<p>S is finally spending the night at home with his on again off again GF. They are in the mancave playing music (drums/keyboard/vocals) with lil sis and H. They sound like they are having a ball. We need a few nights like that at home before he leaves for school.</p>
<p>Beautiful day here in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania. Blue sky’s and sunshine but only a high of 82 degrees. My poor daughter called from Nashville and said it’s been hot and humid and in the high 90’s “forever”. I reminded her that she should be grateful that right now she is teaching Algebra indoors at some geeky summer camp when in the past she’s been outside in Missouri as a camp counselor. “oh, yeah” Next week she leaves for Istanbul to accompany a friend to a wedding.</p>
<p>I went to Kohl’s yesterday with my 30% off coupon and was quite disappointed with their bedding selection. Nothing at all in blue twin XL for sheets and NO twin XL mattress pads.The sheets that I ordered from Penney’s clashes with his comforter so I need to return that. I did get both of my boys sneakers to replace the ones with holes. I hate shopping with either of my guys but my youngest may be the worst. He could not decided between two pairs of sneakers. One was sturdier but the other was more comfortable. Finally I told him we would buy both. His feet are done growing and if one pair gets wet, he’ll have another. He was quite shocked at the idea of having TWO pairs of sneakers but acquiesced. After I got home I went to kohls.com and ordered the bedding and used my 30% discount that way. Free shipping. </p>
<p>Still no AP scores here. This really doesn’t matter to him for this semester anyway. All of his credits that transferred in (two or three AP’s and two college classes) will at best work for gen ed credit anyway. They only take 4’s and 5’s.</p>
<p>Morning All…</p>
<p>Yesterday I bought two different sets of towels for kiddo…since kiddo wont be home til mid Aug and by then selection will be poorer and sales over…
DH looked at them last night and said…“how much stuff in the school colors will kiddo want…” ummm hadn’t thought about it at all really…
SO I suppose I will go choose something else in other colors kiddo has chosen in the past…and then offer up all of the sets for kiddo to select from–and will return the rest—and if kiddo doesn’t like any of it–we’ll return it all and let kiddo choose from whatever is left…
I see DHs point and with some of the stuff, kiddo won’t care about some of it…however I dont want to make decisions…and it’s not my dorm to decorate/plan for…
Just trying to figure out how to hedge my bets with our “delayed” shopping spree…</p>
<p>Has anyone done their pre-order with BB for pickup at another store closerer to your campus? How did that go?</p>
<p>On the egg crate topper–I paid under $25 for it–Target, Twin xl…and I took it out of the packaging to smell it (since my memory foam pillow smelled bad for about 2 weeks) and I had wondered about this
…the topper doesn’t seem as bad- (short ends are open)–so to be sure I can get it back into the packaging for the flt…I am not unrolling it…</p>
<p>Also—ideas on spending money/allowances?</p>
<p>fog: I haven’t personally selected items for pickup at a BB&B near a college, but my friend has. She selected items at our local Ohio store and picked them up at a store near Providence College. She said that it worked out perfectly for them.</p>
<p>fogfog, I’m not very good at allowances, but what I figured I’d do is see how the first couple of months went and then set one. We’d pay for books and all essential stuff but he’d pay for entertainment. Unfortunately, ShawSon basically spent no money his first year in college, so we never set an allowance. His own spending was for 2nd dinners (a crime, he says, that dinner closes at 7 PM when he needs a second dinner at 10 PM before working until 2 AM or so). We were never sure whether this was necessary spending or discretionary (he’s 6’4", 220 lbs and ate/eats a lot of food).</p>
<p>We’ll try again with ShawD as she’s prone to internet shopping for great deals on makeup and clothes. </p>
<p>ShawSon is now spending on protein supplements as he is losing weight and building muscle (down from 225 lbs to 210), a trainer at the gym and a nutritionist to help him with his weight loss/muscle-building plan, and headphones (he listens to audiobooks all day long, but this is also how he “reads” a lot of his academic books too. Even his weight loss diet involves huge amounts of food (at least a head of Romaine lettuce a day and several chicken breasts; just very few carbs and calories relative to protein). So, I’m still having trouble drawing the line of what’s not essential. [Harry Potter movie, backpacking trip in Arizona]. So, we just haven’t cracked the budget problem. </p>
<p>From an estate planning standpoint, it is good generally to transfer some money every year, if that makes sense for you.</p>
<p>Good Morning. Kath, I think that we’re getting the same beautiful weather here. It’s such a nice change from the hot, humidity we’ve been enduring. My D and I had the same reaction to the bedding and towel selection at Kohl’s. All we bought yesterday was a pillow and pillow protector. BB and B appears to have a better selection of XL twin comforters and sheets.</p>
<p>The friends that I know who have done the BB and B pre-order with school area pick-up have all been satisfied. You should check to see how far the BB and B is from campus. We have decided to drive D2 the 8 hours to Boston, so we’ll buy everything here and stuff it into the mini-van.</p>
