Continuing the discussion from Parents of the HS Class of 2020 (Part 1) - #10630 by Cheeringsection.
Previous discussions:
New Year, new thread. Sounds liKe we’ve hit a threshold that makes us have to continue here. Calling all parents of the HS class of 2020! @fretfulmother @3scoutsmom @jjkmom @MuggleMom @LKnomad @Dave_N @LOUKYDAD @ljasnau @DeeCee36 Anyone?
I’ll update. My daughter finished her community college classes with a 4.0 and has been loving dancing with a ballet company. She is glad she did her gap year because her (gapped) college is 100% virtual but the dance company rehearses in person- and gets to perform. She’s been in two shows so far with four more performance opportunities to go. I think she’s looking forward to going off and starting college next year though. She’s a tiny fish in a big pond at a pro company, but she knows this is likely her only chance to dance in a company in any capacity so dancing in the corps is a gift, really. Both have their advantages, honestly, but she’ll be a bigger fish in a smaller pond dancing at college which should be fun before hanging up her pointe shoes.
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D20’s gap year is going well. She completed 2 classes (Spanish & Political Science) at a community college for fun. Going to continue Spanish and maybe take a Business Law or Economics class next semester.
She is also working as a server (when outdoor dining is allowed) and has saved enough money to pay for her anticipated two small Stafford loans.
She wants to travel to France as she already has had CV-19 recently should have immunity for at least 3 months but the travel and curfew restrictions are pretty strict there so she may wait until summer.
Hope everyone else’s students are doing well? Happy new year. 
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D20 is doing well here. Academically, she had a great first semester. Looks like she finished up with 3 A’s and 2 A-'s (proud mom boast, sorry/not sorry!). Socially, it was a bust (she was home, with just one HS friend around), but even she admits is went by pretty quickly. She did get involved with Hillel at the school, and through some lucky timing, with a couple of December graduates departing and leaving vacancies, she will be filling an e-board position for spring.
Her school will continue to be virtual for spring semester, but she’s moving to Boston anyway. She found a group of girls to live with and they’re renting an off-campus apartment. We bring her up next Friday. She’s excited and nervous all at once. I’m hopeful that things will start to improve and open up by early spring and she can enjoy getting to know her new city. It continues to be a most untraditional first year, but she’s definitely making the best of it.
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Happy New Year! I thought I’d pop in since I don’t think I’ve visited since early summer. Wow, my brain is getting a workout navigating the new board.
D got into her top choices and ultimately decided to attend the closest school. Classes were online this quarter and while she was disappointed that she wasn’t able to live on campus, she’s been able to drive to the campus a few times (about 90 min away) to see her new college friends (who also live at home). They are also on Zoom all the time. So socially, it seems like the next best thing. She did well in her classes - A’s and a B+.
She and three of her HS friends will be going on to Hawaii in the summer. It was their spring break that was canceled last April. So, at least she has something to look forward to.
When I look back at 2020, there is just so much to process. I’m just happy that we are all healthy and have adjusted to working and studying from home. My friend just got her first Covid vaccination and soon people will be getting theirs. (fingers crossed) I now see light at the end of the tunnel.
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DD is counting down to return to campus, trying to get a COVID test scheduled and applying to opportunities for next summer. She will apply to things here and in Charlotte so that she has more options. The goal is to find something that counts towards med school requirements. So many places are not accepting volunteers or hiring in medical-related roles that this will be quite challenging.
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This new board is crazy, but here goes. My DD spent 13 days at UNC Wilmington and returned home for the remainder of the semester. Since then she has decided to transfer to UNC Charlotte which will be much closer to home. She will not live on campus this semester and will do remote learning. She is working part time as well at Planet Fitness and hopefully will be able to also transfer her job to Charlotte when she moves. It has been nice having her home but she is ready for some independence which I can appreciate. She also changed her major from nursing to exercise science.
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Thanks for tagging me, I didn’t even know the new cc board changed! You will think now we all working from home we should have more time to check out cc and see what’s new. My dd joined Army National Guard, so she spent her summer and fall semester getting basic training and medic training, then she will knock out some GE classes before transfer to UC. With army training, she experienced on campus living with roommates, so now she decided not to have roommates later when she transfers to UC. She is planning for 2022 transfer so she will still graduate on-time with HS class 2020 students. This Covid thing is crazy but I do enjoy spending times with my kids more at home before they leave to colleges and become real adults.
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I didn’t realize there was a Part 2 to this thread. Glad I finally found it.
@socaldad2002 this may be a dumb question but if she has enough money, why is she taking out the loans in the first place?
