S18 headed back to school yesterday. First day of spring semester starts today! Time is flying by.
Wow, thatās an early start. Our S doesnāt go back until 1/20.
S18 went back to FSU yesterday. It was great to have him home so long. He is in a show in about 2 months, and we will go see that. Currently he is applying for opera and voice summer programs in Europe. He has made very good progress in his vocal training. He loves FSU, has a girlfriend and a tight circle of friends. He is very happy.
S18 and D18 both started classes today, but D went back last Friday to make use of her new skis. Sheās done 8 days skiing already, weāll see if the snow lasts long enough for her to get to 30 days total this season. Iām jealous!
@vistajay, my wife was a music minor at FSU back in the late eighties. S18 has a girl friend and group of friends at Ithaca, but has still kept in close touch with his friends here. One of his friends from home is at Cornell, so she met his girl friend pretty soon after they started dating. With all the challenges S16 has had since finishing high school itās been a relief that son number 2 has had a much better college experience.
Lovely hearing from all of you that the class of 2018 is coming and going happily. My girl is home until the 25th. So far we have had such a nice time. She is working on finding an internship for this summer and is hoping for somewhere like NYC or SFran. Either one will be far, but great places for us to visit her if we can.
Now I am beginning to bite my fingernails because I have a junior in high school and here we go again!
@Meddy come on over to the parents of 2021 thread. Some familiar faces for here as well. Lots of good discussion.
@burghdad I just bookmarked it. Thanks!
@Meddy Iām right there with my D20! Waiting for decisions!
Hello All!
Have been following along but no time to post as have been in the swamp with D20. Think we have survived the worst of it and came out ahead with a totally surprising acceptance the week before Christmas. Going back in February but I am 95% her search is over and her school is a great fit. Tally so far 2 pending, 5 deferrals and 5 acceptances. She all but kissed the deferrals good bye, loves one of her acceptances head and shoulders above the rest of the acceptances and the pending. Will not let her deposit until all initial decisions and financials are in so there is still possibility of change but I think it is close to a lock.
D18 is absolutely thriving at Elon! Could not be happier with the school or with her. She went back 1/3 for J-term and is taking a class on the Iowa Caucus so she arrived in Iowa for 12 days this past week. She and her class are contributing to a blog and I love reading all about this incredible opportunity. The students are either journalists or working on a campaign ( she is on a campaign) but the cross experiences are many.
For those of your kids thinking of study abroad programs, year at an international school or any other special program I say do it!! I did a semester in London in college and it was the best experience ever!! And the international travel you can do while studying in Europe is amazing!
D18 did a sociology class about Disney World last J term which included a week and a half of class on site at WDW. At the end they had three days at Vero Beach to write their research papers and it was intense. However after reading her paper her professor invited her to do research with her. She did it this past semester and now she may get published with the professor. Spring of junior year she is planning on a semester in LA ( double broadcasting/poli sci major) and hopefully senior year she will be taking an Irish literature course in Ireland for J-term. If not these experiences now then when? So hope all the 2018 kids thinking about special programs are able to make them work!
Just wanted to check in and let you know I love reading the updates of all the 2018 kids!!
@minniefan. Iām jealous of your D18ās J term selections! Wish I were back in college! And great news re your D20. Hope it all continues to work out well for her.
Today is the last day that my D and I are on vacation together. We had a terrific time being together and Iām going to miss her when sheās back at school! Sheās applying to a couple of study abroad programs for this summer, so I know sheās not going to be around then. I know it will be good for her, but its tough for us parents. I was just asking her about her classes next semester. Sheās pre-med, and all but 1 class will be devoted to that. Especially after reading about @minniefanās Dās J term, I kind of wish my D did a post-baccalaureate year for all the premed requirements instead. I feel like my D is missing out on some rewarding classes that make you look at the world differently because she has those serious science classes she has to take. Oh well, if sheās happy, then Iām happy. Guess you all can tell that I donāt work in science! 
I would think there is still room to take interesting classes, even as pre-med.
My D took bio, chem, ochem in two years for pharmacy prerequisites, but still had some time to take foreign language and ASL classes she really enjoyed.
