@snoozn so lovely to “see” you! I thought of you last week when S19 stopped by the RIT table at the NACAS fair. So happy to hear things are going well and wishing you luck on the long distance college app nags! Glad to hear it is going well overall, sorry the making friends part is hard but it will happen. First semester is so transitory I think. We had to change rooms/roommates every quarter and while it was a pain, I think it really was such a wonderful thing in so many different ways.
@MSU88CHEng I hear you on the writing. S17 is in the same boat with 4 papers a week I think, and one of his midterms was a 5 page essay. How wonderful he is so involved with mock trial!
Picked S up on Friday for his Thanksgiving break - they get a whole week off (yay)! He seems to be doing well in all of his classes and I got to meet another one of his friends. It’s nice to have him around for more than a day or 2. Unfortunately his brother won’t be home until late Tuesday or maybe Wednesday (I’m hoping his late Tues. afternoon lab is cancelled so he can come home then).
Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoys some relaxing time with family!
I always find it strange when parents (or students) hope that a class is cancelled. You’ve already paid for it, don’t you want the full value for your money? When I was in law school, one professor cancelled my class 3 Fridays in a row because had funerals to attend (I guess he knew a lot of dead people). I didn’t think I got my money’s worth. Other students in other sections got more instruction than I did and that I paid for.
It’s a lab not the actual lecture that I’m hoping would be cancelled, the lecture is at a different time. They spend 2.5-3 hrs a week for the lab but it’s only worth 1 credit hour so I don’t feel like I’d be losing money.
YAY, Snoozn! So glad your girl has found RIT the perfect fit. It’s so helpful for our peace of mind to know that they are happy… My D seems to also have found the perfect fit at WPI. Her first term went really well, and hopefully will survive her second finals week and come home tired but happy this weekend. I saw her sing a big solo in an acappella concert a couple of weeks ago, met a lot of her friends, and had dinner with her very sweet new beau. Couldn’t quite picture all of this a year ago when all of us here were obsessed and stressin’, (LOL) but… it’s all good! Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone here.
@cameo43 lovely to see you, it sounds like she’s thriving! Merry Christmas to you!
S17 comes home late Friday night, I can’t wait to see him, it’s been since August! He’s got 2 finals left to go but it looks to be a strong first semester for him, all A’s and B’s, even if he bombs the 2 remaining finals lol. He is loving UVM, has a wonderful friend group, had an amazing Thanksgiving hitting 5 cities and various friends houses both from UVM and home. Very proud of him!
I second @eandesmom - it’s great to “see” some familiar “faces”. @eandesmom I’m so glad your son is happy at UVM and August to December is a long time to not see him, so I hope your winter break is especially nice.
My D takes her last final on Saturday and flies home on Sunday. She has had a good first semester - all A’s and B’s, was hired by her college as an outdoor programs leader so has gotten to lead some kayak, hiking, and snowshoeing trips and has learned how to put snow chains on tires, is also an EMT for her college’s EMS. Gets along with her roommate well and went home with her roommate who lives on the OR coast for fall break.
At least I can keep up with the pace here! (I am not ever even going back to the regular 2018 thread…) I hope a few more may come check in during winter break, but seems like good news so far.
D is home and we got our Christmas tree yesterday. She’s continuing to thrive, has made friends, classes all went great. And the 90 lb puppy was thrilled to see her! S18 was accepted to 1st choice George Mason with reasonable merit, so it was one-and-done for him! (He had applied to CSU as a safety, but never completed the app).
I hope everyone has a wonderful winter break with their “17”!
@MSU88CHEng great news on your S17! Sounds like MSU is keeping him on his toes, and great that he found a “dorm crew” to stick with.
@eandesmom you might be seeing me once in awhile on the 2019 threads soon, as it looks like my niece (“N19” I guess) is going to be wanting some help with the process. (AND S18 wants me to help his class of 19 girlfriend, so if they stay together…)
@cameo43 love the new avatar! That is great to hear your D17 is really thriving. WPI seems like a place with amazing opportunities. What does she think of the scheduling with the compact terms?
@NolaCAR that outdoor program sounds very interesting – they learn all kinds of new stuff at college! Glad it’s going so well.