Good question. She won’t actually take out the loans her first two years and will put the savings into her 529 plan. This is the amount she would have had to take out if not working during her gap year (Unsubsidized Stafford which is $5500 and $6500) or $12,000. She will likely take out Stafford loans her 3rd and 4th year ($7,500 x 2) for $15,000.
Since we are full pay and she elected to go to a private college, we wanted her to pay for a small portion of her college expenses. The maximum she will pay is $27,000 the largest amount she could have taken out herself under the unsubsidized Stafford loan program.
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Mostly a lurker here, but thought I’d add my data. My S20 is at Haverford, D20 at Tufts. Both had positive experiences being on campus despite all the restrictions, online classes, and the bonus of a three-week student strike at Haverford that shut down classes. If I had been in their shoes, I would have chosen a gap year, but neither of them had any compelling alternatives and were very ready to spread their wings in a new location. D20 is back at Tufts and classes start today. I think only one of her five classes has an in-person component this semester; last semester two or three of them did. S20 returns to Haverford next week; they pushed back the start and end of their semester by two weeks. He’s been mysterious about his class selection so we don’t know if any of his classes are in person. Last semester, it was very disappointing that his chemistry lab was changed at the last moment from in-person to virtual. A couple of his other classes did meet in person.
Definitely hoping that by fall, the experience will be closer to normal, but who knows?
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It has definitely been a different type of Freshman college experience. My DD20 transferred to UNC Charlotte this semester from UNC Wilmington. She is still living at home and taking all online classes. She has managed to join a sorority this semester which is odd to me since she’s no to campus but she has a few facetime or zoom meeting she attends. She is also working part time so she’s keeping busy. She is trying to line up housing for next Fall in Charlotte so she says no matter what she’s moving to Charlotte. Vaccines are moving very slow here in NC. They are currently only vaccinating front line healthcare workers and those 65 and older. Which is Tier 1 & Tier 2. I am in Tier 3 due to my work. Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.
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My daughter had a great first semester, and seems to be enjoying her second semester as well. She has a mix of in person and virtual classes this semester (same as last one), and once again seems to have hit the good luck lottery on her professors.
She plans on doing a full year study abroad for sophomore year, just received approval in her program (contingent upon good Covid-19 vaccination progress). Also just received her renewed passport and is one of those rare people who got a great passport photo from the post office.
Hope everyone is well and as happy as can be in the depths of winter. For those on the East coast, stay safe and warm during this winter storm.
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I admire your daughter both transferring and joining a sorority in these tough times of online schooling. She sounds very resilient!
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@Sapphire_G thank you, she is actually quite the opposite which thrills me. She is very shy. I call her an extravert in an introverts body. She loves socializing and being around people, however, becomes very shy. She is determined to meet people when she returns in the fall. I am very proud of her because this is taking her completely out of her comfort zone.
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Good for your daughter for taking some initiative like that. Here’s to a more traditional experience in the fall!
@beebee3 where will she be studying abroad? My D20 is committed to doing at least a semester abroad. Originally, she was considering a year, but given that she lost an entire semester of any real college experience in the fall, she’s not sure if she’ll want to do more than another semester away.
My D20 is one month into her experience of living away. She is living in Boston with four roommates, taking all online courses. So far, it is going really well - every time I speak to her I can hear how happy she is, which does this mama’s heart good! She loves her apartment, roommates, and neighborhood. They have done some exploring and getting comfortable with city life (in her words, “I have conquered the Green line!”).
She is applying for a job at one of the hospitals as a patient watcher, which, in addition to satisfying the service-learning requirement in one of her courses and giving her some extra spending money, will also provide an avenue to a COVID vaccine, sooner rather than later.
She seems to be meeting people (classmates online as well as connecting with friends of her roommates that attend other schools in Boston).
I had worried that living off-campus would be a second-best option to living in the dorms, but she doesn’t seem to feel that way. She is uncertain at this time as to whether she wants to live on-campus in the fall, or just find another apartment with the same group of girls (the apartment is fantastic, but not convenient to her campus, so if there will be in-person classes in the fall, she would want something closer). I’m trying to keep my opinion to myself (which, tbh, I’m not sure how I actually feel about it), and will follow her lead when the time comes.
So, that’s the update from here.
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So, a bit of a left field update. My D20 has decided against starting at a four year college, and instead is enrolled to start a career training program at our local CC next fall. She doesn’t want to give up her traineeship at her dance company (which typically last 2-3 years) so she adjusted course and chose a CC major that fits into her dance schedule. Rather than being disappointed, I was proud that she admitted that she wanted to change course and figured out how to make it work. Since most dancers need to have a second career field while they dance, a year long tech program fits that bill- and she knows she can always change her mind again and start a four-year later.
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