@TheGFG my daughter is a competitive dancer and plans to dance in college, Orange spirit wear is a no go for her. If somehow she ends up au UIUC I will die laughing!
Graduation gift: No, but thatâs just due to logisticsâD17âs birthday is within a week of graduation, and so itâd be tough to differentiate birthday and graduation gifts, anyway. I suspect that sheâll get a lot of college-themed birthday gifts, though.
Graduation party: See above. I suspect one pair of her grandparents will come up here for graduation (the other pair might, as well, but theyâre facing some, um, interesting health issues right now), and so weâll probably do something properly Alaskan and wildernessây as an extended familyânot really a party, though, you know?
Prom: Prom isnât for another three months, so no planning at all yet. She broke up with the guy she was itâs-complicated involved with last year at this time and hasnât bothered with a replacement, but plenty of people go single to prom, and she might go that way, or might go as part of a gaggle-of-single-folks mixed-gender group. (There are ~120 students in her high school program, so limiting it to those with dates might not work, you know?)
School colors: For D17, itâs not really a concern. For her D19 design-obsessed sister? Orange isnât so much bad of itself, but badly-put-together colors? Oh, yes, itâll be a deal-breaker.
Graduation will be with our family. Dhâs parents might come. We will probably go down to the beach, picnic, and relax.
Gift: Nice luggage. No matter where she goes, it is away. She will need nice, collapsible luggage that wonât take up much space.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Great gift. D will need good sturdy luggage as well. Any recs?
Not yet. I havenât looked into it too much. I have considered a large rolling duffle as the largest case, but I havenât given it serious thought or effort.
@rerunagain DD enjoyed the interview and said the woman was very nice and friendly - she was on the younger side so they connected. DD liked Wellesley very much and she would be able to get a great Science education and pursue one of her sports. Wellesley does this thing where they will tell you by the end of January if they think you will be admitted so we are hoping itâs a go!
Thank you for asking! What made your DD love it?
prom: Most seniors donât go to Prom unless they are dating underclassmen, we do a Jr. Prom. Seniors have some sort of senior night where they go out somewhere, but itâs not a formal affair. Son went last year with a date, but he is not dating her. He claims he doesnât have time for dating, ha. He claims dating would take time away from his hobbies, lol.
Graduation party: hoping to just take son out to some nice Japanese place for a sushi fest, invite some relatives along. No big deal, he doesnât want a party.
Graduation gift>. he is due for a new phone, new laptop and he could use a vehicle. Depending on where he chooses he may end up with all or some of those. Or maybe none, and we let him pick a place to travel to.
Colors>. I wish my son liked schools wth orange, I like that color. He has looked at schools with green and yellow, yuck, and purple- not thanks.
My college was maroon and so is the kidâs high school. Not my favorite either. Itâs kind of an in betweener, not gross but not very exciting either.
In funny news I think I read that Amherst college was recently considering their mascot to be a Hamster??? For real?
Babson has The Beaver as itâs not mascot, not great either lol, but still better than a hamster. If you are going to call yourselves the hamsters at least make it funny and call it The Mighty Hamsters, Ferocious Hamsters, Fighting Hamsters, etc. Then that would actually be funny.
Colors -
Both my older daughters graduated from a school with a green and white as school colors. So we told my son he is destined to end up at Michigan State, just based on color. He could care less, thank goodness.
D was adamantly against attending a school with orange, claiming she just doesnât look good in orange and is very much into wearing lots of spirit wear. But the orange eventually grew on her and became acceptable if she really liked the school. So she gotten past the school color thing.
Graduation gift: Have not really thought of that but most likely nothing big. Will buy DC a laptop as the college needs anyway, plus probably a new phone
Graduation party: Will have a biggish graduation party with friends and family. Hoping to have it in our yard but will get a tent and have some catered food and make some at home . We have like 4 close friends with seniors graduating and they also went to the same preschool, will be a busy summer with grad parties
Prom: want DC to go to prom but we will see, last year Prom was in the middle of AP testing, which I donât understand and DC choose not to go
I thought calling themselves Orediggers and having a mule for a mascot was fitting but funny - Colorado School of Mines
** Graduation Party ** We wonât have our own graduation party. Both sets of grandparents will come down. We will have a family party/dinner right after graduation. And then I expect S17 will go to GradNight which starts at 10pm that evening. If my son gets the summer job he wants, he will have to travel the next day to get to his job. So no time really for any other party.