Had a long weekend. Went to NYC on Thursday evening to stay over for daughter’s Fordham/Ailey dance BFA audition. This is one of her hardest auditions. They have a prescreen and had over 800 applications and 300 dancers passes the pre-screen. After the audition process they will offer about 45-50 places to make a class of 30. She loved everything about the audition and the program so now we wait.
On the snowy ride home she received an email that she passed Elon’s pre-screen with an invitation to audition. Very happy with that, too.
Also received word from Drexel (one of 2 strictly academic applications…just in case) that she was admitted with a $29,000.00 award.
All in all a very good weekend. Thought she and my husband came down with a stomach virus last night that kept me awake cleaning for hours:(
@snoozn: My girl loves the academic calendar at WPI. They take 3 classes during each 7 week quarter, and cover a full semester of material. She actually learns best in short intense bursts, so it’s perfect for her… And she loved coming home for a weeklong break in October with 3 college courses already completed.
I’m so glad to hear that your D is thriving both academically and socially at RIT – isn’t it so wonderful to hear from our kids that they are happy where they landed? A good friend of mine has a D who was just accepted to RIT ED for art/animation… She is thrilled. Merry Christmas!
@NolaCAR I think he likes it! He is not the most expressive kid, so sometimes it’s hard to tell. But he says he loves the community. He also says it’s a ton of work, but from where I sit it doesn’t seem like he is working every second, and I think he (mostly) likes the challenge. His dorm is almost all first years and, apart from schoolwork, they seem to hang out in the common room many nights watching movies or just chatting. It seems like a pretty quiet existence–don’t know if it is representative of Reed in general, but it’s his existence, and it seems to suit him fine. I’m happy and relieved to see him settling in.
Thought I would update you on my DS and his unexpected gap year journey recovering from surgery and reapplying to colleges.
He is 6 months post surgery and doing great. He has dropped about 30 pounds and made steady progress in recovering. While he still has several more months of physical therapy, he looks great and will be stronger, faster and more athletic than ever before. He has, however, decided not to pursue D1 athletics during his first year in college.
After all of his time spent with surgeons and physical therapists, it isn’t really a surprise that he has changed his major and decided that he wants to enter a health field. He is currently thinking he wants to become a physician’s assistance but is also considering medical school and physical therapy. He applied as undecided this year but was looking at athletic training, exercise science, exercise physiology, and human physiology as possible majors.
He entered this second year of college applications with a 2.95 GPA and raised his SATs to a 1290 (1300 superstore). Prior to his surgery, he had planned to attend Michigan State; however, they made him reapply. As a result, we treated this like a brand new search. DS was accepted to (in alphabetical order) Indiana University, Michigan State, Towson, University of Dayton, University of Iowa, and West Virginia University. He was waitlisted at Rutgers and still doesn’t have a decision from University of Delaware. Virginia Tech and Ohio State (both reaches) rejected him. He received $85,000 in scholarships over 4 years from Dayton and $28,000 from West Virginia University. We were surprised that Michigan State did not offer him a scholarship this year despite a higher GPA and SAT score. After visiting most of the schools, he narrowed the choice to the University of Iowa and West Virginia University. Today, he informed us that he has decided to attend … West Virginia University.
I will add for any who may read this that a gap year has been a real blessing. DS has grown up so much, has learned a lot about college both good and bad from his friends, and is better prepared for it as a result. DH and I have enjoyed the extra time that we have gotten to spend with him. If you have any doubts about whether your child is prepared to handle going away to college, I highly recommend a gap year.
@DVMMOM - congrats on WVU decision and sounds like the gap year was absolutely the way to go. D brought up a gap year to me yesterday for the first time as a way of earning more money to help us out, which I thought was so sweet. Could I ask what scholarship your son got at WVU? tia!
@Gatormama - That was very sweet of your D to think of how she could help out by working! Just remember that her earnings are allocated at a higher percentage towards your EFC than yours, as her parents, so although it could help, it likely won’t help dollar for dollar.
@DMVmom what a wonderful update! Congratulations, it sounds like quite a lot of silver linings in his gap year! It is something we may consider for S19 though things are looking up a bit in that area (though I don’t want to get my hopes up too much). Thank you so much for the update, I love hearing how our kids are doing!
