Hah! I love your comment about the mountains being hills— so true. I grew up in New England, and we lived on a “mountain.” I have been living on the west coast for many years and would now most definitely call it a hill. I do love the idea of our kids being able to study in an area so different from where they have grown up.
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I would be thrilled to go skiing there on the Vermont mountains. I’ve only been a few times in Tahoe and CO. Was terrorized because I went with experienced people.
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My S is really excited about going somewhere else. Mom’s head has compartmentalized it but my heart is starting to wake up a bit the closer we get to May 1. It will be a big decision as basically we didn’t really find exactly what we looked for in the PNW location he wanted.
The reality is that you will get to share the new area with him. When I think of mine heading as far as Utah, if that’s what he chooses, I remind myself how thrilled he will be to show me all of the new things there and what a great experience that will be for all of us. My heart does crack a little though.
If your S chooses Vermont the adventures that you can have visiting him as a family will be incredible! Just make sure to visit in early October. 
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Update on Texas frozen water pipes. Was able to turn the water back on at the meter since it was warmed up. No leaks detected. Pex tubing held up. My ice maker may be the only casualty. I think I need a drink to celebrate. And congratulations with all the amazing acceptances yesterday. Love, Love, Love hearing good news.
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I believe I mentioned before, we know a student who went to UCSC and was homeless for a period of time because she could not find housing. It was my impression that this is a widespread problem at UCSC. It pops up in the news occasionally:
UCLA has turned the double where I once lived into a triple. I thought it was small as a double and I came from living in a not large apartment with my parents.
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Incredible to have a development plan for 10K extra students without housing or infrastructure to support them. Hopefully class sizes aren’t expected to increase too much. Are most UCs planning to increase their enrollment sizes?
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@TVBingeWatcher2 I’m so glad you are getting back some of the services you need!! I’m seeing that the utilities company increased the rate of kWH from $30 ish to hundreds of dollars. I hope that is not true on top of a horrible ordeal! We’ve had these major fires in CA in the past few years but not coupled with cold. We can handle no AC with blackouts.
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- UC Berkeley had projected that it would construct 2,600 new beds for students. It has only built 1,119 new beds.
Yet, UCB has 7500 more students enrolled than it had projected. Therefore, there must be a lot more student housing in the city of Berkeley. Bicycle commuting is up considerably.
It’s also interesting that there is a decrease in “regular faculty” and a large increase in “other faculty.” Does that include an increased reliance of grad students and adjuncts?
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Just got my electrical bill today (I have a gas furnace) 49.00. The billing period was before the Arctic storm. Will be calling my electrical company on Monday to find out if there is a rate increase.
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We have gas heating as well and I kept my thermostat at 60 the entire time but the fireplace was on all day everyda. I unplugged EVERTHING else that didn’t need to be used and I haven’t run the dishwasher or washer/dryer since last thursday/friday before this mess started.
I’m terrified of what our gas and water bill be though. The City will most likely forgive water/sewage usage for this week I’m hearing.
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Off-campus housing is in very very short supply at UCSC. The school even has a page on their website with suggestions of youth hostels and campgrounds to stay at if you can’t find housing.
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I really appreciate you sharing tidbits about the UCs. If my S gets into any UCs, the decision will be tough because they are so highly rated, but the number of students, housing issues, and state of some campuses is off-putting, tbh. While kids can grow living on their own even if just 20 minutes away from home, I would be excited for my S to choose an out of state school. Except for Boulder and UW, his other options are similar to or a lot less in cost to the UCs. Being a native Californian, I love my state, but I often wish I had the experience of living in a different after high school.
My S did not apply to any place farther than Colorado, but if he had applied to a place like Vermont, I would be so excited for him, but anxious as well. But what a beautiful place to visit!
You mentioned Gonzaga–the location is one of the reasons my S did not apply there. I seem to recall that it is kind of isolated and there’s not much around the school. Or I could be getting the location confused with Washington State.
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Somewhere back a few days ago there was talk about not being able to graduate in 4 yrs from Cal Poly, it seemed this year there was some difficulty because there wasn’t a good way to “crash” courses since it’s online. Usually if you don’t get a class you just show up to the class until enough people drop and then you can add it.
I think with some of the majors like engineering it’s difficult if you fail one class (which is not too uncommon in engineering) to get back on track since some courses are only offered once a year. I think that might be true everywhere, but Cal Poly front loads more engineering courses in the first two years so it’s also a bit harder to stay on track if you switch majors.
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It’s Washington State University that’s isolated in the small town of Pullman out in the middle of nowhere on the Palouse. Enrollment at WSU is around 30,000. My S19 goes there as a civil engineering major and absolutely loves it, especially the strong community feel on campus.
Gonzaga is in Spokane. The Spokane metro area has a population over 400,000 .
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I’m not even sure how one would travel and stay in multiple states in New England right now! Maybe things will be better by April. Vaccinated folks will be able to travel without quarantining soon, but for our state that’s only the 70+ folks.
After taking days to recover from a 14-hour hike in the Adirondacks up to an amazing view of all the peaks below, I would say they are mountains! But the hills are nice here too, especially for xc skiing!
Vermont is not a big state, but leave extra time for driving depending on where you’re coming from, as we don’t have highways everywhere. And just FYI April can be nice in Burlington and south of there (our banana belt), but could still be winter in other parts of the state. Not our most beautiful time of year, especially for someone who grew up in KY seeing daffodils in late March (here they bloom in May).
Gosh, we Vermonters hope more of you come to college here and stay here; we need more young people!!
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@MorseLewis I know kids and have friends with kids who have attended UCSB, Berkeley, Davis, UCLA, UCSD, UC Riverside. UC Merced and housing has never been an issue for them. Their kids normally stay thru sophomore year and then they are able to get roommates and find places away from the dorm. They do have the usual struggle of making sure the lease timing work, but in the college areas, most of the landlords have a reasonable school lease structure.
The biggest issue I hear is kids getting their GEs on the timing they prefer with popular GEs. I had that problem in 1993-97 at the UW where we would have to get up super early once phone registration opened.
I can see how UC Santa Cruz can be problematic since the surrounding area is made up of reg residential homes or kind of a touristy venues based on how that town is. When my D24 has soccer tournaments there, I do know that hotels are never inexpensive for an area where I am never motivated to travel to as a vaca touristy spot.
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I am really hoping D21 picks a New England school. I have wanted to move back to the Boston area since I left! I like to ski, but don’t like lifts, so I really want to try xc skiing!
We are making our plans to visit in April. Isolate prior and then get a rapid test 2 days before we leave. That gets us to MA. We could rapid test again a few days after we get there and then go to NH. If that isn’t enough, we will just drive the campuses.
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