congrats @eandesmom on the new job–lots of transition in your house!
@curiositycat333 --it would be hard to have S17 gone all summer and then off to college. I have friends’ kids doing the same thing as your son. I’m sure my son would love to be an away camp counselor, but he’s never done the camp thing. Hope yours has a great summer.
Congrats @eandesmom on the new job, but yeah, I can imagine that the timing makes,the transition a bit stressful.
Congrats to all that have already graduated–we’re with @techmom99 with being close but not there yet. S17 is actually at his last day today. It’s a fun day for the whole high school before exams and graduation. There’s a senior breakfast, talent show, games, senior slide show, and they get their yearbooks. He doesnt jabe amy fonals this year, so he’s done. Although I think tomorrow is graduation rehearsal and a last walk through of the elementary and middle schools, and they get their cap & gown and tassles/sashes, etc. Then Baccalaureate is Thursday and graduation is Friday.
Grades aren’t finalized because the teachers are still preoccupied with exams for the other classes, but it looks like S will finish the year with 4 A’s, an A-, a B+, and a C+ (of course, in calculus). Not too shabby…
This past weekend, S went camping and hiking in the Adirondacks with 2 friends. I’ll admit to being a bit nervous about the trip, but they had a blast and seemed pretty responsible about the whole thing. The other moms and I had a group text going to inform each other whenever any of the boys checked in, so we all kind of knew where they were and what they were up to. They all wish it would’ve been a longer trip, but with jobs, college orientation, and one of them leaving for basic training in July, there weren’t any other times that worked for all of them. It seemed to definitely be a good way to wrap up their senior year.
Now to shift focus to getting him ready for the Fall. He said he can’t get on the residence life portal to find out who his roommate is or what dorm room he has. And admissions is bugging him for a final transcript–which our GC claims won’t be ready until early July. So I need to prod him to write some emails. And to take his math and French placement exams. And to figure out how to send his IB scores. And to sit with me to get his dual enrollment transcript and his AP scores sent. And to think about what he wants his Fall class schedule to look like. Help! @-)
@MSU88CHEng Have fun with all the festivities.
My son won’t hear until August more information about dorms & roommate. Now he doesn’t have orientation till mid-Sept. Is it possible he can’t get into the housing portal because it’s just not open yet?
Yes he probably really needs to send some emails or something about transcript. My son’s transcript is DUE July 1st. And they will rescind if they don’t get it. I’m sure if you contacted the correct person with the details they could make an exception. But it’s crazy a H.S. would be that late.
As my son is away at camp. He reluctantly handed over his portal info, and I am keeping an eye out for all these things for him.
Reporting in, may not be back until next week lol!
Prom was a HUGE success. S went with a group, some were couples, some were not. He had zero interest in taking a date. As he put it, he didn’t want to worry about someone else all night and spend his whole night paying attention to them. He had a lot of pressure from friends to ask a couple of different girls, largely because they’d just broken up with someone lese! He had zero interest in that and I can’t blame him. He stuck to his guns, went with his group and had the BEST time.
They had (free) professional photos done by one of the girls dad’s. We’ve known them since K, the dad is a professional sports photographer but they met him at a studio, which obviously isn’t the classic outdoor prom picture! Oh my goodness! They are so unbelievably rich and gorgeous, it’s like looking at a Vanity Fair spread! Or the cover of a Bronte novel. What a gift! He also asked a mom at the meet up house to take a picture of the two of us (rare!) and it turned out pretty nice so that was worth some brownie points too.
I woke up at 3 am to a text from S, just all full of happiness about what a wonderful night he’d had, how he danced and it exceeded his expectations.
As of today, he is DONE, with Senior breafkast and rehearsal tomorrow (senior sunset is tonight), rehearsal friday, party sat and grad on Sunday! He does work 2 shifts so it’s a little nutty.
Nail biting on the grades. He is killing me! He’s within striking distance of moving up 3 of his grades to the next level. Unfortunately grades aren’t final until the 23rd so even if he pulls of the overall gpa that would get him a cord, it won’t be in time to be official and buy one. Still, overall it was a decent semester even if they don’t come up, he is currently at a B, 4 A- and one A. LOL! Master of the A- to be sure. But really, the 92.54 and the 86.41 are killing me!
I did start a new job this week. Pretty nutty and down to the wire. Didn’t finalize the terms until about 3pm friday and flew out for training on Sunday. I think it was a good move but time will tell. It is a lateral move with upward potential that I didn’t have before. Or at least couldn’t see it ever happening after years of hints and promises but no open box on an org chart. In the meantime I’ve bitten off more than I can chew so it’s going to be an interesting summer since I’ll be juggling about 50% of my previous job as well for the foreseable future. On a plane heading back right now. MIL is already at my house and thanks to a delayed flight I may be able to intercept SS11 at the airport but I really don’t want to wait for him if it’s going to be very long and it sounds like over an hour.
