D24 has her initial profile set up completed in the Common App. She’s bummed that she won’t be eligible for a whole lot of merit scholarship money from U of A since their merit awards are based on unweighted GPA and hers is 3.2. But I told her not to worry…Mom & Dad are just happy that there’s SOME sort of discount.
I suspect right now that she might end up attending elsewhere, but we’ll see.
She turned in her notice at Mickey D’s yesterday. Manager told her she was sorry to see her go. D24 told them that she wanted to focus on school. There’s still some other job options that she could apply to instead, so she’s going to focus on that.
So S24 and I visited UMass Amherst. He hated it. So much so that we got out of the car from the parking garage and as soon as we made it into the main area with buildings and trees he looked around and said “Um no.” Would not even walk around. Oh well…
Oh no,
did you have a scheduled tour with student tour guide?
We 4 had the same guttural NEGATIVE response to Umass Amherst when we did a drive-by/walk-by during covid year (no tours).
But then we were able to do a tour the following season and the tour guide was FANTASTIC, so much so that Umass got added back on his list.
DO give it a chance, especially to have FREE lunch there.
I tell everyone to NOT do what we did: drive-by.
Do schedule a tour. Their tour guides are GREAT and once you’re inside the buildings and the guides share their stories, it won’t feel like a prison/hospital.
My son’s best friend (and many others) attend UMass Amherst, and the pictures he share with son, doing all sorts of fun/awesome things,
sometimes I wished my son was there doing the same fun cool things.
Can you elaborate what you thought about UMass Amherst? We have not had a chance to visit, but we are currently considering it S24’s near-ish likely/target. I am afraid he’s really not going to like it though. Your son likes the big state schools other places, doesn’t he? What was it about the school that he didn’t like?
We did not have a scheduled tour or I would have made him go, just a self-guided walking tour. He could not get past the 1960’s looking high rise buildings on campus and kept saying they looked like a prison. He said he felt like he would be depressed there.
My Daughter, class of 22, very similar initial reaction. Drive through with her Mom, said no way.
She agreed to a full campus tour and it was
a 180 degree changed opinion. She got to see the facilities and was blown away and the tour guide was brilliant and the vibe around campus was energetic and positive. It went from a bottom choice to her top choice, ymmv, but turned out to be a wonderful choice and the quintessential college experience that she wanted.
UMass Amherst is not on our list for S24 but I would like D27 to consider it. She had a tournament there this winter and she hated it. She will be getting a tour there when we start that chapter for her though. What I can say about it, the food is phenomenal. All my friends who went there in the 90’s have nothing but good memories. Downtown Amherst is cute and Antonio’s pizza is delicious!
I agree the town is great and so many other schools around which is really nice. My sister lives out there so it would be nice to have family close by. I will see if I can convince him to do a tour.
D24 has started on common app essay prep, beginning with some of the College Essay Guy quick writing strategies to get you started (they’re all about 5 min or less). She’s going to do one per day over the next week.
Orthodontist appt is on Wed this week. Hoping that braces can come off so we can then schedule wisdom teeth removal.
For senior photos, she doesn’t want a special outfit nor does she want a special hairstyle or anything. That’s my low maintenance kid for you.
DS2022 gave me 5minutes between his day job and his evening job to take 9 pictures for his Senior photo. He was leaving for his Colorado and NM Boy Scout trip, so I wanted to get the pix done asap.
I had given him a “new” haircut where I tried some new “fade”, which didn’t work so he had to stand strategically so you don’t see the divots in parts of his hair.
Then the “white” shirt he grabbed had some stains in certain spots, which meant more strategic poses to hide these stains. Nothing that good photoshop couldn’t handle
I want DD2024 to get her pix done before her Dominican Republic trip, but it’s been rainy and hot/humid for weeks.
Let’s hope she gives me more than 5 minutes.
S24 had the day free today and woke up at 3:30 am to go fishing with his friends. It is a super gross, foggy, muggy, drizzly day. They just spent the last 7 hours reeling in na 400 pound tuna! Glad it was worth it. Cannot wait to the the full story.
D24 submitted an updated application for a coffee place that’s opening soon really close to where we live. And she submitted an application for a host/hostess job at Olive Garden, already has an interview on 7/24!
Scheduled my kids’ annual well child doctor check up, so we’ll have that out of the way before school starts.
2nd to last week at Mickey D’s this week. They’ve got her working 33 1/2 hr this week. She’s learned some interesting things there this past week (well, in addition to the sexual harassment incident):
During the job interview, when you say that you could start at 5:30 pm on Sundays, they’ll have you work every single Sunday starting at 5:30 pm.
Packs of teenage girls are more obnoxious than packs of teenage boys.
Packs of teenage girls in the drive-thru will literally scream into the speaker. Like “Scary Movie” type of scream. And then they all laugh.
Hawaii has such a huge housing problem that regular working class people there are homeless. And it drove 2 of them to move here and work at this particular Mickey D’s.
There’s a limited approved list of food you are allowed to eat for free as a “crew meal.” It doesn’t include fries. Or ice cream or milk shakes. Or even a frickin’ cheeseburger. But if you want a 4 or 6 piece of nuggets or a double cheeseburger or a hot & spicy chicken sandwich, then you’re all set.
A new manager is from Hawaii and went to culinary school and is a nice guy. And is divorced and has kids. And has 7 half siblings who all have different moms than his mom.
Hawaiian manager told everybody that he’s not going to bug you as long as you do your job and keep your work area clean and then he’ll stay out of your business.
D24 has to work on Tuesday and is not pleased with this.
Packs of teenage boys who come inside to order act normal and “are nice” when they all order one at a time by themselves. But when a pack of girls are nearby, they turn into a wild pack of dingoes and “suddenly, do a bunch of stupid stuff.”
I think these are the ones she’s talking about. She linked to them a few months ago, and I bookmarked them for when my son FINALLY starts working on his essay. Hopefully soon!
D24 finished her Modern States online French course today! And will be filling out their online form to request her free CLEP exam voucher. Waiting for feedback still for the Calculus CLEP exam voucher request. She’s making good progress on US History II and should have that completed some time over the next week. I suspect that D24 is pretty motivated to not have to take a foreign language class in college…and I know for sure that she doesn’t want to have to take US History again in college.
That’s my low maintenance kid for you. 