No parent portal, student can add parent as a proxy for payment reasons although it appears then the student can access the parents account as well. Not that I have any worries there but I’m not thrilled with the set up.
@NolaCAR something like 75% of the freshman class will be in one of 4 LLC’s and the wellness environment is a brand new freshman dorm so likely to be very popular for that. While it is substance free you have to read the fine print to see it, much more focused on yoga and fitness and the fact is has AC and is connected to the library lol.
S17 chose a different LLC. Although who knows, he will have about a week after orientation to change his mind if he wants so we will see.
@magee ok if in Port Angels definitely do the ferry over so you’ll want to check schedules to time the trip right.
I’ve not heard of the walking tour but I’ll admit we are very much of the find a tour outline and then walk it ourselves versus anything guided most of the time. So it doesn’t mean anything that I’ve not heard of it.
Pike Place Market, the waterfront and the outdoor sculpture garden are all walkable from each other. You can walk to to the main shopping area from the market and catch the monorail to the seattle center and then see that aspect.
I’d recommend heading in early and having breakfast at the market or on the waterfront and can make some recommendations depending on the day of the week. If you park centrally you’ll be able to just leave the car there all day until it’s time to head to the ferry and won’t be all that far away from the terminal.
I have a favorite garage for parking in that area and can send you that as well.
D17’s college dashboard is pretty comprehensive-I had her show H so they could get a ballpark of when and where and how much would be due (because I’m not the money person and I need them both to know when that stuff is due). Turns out the answers were 1. july and 2. not as much as we thought :D.
Parent portal - I am not exactly sure of the portal situation yet… I know I have access to the payment portal. I told my daughter that she didn’t have to give me access to grades, email, etc, and made a show of not looking when she set up her password because I know I would lurk, and I don’t want to. I did tell her we will want to see her report cards.
I could see myself wanting to step in too much, and getting too emotionally involved/worried, and I am trying to take steps to make sure that I can’t I work at a college and I see a lot of parents who have this issue. They are on their kids’ email all the time; send messages to professors about classroom or grade issues; complain about minor issues to anyone who will listen, up to the president of the college. One even called to complain that their daughter had gained too much weight their first year and that something must be terribly wrong with our food, lol! Really not helping the kids learn how to deal with setbacks/issues on their own. Not that any of us will go to this extreme at all! The portal discussion just got me thinking about it.
I think Northeastern has a parents portal, My son already has a Huskies email and picked his classes for first semester. Flights booked, student visa and criminal background check done, power adapters ordered, 2nd payment paid, etc.
He’s oretty much ready to go. He has an orientation to attend mid July.
I don’t know about the patent portal. My wife has been handling a lot of the NU stuff while I’ve been dealing with son19 who is super busy right now.
With S15, we have access to financials and can see midterm and final grades–no detail, just the letter grade. That’s just the right amount of access for us. I’m not sure what sort of portal S17 will have, but I’m hoping for similar type of access…
I don’t have to ask my kids about school. They just share. I know what classes they sign up for etc bc they offer the info bc they want to talk about their lives. They’ll call and chat after a particularly hard exam just to vent, etc. Our relationship with our kids just includes everyday normal things that are important to them. School is just one of those areas.
Hamilton allows kids to grant parents access to financial aid info and course schedule - no option to share grades with parents. I expect D will make us aware if she is struggling with anything grade-wise, but I don’t imagine we will be keeping tabs on her in any way.
I did have D give me access, but I’m not aware of a parental portal. Access is necessary, just in case and was not negotiable. I’d figure it out if needed. D is a TMI child though. I expect I’ll get texts and calls daily. And it will often be random comments that I don’t need to know. :))
I am hoping to have some access to schedules and grades, but I doubt I’d check too often. Son17 is like the “black hole” of information. He shares very little, doesn’t check his email often either so he misses important deadlines. I don’t know why he’s like that. We trust him that he’s not going to do something bad and all that, but I am not 100% confident in his ability to figure all of the college stuff on his own at the moment. He has been getting better, but we have to remind him frequently to do certain things like pay for cap and gown, sign up for senior ball, pick up yearbook etc. He knows he needs to do it, but just gets sidetracked.
The amount of info and paperwork needed for Northeastern has been crazy and lots of deadlines to get stuff done already. Tons of health info, passports, student visa, roommate forms, deposits, class selection etc. There would no chance of him figuring it all out or even having the time right now. So we’re just trying to help him get thru school and getting him organized and prepared for London.
@jmek15 Hope your graduation party went well!! You must be relieved today. I didn’t get to the lax game on Saturday to the see the boys play. Congrats to your son’s squad for the V.
S’s graduation is tonight!! I am really looking forward to it. Then we will go out to dinner for a late, but well earned dinner.
Dorm stuff: Even if you’re not buying a lot of stuff, get your kid a shower caddy and shower shoes. We won’t be starting dorm shopping until mid June at best. S17 isn’t that interested right now. I think he will be a minimalist and only need bedding and new towels plus the bathroom stuff. We’re flying so we will be shopping here, picking up there.
@dfbdfb, my D15’s school is across the country (3 flights and a 1-hr drive). She has not brought anything home from the dorm room. Between frosh and soph year she rented a storage space with a small group of friends for the summer. This year (between soph and jr year) she rented a small storage unit by herself because she is doing study abroad next fall. Your D won’t have to schlep everything home between school years unless she wants to.
@MotherOfDragons, S’s campus is pretty flat and we’ll probably get him a bike. It won’t be a fancy bike, but it will allow him to get to a few places that are close enough to bike, but too far to walk. He won’t have a car on campus for freshman year, and maybe not until junior year.
@mageecrew, I second visiting Powell’s Books in Portland. It is the best!
D17 got a couple of parties this past week, as we hurtle toward the actual graduation ceremony this Tuesday. One was originally a celebration for a friend of hers who’s also graduating at a different school in town, but my D17 and another graduate got brought in to make it a bigger deal. (It was done by a Samoan family. At least up here, Samoans have the reputation of totally putting on the best parties—one learns to always accept invitations to Samoan parties.) The second was a much more sedate church-based celebration of graduates from a few congregations. Also, the in-laws have arrived in town. And D17’s eighteenth birthday was also this past week. And my wife has managed to remain mostly, but not entirely, tear-free.
@MotherOfDragons glad I “contracted it out”. We got it back yesterday and D was very happy. if i knew how to sew, then maybe I would have it tried it myself.
@youcee I have to admit I’ve under-analyzed on the graduation laptop. DS very much wanted the EVO15-S made by Origin PC due to it being lightweight, thin, and having some gaming capability. It’s likely not supported by his school for repairs, and I’m not sure it’s best for engineering. I’m hoping it works out, at least for a while. His school was also big on saying computers are available on campus, no one is required to have their own. DS is happy :">
We ended up getting a Dell Inspiron 13.3" Touch-Screen Laptop with a i7 processor/12GB Memory/256GB Solid State Drive. I’ve ordered the Dell USB-C WD15 dock. I have an old monitor he can use with the dock, plus I’ll get him a new keyboard and mouse.
The laptop connects to the docking station with one USB-C cable (which comes attached to the dock). The cable also powers the laptop (power, video, etc, all goes through the single USB-C cable). In theory it should work fine. He could end up attaching two HD monitors (or one 4K monitor) to the docking station, but at this point, I’ve spent more than enough! $-)
