<p>This is fun....the old gang is all here! Roby, great to "see" you again! Sybbie...yes, can you believe we are even talking beyond college? We all were JUST talking of these kids applying to college! And I agree....it is neverending with children and each step is just another stage in the adventure. Now it just is from afar (sometimes it can literally be very far!...one of mine called from the other hemisphere today). Well, I guess some of our kids bought the GRE book...first step!</p>
<p>Garland, I have to smile when you mentioned that you were a parent at your D's age. While that is not true for me, I was married at my D's age! In fact, for some reason, my husband, very recently when oldest D was home (which is rare), said to D, "you know, Mom was married at your age....here, take a look at our honeymoon album!" Oy, hard for me to imagine my kid doing that right now. She is 20 1/2 and that was my age when I got married though she is a rising senior and I was a rising junior in college. </p>
<p>I look forward to following all of your kids' journeys as they go the next step, whatever that may be.</p>
<p>Ain't that the truth! :eek: I was married at 24 (hubby one year younger), and a new mom at 25. I look at my DD and realize that that is only a few years away for her. Dang, hubby and I were young to get married! </p>
<p>It's good to hear back from all the old gang on CC. Seems like most of us have rising seniors in college, and now the kids are supposed to be launching into the real world. I feel a little anxious (well, fancy that ;) ) when I hear of all your kids with definite plans and jobs and things lined up - or at least studying etc for the GRE is going on - and my DD seems to be heading off into a new direction again.... sigh! But que sera, sera. She'll find a job, and, who knows? Maybe this Persian thing will foster a whole new set of opportunities! :)</p>
<p>I was anxious about my son's plans all through his senior year, especially after he made the decision to delay graduate school. As it turned out the "next step" for him and for most of his friends didn't begin to coalesce until around Spring Break.</p>
<p>My son would have loved to take a few month's break (and I would have loved to have had him backhome sleeping in his own bed :) ) but the job appeared, they wanted him NOW so he had to make the leap. </p>
<p>I think It's been more of an adjustment for me than for him. I liked having a college student in the family.</p>
<p>Most of my son's classmates have also gone directly to work, some in real career-path jobs and many with volunteer or see the world organizations like Teach for America, Peace Corps or various NGO type posts. </p>
<p>They are literally flung across the globe and I think they really MISS each other's company. The internet is a great connector, but it isn't the same as those midnight chats in the common room.</p>
<p>Roby, so nice to hear from you. I had suspected you were Anitaw, or was this just a parallel universe?</p>
<p>Yesterday I spent 26 hours (literally) coming back home from a trip abroad and I still woke up early because of the jet-lag. After taking care of a few work e-mails I figured I would stop by CC. I am glad to see some many familiar names and the list growing.</p>
<p>Three things caught my attention in the thread.</p>
<p>First, I counted at least 12 members of the CC classes of 08 and 09 (parents with graduates or graduating seniors). Hopefully more will come.</p>
<p>Second, having just crossed the 50 post mark, I am bringing the average number of posts by participants down. Still it is up there in the many thousands. Maybe I can get sakky to join to cancel my meager contribution.</p>
<p>Finally, it is great to see how many of us have been blessed with great kids doing amazing things. My wife and I sometimes worry that the criticism leveled on this generation (that they are soft because we have made their lives too easy) may be true. Then I look at what they are accomplishing on their own, and the contributions the are already making to society, and that worry goes away.</p>
<p>The way my wife and I see it, these kids are like Jack Bauer, out there ready to fix the world with skill and hard work, but they need us to be like Chloe at CTU ready to reposition the satellites and send the infrared pictures to their handheld devices. [Apologies if the reference to 24 is obscure or doesn't make sense. We finished watching season five in a couple of marathon sessions not long ago.]</p>
<p>bookworm: on the flight back from graduation I wrote a long message describing my observations as the parent of a Caltech student. I figured I would post it but the text became too long and I realized I was simply trying to capture four years of thoughts in a self serving exercise. I will be happy to send you, or other parents, the file (still unfinished). Just send me an e-mail to <a href="mailto:APN1258@aol.com">APN1258@aol.com</a>. Please notice that I may take a while to reply since we are heading out of town again this afternoon. This time for a good cause (vacation) and to a good place (with limited or no connectivity) :-)</p>
<p>Our son was accepted into the combined BS/MS program in his department this past spring and his fall schedule includes 2 grad level courses which will count for his MS. And do GRE or application to fill out!!</p>
