debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 11, 2015 17:42:32 GMT -5
My DS3 sent his applications (online) to university tonight. He's been working on his "personal statement" (essay) since the end of August so this was a big deal for us!
He applied to 5 universities in the UK. The system there is centralised ... one application for the 5 universities of his choice. One of them will ask for more info later on, and hopefully ask him for an interview in Nov / Dec. But the process has been started!
I know it's different in the US. DS3 is also applying to Canada, The Netherlands and France but those applications are due later. He has ZERO desire to stay in France but his international HS makes all their kids apply to France anyway. He was going to apply to the US but he changed his mind for several reasons: he decided it was too far, he didn't do great on his SATs (he does math in French) and the UK is far cheaper. (DH is British and DS3 has British nationality). DS3 decided it made more sense to do his undergrad in the UK, and to go to the US for grad school.
Does anybody else have kids applying to college this year?
I think it's probably too early for those applying to the US but I thought maybe I could start a thread on this, if anybody else was interested.
ETA: Also, I know we have some British posters, I would appreciate any advice on UCAS. How do you narrow those 5 choices down to 2 after you get your offers?
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Oct 11, 2015 17:49:24 GMT -5
I have kids applying. I really am only going to apply to where he wants to go. And, if he doesn't get in there, then we will apply elsewhere.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 11, 2015 17:51:45 GMT -5
Shooby, so you can apply to one place, and wait for their answer before you apply elsewhere, and still be within the deadline? If that's the case that's great, I think it would be much less stressful that way for all of you.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Oct 11, 2015 17:55:27 GMT -5
Honestly, people get so freaked out by all this stuff. The ability to get into college is usually based upon the ability to sign the check to pay for it. So, I really don't see the big deal honestly. Unless you are applying to Harvard. I don't think there are a lack of colleges to get into too.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 11, 2015 17:57:44 GMT -5
Um, I am not freaked out. I just thought it might be fun to have a thread for those of us with kids applying to university this year.
The ability to get into college is usually based upon the ability to sign the check to pay for it.
That's not the case here in Europe where we are. If DS3 gets into Oxford or Cambridge, it's 9K UK pounds. If he gets into the last school on the UK rankings, or somewhere in the middle, it's still exactly the same price.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Oct 11, 2015 17:59:09 GMT -5
Well, obviously I can't address that. I am talking about the USA.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2015 18:00:38 GMT -5
I think most people do apply to several at once debt. Maybe not if they are doing early decision?... don't know. Guess I should figure that out? Maybe. Although we are probably going to 'transition in' more than any traditional route...?
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 11, 2015 18:01:19 GMT -5
Like I said, Shooby, I thought it might be fun for some of us to have a thread to track our kids' progression through their college application process this year.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2015 18:03:06 GMT -5
I'll watch and learn!
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 11, 2015 18:03:43 GMT -5
Oped, I know your husband is European ... do your kids have European nationality? That would give them a lot of options. More and more European universities offer degrees in English every year.
DS3's best friend planned to apply in the US for Early Decision, since that's her first choice. Their (US) college counsellor told her, Early Decision means you accept that, even if you are offered a place at a better school in Europe. So she is still applying there, but not early decision.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Oct 11, 2015 18:04:04 GMT -5
My son applied and went for a school visit. So far so good. He is took his SAT's last year and is taking the ACT this month.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2015 18:04:42 GMT -5
Good to know! Will look in to those things.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 11, 2015 18:09:46 GMT -5
Oped, one of my DS1's best friends in HS was Romanian (international HS). She paid US prices to go to college in the UK, since she was a "foreign student" (i.e. not EU). A few years after she graduated, Romania joined the EU.
I think it's definitely worth looking into, in your situation.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 11, 2015 18:14:02 GMT -5
Good luck to your son Shooby!
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Annie7
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Post by Annie7 on Oct 13, 2015 12:33:06 GMT -5
In US, the HS Seniors would have started their application process. There are 3 types of applications: 1. Early Decision - you apply to the college early (deadline is sometime in Oct). You can only apply to one college for ED. You can apply to other colleges for regular decision. If you get accepted you HAVE to go there. 2. Early Action - you apply to the college early (deadline is sometime in Oct). If you get accepted, you can wait until regular decision results come out and choose to accept the EA one or the RD one. 3. Regular Decision - you apply to as many as you want (deadline normally Dec 31st). Results come out in March/April.
There are some universities (like NJ's Rutgers) that do rolling admissions. So, you can apply to them whenever it opens and you might get a decision soon after (or they might defer decision to be made with regular decision). Others publish their decision sometime in March/April.
Regarding the applications themselves - most colleges accept the Common App. This is one common application that is submitted online. Many colleges have supplementary applications - more essays and questions to answer. If you are applying to such a college, you'll need to fill in the supplementary too along with the Common App.
