<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I was away for 2 weeks, things are hectic here and I will try to catch up, but not sure if it’s possible. 35th page already?!</p>
<p>Not a lot has happened here as far as preparation for college goes. I figured out the banking logistics for S and some college shopping was done. Today S will be enrolling in his Fall classes. It’s getting too real too soon 
</p>
<p>PS - Like the new thread title!</p>
<p>Pepper: I can relate to the parental struggles. I’ll keep you and your mom in my prayers.</p>
<p>My mom was ready to be discharged from the hospital yesterday. She’s 3 hours away, so I went yesterday and, after some serious negotiating with the assisted living people, got my mom transferred to her apartment last evening. She was vehemently opposed to going to a rehab facility and wanted only to return to her assisted living apartment. I left feeling pretty victorious and was home before midnight. Looks as if my joy may be short-lived, though, as I’ve already had an email from the facility director this morning and the promise of an afternoon phone call to talk about moving her to rehab. Sigh.</p>
<p>Great wisdom, BI.</p>
<p>Good luck with the moms, dads, etc. I know it will be my turn soon. Eek.</p>
<p>OWM: I’m sure this will be just a small bump along OWson’s road to success! He (and you) responded so gracefully to the PI day disappointment, that I just know he will get through this.</p>
<p>I know there has been discussion about this before, but as scheduling for S2 is looming this week, I’m having some real concerns about the difficulty of the classes he’s considering. His AP scores allow him to select higher level science, spanish, and math options (3 of the 4 classes he’ll sign up for) and the advisor is encouraging him to go for it. I know he is very, very capable, but I just worry about all of the other factors that come into play freshman year, and wonder if he’d be better off with a slightly easier schedule. He’s not one who is easily persuaded (I didn’t call him a know-it-all, did I?) and loves a challenge. Am I the only one feeling like this?</p>
<p>Oh ohiomom I feel your pain. Mom will be discharged today because they determined she was “better”-what really determined she was better (she isn’t) is the insurance company-but I guess that’s for another thread. Good luck with trying to keep her where she wants to be-it’s so much better if they can try and minimize how many different stops these poor folks have to make.</p>
<p>We are getting ready to head to a beach house rental this Saturday-I swore after last year I would never do that again but here we go-the kids love it so much that I caved in-this being our last real summer together-but now this latest episode has made the logistics so challenging-my sister and I will get little rest on this “vacation”.</p>
<p>We didn’t have to make a decision on the AP in the end since he only got 3 on Calc and Chemistry-he amazingly enough got a 4 though in Spanish. I guess that’s pretty good for self-studying but not good enough. I guess many schools accept 3’s but not NEU-but hey it was a nice try. If he had taken the EEP option his HS offers (long story) NEU would have accepted all of them-but of course he wasn’t going to a school that took them! :)</p>
<p>I think though even if he had gotten credit he would have taken Calc again anyway-since he plans now on being a Math major-for what it’s worth.</p>
<p>For those of you new to this thread here is our info:</p>
<p>We live in New England and have two children-our son, entering his freshman year at Northeastern, and our daughter, entering her freshman year in HS.</p>
<p>Our son is undeclared and basically drove us crazy throughout the whole process! He ended up picking the school he hated on his first tour! He dreamed of Harvard but the love was not returned by them-but after getting over a tough March 30th (2 rejections, one WL at Ivies) he moved on pretty quickly and looked over his 8 acceptances (yes he applied to 11 schools-a lot of that had to do with looking for merit aid) and ended up picking the last place on earth I would have imagined when we started this process.</p>
<p>He applied undecided at 9 of them and as Chem major at two of the Ivies-now he tells me he doesn’t think he ever wants to take another Chem class! He is a writer, even though he fights wanting to major in it and is now thinking seriously of Math and Math/Economics with perhaps a Writing minor. I take comfort in a saying a good friend gave me a few months ago-“Dealing with a teenager is like trying to nail jello to a tree” :).</p>
<p>He is about as well rounded as they come-not well lopsided, pointy, or anything in between. </p>
<p>I am the keeper of the thread’s frying pan and will lend it out when necessary-it has come in handy a few times, hasn’t it? ;)</p>