** Graduation Gift ** Probably a laptop. But if he gets his summer job, we wonât be purchasing it till late August.
** 529 ** Started it a while back, forgot to keep conturing to it. IT will be used up his first semester. I personally think it doesnât make financial sense unless you kid gets a full-ride to wait to use this kind of $$. I wouldnât bank on graduation school happening for any kid.
@jedwards70 A lot of students go to prom without dates these days. My D went with a group of friends.
@socalmom007 Iâm laughing about the orange. My son likes wearing orange. (Itâs one of the few colors he will wear. 
And itâs the color of at least one school he has applied. If he continues in marching band & goes there he will be decked out in orange head-to-toe.
Iâm glad my daughter is not the only psychotic one taking spiritwear colors into account when choosing schools.
Luggage does sound like a nice gift. I hadnât thought about collapsible, but obviously that makes the most sense. If anyone finds something great Iâd love a suggestion.
Since the Guidance center newsletter said that they are sending the Mid Year Transcripts, I thought I would check it on Common App. It has been forever since I last logged in to Common App.
The Mid Year Reports are sent on 1/13 and downloaded on 1/14.
I love our guidance counselors. :x
Colors donât matter for us, except green color. For us only thing matters is college rank or MAC =))
I like the gift of luggage for graduation. S has an old suitcase of mine and he is due for something better! We are also going to send him to a big youth bridge tournament in Toronto in July(we will probably go also and make it a family vacation), so that will be part of his present. We still have to plan (and execute) Sâs Eagle Scout Court of Honor. That may be only a month before his graduation. Uuggh.
I lived in Knoxville TN for many years and the school colors for UTn are orange and white. One of the slogans is âOrange you a Vol?â I have always held that orange only looks good on oranges and pumpkins. At least UTs orange was a true orange (the color of an orange) and not a ugly burnt orange. And I still hold that the best mascot is UC Santa Cruzâs mighty Banana Slug!
Congratulations to all who received good news from colleges. To others - hang in there!
Graduation party: If we have a party, I would try to coordinate with another family and do a combined party.
Graduation gift: DD is thinking about going with her friends to visit another friend who moved overseas. After looking at the cost of airline tickets, THAT will be her graduation gift.
Colors⊠S17 says the only thing he doesnât like about MSU is the green color, but itâs not a deal breaker since heâs been wearing MSU gear since toddler-hood. In my opinion, his other favorite school color option isnât much betterâpurple & gold⊠His HS colors are red & white, but his Varsity teams always added black to their warm up gear, so he has tons of black/red/white stuffâŠ
One of the reasons his grad party will be later is that there are about a zillion parties the 1st few weeks after graduation, so we push ours later. DH is a coach, so weâre at parties almost all summer for all the kids heâs coachedâŠ
Prom - too early to do major planning - think DS will go with a small group of friends -mixed girls/guys. But he may surprise us - weâll see.
Graduation - mostly family and some of his closer friends at a nice dinner after graduation! Hopefully heâll get to go to a few other parties too.
Graduation gift - thinking about a very special trip â England/France &/or Italy a possibility or Galapagos Islands and might add in Panama Canal! Better get on that soon. He really wants a great camera an photography lessons - has had no time to pursue this interest since a summer program a few years ago. I think it could be a nice destressing type hobby.
** Graduation gift: ** Thereâs a bank account with his name on it that we have been contributing to in small amounts for 17 years. Weâve also encouraged him to deposit a few extra bucks (birthday, communion, graduation money) now and then. Thanks to this account, heâll have several thousand dollars of spending money for his 4 year college experience.
For his next gift, Iâll teach him how make a budget.