<p>I was amazed to realize that S’s new employer is not only going to pay to move his “stuff” to the new town, but will pay to store it for a few months, if needed.</p>
<p>Curm…I feel your pain. We are responsible for DD’s stuff too…from CA to CT…she’s taking the train home with a carry on bag. We’ll be schlepping 6 suitcases of “stuff” on the return trip (thank heaven’s for Southwest and three travelers!!). She’ll ship the books. Anything else stays in CA!!</p>
<p>I asked our daughter what she wanted for a graduation present. Her response? “Free time!” Senior year has been unusually stressful for her, with multiple responsibilities from course projects, a stint as a teaching assistant, and a work study position. So we’ll bring her home for a relatively unstructured couple of months so that she can regroup and figure out what comes next.</p>
<p>As for leaving stuff at school, we’ve been hinting that current freshmen might like some of her stuff. We’re hoping that she’ll part with a significant amount of possessions, so she’ll have a place to sit in the car on the drive home. Then there’s her collection of invertebrate pets that we’ll have to sneak into motels.</p>
<p>We’re taking two cars up to D’s graduation, so as to have enough room to haul all the junk…erm, precious possessions back home. That said, we’re encouraging her to sell, donate, or throw away as much stuff as possible, and to send home things like winter clothes and books via UPS ahead of time. But I’ll bet it’s still going to be a tight fit. She’s a packrat like H…so the two of them can have fun figuring out how to squeeze it all in!</p>
<p>DD graduated in 2009 and on that day had no prospects other than a leisurely summer at home doing med school apps. The day after graduation she got a job offer at $2800/mo to work in a university research lab (she had contacted them the prior fall and stayed in touch, but it just so happened some one gave notice); it took a week or two to determine some logistical headaches and in that time she had a phone interview and offer from an internship to which she had applied in March and never heard from. So, while so many kids all ready have things lined up, those who don’t should not panic, if they have done the prep, opportunities may arise. Dd had to rush to get organised, moved a 14 hour drive away, began a new job, found a place to live, and applied to med school.</p>
<p>When her job ends this summer she is off to a month in Europe- thanks to savings from that job!- and then to med school. </p>
<p>Another DD is graduating this month and really has not decided what she wants to do, i have emailed her every idea I had as to who to contact and where to find opportunities. She does have some options, but needs to figure out what she can make work. We have warned her that come Sept we begin charging rent 
At least she is aware of the proce of gas and has offered to only take what fits in the station wagon plus Thule and will discard the rest, no need to drive the gas sucking pig pick up truck!</p>
<p>Looks like D will be working on a reelection campaign in Michigan. Unpaid at first but with housing provided, then (cross fingers) evolve into a paying position in August. She is quite excited!</p>
<p>Son and his friends are off to the beach for a week right now. Graduation is next weekend. These 4 years have been a time of much maturation and growth…for all of us! (I have been learning how to be a parent of an adult.) I so admire the young man our son has become. I will try not to weep.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>SIL is getting his PhD after 7 long years (5 of them as our SIL.) All he needs is a job so he can support our D and grandchild in the style to which they will become accustomed.</p></li>
<li><p>DS should be graduating this year but seems to be on the 5 year or perhaps “indefinite” plan. At least he has an internship in his field for the summer, a place to live, friends, and the use of our spare car. Haven’t told youngest S yet about the car being gone for the summer.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>:cool: 
</p>
<p>Curm,</p>
<p>Any decision yet for the Mudgette?</p>
<p>Why is it that my S handled all the grad school stuff on his own, but I can’t pin him down about travel plans for the summer? Flights are getting mighty expensive…</p>
<p>Mommusic, good luck for your SIL on getting a job. I feel sad for our kids that job prospects are so difficult for PhDs. After reading the thread about law, I think the only secure field is the medical school route. I’ll hang around CC to follow Kat’s kitten’s plans.</p>
<p>DD graduates next weekend. She and her stuff are staying somewhere in vicinity of school (1600+ miles away), a type of post grad couchsurfing. No job yet and lots of applications out. Priorities after graduation:
continue to look for and apply to more jobs
continue to look for and apply to more jobs
continue to look for and apply to more jobs
continue to look for and apply to more jobs
continue to look for and apply to more jobs
