Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 2)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
5648

If you live on campus the only meal plans of 7,10, 14 or all you can eat which are good deals, the off campus plans which is the 45 is not a good deal. They have indeed scaled back the food a lot and generally the different dining halls do have different food but not sure if they’ve ramped that back up this year or not. We learned beforehand that the best plan to get is 7 because you can always go up but you can’t always go down. I would rather pay a few extra dollars if my kid went over. Sure enough she didn’t. Engineering is so far away from North Campus that with the BRBs she got and the 7 meals it was a non issue. They gave them the BRBs from last year that weren’t used and she only just finished them this week. She buys 1 bagel on campus a day basically. I have no doubt my son will need the unlimited plan wherever he goes. The food thing though is really disappointing because Cornell is known to have the top 10 food of any college so that went downhill fast! I hope next year it will be better. It’s not much better in her sorority either although she said they got a new chef and is finally not eating some form of chicken nightly so that’s a plus.

The dining was WAY scaled back first semester. If they scaled it back further this semester that is admittedly inexcusable.

5649

My D just found IB tests are cancelled and they will get a score based on an algorithm like last year. I don’t know if this is all schools or just her HS.

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5650

The problem with gap years is how do you make productive use of a gap year if much of the world is still on lockdown (we are way ahead of most of the rest of the planet on vaccines).

My oldest 22 year old daughter just graduated from an SEC school last may with a degree in marketing and an interest in travel, leisure, and sports businesses. So obviously hotels, airlines, travel firms, cruise ships, resorts, etc. were all not hiring and she was forced to basically take a gap year. She fussed around all summer hanging out in her HS bedroom watching netflix and doing several unpaid online internships in publishing and such until she landed a job at a local ski resort in late fall and has been having a blast snowboarding all winter and working in the business/marketing office of the resort. So luckily she fell into something that she is enjoying, even if it isn’t the career job that she wanted. But the first 6 months of her forced gap year were not productive or healthy.

We had plans to send her down to Chile where my wife is from and where we have lots of family connections, where she could master her Spanish and work for any number of different local firms that do international business from Chile. But the pandemic killed all of that. And who knows when the Chilean economy will open back up enough to allow that sort of thing.

I look at D21 and I really have no idea what productive use she would put to a gap year in fall 2021. In any normal time, we would send her down to Chile on some sort of DIY work and study abroad thing. But these aren’t normal times. And if the Pandemic is still fierce enough to shut down higher education in the US then it is certainly going to be still fierce enough to prevent her from doing any sort of productive international experience. Is she supposed to just stay home and work at the local Starbucks drive through for a year?

Even if schools are still on some sort of hybrid operation in fall 2021 I think I’d still rather see her make the best of it than have some sort of idle gap year where she falls into sloth.

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5651

S19 took fall off and was super productive - in person internship in a field he is interested in and was paid well too. There will be even more options for 2021-2022 kids.

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5652

Thank you, I appreciate that, but it’s not easy always doing the right thing. My girls especially are very loyal friends. Always defending and standing up to their friends to the end and doing the right thing for them. But it kills me sometimes when their friends don’t do the right thing by them, or intentionally exclude them and then get busted and instead of just being honest and coming clean, lie. My kids aren’t idiots. Sometimes things go over their heads, but when it comes to someone trying to make up some elaborate lie they aren’t that dumb. Some of their friends unfortunately, would buy into it, but not them. So they easily get hurt.

But I want my kids to be good people. If that means including someone to something because it’s the right thing to do, then so be it. It’s a lot easier to be inclusive than not.

They may not always be nice to me, lol, but that’s pretty normal I hope and I’m pretty proud of them. I just hope they don’t all 4 end up in 4 different parts of the country with us here in the midwest. So far it’s not looking too good! :frowning:

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5653

Omg, happy to be done, but imagine how easy it should hopefully be by then after this crap show.

