No food poisoning, but yes influenza (one of the ones whose infection sneaked past the immunization).
@Momofsenior2017 No food poisoning but my D wouldnāt recognize a salad bar if she fell into one. She is fueled by chicken nuggets and steak sandwiches unless Iām visiting and then itās $25 pasta Bolognese, LOL. She did getting a ripping cold that laid her out for a few days and resulted in me threatening to go get her and bring her home. We BOTH lived through that (it was harder on me.)
I hope the rest of your sonās semester is uneventful.
DS says no food poisoning heās heard of this year. He says heās heard that in past years there have been Norovirus outbreaks January-ish, which could be mistaken for food poisoning. They do have a salad bar. Heās at a small school: 950 undergrads total.
Thanks fellow parents; it sounds as though its an infrequent or rare occurance, which Iām glad to hear (read), re. that your DCs so far havenāt had food poisoning. @bamamom2021: my DS didnāt eat with his friends that particular evening, since the friends were going to a dining hall that he feels has greasy, unhealthy food; he went to the āhealthyā dining hall instead. But from what I can tell (or guess), it was likely an isolated case rather than a bunch of students or a trend there at UC (but I donāt really know, since he happened to eat without friends that particular meal and so it could have been more people/students affected and just went unnoticed since they didnāt communicate with one another about a shared experience of emesis in the dorms that night). I doubt it was Norovirus though since it was emesis without diarrhea. The rapid/short latency to symptoms suggested to me an enterotoxin-type episode.
Son17 just texted me asking how to tie a tie. He has a business presentation in a short bit and he is totally panicked.
Thatās my boy!!
I told him to do what all members of his generation do, watch Youtube and figure it out.
Itās how i learned to tie a bow tie! (Which is all I wear now.)
@dfbdfb bow tie in Alaska?? I like it, keeping it classy up there. 
P.S. I know you live in a civilized part of Alaska, just joking around with you. But come on, are you the only guy you see up there with a bow tie?
My kid is currently Day 4 of food poisoning 5 days in to her European Spring Break. So far she seen a great deal of the inside of her Airbnb in Nice and now in Amsterdam!
Mine is reporting the same as dfbdfbās kid - flu in January (despite being vaccinated) but no food poisoning/GI problems AFAIK.
It is so nice to catch up on posts and read that everyoneās children are doing so well. A year ago, kids were committing to schools and signing up for housing. Now they are young adults who are having experiences on their own and figuring things out. This first year went by really fast.
No food poisoning and no influenza but he lives in a āsmall dormā so it reduced his exposure significantly.
@Botcom I am so happy to hear your daughter is doing so well. My son has loved it there too and is doing really well.
Finally, Spring Break has started for DS. I am so happy to be with him, I can burst. :x
DS was lucky in the housing lottery and snagged a single in the building that he wanted. Glad he tried having a roommate, but too many advantages to having a single. Huge shortage of on campus housing for upperclassmen, many DC start looking in the fall for the following year. Sophomore year is good, but already have to start thinking ahead for the next.
DS has secured his first ever research position. This and a class will keep him busy this summer.
Rest, favorite meals, and a trip to the barber(very bushy!) are on the agenda over the next 8 days.
Happy Easter to those you celebrate it.
I havenāt looked at this forum in a long time, as my DS is on a gap year and so I wasnāt in the college frame of mind. But with this yearās acceptances coming out recently (and my D19 starting her own college visits), it got me thinking of this group. Nice to read back a few pages of posts and see what everyoneās kids are up to; Iām so glad to see everyone seems to be having a great experience. It makes me really excited to think of my DS starting his college journey in just a few months. (also will be nice that heāll be 2 hours from home instead of half way around the world!)
I think D is just ready to come home! Paris is lovely but she misses the USA and us. She wants to live at home this summer and she secured a job locally. She is excited to start classes in NYC this fall and got a single studio apartment in the East Village. Sheās also looking forward to starting her Physics track.