<p>Ohiomom: I’m sorry about the difficulties with your mother. It sounds frustrating. Your son’s schedule does sound pretty challenging, but if the advisor is encouraging it, he can probably handle it. I think that we tend to want our kids to play it safe, but sometimes we have let them trust their own instincts. Instead of arguing with him about the schedule, you might want to gently suggest that he see how difficult things feel the first few weeks of classes, and switch a class then if necessary. There probably won’t be any tests until mid-terms, but he should get a feel for the difficulty level from the assignments. You can also suggest that he try talking to an upperclassman at his school about his schedule. Has he been assigned a peer advisor?</p>
<p>Shawbridge–you are so funny…and we know what byou mean…
We did read about all of the sessions at the U and figure its all about being politically correct/tolerant etc etc…as my DH says…“part of the Stepford” transformation…
Interestingly these sessions will address all those issues like you mentioned etc etc…Tolerance" is always framed in one way and yet isn’t nearly as “inclusive” really…Why do some feel that they need to share everything in their private lives?
Our family, my teens included don’t want to hear about what someone is doing in the privacey of their own room–regardless of orientation. kwim?</p>
<p>On APs and class levels…
we still dont have the scores here (east coast)…do you all have the scores?
Scheduling wont be done til the fall after shopping period…There was a math and science survey of what the students have taken and I guress we need to send the SAT scores and AP scores…
We are leaving this to the wisdom of the advisors at the U…feeling they know how the kids do based on past success/failure etc of skipping levels.</p>
<p>OK, please skip this is you can’t stand ranting. I have to rant.</p>
<p>I must have my head in the sand enough to not even know how to check what profs ds has the choice of! He doesn’t have any “classes in mind” as some of your precocious children have (and I mean precocious as a compliment!!!) I think given that he bombed the calc AP test (2!) and that chem is his only “maybe” to place out of within the engineering curriculum that has little if any wiggle room in terms of what he is taking. He takes exactly what every frosh engineering major takes. He will have about 13-16 credits going in I think but we’ll see what actually happens at registration. He registers next wk and I suppose then he will be able to (HA, making a joke here) look into quality of profs. </p>
<p>His bank account we have discovered has $75 in it. He has flown through around $2500 in lifetime earnings with eating out, gas, movies since getting his license about 15 months ago… Mom (that is me) expected that money to go towards his daily college extra-expenses, maybe books even. I have made that clear since the account was opened. Originally we thought it would pay for his car and car insurance (another pipe dream). I railed into him yesterday when he was dawdling through thank you notes and making it yet another in the string of procrastinations…arrrrrghhhh! I said the bad things you are not supposed to say. He is polite most of the time but he has this edge to him this summer - smacks of entitlement. Yes, smacks is a good word because that is what I am thinking of doing if I hear any more of it.</p>
<p>Last night, dd1 makes a bunch of noise (as she is heading to bed) at 2am. It seems that the last weeks of school where she stayed up late doing homework have become a time-clock she can’t or doesn’t want to change. So she goes to sleep at 2 am and wakes at noon. That is one problem. Waking her up in the am to get her to change back over to normal hours is impossible, I have tried, it is worse than waking the dead.</p>
<p>So I am up at 2 am because of this and go to the hall to adjust the a/c. Ds is not in his room? I go back to bed saying to myself “he’s a big boy and I don’t have to micromanage his life. What right do I have to manage how he spends his summer?” I fume for about 1/2 hr before I go to find him, in the basement, watching tv - or actually asleep on the couch (he could’ve been faking that part). Are you all able to keep people to civilized time schedules? I am such a light sleeper and I fall asleep by 11:30 so it is very very hard to not wake up during the night with these teens coming and going. </p>
<p>OK - rant over. </p>
<p>Ohiomom - I am so sorry, I think pneumonia can be so very tricky with elderly. They just want to go home and be well enough to be left alone. I hope she gets the care she needs and gets back to what she wants when that makes sense to drs. I always think it is hard to get better in a hospital. And I am always trouble to the medical profs who just want to cya with tests. I am sure she is glad to have you advocating for her, (although she might not show it.) Sending big hugs to you.</p>
