My high stats kid running out of steam

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our community, this is how it works:

You don't hire a private counselor bc our private school CCO is great.

You do hire an essay coach. You give "coach" 20-40 pages of writing in the summer. They help you with a personal essay. That's $5k.

In August and Sept you give them drafts for your supp essays. it's another $1-2.5k per school. You have final polished essays by Oct 15 for all early schools.

Total spend for 10 early schools: $20-25k

It’s completely insane to me that people already pay so much to be part of a community where the education and writing instruction is supposedly so superior only to have to pay that much more to have someone coach them through some essays. We could afford to spend $25k on this, but my kid would be so grossed out by it. They really want this to be their own work.

It's not like they are manufacturing the content, though. The kid is writing the drafts. They are editing it seems.
Tbh I think more people have someone reviewing and editing essays than are willing to admit it.
Whatever. Do whatever works for your family.

Oh, we will. I will also not be particularly impressed by supposed high-stats kids coming out of elite private schools who end up at elite universities. They’re not any more capable, they just have more money and more hired help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's tough. Help with the research....

so, for Stanford (as an example), I helped with a Google Doc of classes, cool profs, ECs, interesting articles from the paper, and events I saw.

links to everything in the Google Doc to shortcut the process. DC added more as well, but good starting point.

How do you find "cool profs"? Trying to help my DD but don't know where to start!

Np. It's not really cool, it's finding profs whose academic interests align with your kid's own niche interests.

If your kid is into medieval studies but also migration trends and/or international relations/MUN, for example, with a focus on the Med and North Africa, and applying to Brown, I'd definitely mention this professor below by drawing parallels between modern refugee/migration crises and how this professor's study of how "barbarian" migrations transformed Roman identity.

Your kid has the intellectual curiosity, but might need you to give them links to the right professors. Then they'd connect the professor's specific research lens (identity, connectedness, cultural transformation) to something your DC has encountered, even if DC hasn't studied 5th-century vandals specifically (yet).....

https://vivo.brown.edu/display/jconant#Research

Make sense? All you do is give the kid link to prof and maybe mention a few topic words?

Wow. I want to take this guy's classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’s struggling with the supplemental essays for 11/1 deadlines. Thank goodness we have a 4-day weekend coming up, he may not apply to some on his list if he can’t pull it together. Fall sports has really swallowed up his time. Is anyone else in the same boat. It’s hard watching him and he refuses to let me give him any tips or guidance

Sounds like my kids. Just pamper him for emotional support but don't ask about essays. Ask his counselor or English teacher to check with him about the progress.

[Anonymous]

Stop with the “we”. “We” might plan and travel for college tours and “we” might have discussions about college choices. But “we” shouldn’t be the ones interested in a college, finalizing the list, applying to colleges or being rejected/accepted/waitlisted by colleges. It’s like “we” being pregnant. Um no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a very important once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s exactly NOT the time to allow the kid to fizzle out. Give him whatever incentives/encouragement/kicks in ass that will work to keep him focused & productive.

100%
You will have so many regrets if you don't help them.....ask all the moms who come here in March depressed and can't get off this site bc their kid is now heading to Canada or the UK.

I help with brainstorming and editing, but if you’re suggesting we “write” it (and it sounds like you are?), my kid would never let me write her essays.

Yeah this is our house too. My kid has good ideas but sometimes needs help with the structure/flow of his work. But he's doing the work. And started early because duh, the beginning of the school year can be challenging enough on its own. And plus also, 20 schools?? That's just so crazy to me. Our kid stopped at 6 and got everything in way before the deadline and already has an acceptance back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a very important once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s exactly NOT the time to allow the kid to fizzle out. Give him whatever incentives/encouragement/kicks in ass that will work to keep him focused & productive.

100%
You will have so many regrets if you don't help them.....ask all the moms who come here in March depressed and can't get off this site bc their kid is now heading to Canada or the UK.

If their kid gets into Canada or UK, I would think that would be a win. Students who study outside their own country are more intrepid and will have additional rich learnings from study abroad.

