Pushing the SUBMIT Button!

Most college applicants apply RD (regular decision) and their applications are due January 1st, January 15th, February 1st or later. Some schools accept applications until March or even April 1st. Students applying Early Decision, ED, submit applications as of November 1st or 15th. These students will be notified of their acceptances by December 15th or so. Many schools have something wonderful called 'Early Action" which allows students to apply early, to be notified early, but to not have to commit to just one school early.

Today, Elsa completed her on line applications and pressed the submit button to apply to three schools: two early action and one early decision. If she is accepted to her early decision school, she must withdraw her early action applications. In that case, she will be done and will not need to submit any further applications to any colleges. If she is deferred or rejected to her ED school, she will apply to four or five additional schools. We will hope for acceptances to her EA schools in the interim. My friend Heather's daughter already has one acceptance under her belt. It was from a school with rolling admissions. These schools accept or reject students as the applications roll in. When they have enough acceptances, they simply close their registration for the semester.

We are nervous, excited and a bit in disbelief that the official process has begun!

For more information on rolling, early action, early decision and regular admissions, check out collegeconfidential.com, discussion, parents. This website has been of enormous help to me!

Good luck to all applicants!

Interviews and Overnights

This fall, Elsa has been trying to narrow the list of colleges to which she will apply.

One way to do this is to spend the night at a college and possibly attend classes during the day. Athletes are often invited by coaches to attend games, to eat and to stay over with members of the team with which they would play, if accepted. This weekend, Elsa had two overnights scheduled: Smith and Mount Holyoke College. The Smith overnight was rather loose, but very pleasant. Elsa enjoyed her host, Meredith, and her house very much. She wasn't able to attend classes, but she did see a practice and she got to sample Smith food. She had a wonderful time.



















The Mount Holyoke overnight was a more structured event called Focus on Athletics. Prospective athletes for many sports were invited to attend a series of events including a performance by an a capella group, a panel discussion, a campus tour, an overnight and the opportunity to attend classes during the day.







Elsa attended, but later did not feel well and ended up not spending the night. It was a well organized and welcoming event, and I felt that it gave an honest inside view of the school. Many students who love the school now were skeptical in the beginning and not necessarily looking for an all women's college to attend. Many now feel that they definitely benefitted from the experience and believe in the value of single sex education for women. Interesting!





The weekend began when the Beacon soccer coach, Kevin Jacobs, drove the varsity team to Wesleyan for a tour and a meeting with the women's soccer coach. From CT, they traveled to Amherst, his almer mater, to meet with the Amherst women's coach. The team spent the night at the house of a former professor (how generous!) and then had a tour of the campus the next day. Elsa missed these festivities as she was at Smith. Mr. Jacobs kindly dropped her off. But we did join the team on Saturday for the Williams/Amherst women's soccer game, an annual rivalry, to see former Beacon teammate Chelsea's new team play. It was a rainy afternoon of great soccer. Unfortunately Chelsea did not play. Williams won 3-0, although Amherst looked strong in the beginning and challenged Williams several times.

Elsa has four more overnights scheduled before she will make her final decisions. Whew!