When DS1 was applying most applied to 1-2 safety schools (colleges you knew you'd get in) and a few of the reach colleges (colleges you wanted to get in but weren't sure you'd be accepted). If the school you wanted to get into was a safety too, then you would need to apply only to that one. But in most cases the college the kid wanted to go to was a reach. They might have the mid-level SAT/GPA for that school. So it was not a shoo-in. For these kids, they would need to apply to atleast one safety school along with their desired school. With DS1 and his friends, I think the average number of colleges they applied to was in the 6-10. Many were reaching for IVYs, so they had to apply to more schools.
Hope that helps understand the US college application process.
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GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl
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Post by GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl on Oct 13, 2015 13:04:49 GMT -5
I am on the college application journey for the second year in a row, this time with YDS. debthaven: Do European kids not go and visit colleges before applying? Here, in the U.S., kids will visit some or all of the schools they will apply to before submitting the application. That said, however, many kids will often wait to visit very distant schools until such time as their application is accepted. As a parent, I have found it very helpful to see the campuses and meet students and professors up close and personal. We visited a small New England college yesterday, and YDS said that he was pleasantly surprised. He wasn't all that interested in the school because it is on the small side. But, after spending the day there and touring, listening to different panels on research, college life, etc., he realized that *sometimes* smaller schools have more to offer than meets the eye. ODS visited 15 schools, applied to 3, and was accepted to all 3 (due in large part to his lacrosse skills). YDS has visited 7 so far (none of the ones ODS visited). 4 are on his short list. He has targeted one for Early Action (non-binding). He has good grades, strong SAT scores, and some neat extracurricular activities that will hopefully make him attractive to Admissions committees. I'm wondering what I will do with all of my free time come next Fall, LOL.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 13, 2015 13:22:01 GMT -5
most colleges accept the Common AppIt's the same thing in the UK then ... Annie thank you. I do understand the US process since I went through it. (I'm American and live in France) :-) But I'm sure things have changed a LOT since then lol. GRG, often yes students visit, but not always. As you said, sometimes distance is a concern. We wanted to spend a week doing that last April vacation but DS3 was still so undecided on where he wanted to apply, it didn't make sense. We went to one Open Day visit in early July, to his first choice. The UK is much closer than the US but it's still not that easy to get there, especially if it's far from London (which is the case for 2 of the 5 schools). They also have Open Days throughout the year in the UK, even after the initial offers go out in March. We will probably visit more schools at some point during the school year. Two are in cities DS3 knows very well (although he's never been to the schools), we visited the 3rd, but we still need to see the 2 others. We will probably do that during Feb or April vacation. Unfortunately the last 2 are very far from each other, so that's a challenge lol. One difference here is that the choice is much narrower than in the US ... there are only so many good UK universities compared to the US, since the UK is much smaller. Since a lot of kids from DH's international HS go to college in the UK, the kids get a lot of school visits from them, and feedback about the schools. They may have a friend whose older brother or sister goes there. ETA: FYI, in the UK system, they give conditional offers ... they will take you if you get X on your Baccalaureate. So even if they give you a conditional offer, you never really know where you're going until July when the Bac results come in. At some point the choice of 5 schools needs to be narrowed down to 2. We should definitely visit the other 2 schools before then. ETA2: GRG, thank you! I plotted it out ... we could visit DH's cousins in Feb break (we're very close to them), then visit one school 4 hours away, then visit another school 2 hours from there, then 4 hours back to the cousins. Eminently doable! And DS3's "safe school" is where the cousins live, so we could visit that too! And London is a day trip from there, so DS3 could visit the London school too. Here's to hoping they're not away that week ... but even if they are, we could use their house as a base.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 13, 2015 16:39:03 GMT -5
Can somebody please tell me why Oped left?
Is she just busy (I know she deletes her account sometimes when she's busy) or did something happen?
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Oct 13, 2015 16:44:08 GMT -5
she is just busy. she posted it somewhere, she's going to unplug for a little while.
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taz157
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Post by taz157 on Oct 13, 2015 17:21:25 GMT -5
Can somebody please tell me why Oped left? Is she just busy (I know she deletes her account sometimes when she's busy) or did something happen? She said she's taking a 2 week hiatus from this board and Facebook.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Oct 13, 2015 17:44:22 GMT -5
I don't have any HS kids, but a fair amount of HS clients.
One of my clients already got accepted into one college.
Most of the rest are putting finishing touches on their essays.