<p>fogfog - My IT dh regularly sets up a block on indiv websites or the internet completely at a certain time. It works pretty well but then we forget when we disabled the block due to someone doing a project late at night or dh working late (he accesses the company site from home) With dd, she has found a work around by downloading videos to her iTouch and then having that to watch into the wee hours. My only power has been to go to the main breakers and flip the switch…which to this point has just been a daydream of mine.</p>
<p>On allowances, ds will have about $300 in a bank acct - the cash from the grad gifts that I wasn’t able to deposit with the Fidelity boys since they only take checks! I figured, ok well this is a nice lump to start a bank acct. I am telling him that that is all he is getting for the year and if he runs out (like he did with his bank acct here) then he will get a job. He just needs a bit of tough love because really, he has tuition, room, board, clothing and books paid for by us. All that is left is “wants” not “needs.”</p>
<p>News here, I have an interview for a temp contract job (9 months or so) in a totally different field than I was in, but - would be exciting none the less. Now, I have nothing to wear! So, today’s focus is to find an outfit to look 10 yrs younger, 10 lbs lighter and to try to learn this field enough not to make a fool of myself. Eeeek.</p>
<p>Cooker-I think the twin xl sheets are already hard to find so you may want to ask colors and buy those now.</p>
<p>AP scores not here yet. Ds can’t use any for credit, but can use to place in higher levels. Only one he can really use is latin- 4/5 will exempt him from foreign language class requirement. He’s pretty confident about that, but verification will be nice. </p>
<p>Sleepover issues not prob yet as ds hasn’t had a gf. I had an out of state friends son and gf stay here for a week a few years ago. Mom gave me strict no sleeping in same room guidelines, so I didn’t have to make the decision on my own!</p>
<p>Curfew here but ds has been good about keeping us informed. He will go to harry potter at midnite but already asked if he could drive since he’s 18 now so not under curfew laws and one of friends is 17. </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC App</p>
<p>On BBB order, I was told by nice lady working in store that you go to the registry and get the scanner and shop like a bridal registry. When finished they tell you if anything isn’t available at store near college so you can buy those items to take with you. Sounds like a great system.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC App</p>
<p>AP scores came here yesterday.</p>
<p>RE: budget/allowance. I still didn’t figure it all out. The food plan at son’s U covers 12 meals a week plus has food points that amount to a little bit over $10/week. I am pretty sure it won’t be enough. Additional food points can be purchased at any time during the year. But I am thinking about depositing money to his checking account and let him decide what to do. I just opened a savings account for him where I put all his gift money that he was hording forever. That will be the money that he can spend however he likes. We will deposit to his checking account bi-weekly. Still working out the amount. And he will get a student credit card to buy text books, tickets to fly home and for emergencies.</p>
<p>AK - Good luck finding outfit and with job interview. </p>
<p>S is working and making a good chunk of change, but still seems to find ways to spend most of it. I am pushing him to save more, but if it doesn’t happen H will give him some spending money, not sure what yet. S was also offered W/S by his school so if he finds a job he will have that money. There is only one food plan at his school, an all you can eat 3 meals/day 7 days a week. So I know he won’t go hungry. </p>
<p>I haven’t done any dorm shopping with S yet and it won’t happen for at least a few weeks so I hope you are wrong VaMom about there already being a run on the XL sheets. </p>
<p>Doing the HP thing at midnight tonight. Will be fun til I have to get up for work at 4am. yikes.</p>
<p>kathiep- you can find tons of those xl twin mattress pads on amazon.com</p>
<p>also- twin xl sheets at PBTeen (may be pricey but I think the quality is good).</p>
<p>On budget/allowances:</p>
<p>S is paying part of the cost of his tuition (Cornell separates out a “student contribution” from the parent contribution, so he is paying that, as well as taking loans in accordance with his financial aid package). </p>
<p>We are paying his room & board and the remainder of his tuition.</p>
<p>We have books and supplies, as well as personal expenses in his column. (He has some savings beyond his expected tuition contribution that should cover his first year’s expenses should he choose not to work.) The reason we put books in his column was to motivate him to seek out the best deals on buying used and/or renting. </p>
<p>We are paying his cell phone. He barely uses a phone so he has a pre-paid plan right now and we told him we would pay $X/year on it, and if he goes over that, he has to justify to us why he needs more. I figure since he’s not a phone person, the phone is as much for us as it is for him. Phone may be re-negotiated in future years as his usage patterns change. </p>
<p>Because he is on a 14 meal/week meal plan we will give him a food allowance to cover breakfast in his room. We are thinking something on the order of $10/week (which is still a lot cheaper than upgrading to an unlimited plan). His plan also includes $400 in money he can spend on food outside of the main dining halls, so I think between that and us giving him a bit, that should be plenty. But we will increase if he needs as he is still growing and does eat a lot!</p>