London, Toronto, and LA are not that much different for a plane flight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a very important once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s exactly NOT the time to allow the kid to fizzle out. Give him whatever incentives/encouragement/kicks in ass that will work to keep him focused & productive.

100%
You will have so many regrets if you don't help them.....ask all the moms who come here in March depressed and can't get off this site bc their kid is now heading to Canada or the UK.

I help with brainstorming and editing, but if you’re suggesting we “write” it (and it sounds like you are?), my kid would never let me write her essays.

Yeah this is our house too. My kid has good ideas but sometimes needs help with the structure/flow of his work. But he's doing the work. And started early because duh, the beginning of the school year can be challenging enough on its own. And plus also, 20 schools?? That's just so crazy to me. Our kid stopped at 6 and got everything in way before the deadline and already has an acceptance back.

Really? High stats? Aiming for T20?
And only 6 apps?
Weird.

[Anonymous]

We are fortunate that our school (private) provides a clear time table with deadlines beginning in mid August. Our seniors can't attend preseason sports practise until common app essay and activity list first drafts are done, and all essays for a kid's top choice school are due before school even starts. There are a lot of safeguards in place to make sure kids are on track. Separately,.all my neighbors/friends from both public and private schools hire essay coaches. I am sharing this because kids applying to top schools without some type of support (from school, parents, non profit groups or paid) are at a clear disadvantage in our area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’s struggling with the supplemental essays for 11/1 deadlines. Thank goodness we have a 4-day weekend coming up, he may not apply to some on his list if he can’t pull it together. Fall sports has really swallowed up his time. Is anyone else in the same boat. It’s hard watching him and he refuses to let me give him any tips or guidance

Of course. Anyone with a senior, high stats or not, is in the same boat. Boys are an especially fun challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are fortunate that our school (private) provides a clear time table with deadlines beginning in mid August. Our seniors can't attend preseason sports practise until common app essay and activity list first drafts are done, and all essays for a kid's top choice school are due before school even starts. There are a lot of safeguards in place to make sure kids are on track. Separately,.all my neighbors/friends from both public and private schools hire essay coaches. I am sharing this because kids applying to top schools without some type of support (from school, parents, non profit groups or paid) are at a clear disadvantage in our area.

I totally agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop with the “we”. “We” might plan and travel for college tours and “we” might have discussions about college choices. But “we” shouldn’t be the ones interested in a college, finalizing the list, applying to colleges or being rejected/accepted/waitlisted by colleges. It’s like “we” being pregnant. Um no.

Agree, some really disturbing posts here, especially the mom researching the profs.

[Anonymous]

taking a day off of school to finish this stuff: 100% worth it.

there's something about a Tuesday at 10am - kids are just more dialed in than a Saturday at 10am.

our high school has taken to given Halloween off to seniors - not because of Halloween (although this is what it says on the school calendar), but because half the kids didn't show up anyway. They'd be doing apps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is playing a fall sport, a club sport, is in 3 ap classes and volunteers on weekends, and is applying to a couple special programs with unique requirements in addition to the reach/target/ safety thing. She started the essays, but I’m finishing them for her to proofread. I’m handling the common app profile, fafsa, css, college board, and everything else that goes along with this process. The whole thing is very bureaucratic and it’s unrealistic to ask a hs senior to know how to navigate it.

I’m sure colleges won’t notice the adult voice.

+1

But sadly some colleges don’t care. I wonder if some AOs make the connection between Mom being an attorney and the cool, precise tone of the essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are fortunate that our school (private) provides a clear time table with deadlines beginning in mid August. Our seniors can't attend preseason sports practise until common app essay and activity list first drafts are done, and all essays for a kid's top choice school are due before school even starts. There are a lot of safeguards in place to make sure kids are on track. Separately,.all my neighbors/friends from both public and private schools hire essay coaches. I am sharing this because kids applying to top schools without some type of support (from school, parents, non profit groups or paid) are at a clear disadvantage in our area.

I've seen a lot of these essays that look like AI to me. Either these editors are using AI or they've always read a little Gen X to me.

[Anonymous]

I’m confused by the need for parental spreadsheets. Naviance allows for creation of college list that tracks all of the due dates. Our school requires kids to use it.