<p>Pepper - Hugs to you too - it must be so difficult to see dementia progress. My mom had moments but not so many that anyone saw it besides me and my Dad. Why don’t you make ds go do his own shopping, Target was decent for 99% of what I ended up getting. Bedding was the real time kill, ended up finding some decent boy things from Nautica. In the end, since I was doing most of it, it felt like I was once again the only one invested in this process, much like college apps.</p>
<p>I’ve got to say that I’m sad to hear of the older Mom problems. My father has vision problems that include blindness in one eye and macular degeneration in the other. In other words, he has no good eye. And yet, he still drives. My Dad is very social and gets up early (before my Mom gets up) and often goes places by himself. My mother says she is willing to drive him places, but he’s been driving himself for almost 70 years and just hates the idea of being dependent. We live two hours away and my sister is not much closer. I think need to get him to sign a HIPAA form so I can talk to his ophthalmologist. </p>
<p>OWM - Agree with the small bump comments. I hope he aces the CLEP test, but if he doesn’t, he’ll still get classes and will be on the right path. blueiguana is right about how much he has matured in the past few months. One more hurdle!</p>
<p>Mamom - Bummer about the scheduling problems. One thing I’ve found on the comments from rate-your-professor is that students that are expected to work hard (He expected us to read a book a week!) will rate a good Prof poorly. My grad school daughter told her brother not to even look at that site because it would prejudice him.</p>
<p>Regarding difficulty of classes. I’m on the side of taking a light first semester if possible. My oldest son took a higher level class and it really hurt his GPA right off the bat and the thing is, he could have taken an easier one, but I think he didn’t want to do an early morning class!</p>
<p>Hi AK</p>
<p>I hear ya about sleep schedules…I am a super light sleeper and get little myself. </p>
<p>Right now with one high school aged teen home–I ask that things are off by midnight and kiddo2 heads to bed…I am not a fan of the upside down schedule…being up all night and sleeping in all morning.
Kiddo2 is sleeping in til about 10 which is late enough…imho…
When our soon to be college student is home later this summer–I expect we will expect the same…</p>
<p>On the occassion that they have something special that would keep them up late–thats one thing…yet daily upside down…no.
Whats the point? kwim? </p>
<p>When kiddo1 is off at college–that will be kiddo’s problem.
Frankly though kiddo has 2 practices a day, plus classes and is happily headed to be by 10/10:30 during the school year as it is…perhaps that will continue at college…
and right now during summer competition and heavy pratices etc…is in bed easily before 11…sometimes by 9:30pm. With plenty to be busy with during the day…kiddo doesn’t have any reason to be up all night…</p>
<p>On the money front–perhaps your student should be looking for a job…on campus would be good to help fund his fun</p>
<p>Oh AK you aren’t the only one who feels that way-our two sons were separated at birth as I have said before. At least he can’t stay up as late-at least not yet-he has always had an early to bed clock but I can see that starting to change too.</p>
<p>I don’t have any idea who his professors are either. He only has a schedule since the college makes them fill out a preliminary one before orientation-I am very grateful for that. fogfog that is how he found out his AP scores-the college had them. Even then AK the adviser put him in a Calc for Business class instead of the Calc for Science/Math one he’ll need if he wants to be a Math major-of course he didn’t want to hear that maybe mom was right so he had to go through it the next day under my direct orders and realize yup-mom’s right (again)-you would thing the adviser would know this-although I have talked to friends whose kids go to other schools and this is not an isolated incident. I really want to quit this job of advising him but I fear if I don’t keep an eye out there will be mistakes-like gee-there already have been!</p>
<p>I have already told him no laptop is being furnished for him-he needs to pick it out based on the recommended specs of the college-he asked what that meant-oh boy this kid is no computer geek-and I have also told him to plan on sleeping on a mattress with no sheets unless he can figure out what he wants-it is not that hard.</p>
<p>What is it with our boys?</p>
<p>Good morning everyone. I enjoyed reading all of your posts but wow it’s hard to keep up…
Pepper03-Our kids are at the same age as yours. Mine are boys.
