Senior parents - advice for the Junior parents with their oldest kids
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Anonymous
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As you are winding down and we are winding up, I would love some advice as my oldest is a junior. I am already feeling overwhelmed and it just seems like it only gets worse.
What would you pay more attention to? What did you focus on too much and regret? Do you think you encouraged your child too much or not enough? Did you start applications in the summer and did that help? Percentage of what you navigated vs your child and any regrets with that? Did your child take a rigorous course load Senior year and get way too overwhelmed and regret it? How much did college tours matter? Any input or advice on anything would be great!! I had such a fun senior year, but it seems like Seniors are really stressed, especially up until January with so much on their plates. Trying to alleviate that as my child plays a Fall sport as well. We aren't really in a rat race and not looking at top 25, but definitely top 100. |
Anonymous
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Definitely start the common app in August. DD low key worked on the personal statement and list of extra curricular activities during the month of August. By the time school started, she was done with the essay and through the process of thinking about topics/options she also had a rough idea of how to answer many of the short supplemental questions for colleges. So in September she could get cracking on writing the supplemental essays rather than thinking about topics.
I know lots of people say that you should only take the ACT or SAT 2-3 times because you reach our max result within these attempts. In our case, our DD took the ACT four times. The first time was for practice and she did well. The second and third times were "for real" but the results were not as good as the first one because I think she felt the stress. At the last minute she took the ACT again in early November and did fantastically. There was enough time to get the results into the Early Action/Early Decision schools so that worked well for us. Again, I think for her the November test was low stress which contributed to her doing better. She also prepped the least for the November test because she still remembered the tips from previous sittings. So she only took 2 refresher classes which was cost effective. Good Luck. |
Anonymous
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Figure out early if you will need SAT2s for your schools, and how much effort/time to put into that
Is it better to try to raise tbe basic SAT score or spend time taking the SAT2s... |
Anonymous
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Take your SAT2 (Subject tests) immediately AFTER the relevant courses: Biology after AP Biology, Chem after AP Chem, Math after Precalculus.
Its not "necessary" to take the AP course, but your student will have to do extra studying to make sure that he has covered the material in the test. |
Anonymous
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What DC was looking for in a college changed quite a bit from Junior year to final decision time. So, look at a variety. Get at least a good draft of the main Common App essay done over the summer. If schools offer "early action", do it. (Or, find a school that offers rolling admission.) It spreads out the application work load and getting an acceptance or two in hand by early December takes a lot of pressure off.
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Anonymous
I wish I would have known this. No one in her school even mentioned the SAT subject and she took Pre-Calc her sophmore year. We were clueless because we weren't in the throws of college admissions at that point. She is now taking two SAT2 in June and it is nothing but review and it is tough as she is currently studying for her AP's and then will move on to finals. I doubt she will pick any schools that needs the SAT2's but it would have been nice to spread them out. |
Anonymous
+100 |
Anonymous
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Find great safeties and use various early notification options wisely. When the worst case scenario looks pretty d@mn good, stress goes way down.
My kid took a somewhat lightened courseload fall of Senior year. Counselor advised treating college apps as the equivalent of a course. Worked well for us. Was done with process by December and additional course in Spring kept DC engaged. |
Anonymous
| Absolutely find a safety that your child would be happy attending. Apply early action and rolling admission as soon as possible so you can get into a school and breathe. Remember that this is your child's decision, try to remain neutral and supportive. |
Anonymous
This is so true! Georgetown will require 3 SAT2's (also called subject tests). My child ended up not applying to Georgetown because he had only taken 2 subject tests and just ran out of time. |
Anonymous
| Rule One: Know your college budget. Then, public or private. Are you open to both? I think parent experience matters. Parents usually prefer the same experience for their children. For us that was public. |
Anonymous
| Very few schools are requiring SAT2s anymore. Georgetown seems to be one of just a handful of holdouts. |
Anonymous
| The single best piece of advice is apply to a RANGE of schools. Admissions was pretty brutal this year. Many kids who applied ED (and had the stats to back it up) to Ivies from our public school are going to U of MD. Kids who thought they had the stats for U of MD did not get in and are going to Penn State etc. Your child is bright ... so is everyone else's. |
Anonymous
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If you are in-state Maryland, apply Early Action Nov 1 deadline. Most of the admissions pool comes from that batch.
Be on the watch for full-blown senioritis to strike in 3rd quarter, if they are accepted into their top choice schools by January. You could be 3 weeks in before the first missing grades hit the gradebook, and 5 weeks in before you realize they haven't done any work at all ... (BTDT  )
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Anonymous
But many top schools still recommend. Especially true at these schools if your kid is going for engineering/sciences. |