Parents of 2010 College Grads

Parent Cafe
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<p>Just thought I'd give us a spot to cackle and hoot. ;) </p>

<p>Let the cackling and hooting begin. </p>

<p>D still has no idea where she's headed to med school but it appears that her concerns , in rank order, are :</p>

<p>1) Her Maid of Honor roll in her roomie's wedding in Nashville late May.
2) Her trip to Europe in Mid-June.
3) Other stuff.
4) Still other stuff.
5) Crap that means nothing to me.
6) Med school. </p>

<p>But I'm happy because she's happy. I'm proud because she's proud. All is good. ;)</p>

2

<p>Love the list, and thanks for starting this thread!</p>

<p>D called this morning to say that she has an interview with a publishing firm in NYC in a couple of weeks, and that the woman with whom she had the phone conversation to set up the interview - her potential boss - was impressed with her resume. Never mind that said job pays next to nothing. It’s New York! The promised land! </p>

<p>Where will she live should she get this job, you ask? She thinks Brooklyn. I’m thinking more like Queens…Red Hook, perhaps. And once she has paid the rent (with roommates of course, yet to be determined), she will probably have $1.98 left over for incidentals like…food. But she has done us proud, and we are delighted at the young woman she has become. It will all work out… (right???)</p>

3

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Hey. She has a plan. A woman needs a plan. It may not be much of a plan, but it’s a plan. ;)</p>

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<p>I loved this!</p>

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<p>curm - this is what a young college grad’s priorites should look like! Be proud that you raised such a wonderful young lady! Congrats!</p>

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<p>Cur… don’t you understand the concept of chronological order? I’m sure that the other stuff, still other stuff, and crap that means nothing to you all happens sometime between the mid-June trip to Europe and the late August/early September start date for med school. If she will be living in campus housing, then there’s no particular reason to worry about med school until the day she arrives on campus. </p>

<p>The wedding… on the other hand, has all sorts of issues to be planned & shopped for.</p>

7

<p>congrats curm!</p>

<p>Cackling here, too.</p>

<p>Our S is graduating next month. Decided to wait for grad school until he “knows why he is going.” </p>

<p>He has a job, an apartment (we think), and a schedule of sorts. YAY!!!</p>

<p>His priorities:

  1. Finish all the projects that comprise senior year (that is still close to number 1, bless his heart)
  2. Have some fun, dang it! (Belief that engineer studies have reduced the fun quotient)
  3. Time with his girlfriend
  4. His overseas trip in July
  5. Find and buy a car (that is number one some days)
  6. Obsess about random car stuff (did I mention he is not only an engineer, but a gear-brain engineer?)
  7. Research obscure car stuff;discuss same
  8. Discuss the basketball recruiting class for next year
  9. Sleep (see number 2, dang it!)
  10. Who knows? But it is more important than 11 and 12.
  11. Plans for graduation weekend
  12. Figure out how to organize his move to his new city next month.</p>
8

<p>I’ll join in (don’t we already have a thread “parents of seniors…alright!”).</p>

<p>DD walks in graduation in June but has ONE online course to complete and is taking an EMT course this summer too…all at home. Peace Corps application done with all clearances done as well…waiting, waiting, waiting and hoping for a Peace Corps appointment. Keep your fingers crossed. She will substitute teach until she hears one way or the other. If she goes into the PC, that’s that. If not…well…she’ll have to look for a “real” job.</p>

9

<p>DS1 graduates in May then starts his MFA program with complete tuition remission and a stipend of $19,000 (more if he’ll teach summers or intersession). His shared rent will be $400/month so he is officially “off the books”. I can honestly say I never remember him being happier. “Dad they’re going to PAY ME to do what I love!” He will spend his time writing the Great American Novel.</p>

10

<p>Our S just accepted an offer two days ago from an international engineering consulting firm. He graduates on the 23rd and will fly somewhere on the 24th, although it isn’t quite clear yet whether that will be to Australia where he has his first assignment for three months or to Rio where the firm is headquartered to do some inprocessing paperwork. He got an email from his boss today, saying an HR person is starting to work out those details. </p>

<p>He just got his credits transferred today from the classes he took in Rio last fall. That needed to happen by the end of this month for him to be graduating at all, which has been a major source of stress for me, but S didn’t think that was a big deal, considering he got it done more than a week before the deadline. He still has quite a bit of school work to complete (engineering), but no worries.</p>

11

<p>My D graduates May 15. Leaves for Europe May 18 for 3 weeks with a friend where they will “couch surf” or stay in hostels. She comes back, rests for 2 weeks and then I am taking 3 weeks off and we will do something together- yet to be determined (hiking trip to Montana?). It is the most time off I have taken (except for surgery) in 20 years!!!She leaves early Aug for Boston where she will share a yet to found apartment with friends (from past summer internships) who are going to grad school.( I am taking another week off then) Then Sept 1st she starts at Harvard Medical School for a PhD - with very generous funding because she just got a National Science Foundation Fellowship on top of full tuition and 30,600 stipend with health insurance!!!I know that in Sept her dept is spending a week in Cape Cod for a retreat. She is very happy and therefore so am I.</p>