In not so good news. S19 is really doing poorly. He is just NOT turning things in. And then not doing so is starting to catch up with him test wise finally. I really don’t know what to do with him. He did start therapy but I’m hard pressed to see how therapy all summer is going to help him next year and he has an insane course load (5 AP’s). Unfortunately I honestly don’t think the rigor has any bearing. He’d probably be just as not interested in turning things in, in all mainstream classes. In many ways though the GPA is very similar, this one is WAY more stressful to me. With S17 I knew, to a degree, he really was working hard. Maybe not to his full potential but he was on top of things and working hard. S19 on the other hand is so naturally gifted and so…I don’t know! Lazy, arrogant, quite a few different things. If he doesn’t want to do it or see the value, he just doesn’t.
@curiositycat333 Residence Life sent S17 info on the housing portal and how to log on, and it’s not working for him. He does have an email off to them, but hasn’t heard back yet. I want him to contact his roommate more than he cares about it because I’m buying his bigger dorm stuff “ship to store” so we don’t have to drag it from here to Michigan–so I need to know if we’re bringing fridge, or microwave, or tv, or whatever…
AND the transcript thing is even more of a pain. Our school has finals & Regents exams up until the 22nd, and so report cards won’t be finalized until June 30, even though S17 has no finals or Regents this year (after the mind numbing 3-ish weeks of IB and AP exams, those teachers decided S17’s little group of classmates had enough testing for the year, and all those kids had all their Regents done last year). Then the next week is a holiday week, so transcripts won’t be sent from our school until the week of July 10. :-S S17 has orientation on July 11, ugh! So, I asked if he wanted talk to the GC about picking up a copy of his transcript the morning of the 10th before we leave, or if he wanted me to. He said, “You should do it, she’s scared of you!” :)) Supposedly, she remembers when they messed up S15’s AP Bio grade by 15 points, and then had issues applying the proper weighting factor, and I followed up daily for 2 straight weeks because they had sent the bad transcripts to schools S15 had applied to, and I wanted it fixed–it changed his GPA by 1 point on a 100 point scale, and would put him just in the range of scholarships at one of his potential colleges. But I digress… Anyway, I called her, and we can pick up a transcript early, so S17 will have a copy of his transcript when he meets with his advisor at orientation to select classes. He now needs to inform MSU that his official transcript won’t be there until the week of July 10. I’m giving him this weekend to enjoy graduation activities (Yes, graduation is in the middle of finals/Regents, they always do this. The school has some strange quirks…), and then he needs to knock off some of his college administrative tasks…
@eandesmom Your S19 sounds a lot like my S15. He absolutely refused to do busy work assignments, and even slacked on some papers, labs, etc. He generally did well on tests, but ended high school with a GPA in the 88-89 range. He’s coming around a bit now, but he had a rocky start to college–never on probation, but lost his modest scholarship (S17 knows he CAN’T do that if he wants to stay at MSU, but his scholarships are bigger, and the cost is higher–S15 is at an affordable SUNY). My mantra with S15 is that he’s so much more than his grades, and he is finding his own way. It’s just not exactly the simplest path or the path I would choose for him. Good luck to you and S19, he’ll find his way, too.
Final transcripts are in and my son has EXACTLY the same GPA he had at the end beginning of senior year. At least with the GPA’s that matter. LOL… So no worries about his GPA meeting requirements.
@MSU88CHEng Good Luck on getting transcript & everything in time.
@eandesmom Congratulations on the new job! S19 sounds a lot like my kids in some ways - especially when it comes to flat out refusing to do busy work. It’s hard for me to guide them through that, because part of me agrees with them, but the other part of me knows that in the adult world, sometimes you just have to do what your superiors say, whether it makes sense to you or not.
D17 registered for classes over the phone Monday afternoon and then had a break down that night. She was worried that her college does not offer a microbiology major (just a biology major), that she wishes she had done some things differently during the college admissions process, that she felt she only had once choice in the end, etc., etc. I bit my tongue (most of the things she wishes she had done are things I implored her to do) and talked her through it. I suggested that she compare the courses at a college that does offer a microbiology major with the biology courses that her college offers - she did so and found out that her college does offer several microbiology course. I suggested that if there were a couple of microbiology courses that her college doesn’t offer, she might be able to take them at another college over the summer or during a study abroad, etc. She calmed down and woke up the next day feeling excited about her college again. I think it was just “whoa, I’m registered now, this is actually happening” nervousness.