<p>We will also pay for any medical expenses and any trips home, as they come up. </p>
<p>Other than that, we are not planning on giving him an allowance, but expecting him to use either his savings or get a job to cover his entertainment expenses. We are hoping he can get a summer job/internship that will cover the next year’s expected contribution and refresh his savings so that he has spending money for the next year. (As he will be a CS student, I’ve been led to believe that it’s not unrealistic to expect him to be able to get a decent paying summer job/internship.)</p>
<p>Not sure yet about allowance. D1 is working and earning money this summer, so we’ve stopped giving her allowance. She has money in savings accounts from her bat mitzvah and dating back to all the years where we skimmed some off the top of her allowance. Our expectation is that she’ll be working to earn money during summers, and possibly part-time during the school year, though not at first. If she wants to spend a summer doing something unpaid, or she wants to take advantage of travel opportunities, she’ll need to finance that herself.</p>
<p>For anyone with kids going to school in the Boston area: consider getting (or trying to get) your kid tickets for the Ig Nobel awards, held this year on Thursday, Sept. 29. Unfortunately, that’s Rosh Hashana, so this year is probably out for D1. Tix go up for sale on Aug 2. [Improbable</a> Research](<a href=“http://improbable.com/ig/]Improbable”>http://improbable.com/ig/)</p>
<p>**I have taken the first and last move-in dates for this countdown from the list on this thread. To try and list all of them would be overkill to say the least.</p>
<p>First new student move-in is the University of Georgia on August 9th. (Excludes cadet training at West Point)
Move-in day in 25 days.</p>
<p>Last new student move-in is University of Southern Oregon on September 22nd<br>
Move-in day in 69 days.**</p>
<p>If there are earlier or later move-in dates, please post them so that I can pick them up and adjust the countdown postings.</p>
<p>AP scores arrived on Wednesday, (yesterday) the 13th in northern Ohio.</p>
<p>No AP scores in the mail out here yet. Doesn’t matter too much since D knows what she got though.</p>
<p>No news from D after a brief call yesterday afternoon to tell me she was registered at orientation and had her room assignment. Not even a txt message at night !! Hopefully, will hear from her later today - she was supposed to meet with her advisor this morning.</p>
<p>Kathiep - I also got the 30% off Kohl’s coupon - planning on going down there with D next week to check it out. The BB and B circular looked pretty interesting - I know there are several things on there that D would want to get. I did pick up a set of twin XL sheets at Target for 16$ yesterday - this is for S who needs them for camp. Figured a basic set, no frills was good for him!</p>
<p>D mentioned that it was hot, really hot in the dorm rooms. We are planning on getting her a fan - any pointers to good ones? Ones that take up the least amount of room? Don’t know about windows in her room - she’s hoping to check out her room to get more info.</p>
<p>Regarding meal plans, what I found from my older kids was that they never, ever used all of their meal’s on any meal plan. Different colleges and different set-ups but college kids simply don’t eat three meal a day. My daughters college was nice enough to roll over that money every year. She was at a residential college and at the end of her four years we actually got a few hundred dollars off the final payment. My son’s college rolled over the money into the second semester but he had to buy something with the money or lose it at the end of each school year, so the first year he brought home cases of candy bars!! Here’s the thing, he does not eat chocolate so it wasn’t for him - he just hates wasting money so bought something that was easily portable and he thought we would like it. Unfortunately, he didn’t buy snickers and reese cups - family favorites - he bought kit-kat, bars, plain Hershey bars and butterfingers. I donated one case to my library to sell and then we ate candy bars for months. Second year he got the correct kind of candy bars and a case of water.</p>
<p>If they have unlimited food twice a day, that should suffice. A disclaimer - my daughter is about 5 foot tall but my oldest son is tall and thin but he can really pack away quite a bit of food at one setting.</p>
<p>pamom59 - I looked at amazon, but got a better deal at Kolhls.com with my coupon and still got free shipping.</p>
<p>mathmomvt, I’m with you on the good chances of getting a paid internship or job for CS majors. We’re really hoping for that with our network security, IT major too.</p>
<p>@ arisamp - Regarding fans, what seems to work well if the windows will allow it is two very basic box fans in the window. One facing in, the other facing out. This way you get some air circulation. A smaller fan on the desk that can be directed wherever your student is can help. Box fans can be found really cheap at Target or Wal-mart. If each roommate brings one it cuts down on the cost. Does your DD have any way to ask an upperclassman what works? There is generally a system that they seem to know. What I listed is what is reported for both of our larger state U’s basic 16x12 hall style shoebox shared rooms built in the dark ages. ;)</p>
<p>Hi All</p>
<p>AP scores arrived today (SE USA).
Kiddo qualifies for AP Scholar with Distinction and National AP Scholar…
I think with these scores and the SAT2s and ACT – kiddo can take a higher math and chem.
Kiddo is changing languages after 5 yrs of Latin so no benefit there</p>
<p>No AP scores yet in upstate NY</p>