Question: Is it time to start thinking about what is needed to get into grad school? I joined this group late in the high school years but wished I had benefited from the collective knowledge here sooner! I suppose our kids will be less dependent on us if/when they apply to grad school, but it never hurts to provide some parental ātipsā!
@Fishnlines29 Itās always good to keep future plans in mind, I think. Remind me, what is her planned major? You mentioned physics. Thatās likely my sonās major, though CS is still a posibility. For grad school in physics, the important components (not in order) are the Physics GRE, GPA, undergrad research, and letters of recommendation. @Mom2aphysicsgeek can provide lots more details, since her older son will be in physics grad school next year.
Update: DS just started his spring quarter. It was great to have him home for 2 weeks! This will be his first quarter with letter gradesāhis college has pass/fail for the first 2 quarters. Heās gotten confirmation that his summer research at JPL is approved. So, heās asking questions about tax forms today.
@Fishnlines29 Thanks for getting the conversation going!
DS is starting to think about grad school as well. His undergrad major is electrical & computer engineering. He also wants to pursue physics, more broadly then his major involves, but he doesnāt think it is possible to pursue in graduate school, because he would not have had the background for the Physics GRE and coursework. So, is his thinking correct? Heās currently taking honors physics, and perhaps there is a possibility of a minor or double major. However, I am of the mindset of why work so hard?
He has a professor that majored in physics in undergrad, and electrical & computer engineering in graduate school. Wondering if anyone has insight into whether this can be done in reverse? TIA.
Definitely possible to do in reverse but I think he might have to get a masters in physics first before they would take him in a PhD program. The thing to remember about grad school in something like physics is that itās not going to draw on all of your physics undergrad classes but on a very specific subset depending on what area you go into. I was a physical chemistry grad student and in my grad years I never took another organic, analytical or inorganic chemistry class for exampl.
I was so thankful to not be directly involved in dsās grad application process. 
He had a great application cycle, and just committed to an excellent program on the other side of the country.
I would encourage your student to become actively involved in on-campus research as soon as possible and hopefully do poster presentations early on; next summer (apps open in Dec) apply for REUs; keep his GPA high; jr yr study and score high on the PGRE and the regular GRE. He needs to make sure he has excellent relationships with a research mentor and have strong LORs. So, no, it isnāt too early to be thinking about it. (Ds never took his eyes off that goal from 8th grade. He breathes research and has always wanted to go to grad school. He will be pursuing theoretical cosmology (he is very interested in dark matter.)
When your student applies, he needs to apply broadly and definitely visit accepted student days. Ds found a huge difference in depts and focus. If you spend time on grad cafe youāll see some students with excellent stats shut out. It is hard to tell from the little bit of info posted why they were rejected from so many programs. The only info I do know is that ds had extremely strong coursework (multiple grad level courses and independent study courses on top of the traditional UG sequence) and an obvious commitment to research. He had constant research from freshman yr and 2 REUs. His professors love him, so I am sure his LOR were very strong. Iām not sure how important PGRE scores are, but dsās score was high.
Best wishes to your ds as he pursues his UG physics. I canāt believe how fast these past 4 yrs flew by.
@HappyGoLucky2017 This poster might be able to offer more insight: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21409660/#Comment_21409660
Fwiw, my ds started off as a physics, EE, math triple major. He decided early on that he didnāt want to keep the EE major bc he loves theory. But, there was overlap in courses. He took both of his emag wave theory courses through the EE dept vs the physics dept.
Thank you @VickiSoCal and @Mom2aphysicsgeek
That poster is spot on! And I can now understand what my son is talking about, as he does not want to miss out on the undergraduate physics subjects like electrodynamics, statistical and quantum mechanics. He looks at college as a place and time to explore all his academics interests, much like yours @Mom2aphysicsgeek. He is loving theory too. Just seems like there isnāt enough time in a day.
And a whole new process has begun!
@HappyGoLucky2017 - google NSF REU physics - there are 60+ programs that list research projects in various areas. Generally applications are due in the winter. There are also on campus programs (several schools call them SURF). I think you said he has a research project this summer, so thatās a great start.