Wow, @eandesmom you are juggling a LOT. Don’t stress about whether he gets certain cords - it truly won’t matter in a very short time. Sorry about your S19. Sometimes the most gifted are the least motivated. Hopefully he’ll see the light soon. Five AP classes sounds pretty intense.
@eandesmom and @MSU88CHEng -
Your S19 and S15 sounds very much like my S12. Brilliant but didn’t want to do what he didn’t want to do. He literally failed both AP Calc BC AND AP Physics C in senior year because they were electives and he didn’t need them to graduate BUT he earned 5’s on the AP’s and got a total of 16 college credits. He is taking his time at a SUNY… He had a 760 on his verbal SAT and was a commended student but he failed English his last semester and didn’t walk with his class because he decided to play chicken with the teacher over the number of assignments owed. He graduated in August, after attending summer school, with 6 other kids - none of whose first language was English!
@MSU88CHEng - you might appreciate this. When he took honors physics in 11th grade, we got a call 2 days before the regents exam that he wasn’t going to be able to sit for it because he didn’t have enough labs handed in. The teacher, who knew that S12 helped many of his classmates with their labs, went to the department chair and worked out a deal that S12 could sit for the test if he finished TWENTY labs by 3 pm the next day and they were graded and approved by two other teachers. S12 sat at a boy scout court of honor, held at an outdoor picnic area, and worked on the labs. He got them all in, was allowed to sit for the test and earned a 99. When I said to him that maybe he might want to do the work next time as it came due so that he wouldn’t have to cram like that again and he looked at me, smiled and said “But, mom, this was such a great way to study!”
He is a wonderful person, well liked by his friends, well respected, funny, intelligent, an Eagle scout, a leader, but he just hasn’t been able to get through college.
Glad to hear about everyone’s end-of-year fun! I’ve been absent because I’ve been spending a lot of time with an unexpected houseguest. My guest is a guy who is relaxed, laid back, well-rested, frequently smiling and living in the moment. He bears an uncanny resemblance to TacoSon, but surely it isn’t the same guy who spent most of this year strung out and anxious. Classes ended a few weeks ago and graduation isn’t until this coming week. Except for his p/t job hours (which he’s putting toward his school’s required externship program for graduating seniors), he’s free to hang out, putter around with and take on adventures.
He had orientation this past week and learned that he got the highest possible score on the online placement exam he took for Spanish in college – his most hated class this year, which made him dread going to school every other day. He doesn’t dislike Spanish as much as he disliked this particular teacher. I was practically doing cartwheels when he texted with the news of his score after his advising appointment at orientation. BUT – high scorers aren’t automatically exempt, oh no. High scorers get to take a SECOND proctored exam the first week of school to ensure that they can really, truly place out of Spanish. I find this so stupid. After three months of being away from Spanish, it’s quite possible his score will go down and he’ll have to take a higher level Spanish class anyway. He tells me to “chill” and I’ll try to.
@curiositycat333 Yay for keeping the GPA at the same level as when he applied! I think S17’s will be similar to his application GPA, too–math (his calculus Achilles heal) was lower, but everything else should be good…
@NolaCAR I’m glad that D17 came around after her little freak out. S17’s freak outs are reasonably mellow. He’s happy/excited about his choice, and so many friends/parents have expressed awe at how far away he’s going and how big the school is (well over 2/3 the class stay in state, and probably 1/3 stay very close at the local CCs). That doesn’t phase him, but hearing that the average on the first paper in the writing class for his major is <2.0 kind of freaks him out. I keep reminding him that’s the reason he did the full IB curriculum–I’m not saying he’ll come out of that class unscathed, but he’s seen a LOT more and LONGER papers than a lot of kids in his class…
@techmom99 I think your S12 and my S15 could be brothers! The only reason S15 didn’t have issues with completing the # of labs required for chemistry and living environment Regents exams was that he was playing soccer and lacrosse, and had to have passing grades to continue to be on the teams and play. As it was, the semester he didn’t have a sport, I had to force him to go in extra times to catch up on labs so his progress report and quarter grades were passing–at one point, he had a 12% grade in chemistry because of missing labs and assignments. He ended the year with a 90 average, so he could do it, he just CHOSE not to until the very last minute… One of the times he played chicken with getting work turned in on time, there were 2 snow days in a row right before a sports grade check point so he didn’t get labs turned in. He ended up on academic probation–had to have all of his teachers sign off that he was passing and doing all his work each week for 5 weeks, and suffered extra laps, etc. with his lacrosse coach… But like your son, he’s an awesome kid, and would be the first to come and help anyone in need.