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<p>Gee. Roll for role. My mad proofreading skillz. Jeebus.</p>

13

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Yeah. But it would be kinda nice to know what state she’ll be living in. And “no”. No campus housing. She still must find a cat-friendly apartment with garden tub (Dallas or Houston) or nice comfy spot under the bridge (New Haven).</p>

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<p>We’ll try not to hold it against you.</p>

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<p>Does she like tent living? She could camp out on [East</a> Rock](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Rock]East”>East Rock - Wikipedia) in New Haven, which is a lovely spot. ;)</p>

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<p>OoooOoHH!! Looks nice. East Rock. Tent. I’ll send it along. </p>

<p>(When we do discuss her potential financial circumstances, she refers to her potential New Haven life as “ketchup soup”. lol)</p>

16

<p>My list:</p>

<p>1) Finish my 35-50 page comp exam essay (the grade’s worth about 10 course credits); when it’s in on Monday, I’ll be thrilled… until then, ugh…</p>

<p>2) Do something awesome for my friend’s birthday!</p>

<p>3) Find apartment in grad school town</p>

<p>4) Do something awesome for my birthday (only it’s during finals week, so not so much)</p>

<p>5) Defend and revise thesis 1 and thesis 2</p>

<p>6) Take proctored exams for online course</p>

<p>7) Email (and later hang out with) best friend who goes to school another state</p>

<p>8) Finish as many manuscripts for articles as possible before leaving my job in July</p>

<p>9) Finish my remaining 50-ish Americorps hours before leaving in July </p>

<p>10) Say good bye to my college and my friends, co-workers, and professors therein. :frowning: (positive: hanging out with said friends before leaving :slight_smile: )</p>

<p>11) Get pre-grad school physical</p>

<p>12) Actually go to grad school!</p>

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<p><a href=“When%20we%20do%20discuss%20her%20potential%20financial%20circumstances,%20she%20refers%20to%20her%20potential%20New%20Haven%20life%20as%20%22ketchup%20soup%22.%20lol”>quote</a>

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<p>D spent last summer in NH, doing an (unpaid) internship. It wasn’t quite ketchup soup, but close at times. And unfortunately Shaw’s, one of the few supermarkets in the city, has just closed. But if mudgette winds up at Yale, I can get some ‘cheap eats’ tips from D for her.</p>

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<p>Isn’t it great to see these Type-A, high achievers, finally relax and have some fun? Mine is busy getting her wardrobe together for all the senior end of school functions. Her plans are to travel to Russia for 3 weeks after graduation with college friend (who is originally from Russia). Fall plans are to attend Oxford on a fully-funded (Yay!) fellowship for two years. And no, it is not a Rhodes fellowship; she jokingly refers to herself as 'almost" a Rhodes scholar, since she was a finalist, but this fellowship comes through her school - moore lucrative financially than the Rhodes but doesn’t carry the wow factor of the Rhodes. (Not that we’re complaining!) Future threads from me will involve how the heck to get her stuff to England, but we will cross that path when we get there. For that matter, I’m pretty clueless on how to get her junk back across country after graduation. I’m encouraging giving pretty much everything away.</p>

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W and I are responsible for getting my D’s possessions back to the ranch after graduation while she zips off to her Nashville wedding duties. Whatever fits into a short-bed F150 SuperCrew makes it home. Whatever doesn’t… will be graciously donated… as soon as she turns the first corner. ;)</p>

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<p>I am right there with you Curm, bringing home son’s stuff in our NEW 1993 1500 Dodge Ram with an EIGHT foot bed. Traded in the 1996 suburban with 297,400 miles for the truck, under 40,000 miles on that baby!!</p>

<p>Same exact color, dirt with a little green! Suburban had a cd player while the truck has a broken cd player, but does have AC while ole’ Bessie did not. That was fun while we were in Vegas.</p>

<p>No cover yet for the truck bed, been looking on craig’s list, where I found my new truck. It has the steel running boards so I can get into it. Threw down a nice wool horse blanket and the upholstery looks fab. And the doors don’t stick so son doesn’t have to climb through the window. Much better, just in time for graduation.</p>

<p>Son took a gap year, so he will be filling out apps beginning of June for med school from AMCAS and filling out business school apps for his MBA at the same time. I guess they don’t have combined apps for the combined programs. </p>

<p>He signed up for some more classes, stuff they didn’t have at his school, anatomy/physiology, nutrition, medical spanish… And he has some more research to do for somebody (or a bunch of somebodies). He also was going to tend bar since he spent some time doing that for his eating club and can make some money that way for his expenses for business/med school app fees, secondaries, travel for interviews and meals while gone from home.</p>

<p>He has his LORs lined up, his resume, PS and some prompts done already, so if he has some free-time (HA) I am sure I can find a ton of honey-do’s for him around the house and his bro has a car they can both work on all for a while.</p>

<p>I can’t believe 4 years has gone by so quickly. Son called last night, his last class and with his thesis done he is just waiting on 2 exams. He too is surprised at how fast it went by and is going to truly miss being there. After visiting and how happy he has been I expected this.</p>

<p>I hope his plans land him back here at home for school but that will all be determined in the next year. At least he will be here for some of his year off.</p>

<p>Kat</p>