@itsgettingreal17 If you do go to Thailand, I’d like to recommend a couple nights on Koh Samui, we loved it and had the best coconut rice/mangoes of our lives.
@Mommertons, My S will be going to the same school as your D and plans to also go on the outdoor adventure. He will be one of the kids with backpacking experience and has actually backpacked in that area before with Boy Scouts. He is pretty excited about that trip and meeting other honors college kids!
QOTD: We have a SHORT window for our summer trip this year because my spouse has a new project that will kick into overdrive on July 5. So, we are thinking the last week of June, through to July 4, maybe an RV trip up the California coast, or maybe southwest passage of Alaska. Something simple.
@JenJenJenJen You’re speaking my language! We love coconut rice!
You’ll LOVE Thailand then! Or, my house. I make a pretty tasty coconut rice. Doesn’t compare to SE Asia, but compares well to the family next door, ha ha.
@Fishnlines29, My D15 will be doing study abroad next fall. She needs a visa for that and also must get it w/in 90 days of leaving. Her issue is she is going to Spain for a 4-week class starting 92 days before she leaves! After Spain and Rome with S, she and a friend will travel in Europe for ~4 weeks. She will be home for 13 days before leaving for Fall semester and has to get the visa in that time. Luckily she heard from the embassy that she may pick up her visa when she returns at the embassy closest to home (which is still 4-hrs+ drive from home). She was totally stressing out Mom. @-)
Has anyone figured out how to decline UMD? I have finally been prompted to have son start declining and the first few have been easy, until we reached UMD.
Ok thanks for the input everyone. I will have ds start letting the other schools know he is declining their offers. Guess it’s good for us to be In the power position now. Right?
Declining: My daughter has declined everywhere she could. Oddly, two of the schools where she got offered the best merit aid are the two where she hasn’t been able to find a way to decline—which means those scholarship funds won’t be released to other students. She rather wishes she could, but so it goes, you know?
Housing deposit: Probably because they require on-campus housing for first-years, but there’s no housing deposit needed at Muhlenberg; they used to require $200 to reserve housing after the first year, but since a year or two ago they don’t even require that. (The enrollment deposit was $400, FWIW.) If they did have a deposit, though, I wouldn’t be too bothered, since it would just mean that the cost to us would be even more spread out, which is (usually) a good thing, cashflow-wise.
@BigPapiofthree congrats, again LOL. 
Good luck to your son, I think that was the right choice.
@JenJenJenJen onwards to 2019. Son19 is already in full swing, he is studying for standardized tests, going to engineering summer camp, talking with some soccer already ( he seems so. young, still 15). See you on the other thread!
@jmek15 no indecision on school choice, just some worry as he is just having a hard time with Calc. Nothing alarming, but he is afraid if he flunks this semester that everything gets screwed up. He won’t flunk, but he is not enjoying the class or teacher. Only class in HS he has not enjoyed, too bad.
Also regarding @jmek15 's comment the other day about U Mass and how slow they are getting decisions out. It’s absurd. I guess they did the same thing the last few years. Obviously they need to get their act together, it’s not a good representation of the school. Son17 got a decision promptly, no complaints on our part, but some kids at his school were still waiting I think.
QOTD: Summer trip. Well son17 has kind of screwed up our plan because he leaves mid August, and that’s when we were going to be doing something. So now, I don’t know what we’ll do. Maybe nothing. We might need to a trip when he gets back in December. I was considering taking son17 down to South America to go skiing this summer, I’ve always wanted to do that. But that plan is now going to have to wait. Son19 is pretty busy with some camps and soccer things so our summer schedule is kind of full already.
@VandyAO - Thanks. It was a difficult decision but campus visit made it easier. I didn’t know you guys are lurkers on CC. You probably figured out who my child is
Second of three revisit days done. Hubby took son to this one, and I haven’t heard much yet on how it went, except that part way through the day hubby texted me as follows: “if he does not go here, he is stupid.” LOL.
QOTD: Our recent trip to the Netherlands was D17’s HS graduation trip. It’s an ironic story - she wanted to go to the Canyonlands in Utah for her HS graduation trip. I had all our lodging booked, but after monitoring airfare for about 6 months, hadn’t been able to find tickets for less than $700 a person. Now I’d gladly pay $700 to go overseas, but $700 to go to Utah just seemed insane to me (especially since D17 has already been to the Canyonlands with my dad). One night I stumbled upon a great international sale, so I made a list of all the places we could go for $550 or less - Amsterdam, Paris, London, Hanoi…there were about 12-15 places on my list. I showed it to D17 and she chose Amsterdam. On the day that we went to De Hoge Veluwe National Park in the Netherlands, DH happened to be wearing a t-shirt with an American Southwest motif. The ranger said, “Oh, did you get that shirt in Moab?” We just burst out laughing!
QOTD
DS’15 is doing engineering co-op this year, which means summer classes, so if we do a trip it won’t be all of us 
. I guess that’s the new normal, though. When we do take a trip, it’s generally driving to a state or national park and camping, and since this year Canandian national parks are free I’d vote for something north of the border! No firm plans yet though.
Yes to Canadian parks. 20 years ago we camped our way up the Rockies from LA north. Got to Banff when it was snowing and we stayed at the Lake Louise youth hostel, which was beautiful and close to the lake. Banff and Jasper were jaw dropping beautiful. I’d highly recommend it.
@itsgettingreal17 Oh no! What a bummer about your cancelled trip. Thailand sounds like fun! I’ve never been, my parents have gone a few times and loved it!
@CT1417 Thanks, I’m sure I’ll find out more about the VISA situation at the admitted students day! There is ‘cancel for any reason insurance’, it’s a little more expensive of course! Always read the fine print when comparing these policies… I only bought it once when my tickets weren’t exchangeable.
@mtrosemom Oh wow, that is tight, but it sounds like the embassy worked it out with you, which is great.
@dfbdfb For the schools that had no easy “decline” button, we just emailed admissions to let them know. One in particular that we emailed, she got a nice scholarship from and they thanked us for letting them know.
@CT1417 just have your son email the admissions office to decline if you can’t find anywhere easily. If they have a id number or anything have him include that. Some of these schools make it so hard to decline, you think they would want to know.
Congrats to all of those with decisions so exciting!!
We are getting closer here down to 2 schools that are very different. Going to visit next Friday and then hopefully all will be clear :">
QOTD: We are taking DS and 3 friends on a beach trip right after graduation as an 18th birthday, graduation gift.
graduation trip- We are headed to DisneyWorld with a mix of family and friends. My daughter invited some friends along to celebrate graduation. They will have their own room and are free to go out all on their own. My son turned down a cruise with his friends to go with us. He might regret that a little bit.
Anyone working on graduation parties? I am planning one the week before they graduate so that they are free to go to their friends parties the day of. I’m tempted to get the whole thing at Costco.
Canadian parks: If it works to do the extra driving you need to get that far north, I’ll put a plug in for Muncho Lake Provincial Park in northern British Columbia. Absolutely stunning boreal lake—it’s an amazing green due to the copper content of the rocks in the area—surrounded by spruce-covered mountains.
Yep, working on a graduation party (or two) 
A graduation party/ dinner on graduation day. We will have family in town and I’ve also invited a couple of of my son’s closest friends and their families. The next day we will have a brunch for our family and S17’s friends. I am very fortunate to have a party planner (mom) to take care of coordinating and planning these events for me.