First Gen American asks:
What would you do differently in the college search process with #2 now that you’ve been through it one time?
It’s hard to say what we would have done differently since the outcome seems perfect for DC1. Where zie ended up may be a better match than where zie was rejected from.
That said, DC2 WILL be more careful with the state school application, particularly if zie wants to go into engineering or programming etc. Though if zie wants to major in economics, zie may not need to. After all, the bad outcome for DC2 was having to be an economics major in a top economics program at a flagship R1.
DC2 is already a lot better writer and a lot more willing to write crappy (and sometimes not crappy) first drafts than DC1. Words just flow on the page. I mean, zie wrote an entire novel in Spanish (Warriors fan-fiction) a couple of years ago. So the essays will not be like pulling teeth. That said, I think we’re going to try to have DC2 do some writing classes of some kind over the summer, probably at outschool. Because zie still needs work on organization and they’re still not going to teach writing in school.
DC2 will no doubt have hir own unique challenges that we know nothing about yet. I assume you’ll find out about them then (DC2 willing and the river don’t rise)!
Grumpy Parents– Have any of you recently learned lessons about the college application process?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
December 15, 2023 at 3:17 am
Will you apply to the same number of schools?
I think we visited too many reach schools. (I didn’t realize at the time that they were).
We got great advice about doing our essay the summer before senior year but a lot of the engineering schools had many supplemental essays. It wasn’t uncommon to have 4 extra ones. So we will try to get some of those done as well. The lower word count ones are sometimes harder because you have to be crisp and concise while still making your point. I didn’t really think those were knocked out of the park.
I still don’t know how one would get into a top school as I know lots of accomplished kids who checked all the boxes and still didn’t get in.
December 15, 2023 at 4:10 am
It’s all so random once you get to a certain level. I don’t think DC2 has any interest in Ivy League, though possibly some interest in MIT. We’ll see.
December 15, 2023 at 5:53 am
I am very worried about my oldest and college so I’m following along with great interest! He is only in 9th grade so we have a bit.
December 15, 2023 at 10:37 am
Fingers crossed!
December 15, 2023 at 8:16 am
Ooh! If you find a good writing class on outschool would you mind sharing? Am looking for things to occupy my daughter that are not the iPad during the weeks she won’t be at camp this summer.
December 15, 2023 at 10:36 am
Will do!
December 15, 2023 at 9:59 am
I think maybe about half of our local schools teach any kind of writing, and what they teach is pretty minimal. I usually get six or seven students every year telling me mine in the first research paper they have ever written.
Most of them seem to be writing short personal essays, of the “Best summer holiday” sort. I can’t say I blame their teachers, though, since the class size is 25 here, and the writing teachers are teaching five sections a day of that. I remember the days when I had to teach 125 writing students. I also wasn’t able to teaching students how to write, not in any real sense.
We have to decide if we want to teach kids to write or if we just want to look like we are. If we want to teach kids how to write, we need small classes — like fifteen students at the most — and maybe three of those classes per teacher. That’s a viable load. This semester I had 44 students split over two classes, plus 15 fiction workshop students. It was a lot of work, but it was possible.
December 15, 2023 at 10:36 am
I’m not even sure that our schools are interested in looking like they’re teaching writing. At least DC2 hasn’t been deluged with terrible craft projects like DC1 was. Or if zie has, zie keeps that work at school. (DC1 almost always finishes hir homework at school and almost never brings anything home to work on.)
December 15, 2023 at 12:27 pm
Oh God, the craft projects. That *also* seems to be what most of my students learn in high school English — how to make collages “about” whatever book they’re reading, or board games/gameshows/posters of the works.
December 15, 2023 at 1:25 pm
Daughter has a craft project where she has to design her own country, make maps, describe the economy, etc. It’s kind of cool! But also… why not make them pick an actual country and make the students learn about that.
December 15, 2023 at 1:31 pm
yeah, that’s a little weird
December 16, 2023 at 7:48 am
In the sixth grade, we had to choose a Latin American country and do a big report on it. The big ones were taken so I got British Guiana. That was a fabulous learning experience, not just because you had to learn about and then write about a country (plus find pictures), but because it was our first experience with making an outline. If you start them young, outlining isn’t that hard, and the template was already there: location, climate, crops, culture, history, etc. I feel bad for students who are never taught to make an outline, they are so good for focusing your thoughts, and make writing so much easier.
Making up your own country sounds like more fun, but it would not teach you how to choose information from concrete sources.
December 18, 2023 at 3:27 am
When you say state schools, do you think zie will apply in your state, or would you encourage zie to get out of there and find somewhere else?
I have no lessons, my kid is too young and my own experience was nothing like those of today’s kids!
December 18, 2023 at 5:07 am
Backup plan is state flagship. I’d rather not though. Also I don’t know what gpa DC2 will end up having. They also just changed how they calculate gpa so it no longer meshes with what private schools want.