Oh @liska21 I am so sorry! That must be incredibly hard for your S.
@milgymfam Congrats on Oxford, what great news, very exciting!
D19 had been back at school since early January, she had to go early for rush. It was strange to do it all on zoom but I guess it went OK. They did not get to meet any of the girls who rushed in person but now they will get to meet a few girls in the pledge class in small groups, I think D and two other members are meeting one or two new girls for dinner this week.
Her classes just started this week. She is a terrible morning person and so far has been able to plan her schedule around that - her earliest class was 11am! Not so lucky this semester, a required class for her major is only offered at 8am. Then it got changed to 7:35am! Lucky for her it is online so all she has to do is grab her computer for class then she can take a two hour nap until her next class.
@liska21 how awful and hard to deal with. Iām so sorry!
@momtogkc its funny how different people are. My D is a morning person, but the earliest class she could find for spring starts at 1pm! Ha! Sheāll be teaching two days a week in the mornings, but she really enjoyed getting classes done early each day.
oh Iām so so sorry. I will say that it will be good for him to be with those who were friends with her. We had a sophomore at our high school die in a car crash last month and her group of friends had been inseparable since then. The parents think itās helping them to be together. Cars scare me. I worry about our kids driving all of the time.
@liska21 So sorry, no advice for what to say. You mentioned encouraging the ceremonies. When D lost a friend in 2019, she did several things to help cope. She spent time with her youth group pastor, of course did the visitation and funeral, a group of friends went to Build A Bear together and DD put a recording of her friendās voice in her animal. She wears a ring of hers every day, and has a memorial t-shirt. Some friends got tattoos- DD just did a henna one at the fair. She also keeps a photo of her on her dash.
Looking over that, probably a lot of it wouldnāt be something a college age boy would do, but my point is she felt better doing things to commemorate.
@liska21 - so sorry to hear about your sonās friend. How awful! I hope it is helpful for him to be around his friend at this time and grieve together.
I took S19 back to Nashville about a week ago and I think heās glad to be back and to be with friends. He got his negative covid test results and classes start today. Heāll have at least 3 in person classes this semester and will take 2-3 others - not sure their format yet. I know heās done well making the best of things, but it still stinks to think about how much heās missed out on this year. Oh well, hearing stories like @liska21ās definitely puts things in perspective. Iām thankful Iāll be getting my second vaccine dose on Saturday. @milgymfam - congrats to your D! Hope everyoneās kids have good spring semesters!
@liska21, Iām also terribly sorry to hear about your sonās friend. Wishing love and strength to everyone involved.
One of D19ās three apartment-mates has Covid-19. D19 and the other friend who had already moved in have tested negative, both rapid and PCR, and the fourth roommate just moved in this week from her parentsā home. The infected friend had already left, moved to one of New Yorkās quarantine hotels. A rattling experience, but hopefully she wonāt progress beyond her current mild symptoms and everyone else will stay healthy.
In brighter news, D19 has enough credits completed that sheās already technically a junior. Given the required courses for her major and minor, she wonāt be able to accelerate graduating too much, but sheās targeting December 2022. Itāll be great to have only one semester of overlapping costs with S22 in college then!
DD is a ājuniorā too. Weāve gone back and forth onwhether to try to graduate early. Best she could do is a semester early, which she was set on doing for a while, because many of her friends will be done early. But, she needs to do an internship after her final semester, and in her field, it will be easier to find in the summer than in spring. Right now the feeling is since sheāll probably have to pay rent till May 2023 anyway, she might as well stay and take some more classes sheās interested in, and not be stressed about a tight schedule. Weāll see how things go!
@homerdog@bjscheel@elena13@Vineyarder Thanks for the notes and stories about how your child coped with loss of a friend. It helped to read the notes when I was feeling really floored by the news. Sās friend is still alive (as far as I know) but still in medical induced coma. I have not gotten a recent update though he would for sure tell me if there was a big change.
S19 is now back on the east coast and work is keeping him very busy. He is working as a teaching assistant plus has a part-time research job. And of course he is loving living with friends again.
Excited for D19 ā she started her first-ever paying job today, as an intern at a brand and design consulting firm. Itās a small outfit ā sheās the seventh employee ā but it has an impressive track record of work for some major clients. The aesthetic seems like a great fit for her. All in all, an excellent introduction to the working world.
@Vineyarder Thatās fantastic! I hope she loves it! Is she a graphic design or marketing major? I have a graphic design Dā17.
DD has had great fortune in finding summer work, and in her field, but has not yet been successful in finding work for the school year. Just discussed today that at this point sheās only in her college town for 2.5 more months, so might be at the point of giving up and try again next school year. Itās a small town with far more students than entry level opportunities. She would like to work around 10 hours a week to help with expenses.
Thanks, @bjscheel! Sheās in a major at Parsons called strategic design and management, which grants a BBA. And sheās minoring in art history. Hopes to work on the business side of the commercial art world.
Good luck to your D with figuring things out. We were lucky with the way this one came together, through a referral from a contact of my wifeās.
@vineyarder, thatās what happened with her upcoming summer job, my former co-worker got her to the right contacts. For school year, it doesnāt need to be anything fancy. I just sent her an ad for packaging donuts at the grocery storeā¦
Thanks, yeah, weāre pretty impressed with her! Weāve been lucky that sheās found a great focus that she really enjoys. And we have an S22 whoās gravitating toward architecture; hopefully heāll find similar fulfillment.
D19 is doing well so far this semester. Her birthday was last week and she and her roommates were able to go out to a nice dinner and sit on the patio then I sent cake and treats from a favorite spot in NYC so they could celebrate in their room after dinner.