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GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl
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Post by GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl on Oct 14, 2015 8:13:36 GMT -5
I don't have any HS kids, but a fair amount of HS clients. One of my clients already got accepted into one college. Most of the rest are putting finishing touches on their essays. There is a new application option -- often called VIP or some such iteration. It is best suited to kids with top grades, high weighted GPAs, and very high SAT scores. Add in some basic demographic info and a simple, 250 word, personal statement and you're done. Admission is based solely on the numbers. YDS was invited by the first school he visited to apply in August with a guaranteed 2 week response. He declined because he wasn't interested in the school after visiting. He has also gotten such invitations from schools he hasn't even expressed interest or visited yet. In those cases, it's merely an attempt for the Admissions folks to bulk up their application numbers. Outside of the Ivy League schools or the super select small private liberal arts schools, it really has become a game of sales and marketing more than a true academic pursuit. There's money to be made from these kids!!!!
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Oct 14, 2015 8:53:53 GMT -5
Having a child applying to colleges is really exciting! It is also incredibly stressful. I think the most important thing for this discussion is to start in your junior year. It is so much less stressful if you already have visited colleges and narrowed it down to a smaller number of colleges that meet all their wants and needs. Personally I always like to start things like this with the things that we know. So what does the student know about what they want/need in a college. Obviously Debt's son is going to want to call it University. Does he know what he wants to be? Is there a place he wants to be or one he doesn't? Is there a price point that the college has to stay in? Once that is narrowed down then I made the plans to visit the colleges that made that list. I steered DD away from schools that were more than a small reach either grade wise or money. Of course lightening could strike but we all know that isn't very probable so no matter how much DD loved Columbia I just said we can visit NYC on the money we would save by not applying to it and others that we couldn't afford even if lightening stuck and she did get in. I did encourage her to apply to a couple of reach schools and private schools that based on sticker price were much more than we could afford. But my research had said they gave out good merit aid and fin aid for middle class families. The school she picked was actually a private school that was her reach school. It was out of her area that she thought she wanted to go to and it was a smaller school but when she was there she felt "at home". PS: really parents start before Senior year!!!
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 14, 2015 10:45:17 GMT -5
Beachbum he started thinking about it in Jr year but not enough to know where to visit (except for his number one choice which we visited in July).
Money is less of an issue here because a) the UK is much more affordable and b) the UK universities are all the same price - 9000 pounds (tuition), which is about $14,000. And college is only 3 years there. Some schools have a one-year work placement program but you pay minimum tuition that year.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 14, 2015 10:50:25 GMT -5
ETA: One big financial variable is location though ... if he ends up in London the rent will be insane. We hope he doesn't (also because we'd rather he be on a campus) but we won't refuse.
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Oct 14, 2015 15:30:21 GMT -5
Room and board can cost equal to or even above tuition here too. DD's school costs us right about $23K a year but that does include R&B. The weird part is that if we lived down the road it would probably still be $23K. She gets merit school aid. I am sure that they do their own EFC and minus out the cost including R&B and if she didn't have it it would just lower what they felt she needed.
I know we also underestimated what books, transportation and incidentals would cost. Books cost $500 a semester and transportation is about the same. Add in a printer and other stuff and we were quickly close to $3000 last year.
I kept thinking that all that stuff shouldn't be necessary but the reality is that something can only be in one place at a time. So if she needed a blow dryer or vacuum cleaner then it meant we had to buy another one, because the one we had had to stay if we needed it too.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 14, 2015 17:53:26 GMT -5
I think we will probably be looking at similar costs, Beach, except that for us it will be 3 years instead of 4.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Oct 20, 2015 18:41:07 GMT -5
DS3 submitted a group application to 5 colleges in the UK ... one of them requests requires a supplementary application within one week of the original deadline, i.e. it's due Thursday.
DS3 is off this week and next week (school holidays here) but both DH and I are working FT. So we all spent the evening editing/discussing it.
This is going to be a very long year. It seems like every time we think, "Yay, we're done!" there something else (important) to do.
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imanangel
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Post by imanangel on Oct 23, 2015 6:06:52 GMT -5
she is just busy. she posted it somewhere, she's going to unplug for a little while. WHEW!!! I have been wondering and hoping that it was just because she was busy. I really love reading her posts and hoped she wasn't gone for good.
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imanangel
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Post by imanangel on Oct 23, 2015 6:13:36 GMT -5
Right now my son is going to a local community college and living in student housing there. He could live at home, but I really wanted him to have the experience of living out on his own and having a roommate. He was also being a butt and I was tired of it. He decided to go the community college route for 2 reasons: 1. It was cheaper. 2. He waited too long to apply for any universities. He is really happy with the school he is going to. He likes the smaller classes. He likes that he gets a lot of help from his professors and that all the professors are easily accessible. I love the price!!! The price allows us to cover his books, tuition, and almost all of his housing.
DSD goes to a private college that costs more, but she lives at home with her bio mom. We cover her tuition.
I have 2 more in high school and they will be applying for college in a few years. If we stay in the San Antonio area, I am hoping they go the community college route first as well. It will be up to them though.
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