No, weather now is looking up and 80’s by Tuesday. Finally nice weather!! Yesterday was crap, but today is so nice and sunny.
UT-Austin has a great setup for paying tuition. You can pay by credit card for a small transaction fee, but our credit card pays us cash back at 2.5% which is higher than the transaction fee, but when my daughter was a non resident what was an even better perk was that for $15 I think it was you could make installment payments where you pay 50% tuition the first month, then 25% by sept 30 and the remaining 25% by oct 30 or somewhere around there. With the float and all the cash back, I more than made up the $15 installment fee since tuition was $21k/semester. Now as an in state it’s only $6600/semester so it’s not worth it other than just using the credit card.
Michigan is already sending tuition emails and offered an interest free installment plan for $30. Pay over 5 equal installments beginning on June 30 for 5 months ending on October 30 or pay full tuition by August 31. I’m tempted but I don’t really want to make two payments 30 and 60 days early when I can keep my money and pay $30 but I will have to assess the worth of also keeping it for 30 and 60 days later on the backside. Also have to check if they take credit cards although I’m assuming other than for the deposit, they do not.
They have also already sent an email requesting final transcript, AP official scores and official ACT/SAT scores if not already sent and if self reported. We couldn’t even remember if we sent the ACT scores, but fortunately that was one school we did since they had always said they preferred a score sent, so at least that’s done, but they email nonstop and email the parents as well, even my husband is getting emails and I have to admit it is sort of annoying. These kids need to be independent and they sure aren’t helping when they send everyone and their brother an email. Now it makes sense to me why parents at my other kid’s schools wondered why only the kids ever got things. We get them, but not things that the kids need to be responsible about. Fine line for some to not being a helicopter parent and letting your kid learn independence.
Thanks for that message. Obviously as a WLer, didn’t have the op to partake in “ask me anything” with D of Adm
Fingers crossed 
for all hopefuls (here and everywhere)
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From Stanford Daily news:
Stanford will require all undergraduate, graduate and professional students coming to campus this fall to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, according to a Thursday email from Provost Persis Drell.
The requirement comes as the availability of vaccines increases nationwide and a growing number of peer institutions — including Columbia, Yale, Brown and Cornell — release their own plans to require the shot for their students’ return in the fall.
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Fine line indeed.
Quarters vs semesters… how much does it matter?
Our D may well be heading there as well, though she’s keeping us in suspense until the weekend! Would love to connect with other BMC families if she ends up committing!
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I’m just curious about something. Boston University, where my daughter will be attending in the fall, is requiring students to get a vaccine. I’m A-okay with that as I think it will really push things towards normalcy. However, they are not requiring staff/teachers to get the vaccine. I’m just wondering if anyone has any insight into why that might be. As long as they have committed to being back in person in the fall (which they have) it isn’t a big concern to me. Others on the fb parent page are upset. I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t make them since they are making the students. Like I said, it doesn’t concern me. I’m just curious what the reasoning would be.
I would assume it’s a collective bargaining issue that would have to be negotiated.
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I don’t know the reason but for Stanford, if anyone who cannot get the vaccine due to medical or religious reason, they are required to take the COVID test multiple times a week. Maybe the staff at BU are required to do the same?
I think it’s because professors and staff don’t live in dorms and it’s way easier for them to isolate than a student.
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Congrats to your daughter! My son will also be attending BU coming fall. He committed just yesterday officially 
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Hello, D20 is at Barnard and finishing a terrific freshman year. In answer to some of the questions on this site, no the students don’t leave campus on the weekends. It’s not a commuter school at all. The only time D has left campus on a weekend has either been because of a pre-scheduled trip or to take a day-long hike with fellow students up at Bear Mountain, which she said was super fun.
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@tellis6653 yes, it’s technically a union issue. That said, there has been significant push to faculty and staff to choose to get the vaccine and they are asking everyone who does to share their status with an online system so they can manage testing next year. They are still planning on the strict testing protocols currently in place during fall semester but may allow those who’ve been vaccinated some leeway with that. And the message is clear that all faculty will be in classrooms in the Fall. Though that’s not a huge change, with the LFA model running this year, the expectation now is that faculty are in classrooms. There is no similar requirement for students now. That is what will really change in the Fall.
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D got the 2nd Pfizer jab today. She is working hard on FRQ’s for physics C E&M now with no symptoms from the shot.
In other news, I met a dad on the FB Texas Tech engineering parents page who both he and his wife are electrical engineers and both work for NASA. Both graduated from Tech and their son is EE freshman there. D is very interested in NASA so a great connection was made today. Our kids exchanged digits and plan to meet and study next semester.
And congrats to @mamaedefamilia!
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Doesn’t matter as it’s really a personal preference. I transferred from colleges and went from a semester to a quarter system. From my person experience here’s what I can tell you.
Quarter system goes very quickly because each “quarter” is only 10 weeks long. You usually have one midterm and then the final, so the midterm tends to weigh more heavily on your grade in this system than if one were on a semester where you generally would have more semester exams and more opportunities to improve on a grade (or hurt your grade).
Quarter system was great if you didn’t like a professor because you were done with them very quickly.
Quarter systems generally start later in fall, finish earlier then start earlier in January than other schools and go into June much later than other schools. Some kids do not like this and in some cases it may hamper internships etc, but to me you just start them later and can work at them later. My daughter who is not on a quarter system is starting her internship June 1 and told me someone is beginning in early May. That kid is probably also going later than her based on a hunch of mine what school that person is at. It’s just how the cookie crumbles.
Personally I wound up loving the quarter system but it is not for everyone. It can be a little stressful. I had one professor where the entire grade was only the final exam. That was a little rough but worked out for me at least. Also, you wind up having to take 2 quarters of some classes as opposed to just having one semester. A good example is a school like Northwestern is on quarters. APUSH gets you 2 courses there vs only one course at semester colleges. The conversion of semester to quarter hours is 1semester = 1.5 quarter hours.
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Yes, this is the issue at most schools. Can’t make the staff/faculty due to union contracts. However, most faculty/staff are getting it anyway. Cornell’s covid dashboard lists how many staff/faculty and students are already vaccinated and the number of faculty/staff to date is almost equal to the amount of students at around 5k which is huge considering most students have not yet been able to get it. 38% of all staff, faculty and students are already vaccinated. Can’t say how awesome this is. Also, staff/faculty have their own private offices and are not living in congregant living situations and most of them are not engaging in risky behavior or activities such as playing sports, going to social gatherings, parties, etc, so it only makes sense that students are required over faculty/staff even if it wasn’t a union issue.
@ububumble Cornell has already lessened the testing requirements for those that are fully vaccinated. My daughter had been required to get tested 3x/week but now she only needs to go 1x/week because she is fully vaccinated. It feels liberating to her to be vaccinated. She doesn’t care about wearing a mask, but there are still plenty of anti masker parents in the parent group as well as anti vaxers but it is funny when there is an anti vax parent who finds out their kid gets the vax without discussing with them, but of course, why should they? The kids are over 18 and I’m sure most of these kids are not discussing many things about their health or bodies with their parents.
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That makes sense. I guess I just don’t see the reason to be upset about it. As someone mentioned, they won’t be living in the dorms with students.
That’s great! She applied ED so I feel like it was forever ago that she found out. She is super excited to start the next chapter of her life.
No but they’ll hold office hours with students. I think it’s also the optics: you’re requiring students but the staff and faculty get a choice…little discriminatory treatment there. If the goal is herd immunity, a safe open campus environment and suppressing the virus as much as possible … which what been pushed since the vaccines were released…then everyone should do their part.
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