Continuing the discussion from Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1) - #34078 by sdl0625.
Previous discussions:
my D submitted her very last assignment today. Should be an official Graduate of GWU . for now working temporary jobs while she figures out what she really wants to do. I am ok with that. Told her that since she graduated early, we can support her still for another 6 more months while she works various jobs and figures things out. So no big 6 figure job for her, but we are so proud. Without Covid she would be in DC and likely have had an offer with some non profit. Now home and learning more about herself and what she wants.
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One more semester for my older D. She visited Raleigh NC this weekend, apartment hunting and exploring the city, as she’s already accepted a job with the large MNC that she interned for last summer. Comp is a bit above last year’s average for her major at her school, for a student probably just a tiny bit above the average, in a low-cost city, so she’s quite happy.
She took two summer classes to free up time final semester for a job search, so now she has a light schedule. Which is good, because she’s very excited about her senior design project - working directly with a professor and a team from MIT, and already has designs laid out and materials ordered.
I’ve always had that parent’s worry of whether she was going to make it all the way through a T10 engineering program. But even four D-'s meet graduation requirements, and her employer’s GPA minimum, so I’m starting to get a bit more comfortable…
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My daughter’s behind most of the rest of y’all’s kids due to a leave of absence and various chronic medical issues, so she’s still a couple years off from graduating, but this past semester went quite well despite having to attend remotely from several time zones away and thus wake up for a class at 4:00(!) in the morning three days a week.
She’s now is majoring in international relations (with a conflict studies focus, geographic focus on the Middle East), and has discovered that with that it’s trivial to add a minor (and possibly even a second major) in religious studies.
Her college is planning on bringing everyone back on campus for the spring semester (which is set to begin in early February, later than usual), so we’ll see how that goes.
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Oh gosh, 4 am, I don’t think my daughter could handle that. It sounds like she’s found a good major though 
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Congrats on GWU! I loved my brief time there.
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So glad to hear everyone is doing so well!
S17 just finished his first semester of veterinary school with a 4.0! I’m very proud of him. Over his break he worked a little at an emergency vet, is helping the school with the veterinary class of 2025 interviews, going skiing with his gf, and filling out paperwork for a research program for the summer. He is also looking at apartments for next year. He is trying to decide if he wants to get a PhD along with his DVM. Not sure but putting himself in position to do it if he decides to. He is very interested in immunology. I was lucky he came home for a week over his break!
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Love the updates. DS17 is on schedule to graduate Spring ’21. Applied to PhD programs, in the interviewing phrase. Hopefully, he will have choices. Was ED undergrad (as some may remember), which worked out great, but it would be nice to have choices this time around. Good luck to everyone’s DC. Not the graduating environment that any of us ever imagined. “Onward and upwards!”
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I used to spend so much time in this forum during our son’s last 2 years of HS, but haven’t posted in a few years I think. While looking for grad school info, I decided to check this out again and recognized a few names. Our son will be graduating from UCLA in June and then head off somewhere for grad school in the fall. He’s received a few acceptances in the last week and is waiting to hear from a few more schools. He’s been learning from home for almost a year now and that has worked out well for him. He still works for a research lab (remote now) and participates in a couple of mechanical engineering clubs. I think those things keep him a little more connected to the school than other kids might be while they are remote. He’s the first in our household who will go to grad school, so it’s a new experience for us. In some ways it’s like the senior year of HS with the application process and the wondering where he’ll be going in the fall. In other ways it’s been very different because he didn’t need much, if any, prodding this time to get the applications in. He got most of them in early and all I had to do was enter the CC number to pay for them. He was also guaranteed entry into UCLA’s program if he met the deadlines, so that has been nice to have in the back pocket and eased a lot of anxiety.
Nice to see some kids from this class have already graduated. Congratulations! Bonus points to any kid who actually has a job lined up in this environment.
I’ll try to check back in the next few months to see how the journey that we all embarked on several years ago turns out for the rest of you.
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Old link didn’t work but I found the page thru search. My S is into his final semester at Vandy. So far he has four medical school admissions (including his #1 choice) and waiting for few more decisions to come out in March.
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Good to find this thread and some familar names. Hard to believe 4.5 years ago we started on the college journey together in our kids’ senior years of high school. Can remember all of the apprehension of the last year of high school, college application process and kids leaving for college. Now I look back and ask where the time went.
My daugther finished up her classes in December. Will graduate in the Spring. Commencement still has no info (but its more than they had up a month or two ago when there was no mention of it at all). Just says check back later for more details. Bookstore clearly states that they are selling caps and gowns but don’t read that to mean there will be an in-person ceremony.
This semester she has her second internship which will qualify her for some type of honors diploma. Sent a pic last week of her helping deliver a foal. She is totally in her glory. Working long hours and saving some money.
And best news for her is she has multiple vet school acceptances. And in an interesting but not totally unexpected twist, one of them is not our in-state school. With in-state option on the table, would be tough to justify going anywhere else based on cost. With in-state off the table, other schools are now real options. She has a couple months to decide.
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Three weeks into the semester for my D17!