We have done some shopping and found out those XL twin sheets were expensive. We bought S’s sheets that match his comforter at Target.
S was able to claim 12 hours of credit from ACT, APUSH,and AP PSY scores and he will get GOV credits once he completes a mandatory test at campus. There are 18 hours of credit from CAL BC, PHYC,WorldH and APES he is going to pass at this time. There is no advantage to claim them if they are not required for his degree plan. He worked so hard for all those 8 AP courses in HS and only comes to find out he can’t use them to satisfy college degree. In addition, there is $6 per credit we have to pay for the petition. Nothing is free these days…
Good to know about the 529 plan. I did not know it could be transferred to the next generation if I understood it correctly?</p>
<p>Pepper - Oh, the laptop I handed over to my tech support (dh) and that was a discussion ds was keen to be in on! I am totally anticipating being ditched on the orientation days next week. Dh isn’t going so I will be that cute divorcee by the punch bowl - LOL! </p>
<p>Fogfog - Given the heavy marching band component to the fall and needing to keep the gpa up for the scholarship, I don’t think he should get an job fall but he is applying now for a tour guide thing for spring. I have hope but I am also thinking the tough love of not sending money when requested will have to be the stick. This is one of those things I don’t exactly appreciate about the modern college experience - you can have dining passes, dining dollars, “cash” funds, an ATM-card all preloaded onto your ID, you can have a credit card number on file with the bookstore. There are multiple ways to not be a good manager of funds - if you are that type of kid. I am going old school with him until I see something has changed. The thing is, his type of fun has been mostly food - which hopefully is taken care of by these modern college type kiosks and other places that take those “dining dollars” - and without a car, and free public transport, hopefully he’ll grow up.</p>
<p>Pepper: so sorry to hear about your Mom. H’s mom just died after several years of struggling with dementia, and I know it took a big toll on my SIL especially as she was nearby and much more invested than we were able to be.</p>
<p>I guess I am assuming D will workout her classes during shopping period once she gets to campus. She is much less sure of what she wants to study than she was even a month ago, but will likely try to get requirements (1 semester of foreign language based on her AP score) and likely prerequisites (math, maybe physics) out of the way. I think she should leave one slot for something ‘fun’, but will leave it up to her. AP scores are not here yet, either, and those may have an impact along with whatever placement tests she decides to take during orientation.</p>
<p>Hi CC friends…sorry I haven’t been posting much lately. I have barely had time to SKIM all your posts! Life has been very busy and I have been on an emotional rollercoaster. Some days my d’s snarky behavior (AK…I had to laugh at your description of your son’s behavior because it hit very close to home) makes me wish she were leaving tomorrow. Other days I am crying because I am going to miss her so much!
We had a family bat mitzvah out of town this past weekend. Was lovely to be with all my sisters and their kids. Now my sister from CA and her two kids are visiting. Tonight is my d’s karaoke dj/dance graduation party. Hopefully it will be alot of fun! Certainly a LOT less work for me than having the usual backyard party! I’ll let you know how it goes.