@tacocat333 Congrats to tacoson on the Spanish placement! S17 is hoping his French placement is reasonable… For his major, he needs a foreign language through the 200 level. He took through French 5 (which is equivalent to at least a year of community college French), and the IB French SL exam, so he wants to be placed in AT LEAST French 201, if not 202…
Graduation for S17 was a week ago, but it feels like a month since he’s been in classes since he didn’t have any finals this year. The ceremony was really nice–our district does a great job of balancing the accomplishments with getting 150-ish kids graduated in about an hour. His grades all went final TODAY, so he officially passed (yes, they graduate before grades are final, odd but true). For his sr year, he had A’s in IB Bio, IB History, IB Psych, IB TOK ,and PE, an A- in IB English, a B+ in IB French, and a C+ in AP Calc AB. Overall, his GPA is 93.something unweighted, and around 95.5 weighted (our school weights IB, AP and dual enrollment classes, but not heavily…). He held his own, and seemed to thrive–I’m proud of his efforts. In a couple of weeks, we’ll see how the IB exams went…
He’s currently at another grad party for a friend. We have SO MANY parties this year! He’s a pretty social kid, and played soccer and lacrosse (but skipped lax this year to focus on mock trial and his IB exams), plus club hockey with kids from ~5 other school districts–and DH coached hockey, so we have all the hockey grad parties coming up, too. After 4 grad parties, a work function, and a dinner out with a college friend of DH this past week, I just want to stay home and be anti-social for a couple of days.
S17’s MSU orientation is in 2.5 weeks, and he needs to finish his online placement exams for math and French before that. Plus, he says he wants to try to get a job working with a few friends at a local golf course, but I haven’t seen him do anything about applications. Right now, I’m just trying to enjoy the summer with both my boys around the house!
Woohoo–My struggling son of calculus rocked the online version of the MSU math placement test! 
If he can repeat this performance (or even come reasonably close) during the proctored exam during orientation, he can take something “fun” his 1st semester, like economics or history, instead of math. As in, he may entirely place out of college math altogether. He’s now a motivated camper, and wants to make sure he aces that exam. >:D<
It is done!
The kid is graduated and orientated and registered for classes! It has been beyond nutty between the new job, houseguests, flight delays for me coming back from my new job orientation and then headed to a work trip right after graduation, flight delays for SD14, flight delays for S17 to and from orientation (and an unplanned for extra night there), a college mix up at registration, some crazy things that happened at the grad party, one ruined phone. I am flat out exhausted but only dropped the ball on about 4 things as best I can tell. I spaced on a trumpet lesson and therapy session for S19. I spaced, as did S17 on an extra work shift at the school (not his normal job) that he missed due to the flight delay and while it wasn’t a space, I didn’t make it to a grad party I really wanted to yesterday after landing. I was too wiped out and we went to a concert last night so I decided to skip the party. Bummed about it though.
In summary we had…in the span of 2 weeks…
Prom. Visiting relatives from Germany/NUC that showed up as a surprise. Senior Sunday at Church. Myself on a red eye to work training on the east coast for 5 days for the new job. Flight delays on return. Landed to having houseguests for Grad. Grad stuff. More houseguests. More flight delays. Grad Party. Exploding chicken and unplanned for rain at the party. Grad/Fathers day lunch. Graduation. Senior Spree. S17 to orientation. Flight delays. Myself on another work trip, flight delays. S17 stranded in Vermont due to flight delays. I got back Saturday am from my work trip, S17 Saturday night while H and I were at a concert. Somehow today, Tuesday, already feels like Friday to me!
I’ve missed commenting on lots of updates and for that I am really sorry!
The party and graduation, despite the craziness, were all really really nice. S did end the year strong with his best semester gpa ever at a 3.73!. Amazing what dropping calculus will do. Unfortunately it only brought the gpa up to…
3.498
LOL!
Seriously.
Didn’t matter for honor cord but may/may not for a chance at a merit bump. 3.5 is the magic number for most things.
He survived orientation which included a lot of flight delays, a ruined phone, and an extra night there we hadn’t planned on (due to the delays). He pretty much hates JFK now. From a delay standpoint more so than being stuck there, he was stuck in Seattle or Burlington for most of it. He ended up registered for 17 credits which is a bit more than I’d like
ENVS- Intro to Environmental Studies + 3 hour lab
MATH - College Algebra
NR- Natural Hst & Field Ecology + 4 hour lab (outside!)
