This week was just about as crazy as I’d anticipated - maybe more so! Thanks in advance for everyone’s patience as we try to move meetings around to accommodate deadline and application release changes.

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

COMMON APPLICATION® RELEASE

Check out my post from earlier this week about the 2020-2021 Common Application® release! We finished all of our guides mid-week, so our students are all busy using them to complete their Common Applications®, Coalition Applications, and University of California Applications. If you need help, remember that membership vault subscribers have access to everything too!

THE U EXPERIENCE

My first question: why didn’t I come up with this? My second question: am I too old? (kidding) - but seriously this looks amazing. Two guys from Princeton came up with an absolutely brilliant (in my opinion) idea to form cushy “bubble” communities in which students can pursue their virtual coursework. Yes, Hawaii is an option - and the cost is about the same as room and board at a typical school. I can’t decide if this is going to be the next big thing or the next Fyre Festival, but it’s definitely something I’m going to watch.

FALL SCHEDULE CHANGES

More schools continued to transition to fully remote instruction this past week, including Princeton and Johns Hopkins. Virginia seems to be choosing the delayed route, with UVA and a number of other schools delaying in-person instruction for a couple of weeks to buy time before making the call. A student at Middlebury put together this interactive map, which is SO cool!! The nerd in me is very impressed!!

TESTING

Fairfax County redeemed themselves big time on Tuesday when they announced that FCPS seniors will have the ability to take the SAT at their school on September 23 through School Day Testing. This is so awesome and I’m really happy about it. They are also continuing with the August 29 SAT at a handful of schools, although it’s really difficult to get seats.

I have noticed that there has been some movement as students with seats for the August 29 administration cancel in anticipation of taking it during the school day on September 23, so don’t give up hope if you’re still holding out for an August 29 slot. And if you have one of the coveted August 29 slots and decide to cancel it, feel free to shoot me an email after you cancel so I can let other kids know where there might be a spot available (even if very temporarily). I have students actively seeking spots for both regular time and 50% extended time tests, and I’d love to be able to point them in the right direction.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

School has already started in certain parts of the US and the New York Times had a few good pieces on the subject! Here’s what some kids have to say about their schools reopening, and this one discusses the tough choice about closing again that reopened schools are already having to make. Many are wondering if the schools should have focused their efforts on improving virtual instruction instead of putting together reopening plans, and if precious time was wasted as a result.

This piece in The Atlantic, Cancel College, acknowledges the parallels between colleges and universities trying to open and Americans as a whole in trying to go to work. It’s such a tough call.

Thanks to one of my favorite readers who sent me this Boston Globe article yesterday about the increase in deferral numbers for the upcoming year. One out of every five freshmen at Harvard has chosen to defer- WOW! That’s enormous. I’d love to know more about which students are deferring. This would make a good research project! Are they from certain geographic regions? Income brackets? Majors? I’m mainly just curious. Interestingly enough, I actually haven’t noticed a huge rush to defer with my own 2020 students.

Lastly, this blog post from the end of last week about College Board privacy/selling student data was pretty creepy and is definitely worth a read!

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

UGA is killing my September schedule! Because they aren’t releasing the application until 9/1, and because every kid in Northern Virginia is applying there (only half kidding), it’s really screwing things up for us as we try to move meetings around to accommodate. But we have had some meetings open up in mid-to-late August, so Donna has been in touch with Late Start Waitlist families!

And lastly, I will wrap up with a very sweet testimonial from a Class of 2020 parent that totally made my night last night! :) You are the best - thank you! We really do love what we do and I am glad it shows! I share this because I think it does make a great point that not all of our students are out to go to Harvard. Sometimes the ones that aren’t are actually the most fun to work with, because I get to share all of my knowledge about various colleges with them!!

Have a great weekend, everyone!