & we've discussed the merits of getting best value out of her choice, but we're willing to allow her to go where ever she chooses. It's not lost on her that she's very lucky that her parents can afford the tuition at any of the schools she's applied to & she's put in the hard work to get herself into position to meet the academic criteria be accepted by every school she's interested in. It's now all about whether or not she fits the community each university's trying to build. The way we see it, putting your incoming college freshman in the driver's seat of where they eventually want to attend college is one of the biggest decisions they'll make in their life. Affordability aside, as long as they've shown maturity & the ability to be thoughtful in their decision, the choice should be theirs to make alone

We're in a similar situation. She got accepted by one of her desired/safety schools.
But she didn't apply to any Ivy's bc her SAT (1350) isn't high enough to qualify for them.
We're also not planning to restrict her choice of school but we'll try to persuade her to go to one where we are relatively close to her.
Unlike your case, she's an only child and we're all very close, we travel and do things together all the time, so it'll be very hard for her to go to a school that's too far away from us. I think she realizes this and is slowly warming up to the idea of staying close.

Congrats to your daughter and hopefully she gets accepted to the school she most wants to go to.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

We're in a similar situation. She got accepted by one of her desired/safety schools.
But she didn't apply to any Ivy's bc her SAT (1350) isn't high enough to qualify for them.
We're also not planning to restrict her choice of school but we'll try to persuade her to go to one where we are relatively close to her.
Unlike your case, she's an only child and we're all very close, we travel and do things together all the time, so it'll be very hard for her to go to a school that's too far away from us. I think she realizes this and is slowly warming up to the idea of staying close.

Congrats to your daughter and hopefully she gets accepted to the school she most wants to go to.

Thanks & same to yours! 1350’s truly a score to be proud of! When I went to college, I don’t think I broke triple digits lol, though it wasn’t as important as it is now. I really wish they would’ve done away with SAT requirements altogether after not requiring them during the COVID years. Our daughter did well, scored a 1560 & we’re super proud, still, it’s no guarantee for a couple of her choices.

As far as SATs go, it’s no secret that some kids just don’t test well. I think it’s way too much pressure to put on 15-17 year old kids. Their grades & activities are a far better representation of who they are as individuals. It’d be nice if they changed it at some point going forward.

Good luck keeping yours close. I love the idea of being able to drop in once a month & take mine & her roommates to lunch or tailgating at a football game…if she’ll have me that is lol. Her dream school’s are all on the east coast, so she’d be far away, but I trust she’d make the most of it. It’s all so exciting

 

[DisneYE]

Thanks & same to yours! 1350’s truly a score to be proud of! When I went to college, I don’t think I broke triple digits lol, though it wasn’t as important as it is now. I really wish they would’ve done away with SAT requirements altogether after not requiring them during the COVID years. Our daughter did well, scored a 1560 & we’re super proud, still, it’s no guarantee for a couple of her choices.

As far as SATs go, it’s no secret that some kids just don’t test well. I think it’s way too much pressure to put on 15-17 year old kids. Their grades & activities are a far better representation of who they are as individuals. It’d be nice if they changed it at some point going forward.

Good luck keeping yours close. I love the idea of being able to drop in once a month & take mine & her roommates to lunch or tailgating at a football game…if she’ll have me that is lol. Her dream school’s are all on the east coast, so she’d be far away, but I trust she’d make the most of it. It’s all so exciting

WOW... 1560? That's incredible. Congrats, you def should be very proud.
In my daughter's HS the principal was bragging about a kid that scored 1500 and how proud he was that his school had such a high achiever.
Yeah, your daughter is getting admitted to an Ivy school for sure. I mean, that score is John Nash level.
Now I'm curious - What is she studying? (mine is studying biology hoping to get into med school after 4 years)
And I agree, universities put too much weight to SATs, it's such incredible pressure on the kids.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

WOW... 1560? That's incredible. Congrats, you def should be very proud.
In my daughter's HS the principal was bragging about a kid that scored 1500 and how proud he was that his school had such a high achiever.
Yeah, your daughter is getting admitted to an Ivy school for sure. I mean, that score is John Nash level.
Now I'm curious - What is she studying? (mine is studying biology hoping to get into med school after 4 years)
And I agree, universities put too much weight to SATs, it's such incredible pressure on the kids.

Oh, a doctor in the family would be incredible!

We were pretty blown away by her score as well. I wish the Ivy League was as easy as you think, but she’s still got an uphill climb to be accepted to one. She’s up against many kids with better scores & better connections for far too few spots, some with family members who’ve already attended who give those applicants that legacy glow up. She knows what she’s up against but we’re all still hopeful.

She’s actually interested in studying public policy. She’s a political animal & is extremely invested in both our state & local government. She’s worked in a number of political campaigns & actually moderated a congressional debate between two incumbent members of Congress during the primaries. She’s thinking more behind the scenes but really at their age, the sky’s the limit. She’s also applied to the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan, so some form of business with a public policy minor could be a possibility as well, that’s my hope for her at least, to keep her close to home

 

[RangerPooh]

Our daughter has been receiving acceptance emails. Her dream school sent a congratulatory package!

 

[anjuan]

So excited to hear about everyone receiving college acceptances! My daughter wants to major in marketing and has been accepted to the business school at Arizona State University, and generally to Michigan State University and Indiana University. She's waiting to hear about the business school for for the last two. These are all safety schools but she's happy to know that she has options. She submitted as test optional because while her GPA is very high, she doesn't test well. I'm just glad it is an option. All of her applications have been submitted for a while so now just more waiting.

I strongly encouraged her to finish up her apps in September because she was less busy then. She is thanking me now because she has a lot of friends who are stressing about finishing apps prior to November 1 deadlines.

 

[Aladora]

I can't believe how early your kids have to submit University applications! We had a meeting with DS's University guidance counselor this week and she told us that most schools in Canada have a December 31st submission date but that the one DS is likely to go to for his first year (in our hometown) is Jan 31st! We can't even submit his current grades until they come out in December.