@melvin123 the study abroad this summer will give her that experience and perspective even if she does not have a lot of room in her schedule for other classes. I know how you feel about how precious the time is together. I cherished our time between Christmas and when she went back on 1/2. So little days on the calendar with her, every one is treasured.
@melvin123 Thatās how my daughter was feeling in engineering and what motivated her major change. I think she would have had maybe three electives for her four years.
My oldest D had a major like that, too, with a completely laid out four year plan, but she absolutely loved her field of study and couldnāt imagine studying anything else. She studied music therapy which was different because her classes were directly focused on the things she would be doing in her future careerāand she was actually using those skills in clinics every semester. So I think it probably felt less like she was just meeting course requirements.
On another note, the college application process for D20 has been so different for D18. She had only one college in mind for a year and then just recently changed her mind to be even closer to home, like thirty minutes instead of an hour. Lol. I have mixed feelings but mostly Iām thankful because she would be better off close to home and that school is strong in her major. For a state school, it has a truly unbelievable financial aid program. It might be possible to get her through without loans, which would not be possible elsewhere. Iām waiting for the financial aid award info to come through to confirm it. The thing is, as close as it is, we havenāt even visited because she wouldnāt really consider visiting other colleges while she was focused on the first one.
My S has no room for electives really, music classes, education classes, the rest is liberal arts requirements.
128 credits in 7 semesters, the 8th semester is student teaching.
His school doesnāt do a BA but a BSEd of music education. So he has to take two science classes as well, one with lab. English composition 1 and 2, two math classes, lots of humanities classes, and more are required for his degree.
But he loves it so far.
D knew in high school that she wanted to become a pharmacist and hasnāt wavered from it. She enjoys her classes, and especially hands on experience with patient interaction.
She has worked in a local pharmacy every summer and did a hospital internship last summer.
Some kids donāt mind a narrowed focus if it is the focus they want.
Some need to be able to explore and find out what they want.
All I want is for them to be happy and successful in the career that they want.
And by successful I mean being able to support themselves and enjoy their lives. Not rich.
We donāt have a college degree. But we want to help our kids as much as possible to achieve a college degree, if thatās what they want.
Just clarifying, 3 out of 4 of her classes this semester are premed requirements. Same for next semester. After that it will be 2 out of 4. Since she has a non science major, all her non premed classes are for her major. Sheās okay with this because she doesnāt want to lose time with an extra year of doing things not related to her career interests. I, on the other hand, think sheāll be working in a career for many, many years, and would prefer her to spend an extra year at this level so that she could take some of these esoteric (?) courses that I think can challenge you in a totally different way. But as you all know, itās not our choice!
My daughter back at school with a big football game tonight. They close down the little main street in the town of Clemson and set up multiple big screens. She had a blast last hopefully the result will be the same again this year.
She is on course to graduate in 3 years with a BS Economic major and political science mnor. She has maintained her 4.0 through 3 semesters. I told her she needs to figure out by the end of this semester what she wants to do in May of 2021 when she graduatesā¦law school, graduate school, or get a jobā¦because obviously if it is either law school or graduate school she needs to be studying and taking he LSATās or GRE this summer and starting a school search againā¦ughā¦
Well I am another one here with an S18 and a D20. D20 is into 2 schools already (one with good merit) and we are waiting on several more decisions which will come out 1/31 and 2/15. S18 is back at school and thriving. Very happy for him and hoping things continue on that path.
Howdy all! Just checking in. It was nice reading thru and seeing what everyoneās kiddos are up to!
@burghdad we were rooting for Clemson!
I can see future career plans finally crystallizing for DD, itās a slow process! Still no internship, several career fairs in the next few weeks so we will see what happens. If nothing is secured it will be a summer of āWould you like fires with that?ā.
What class is your student looking forward to the most this semester? DD is excited about a psych class: Media Psychology
S is going back tomorrow. He mentioned a possible minor for the first time tonight. Since he had a lot of AP credit heās an hour away from being a junior, so it shouldnāt be a problem. We pointed out that it really doesnāt matter if he ends up with enough hours for a minor. Iām sure heās ready to see his gf again, whether or not heās ready for school to start. In HS he got a C or D when he didnāt like a class; now he gets a B. Heās risen to the challenge, and weāre proud of him.