<p>My pleasure. Hello Tutu! I remember you. I have been scarcely around these last two years, and always in the Cafe, but this upcoming senior year reminded me what a good resource CC parents can be, and my son deserves a less-crazed mother. </p>
<p>Right now I am mostly struggling with my need to impart Life Lessons. For example, I tell him that writers get rejected a lot and he should prepare emotionally, but I am not sure that’s really productive. Maybe I should just be telling him he’s a great writer. Because he is. Hmm. Motherhood. Yikes.</p>
<p>So wonderful to hear of so many student succesess from the class of 2012!
My DD will be graduating next June—yahoo! I am happily counting down the tuition payments. She is a double major- International Relations and Spanish. She wants to go to law school, but we have informed her any graduatae school will be on her dime. So recently she has been thinking what $150,000 in loans might mean. Do you only go if you get into a T14? Do you go to a T15-T25 if they give you some scholarship $$? Questions that all need to be answered. Good thing she is an excellent student, so hopefully her GPA will help in whatever graduate school she chooses.
She is studying and interning in Washington DC in the fall with the UCDC program- so she is really excited to see which internship she will end up with after applying to many!
She has had an internship last summer with the sales department with a high profile minor leage baseball team and has worked as an on campus tour guide since her freshman year. This summer she went back to a summer camp that she has worked at for years and is on their managment team as head girls counselor. At least she has a paid job! She is gathering skills one by one, and is a great people person. She has no touble speaking in front of a roomful of people, a skill that will take her far. She is also probably going to apply to be a Fulbright scholar and go and teach English in South America for a year. We shall see!</p>
<p>But what will all this lead too? I am not sure. Big debt for law school scares me to death, semi big debt for grad school is bad enough…typical worried mom stuff. And then there is the boyfriend…at this point I am thinking she has more ambition than he does…let’s keep it that way!</p>
<p>Yup, made those reservations too. Upon hearing, my D pointed out that she could still flunk out. I asked her to please do so at least 30 days before graduation if she was going to do that, because I could still cancel the reservations free of charge till then. ;)</p>
<p>Glad I made the reservations a few weeks ago. The rate I got at the hotel is no longer available & the cheapest room is now almost double of what I’m paying. After all these years of college tuition, it’s nice to get a good deal.</p>
<p>Since I have been to this Uni’s graduation for my Niece in '07, I have plotted and planned a new approach to graduation for S1 to minimize the hassle factor, up the fun factor and not feel taken advantage of by the hotel’s. So, I ordered a super deluxe trailer (sleeps 8 in beds) to be delivered to an ocean front campsite, set up, leveled and hooked up to utilities before we arrive. It is appointed like a hotel suite- coffee maker and utensils-everything. The idea is to have the trailer, maybe some tents for the kids and have a three day beach and bon fire party- all friends and families invited on various nights. No reservations needed to eat, (I hate getting a large group to agree on when/where to eat- so much time) All gourmet food will be made/bought ahead of time. I will let you know how it goes- but it has to be better than the flee bag hotel rooms we all rented for $250.00+ and miles from campus in '07. I know all the boys will be there- surf,eat and girls n bikini’s - whats not to like! Wish me luck- the deposit is sent in!</p>
<p>hard to believe our '12s are almost there. still waiting for my s to return home from his study abroad year at LSE. will be home 5 days then off to his university for a paid research internship. considering law school although he’s well aware of the issues facing new law school grads, so really not sure. let’s hope we see some improvement in the economy by next summer…</p>
<p>you guys just reminded me I too better make hotel reservations for graduation!</p>
<p>I am not making reservations yet. D1’s school is only 80 miles away and they spread out the various graduations over 3 days so I am not even sure which day she will be graduating. She goes to school in San Diego and graduates in May so I don’t think finding a hotel room will be hard. </p>
<p>Question for anyone who has done it before: D1 is on the semester system and will graduate in May, S2 is 120miles away from D1, on the quarter system and will be in the middle of papers/midterms/etc… Do I drag him to graduation?</p>
<p>drdom, I don’t know if there are any Hiltons near where you want to stay, but the Hilton website does have a number of hotels which just started taking reservations for next June (we just got reservations in Evanston through this site).</p>
<p>tx5: I’d leave it up to him to decide if he could afford the time away from campus. By next spring he should have a good idea of what his obligations will be. </p>
<p>When S1 graduated from college, S2 was a HS senior in the midst of finals & papers due. He came to graduation weekend with books & laptop in tow, with the expectation that he’d do work when we were at the hotel. Honestly, I’m not sure how much work he got done, but he also had senioritis.</p>
<p>just booked a hotel for s’s graduation, didn’t think of it til I came to this thread and realized how the rural town he’s in definitely fills up, sure enough, all the other hotels and b and b’s were already all booked up. he’ll get a kick out of this, especially since he is just now finishing his study abroad year. so not exactly thinking about graduation yet.</p>
<p>I’m just kind of assuming that as long as I don’t want to stay in Hyde Park itself (where the options are minimal and not that attractive), it really shouldn’t be necessary to reserve a hotel room a year in advance in Chicago. I’m greatly looking forward to the experience of going to my son’s graduation, although not so much to having to spend an extended period of time with my former spouse. (My son has said that he would like us to sit together, so I’ll do it for his sake. It worked out OK for his high school graduation, but the ceremony was a lot shorter than this one will be!)</p>
<p>tx5athome, we have a similar issue - D’s individual school graduation is on a Friday morning, and S will be in class far away, so he won’t be there. I could have him come for the general graduation Sunday on the mall in DC, but he would have to go back for finals the next day. Not worth the trouble.</p>
<p>I did make hotel reservations for a nearby hotel, couldn’t do it online, had to call the hotel directly.</p>
research internship. considering law school although he’s well aware of the issues facing new law school grads, so really not sure. let’s hope we see some improvement in the economy by next summer…</p>