sleep, eat, shower, play basketball
continue to look for and apply to more jobs
continue to look for and apply to more jobs
continue to look for and apply to more jobs
etc.</p>
<p>This is a great thread! Back in the '70s, I graduated from college on a Monday and began my entry-level job on Tuesday. My college roommate had wanted me to go with him to Alaska to work through the summer at a fishing lodge on a huge lake. I stayed and he went. The job was the pits and I left it at summer’s end. Now, in my 50s, I still regret not spending that summer in the Alaskan wilderness with my buddy.</p>
<p>My older daughter graduates from college in a couple weeks, and says she’ll go to grad school in a year or two. But in the meanwhile? She was a celebrated classical soprano in HS, but developed vocal polyps that derailed her opera plans. So she then discovered bluegrass. She just told us that she’s been writing bluegrass songs over the past two years and would like to take a year and see if she could perform them somewhere. I don’t think it’s so important that she has success singing and songwriting, as much as to not wonder, when she becomes my age, at what might have been.</p>
<p>You go, girl.</p>
<p>you go, gadad.</p>
<p>How did I miss this thread? I obviously have been too preoccupied with “the baby” and her May 1 deadline. Child Number One, on the other hand, I thought was all fixed…picked law school, etc. That ended when she woke up one morning and decided she needed a break and wanted to defer. Starting sending resumes and interviewing just as Columbia’s classes were ending. After not being able to get an interview, much less a job, the whole time she was in N.Y., got offered the first thing she interviewed for. We had the Ford 150 all gassed up and even bought a new cover (please, dad, she begged, do not bring the 150 to NYC) and now this. We are all in a tailspin, and according to her, she is the only senior at Columbia who managed to get classes that have finals, so she has 4 final exams and is too “stressed” to think. I am too tired to think for her, but I do have one question: is $3,000 a month a living wage for a young adult in N.Y.???</p>
<p>^^^it will be a challenge, but people have made it work with less. You, the parent, may not like the compromises she will need to make w/r to neighborhood, living space, etc.</p>
<p>Just bringing this thread back up to say: D is (sort of) employed! She got a paid internship in DC (not in politics) that she is very excited about. This is very welcome news exactly one week before her graduation, and the internship doesn’t start until after July 4th, so she has some time to find a place to live (we have relatives in DC she can stay with while she looks). </p>
<p>She’ll be working in the Watergate complex: anyone have suggestions for neighborhoods to look at?</p>
<p>Booklady: This thread may be helpful!</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/908459-need-info-new-graduate-moving-dc.html?highlight=washington[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/908459-need-info-new-graduate-moving-dc.html?highlight=washington</a></p>
<p>Excellent, thanks!</p>
<p>My daughter graduates June 13th; she just finished defending her thesis successfully, so will graduate with honors; is performing her senior recital this Saturday; and then thinks she just might catch up on her current coursework. </p>
<p>This summer is nothing but downtime, at our request. She hasn’t had a real break in over three years, so we said “no job, please” and she agreed. We are hoping that she’ll finally get her driver’s license; due to health issues, she hasn’t been able to in the past, but she should be good to go now. In the fall, she starts at Michigan State, working on a Ph.D in anthropology.</p>
<p>Great news in my quarter – my daughter graduated today. (actually tomorrow, because of the two-ceremony process for all affiliated Columbia U. schools – but the walking-across-stage & graduation speaker part was today)… and she also received word this morning that she was hired at what looks to be her dream job. Right up her alley with her major & interests; and more responsibility and opportunities than most entry level positions. It’s with a nonprofit, so the salary is moderate, but the benefits package is amazing. So all is well on this front.</p>
<p>Fantastic news, calmom! Graduation and a place to go that’s right up her alley. Is it in a location she likes?</p>
<p>mezzomom and booklady. Great events popping up all over. Summers off before PhD. DC internships. My, these gals are living interesting lives. Congrats to all. </p>
<p>(A bit OT: I don’t know about y’all but this is a time I look around at the outcomes of some of my D’s high school friends and wonder why the difference. Not that one size fits all because it certainly doesn’t. I’m not talking about prestige but more about “excitement” or maybe “novel” or “unusual”. How does one set have the urge to seek unfamiliar things, out of the norm things, well…just different things. </p>
<p>Don’t have any answers but I do wonder…)</p>