These next 5 weeks until drop off are going to fly by! Even when I am not posting I am thinking of my CC friends!</p>
<p>Amanda, feel free to rant anytime. I can’t imagine haiving 4 kids home all summer. It does throw off our Mom schedules, doesn’t it. My house is pretty calm with just D2 home. She sleeps late and spends most of her time “hanging out” with her friends. I am very thankful to the state of Maryland for the midnight curfew on teen drivers, because I always know that she’ll be home by midnight. She finally got bored yesterday, and is starting to realize that she should have tried harder to find a summer job. I’ll have to remind her of that next spring.</p>
<p>Pepper and Amanda, I know that you get aggravated with your sons, but they sound much more together than most of my daughter’s male friends. When they get on your nerves, just remember how much you’ll miss them in September (or how much calmer things will be in September).</p>
<p>Hollie: The party sounds like a lot of fun. I hope it goes well.</p>
<p>I’ll continue to be the voice for “natural consequences” for these kids - they’ll figure out what it means not to afford things, just like we did. D2 is choosing to be tight on funds this year, and if she regrets it, she can go earn some more money. But based on how she understands her schedule already, she’s not going to have much time to spend. She’ll hoard what she has for theatre tickets, and she’s already told me she plans to become the student rush expert.</p>
<p>As for picking profs - I’ll agree that the “ratings” sites are just about as useful as the “college review” sites. Lots of bitter people who just want to bash, and often for all the wrong reasons. D1 learned that most semesters she’d have one class that wasn’t so great; sometimes it was the prof, sometimes the course, sometimes honestly herself. And never predictably: sometimes the famous/award-winning prof was a real letdown, sometimes a dreaded adjunct was terrific, and honestly one of her favorite instructors ever was a (horrors!) grad student filling in at the last minute - she put in more effort and energy than anyone else.</p>
<p>I happily stepped back when D1 was in college and let her navigate all of this. Even her first semester - when she was badly advised during orientation - she figured out the mistake they’d made before I had to tell her. D2 had to fit a crazy jigsaw puzzle together to make her two programs mesh this fall, and she didn’t have any luxury of worrying about instructors. She has faith it will work out fine, and she already knows to keep her eyes and options open the first couple of weeks if she needs to make changes.</p>
<p>She’s on a decent sleep schedule, but VERY indolent this summer. Makes me miss the years both girls were in marching band (this D stopped after 10th grade). They were so active until mid-July that I didn’t mind the laziness afterwards. But D will have her nose deep in books for the next several weeks to meet her reading goals - we’re leaving in a few minutes for a library/used bookstore run.</p>
<p>Pepper and Ohiomom - I am sorry to hear about your parents. It is very hard to be sandwiched with a rising college freshman and aging parents.</p>
<p>AK - you are not the only one struggling this summer. On any given day I have no idea what I am in for with both of my girls…one minute they are happy, the next angry, the next anxious, yikes. The good news is I just dropped D2 at the airport so she can save the turtles and D1 started her full time job this week.</p>
<p>I thought orientation was so boring that I left and went window shopping (I actually hate to shop but it was better than orientation). I then ran into someone I knew (barely knew) and went for a cocktail…so, I am not getting a gold star for mom of the year nor am I setting a great example. Oh well, c’est la vie. </p>
<p>You know, Pittsburgh is a great town and I bet there is someplace fun to go on the river…</p>
<p>AK–I’m quietly passing you the frying pan offered from Pepper.<br>
A new twist on an old theme: Stay 
and wield a large frying pan! (It will help to wake them up too).</p>
<p>Katiep – Happy anniversary! Sounds like a perfect day for me.</p>
<p>EmmyBet – Glad that your D had good time at the orientation.</p>
<p>Mamom – Sorry about the bad experience your S had during the class registration.</p>
<p>Owm – Good luck to your S at the CLEP exam. I am certain he’ll do fine.</p>
<p>Pepper – So sorry to hear about your mom. I am joining other posters to remind you to take care of yourself.</p>
<p>Son will be scheduling his classes today and from what I understand all upperclassmen already enrolled and first-years are given one of 3 days to enroll. Son got the first day and all the classes he was planning for still had openings yesterday, so he is feeling confident that we will get what he wants. I am not sure if he has an adviser and if he does if he was in contact with him/her (academics is the only area where my DS is completely independent), but I heart from him that he is asking and getting advise from a current senior. </p>
<p>Re:529 Plan. I understand that it can also be transferred to a sibling.</p>