This week was Mardi Gras but of course nothing was happening so that was a little sad. A year ago I booked a room for the weekend but we cancelled that and rebooked for next year. I donāt know if anyone saw this on the news but the city ended up doing something they called Yardi Gras where tons of houses decorated their yards and porches to look like Mardi Gras floats, it is amazing. D19 and her friends did walk all around the city looking for the houses and sent us tons of pictures so they got to get in the spirit a little bit.
Last week she applied to go abroad for Fall, who knows if it will happen but she will find out if she got accepted in the next few weeks then we just have to wait and see what restrictions there are in each country.
Itās been months - totally didnāt recognize the site. Loved catching up on the updates. D19 is on campus again. Delayed return because COVID cases ramped up after Thanksgiving, even though the campus had mostly cleared out. Go figure. She finally went back to Texas right before last weekās storm. Ended up getting vaccine shot 1 due to the power outages. Iād joked last month that sheād get vaccinated before her grandparents and was right. Iām not as impatient as many. Done a number of mountain trips since we just need internet. And tons of those Escape Room āboardā games.
D19 has been exploring her artistic side, which I love. Sticking with CS/Math, but has been much more explorative than in High School. I guess she feels more free now. Kind of sad.
She had to decide if she was doing a 2nd summer with last yearās company fairly early, but was hoping it wouldnāt be remote this summer. Of course, remote again. Next wishful thinking is exchange programs next year. We can hope. My main source of college related sadness - the gaming.
Nice to hear from you @peachActuary73. So glad your daughter is doing well and that she got the vaccine! Good to see the other updates as well. Itās a real bummer to see what our kids have missed out on this year and that internships and job opportunities will still be affected this summer. Iām really hoping for a mostly normal second half of college for them. S19 has been doing a lot with his business fraternity and is working hard in his classes. Heās applied to a bunch of internships but heās not feeling very encouraged. I know it is harder to get one of the things he is looking for as a sophomore, but hoping he will be able to do something worthwhile.
S19 decided to design his own major and had to write a big proposal and present to a committee. The made up major is called Socio-ecological Economics. Heāll be minoring in Spanish, business and one other thing. The only bad thing is that his committee approved everything but they want him to take a certain Economics class that requires Calc 2. He was hoping to avoid that but oh well, Iām sure it will be fine.
I hope everyone is staying healthy and well. Itās strange to think back to two years ago as we were in the thick of all the college admissions stuff together.
A while back I actually got nostalgic for that time, which is weird because it wasnāt a particularly fun process for us! I spent some time reading the Parents of Class of 2021 for a bit until the feeling passed
Also strange to think that now our kids are nearly halfway done. I had a client the other day whose Dā19 is somehow going to be done with undergrad this year and moving on to grad school. My DD is glad sheās not close to being done with this experience yet.
Thatās so funny, @bjscheel, I also dropped in on the Parents of Class of 2021 thread and came away thinking that we are the lucky ones. I have a D21 myself, but she has not decided yet what she will do after high school, so we have been spared all the difficulties of trying to pick schools without seeing them, etc. And she was in an online school even before all of this started, so no particular impact on her high school experience either. Meanwhile, S19 is on campus at Denison and things seem pretty normal. After an initial few weeks of remote, all of his classes are now in person, and while they havenāt been able to have a normal indoor track season, they have had a series of dual meets and they will have quad meets once the outdoor season begins later this month. This morning, we learned that, as a campus tour guide, he will be treated as an essential worker once they start vaccinating. Where we live, they havenāt even started vaccinating, so I will be happy if he can get the jab before he comes home this summer. Denison has been doing campus tours pretty much all along, although only one family per guide and not as much indoors as before. We were a bit worried about it at first, but he feels he is making a contribution to the school and is very proud of the application numbers this year. What to do with the summer is a challenge, but one of his majors is sports science and he will probably use the time to complete a bunch of T&F coaching certifications. He did the basic one over the winter break. It is very strange to think that they are already almost halfway through!
@tkoparent I suspect that the smaller institutions have been able to navigate COVID somewhat better than some of the larger schools. Iāve been very grateful for that.
@elena13 Your son sounds like heās doing great and taking initiative. Good for him.
D19 feels grateful to have had the ānormalā senior year activites and Iāve pointed out to her that she was supposed to be a D20 had we not done the backflip to get around the Georgia birthday rules years ago. But I agree with @bjscheel. Sometimes it was not fun and was extremely stressful. I canāt help but wonder how our decisions would have changed had we been class of '20. I have a friend whose son bailed on Furman last spring when they shut down the baseball program in advance, but heās happy where he landed. So much empathy with those that have had to navigate school and the college process over the last year.
Winter quarter coming to an end and S19ās quarter in VT is also finishing up. He is on a gap year and starts back up in summer (Dartmouth requires all sophomores on campus for sophomore summer). Heāll take spring quarter off and do a bunch of hiking. Heāll be āonā for 4 quarters starting summer and has been auditing classes and working fall/winter so hasnāt really had a break.
With the latest CDC announcement about what vaccinated people can do, it is really starting to feel different for the first time in a year. Iād say half my friends have gotten at least their first shot, what with healthcare, teachers, 65+, emergency personnel being eligible, and yesterday I sat in the living room with some old friends and caught up on life like in the pre-covid times. We had seen each other often over the past year, but only in their backyard and 10 feet apart. We are road-tripping to Idaho to look at a graduate school for my D16 next week. First travel out of state for me in year.
However I will wear my KN95 masks as long as my self-consciousness will allow in public places. Not that I am a fan of masks, though I donāt actually mind them, but a year without having a cold has been so so wonderful.
Heāll be minoring in Spanish, business and one other thing. The only bad thing is that his committee approved everything but they want him to take a certain Economics class that requires Calc 2. He was hoping to avoid that but oh well, Iām sure it will be fine.