<p>The thing he was trying to workout in April was how his AI senior thesis research(simulating emotion/cognition in embodied agents-just compsci mumbo jumbo for enhancing the personality of robots/cartoon characters) could be expanded upon to fulfill the MS thesis requirement too.</p>
<p>I don't know if this is allowed (a ref to another website) but D found a Live Journal board called "Applying to Grad" most helpful in sorting out the actual ins and outs of the application process for Grad School.Lots of input from Scientists and Humanities people there,info on individual programs,the pieces of the process ie:getting quality reccs,writing the Statment of Purpose (most important!!!..who knew).</p>
<p>If I made our S sound as if he really had a plan, suffice it to say that at one point he asked us if it would be all right to come home for about two years while he figured out his life. We told him figuring out his life will take more than two years, so no, though two months or so at home would be lovely. I wouldn't be surprised by almost any turn of events as graduation gets near -- from getting a job in finance to deciding on cooking school. He signed up for the GRE after winning a free GRE prep course. As far as I know, he hasn't done any studying or taken the prep course.</p>
<p>newmassdaughter's plans are to first do one of: fulbright to bolivia; Public Health/Global Health studies in the UK; go back to Bolivia anyway. But the summer stay may cure her of the last option, since so few places are heated there and it is winter now.</p>
<p>Then, she wants to do a PhD at NIH through a combined program they have with Oxford or Cambridge, followed by an MD, all as part of an MSTP program.</p>
<p>By the time that's all done, I hope I'm still around...</p>
<p>Xiggi, thanks for the link. I'll forward it on.</p>
<p>Hi all,
I used to post on the snarky Brand X board. (Is it really defunct?) My S#1 just graduated from college and is off to begin a Ph.D. in poli. sci. in the fall. It was lovely being far away from him as he applied to graduate schools. We noticed some charges on our credit card for application fees and the GRE's and were fine with that. He knows that as of graduation day, the "spigot" has been turned off. I knew absolutely nothing about applying to graduate schools but in starting to learn a little bit about the process (I can't help myself!) I did realize that applying to certain programs made getting into places like HYP look relatively simple! I'm glad he had wise professors around him to advise him.
Edit: Semi-humorous story. He is interested in International Relations/Security and we were flying to the coast a couple of days ago when I noticed the book he was reading on the plane was something about the strategic logic of suicide terrorism! I can't believe he got on an airplane reading that book and I would have made him put it in the checked luggage had I known!</p>
<p>Interesting how different this is from undergrad apps, isn't it. We just get to watch.</p>
<p>soozie, she funds her endevors herself. I may consider some $ to her if she goes back to Bolivia on her own next year (assuming she's not frozen from the current visit) but Bolivia is pretty inexpensive. Other than that all the options she's looking at would be funded. Thank goodness, as we'll be tapped out financially at the end of the coming year. We have enough set aside for senior year, but that's it. (watch me eat these words at the next CC oldtimers reunion...)</p>
<p>So good to see so many long timers back on one thread. Hard to believe that he is now a rising senior as well. He just took the MCAT in May ($210) and is interning at a major medical center here doing research and getting ready to start the admissions game all over again. Sigh.......</p>
<p>Sounds like a lot of our kids are in the same boat or stage. </p>
<p>NewMassDad, yeah, my D also funds all of her own endeavors and travels. Earlier I was referring more to the years of schooling (a LOT) you outlined that your D is planning. I realize that some kids fund their own graduate school education and in our case, we do pay for all school related expenses. Luckily having two in college at the same time makes us more financially "needy" and that helps. Hubby found out D1's FA package for this coming year today and it is very good. I realize you have just one child and so the "two in college" doesn't help with FA (I don't know if you even applied for FA though). On the other hand, two still costs more than one! :D And more than two....</p>
<p>momrath,
If you were looking for a truly undercover air marshal, he would probably fit the bill with his extremely long hair-down to the middle of his back. ;) He's headed to UChicago for the Ph.D, and hasn't pinpointed a specific geographic area of this interest at this time. He's still in the "theory" stage.</p>
<p>You did notice that the last previous post in this thread is three years old didn’t you? I don’t know what that is in dog years but in CC years that’s forever. I think there might be 3-4 people left from that thread. I wasn’t in it but I was here before it and some days I feel older than Gandalf around here.</p>