@CT1417 My DS would like to take his own desk chair. I wonder if there is a process for returning the chair/mattress provided by the school?
@HappyGoLucky2017 --I donāt know, but I would just call Housing and ask if they will store them for you and return them to the room in May. I donāt know if they allow that b/c of inventory/inspection at move-out in May. Their search engines are kind of lousy, but I have always been able to find someone to answer any question I have via phone.
The mattress was not terrible; I slept on it at Reunion w/o the benefit of three layers of padding!
I debated buying a desk chair at Staples, but then figured he would need to hold onto the university-provided one or be charged for it in May, and I didnāt want to bring it home. I bought a seat cushion for the wood desk chair and it was fine.
My D15 said the memory foam topper made her dorm bed comfortable. I donāt think they would let us bring in our own mattress.
Question for anyone with a college graduate kiddo. I know its a very long way away, but if S has to take an extra semester to graduate (pray he doesnāt) will he walk with his Class of 2021 or will he have to wait and walk with the Fall 2021 or Spring 2022 grads? It would be a terrible shame if he couldnāt walk with his classmates because he was short 6 or 8 credits.
Any thoughts?
@STEM2017 ā I am guessing this varies by college. Expect at Middlebury, where the Feb admits ski downhill wearing cap & gown in their own small ceremony. Faculty ski down also! I think they allow their Feb admits to walk three times if they wish: with Class of 21, Feb 22, and Class of 22.
Small schools sometimes donāt really have a winter ceremony, people come back for the big spring one.
Iāve not heard of being allowed to walk without the credits.
At all three schools Iāve worked at, if someone was on track to finish their baccalaureate (or associates) requirements over the summer, they were allowed to walk in May. (Rules for grad students have differed widely at the different schools.)
@dfbdfb over summer, yes, but not next fall.
Well, sometimes they donāt actually finish in the summerā¦ 
But until my current institution put in a December graduation ceremony a couple years ago (so the only ceremony was each May), the registrar was, well, flexible about walking on May. (Not since the December ceremony started, though, not at all.)
@mtrosemom said
My D16 said the exact same thing. She loved the memory foam topper. And she wasnāt allowed to remove the mattress. We also did the same as @CT1417 with the triple threat - bug cover, foam topper and then mattress pad. It definitely made for a more comfortable bed.
@STEM2017 - I believe it does vary by college. My S12 completed all but 2 courses by the end of four years at UMass Lowell. He was able to walk with the graduates at the May Commencement in 2016, but did not receive his diploma until after he had completed the two remaining classes in December 2016. I know School of Mines does a ceremony in December and one in May.
@mageecrew - One of the really neat things about OSF is that they hire their actors for the entire year and do all of their shows in repertory, so the same actors have different roles in different plays.
Definitely thinking about a mattress pad ā hadnāt considered the other stuffā¦As for a computer, weāre waiting until the new Macs come outā¦
The policy at the school I work at is you can be approved to walk if you need 6 credits or less. Youāll have to check with your school to see their policy.
Iām going to pretend there are no bed bugs in London so I donāt have to buy more stuff.
I donāt know if my son will be 2021 or 2022 or somewhere in between or even later, as the number of co-ops and summer sessions can throw off their year of graduation. We are just rolling with it.
We had major illness in the house for the past few weeks so CC time has been minimal. Everybody is mostly fine now. The timing was inconvenient but at least D will be able to attend graduation on Friday. Family has begun to arrive from out of town and I have a graduation party to get through. Eek!
School year: I attended school on the east coast from kindergarten through graduate school. School always started the Tuesday after Labor Day. Living in the West for the last 20 years, I still am not accustomed to school starting in mid August and finishing before Memorial Day.
Student Portal - D signed me and DH up for proxy access so thatās done. Sheās been very proactive about all of her forms, pre-registration for classes, and placement tests, for which I am extremely grateful.
I just booked tickets for move-in and fall break (thank you Southwest for your current fare sale and generous checked baggage allowance!) Then lodging and car rental and OMG, this is for real!!! Now to organize the list of stuff to bring and to buy on site. Laptop? No freaking clue. Weāve got time. Maybe.
Congratulations on the graduations of the past few days.
Itās the last week of school here with graduation at the end of the week. Lots of fun events going on for the kids.
Sās school sent me an email with a link to access that my son granted me. It was access to three things: financial 
,transcript and something else. It was definitely not to his email account. Might have been health records.
The bed bug discussion is really disturbing. I do know many schools do not permit you to remove the mattress. Iād already contemplated that since last summer. When I checked for the school he is going to attend, it said the mattress could not be replaced because the school issued mattress is approved by the state fire marshall. It was nice to at least have an explanation.
@RightCoaster How is your son doing today in light of what happened in Manchester? I could see how that could be unnerving to all of you.
Anyone buying their kiddies season football tickets (where applicable)?
Virginia Tech sells season tickets to students for $84. I think I will recommend this as a nice graduation gift from a favorite close relative.
Iāll definitely be attending one or two myself.
@mamaedefamilia I grew up on the east coast too - now many public k-12 schools start before Labor Day. Too many late June end days in bad winter years. I went to college in the south - so got on mid-August to mid-May schedule.
@STEM2017 UCLA starts so late that they have 4 games before classes start. 2 of them are home games over 2 weeks before classes start. Then they have a home game against Cal during Thanksgiving break. Only 3 home games while they are in session plus the SC game. Heās not a football fan, so itās no big deal to him, but I think weāll make sure he gets to at least 1 game for the experience. We plan to head up to the Rose Bowl for one. Seeing how Cal has sadly not been in the Rose Bowl in my lifetime, I might as well get there somehow.
@paveyourpath the news from Manchester does not sit well in our house and leaves a nervous feeling. But we have always said you canāt live your life in fear and must move ahead in tough times. Weāve been personally touched with 9/11 and the Boston Marathon events. Iām hoping son17 can go over there without a lot of worry, but he mentioned today that it was disturbing.
@STEM2017 you must be football tix at a football school. Go and enjoy the games!