Week one, everyone was stuck in their rooms because it was the first week, and they were making sure there wouldn’t be a covid outbreak.
Week two, everyone was stuck in their rooms because of the storm that shut everything down.
This past week, though, was a return (to some extent, at least) to normalcy, and she’s still navigating her way around it and all, but she’s much happier today than she was a week ago.
And I, for one, will happily take that.
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Great to hear about the kiddos from some of you - hoping to hear from more! Let’s go!!!
S is on track (kind of) to graduate on time. He’ll be allowed to walk (virtually-lol) with his graduating class at Virginia Tech but still needs to complete 5 or 6 credits over the summer. His diploma will have a different date (June '21?) than the rest of his class - but still Class of 2021.
He had an amazing internship last summer with a large international construction contractor here in NYC. He loved the work and the people. He was disappointed that the summer ended and he left the place without an offer in hand (none of the interns got an offer). The reason was COVID and the company wasn’t sure what their needs would be for 2021. Alas, the company secured several huge contracts and scrambled to hire the interns. S got his offer a few weeks ago and he is ecstatic! He basically accepted the offer on the spot. He’ll be a Field Engineer working in and around NYC on infrastructure mega-projects. What he loves most is spending 3-4 hours in the office and 3-4 hours in the field every day. This type of work is perfect for him. His long-term goal is to get an MBA and move up to management within this (or any other) firm. His company will pay for the degree. They are truly global so I told him to jump on any international project they offer him.
He’s happy. I’m happy. One down, two to go!
ETA: His path was aerospace engineer → mechanical engineer → undecided engineer → civil engineer. It took a few twists and turns, but luckily he found what he truly loves.
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Great update. Good luck to him!
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I am glad to see folks posting updates and that your students are thriving! 4 years went by very quickly!
My DD will be graduating from UGA in May with top honors, 2 bachelors degrees, a minor, a masters degree, and many awards. I am so proud of her! She has had a great 4 years, pandemic notwithstanding. She accepted a full time offer with a top consulting firm where she interned 2 summers, but deferred a year, as she won a prestigious fellowship to study in China next year.
UGA is having in-person graduation broken down by schools and we are so happy about that! They are limiting guests to 3 per student so we are splitting up the family between the 2 undergraduate and 1 graduate ceremony she gets to attend. We’ll have a small family outdoor celebration afterwards. She’s still unsure about summer plans, but we’ve been discussing several ideas. It will depend on what her friends want to do and the bf’s schedule. Some domestic and international travel will definitely be involved.
I hope others return with updates!
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3/4 of the way through the year (almost). No spring break for my son. They cancelled it due to COVID a long time ago. Glad to hear everyone doing so well. His school has said they will have an in person graduation but details haven’t come out yet. He won’t actually be graduating because his early admit program has him get his undergrad degree when he finishes his second year of vet school. So he will get his BS next year and then his DVM in 2024.
Vet school is going well. He loves his school and his professors. He is looking forward to all in person classes in the fall. Lab is so much easier in person every day instead of once a week. The lectures don’t bother him too much being on line.
He was accepted to the Veterinary Research Scholars program for the summer where he works with his immunology professor doing research and presenting at a couple of conferences (one will be virtual the other unknown) at the end of the summer. Should help him get published too! Best part is it pays well! He is also now president elect of the student chapter of the SAVMA (Student American Veterinary Medical Association). It is a 2 year commitment and the biggest organization at the vet school which oversees all other clubs. Grades are still great from what I can tell and he is shadowing the head of cardiology once a week. He was excited that he got to do an ultrasound of the heart last week.
He is so busy but finds time for his gf and occasionally other friends, not as much as last semester though. Good luck to all!
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@STEM2017 As I was reading your update, I was trying to remember what type of engineering your son was doing. Your description sounded like civil, but I didn’t think that was it. Then your note at the end explained it all. Sounds great for him!
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My D just texted me that she had completed her last final and is done with college (MechE, Purdue).
What an odd feeling.
She’s headed on a senior trip with classmates on Wednesday, driving around the country for a week. (One friend lives in Fargo, so she’ll get to the one state Mom hasn’t been to, and one of three I haven’t been to, before both of us). Graduation is the following Saturday.
Her new employer’s national training center is about 5 miles from our house, so she’ll be home through late June, easing the transition/move process down to North Carolina.
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Congrats RichInPitt! My son still has a few weeks left in the semester. Will be attending in person graduation Memorial Day weekend. Students are allowed 2 guests(just as of 4 days ago). 6 weeks off, and then off to start his graduate studies early. I wish your daughter continued success! And that she enjoys her new job and NC.
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Congratulations to those who have kids that are graduating this week/month. Our son is on the quarter system, so about 3.5 more weeks to go. I was about 99% sure that he was going back to UCLA for grad school because he had a great offer there, but then he got accepted at Stanford, so that’s where he’ll be going for a master’s in the fall. He’s super excited about that as are we. They had an excellent virtual admitted students session that lasted most of the day and really made him feel welcome there. It looks like an internship for the summer at a local company fell in his lap, so that seems to have worked out well too. We all feel very fortunate the way that things have turned out.
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