5654

That is great to hear. D21 is interested in PhD track studies in molecular biology. I’m not sure what kind of in-person internships there are in that field for kids who haven’t even yet darkened the doorway of a college or university.

5655

Same. 4 years.

I have time to get D25 to fall in love with 2-3 good schools that give fantastic merit aid and do EA. She owes me an easy college application. LOL!

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5656

The schools get to choose. My daughter’s school is still having them and she is not happy about it - it sounds like it was a unilateral decision by the woman who is the IB coordinator. She really wishes they would be using the predictive scoring because she feels like they aren’t fully prepared for all of the tests this year. I don’t understand why they would allow some students to receive predictive scores and have others take the exams. It makes me think the curve is going to be crazy because the most prepared schools will probably be the ones taking the exams. IB is so unique in so many ways, with the final paper, orals, and the exams. Either way, she’s like “c’est la vie, I’m going to college” The only thing is it will be a bummer if it affects the number of college credits she gets. Just one more resilience building exercise and I’m proud of her for soldiering on :slight_smile:

5657

Our school has had an IB diploma for a long time and they’re really good at it. I think they know everyone’s score will be high enough for the diploma, and that’s all they care about. I just hope my D gets enough on her Math HL and Spanish HL to get credit for those in college. Outside of that I’m super happy she has one less thing to stress about.

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5658

A lot of the kids we know at UT and TAMU decided to stay home to save money. The freshmen that went reported good experiences, maybe because if you are from TX you will know lots of kids from your area already.

S21 knows tons of kids that are going to UT, not just locally but from sports and other school ECs that are statewide.

5659

I’m so happy for her. I think using predictive grades this year makes a lot of sense! The Math HL exam is going to be crazy since it’s the first year they’ve ever given this specific exam. French HL and Math HL are the two she’s worried about (and probably the ones most affected from this wacky two years).

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5660

Exactly and not just based on general acceptance, but may be waiting on results for honors, scholars, merit $, final FA, special programs to which they were invited to apply after general acceptance.

MANY of those decisions either just recently came out or have not come out yet. We personally are experiencing one where university delayed response timing (i.e. were supposed to have heard in February on merit amount, as of today still waiting) and two where she was accepted to honors/scholars just this past week.

Then you factor in the differences in the planning phase compared to pre-COVID lockdowns that make this year a completely different road. At the start of this process, mine thought she had a clear favorite. What was this based on? An all day in-person visit with a 30-minute general info session + 60-minute departmental info session and tour, + 90-minute general tour? No. It was based on a 30-minute virtual zoom Q&A with two students currently in the major that was put in place last minute when all the Spring Break tours were cancelled 2 weeks before they were supposed to happen. D found out was accepted in November and will get merit $, but amount to be shared in February (see above). Finally, able to visit after acceptance (self-guided). Didn’t quite live up to expectations, but still in consideration. Would a rah, rah in-person tour have presented school more positively than wandering around on our own? Probably. I do also think she has been holding her emotions back with that one overall due to the $ mystery. I do not believe this is an isolated scenario this year.

So, now she is sitting on 8 general acceptances (out of 8), none of which are a clear #1 and the order of preference has changed about 10 times over the last 4 months as bits and pieces of information have trickled in (again still waiting on some). Some are having their admitted students info sessions this month. Certain sessions are not until April. Some departmental $ or special programs, she will not know until April (we are not going to wait on those to make a decision, but some in similar boat may want to consider those). Some have not announced COVID Fall 2021 plans yet or are sending mixed signals, which is a KEY factor for her (hello UNC). Virtual school is going to be a likely No from her, given some on her list have already said they plan to be back to something close to normal. Are there some places on her list where it is more likely that she would enroll than others? Of course, but until she has all the information and can sit down with a more full picture of each school, she feels she cannot click ‘decline’ because yes, some new piece of information may change her mind.