NR- Race & Culture in Natural Resources
NR - Ecology of Place
SPCH - Effective Speaking
The algebra is a whataaaaaaaaaaa?? kind of thing! The kid didn’t mention he had DE credit for PreCalc which in theory means he doesn’t need a thing. Sounds like they stuck him in, and he picked, the easiest thing to fufill the math requirement. He is confirming he doesn’t actually need it and will drop it.
He is also considering a Environmentally themed speech class that is within his college versus the one he is registered for so may try to switch to that. However if he drops Algebra (3cr) and switches that (goes from a 3 to a 2cr), he will need to add another class as he would only be at 13 credits which is too low in my book . Unless he gets 4-5’s on both AP’s as then he’s got a bit more wiggle room which I am ok with first semester.
According to the orientation leaders he will be in the standard room only dorm for his LLC, the suite dorm for it seems to go to sophomores. I will keep my fingers crossed. His position is a dorm is a dorm and he will make is room “chill” and that’s all that matters. But he’d rather have a suite. The bathroom situation is more important than the room.
I’ve done a bit of shopping and have some of the basics covered (bedding mostly) and that feels good to have done, plus ordered the one book for summer reading.
CONGRATS on rocking the math test! S17 did not. In fact did quite a bit worse than he should have likely due to 1) not doing the practice test before he needed to take the real one and 2) not doing math in 5 months. LOL!
Thanks for sharing your S15 story. S19 definitely gives me grey hair! I really have no idea what his path will be at this point. He fits officially in this thread now, which is a bummer given his ability but it is what it is. I’m concerned about his course load for next year (which he refuses to budge on) so at this point am really hoping the therapist can unlock some kind of key.
It was interesting. Sunday we went to Costco to get him new glasses and I was asking him about summer homework etc and talking about how I didn’t want him too stressed out. He said that is likely part of his problem, he never stresses (Unless I am yelling at him/micromanaging) and that he’d probably do much better if he was a tad stressed.
He does “get” it, just doesn’t care enough to do anything about it really. Interested in learning for the sake of learning but not about the number on the transcript. Until he compares himself to his friends but it’s still not enough to add that sense of urgency in the moment.
@eandesmom your S19 sounds like my S14. It does get better (or at least in our case it did) but it took having his world “rocked” by his engineering courses and having to decide between changing majors or getting serious. He chose getting serious after contemplating the major change and realizing there wasn’t anything else he really truly was passionate about. Since then he works his tail off and is much more organized (read actually knows things are due and when - not can see the floor and has a system). He’s made it through all the engineering weeder courses and looks back at that beginning semester and shakes his head - we pulled him out of his highly ranking engineering school and sent him to the local cc (which also really helped him - awesome profs who he learned to interact with).
Yes, I’ve been away for a while! D17 graduated over a month ago (!) and pulled off all A’s senior year, so WOOHOO! She passed the math placement test, which is the only “official” RIT thing she’s done. She is signed up for pre-orientation and we’re filling up our BBB online cart a bit at a time.
It was kinda fun coming back and reading this in non-real-time!
Remember you can use the 20% off coupons at BB&B. You should get ‘The big one’ which is 20% off the entire order, which is usually sent to college kids/parents off lists BB&B buys from the colleges, but if not you can use as many 20% off one item coupons as you can save up. I have about 4 sitting here as I like to do a big run at Christmas.
My friend got to the college town and had forgotten her coupon. The clerk told her to take her receipt to her home town BB&B for an adjustment. She’d spend almost $200 so it was worth it. No problem with the adjustment upon returning home.
@eandesmom Unless it delays graduation, I don’t think 13 credits is too low, with 2 lab classes. Especially for first semester.
Techson17 graduated last Thursday, Friday was the prom. Techson17 and his “date” made it into the online newspaper. He’s busy working in his summer theater program, hanging out with friends and getting ready for orientation next week. We’ll be embarking on a 15 hour+ journey and staying in our own state! His school doesn’t offer placement tests except for music theory, which he’s not taking.
I am panicking about how to get him up to school. H refuses to go there and we only have one car, which can’t make the trip. I could rent a car but not with one driver and Techson17 can’t drive a rental car. I am waiting to hear if D and/or oldest son can get time off from work because they are 25+ so can drive a rental car. If neither can, I may wind up shipping everything up or buying it when I am up there with him. It is really putting a damper on my enjoyment of Techson17’s accomplishments.
OTOH, it’s really nice to hear how everyone else is doing this summer.
@techmom99 that sounds stressful. If I lived anywhere near you I’d volunteer to make the trip with you but I’m pretty sure you’re not in the midwest. Good luck with everything falling into place!
@smakl70 - Thanks, I am actually in NYS but upstate might as well be across the country. I am sure that it will all work out but I tend to be a worrier and an advanced planner.