Trust me, we wish we were in the boat where we had all the information back from all schools and/or there was a clear winner and easy decision, but we are not. Do I feel a little bad that means she is holding onto 7 eventual declines? Yes, a little. Do I feel she should be made to feel bad over her situation? No.

I’m sorry, and people may disagree, but THIS year of all years GCs should not be pressuring kids on their college decision process. It’s been a hard enough and crappy enough Senior year as it is for them. Also, I don’t think the “holding on just to hold on even though you definitely made a final decision” is that common nationwide across all students. Of my Ds friends, the ones who have not clicked declines it is because they are still figuring out their decisions.

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5661

I think this is key. We are from WA and D21 is still waiting to hear from UW, which is supposed to announce admissions next Friday. If she ends up going to UW she will probably already know several dozen students from her HS who are already there or in her HS graduating class. And we have a lot of family all over the Seattle area. Plus I would expect her to quickly make friends with other kids from nearby schools who are enrolling. There seems to be a huge advantage in this time of Covid to say close where you already have the social connections and network as they are harder to construct in a partly virtual world. If she went off to say, Berkeley or Michigan where she knows no one within 500 miles it is going to be a lot bigger struggle to find community when you have none to start with.

5662

Of course tons always go to UT from Texas, lol, but it will be interesting what happens with housing next fall since on campus housing isn’t guaranteed and they don’t have enough anyway. Some sophs came back this semester to the dorms and they’re staying in dorms since they don’t really know anyone. Then you have all the freshmen that stayed home that also have priority to live in the dorms over freshmen that are going that route since they too want to meet people. Most of the sororities you don’t live in until Junior year so unless you live in an apartment which many do, not sure how much of a shortage there will be with housing.

Of course it makes sense people had their kids stay home to save money or because they didn’t want to be at school remote, but it’s a bummer they did since UT is such an inexpensive school for in state that if they can afford it (I know not everyone can), it is one of the best bangs for your buck. And for those that stay home, there is still a cost to staying home. My bills, especially food are way less with my kids back at school than when they’re home, I think it’s actually cheaper for them to be at school than living in my house but everyone has different reasons and needs so they need to do what works for them and their families.

I hope they can open up next year. My D wants to be an in person tutor and I think she’s sick of worrying about finding quiet places to take her classes from etc. Also, it’s just nice to get the heck out of your living space every so often. My kids have never been the type to go to the libary to study so I don’t see that suddenly starting now as much as it would be a nice option.

5663

Even though the individual schools do get to choose, our entire region of 100+ IB schools made the decision together to cancel the exams. Maybe something will change with your school if more in the area cancel?

5664

We don’t really have IB schools here, but out of curiosity, what does the IB Exam mean ultimately? Is it just an accomplishment or is it like an AP Exam of sorts or something more meaningful or none of the above?

5665

I will say in the SE there’s a lot of variability actually, but definitely some large schools with a large element of what you described. There are also schools that are mountainy outdoorsy, schools that are beachy, schools that are artsy, schools that are that more as you described, and schools that are a mix of types.

5666

I wish! We’re the only private school with full IB and there is only one public school. It’s a heavy AP area. The plus is that I think it’s seen as a real differentiator in admissions for students in our area (if you are full IB diploma). I’m happy your region made a sensible decision - that’s so great for your kids :slight_smile:

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5667

My D18 went off to Michigan (from CA) with zero friends from HS and the 1st year was definitely a struggle. Her dorm mate was friendly, but the dorm mate had dozens of friends from the Chicago area to hang with around campus.

D18 even struggled into her 2nd year, but she found 3 roommates to room with her sophomore year, though none are roommates with her this year. However, now she has finally found her “cohort.” She will be signing another lease at the same place as this year with the same roommates.

This is just my view, but the “struggle” is/was good for her. Obviously too much struggle is bad, but some is good. I’ve said this before, but even with remote classes and Covid, she’s having the best year of her 3 years there.

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