My S has a nightmare class this semester with two labs again and is feeling a bit overwhelmed. Prof is notorious and has a thick accent. He also got very sick - Covid? Is gun-shy about joining things. Did not get selected for rush after a half hearted late attempt. One of his best friends is taking a year off. It’s not a great start to the semester for him but he does have Fall break right now. He’s actually in fairly good spirits thankfully but is totally preoccupied about his tough class. He is enjoying getting out hiking into the gorgeous colors of New England. Thank goodness he will have a different set of classes after Christmas!
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I saw that spike too, back in August. I just checked last week, and it looks like prices have gone back down for some routes.
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Well this is interesting about sophomore slump. I decided to talk to a friend about what is going on with my daughter and she just told me her daughter (who is good friends with mine) is also leaving her university right now and unable to finish the semester. While I wish things weren’t so difficult at the moment, it does help to not be alone. Instinctively I know everything is eventually going to work out, but in the meantime while there are no answers or a plan in place is where I suffer from a lot of anxiety of the unknowns. I’m trying really hard to just stay in the day that I am in. Today we have a family appointment with my daughter’s therapist. I hope I can keep it together enough so it can be a productive use of time.
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My D has 4 8:10 AM classes this quarter, which is tough enough for her, but a few months back, she agreed to house and pet (dog, fish and lots of bonsai plants) sit for a couple that would be out of town this past week.
So, she slept at the house, had a bunch of house chores, but she had to wake up even earlier, get to school before her 8:10 AM classes, get back to the house during her early afternoon break and then get back to campus for her late afternoon/early evening GE class. And then back to the house to sleep.
All the back and forth and the early hours really stressed her out. Great pay, and big tip, but we don’t think it was worth all the stress, early wake up calls and constant driving back and forth between campus and the house.
But that is over now. And she was just notified that she got great research internship with some of her school’s grad students in her department. That was the good news. Her school’s motto and philosophy is to “learn by doing.” And she will definitely be doing that.
She will be driving home for the weekend, since she doesn’t want to be around for Family Weekend when all the freshman and their parents will take over the campus and town. I’m sure she’ll sleep most of the weekend. 
But I’ll keep a watchful eye for that “sophomore slump,” because there are always some sort of apartment (on campus) mate issues too.
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My D has been busy, but maybe too busy. She just finished a big headache of a paper for a prof who is very particular (said she had to email him a good many times before he finally
accepted her thesis for the paper) and has midterms in the next few days. She felt she wasn’t quite busy enough last year (although she had an enjoyable year with good results) and thought she should ramp it up. Well, she did, and is now living with the effects. She holds an office for a group she’s involved in, rushed and joined a sorority this fall (was very much on the fence about Greek life going into college) and just got a job as a campus tour guide. She gets stressed when juggling a lot so she may live to regret piling on this much at once. She’s excited about it all, but just feeling the weight of it now at mid-term. I told her it’s all a learning experience. Since she got seven credits for summer school and is on target for her major, if it all proves to be too much maybe she will cut back a little with the academic schedule next semester and then go easy on the social life next year. Her class is over-enrolled and dorms will not be guaranteed next year …she wanted one less thing to worry about so she already signed a lease for an apartment right off campus with three others (including her freshman/current roommate). She’ll be coming home later this week, it’ll be so nice to have her around for a few days and take walks/buy pumpkins now that the leaves are turning where we live (fall is D’s favorite season).
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Those apartment complexes are like resorts. In her sophomore year my Daughter lived in dorm/apartment with her freshman roommate and two other girls. They had some drama as well but eventually it all worked out. Hopefully it will for your daughter as well.
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D is not in a sophomore slump but is feeling very overwhelmed with the totality of the work load. She is in her first engineering project lab. She is spending about 35-40 hours a week in the lab right working with her group members, while interviewing for internships and working her on campus job . She has a poor appetite, and not sleeping enough.
Thankfully this year, her friend group has gotten even more solid. The friends all live together off campus She hangs out at their apartment on most weekends . They even got her a pillow and blanket since she stays over so often.
As far a dorm mate issues, there have not been any. D is friendly with her 3 other mates but does not hang out with any of them.
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Well now D told me the 35-40 hours for the project lab were for first 2 weeks, now it is 10-15 hours a week. Hope she gets more rest now.
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Hi! It’s been about a year since I’ve been on here and I just slowly caught up with over 700 posts. I love coming back to read all of the updates.
I cant remember the last time I updated but I think it was early in D21’s first semester at CU Boulder. She had a tough first year, never really found “her people.” She really liked her roommate but the roommate was pretty depressed and never wanted to go out - she even flew home about 4-5 weekends in the first semester. By November she decided to transfer to be closer to home. Luckily D21 found another girl looking for a roommate and they completely hit it off. Unfortunately that girl had applied to be an RA so they couldn’t room together this year.
She briefly considered transferring but couldn’t even think of anywhere else she would want to go - she loved the campus, her classes, the town and the mountains so decided to stick it out for another year.
This year has been so much better - she has beautiful apartment with a view of the mountains from her bedroom and balcony, likes her roommates, has met a few friends in her complex, joined the radio station and has just been more active on campus in general. She still likes her major (Environmental Studies) and thinks she is going to add Education as a minor.
We went to visit her a few weeks ago and it was awesome to see her so much happier than last year!
@Picklenut6 I am sorry to hear your D is having a rough time. I love that you support her so much and hoping things turn around for her.
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Boulder and CU are great, but if you’re not a partier and/or in the Greek system it can take a while to find your peeps. Once you find them it’s a magical place.
I hope your trip was for parents weekend and you attended the football game. That was a great win!
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My daughter lives off campus this year too. While she loves having her own room/bathroom and loves her roommates (there are 4 of them), she is feeling lonely and a bit isolated in the apartment. She and her roommates are all gone at different times, and they all have boyfriends who attend the same college (hers is 3 hours away). She got a part time job so she didn’t feel like she was lying in bed most of the day. She misses the social aspect of dorm living.
She has decided to move into her sorority house for next year in an effort to be around more people and make more friends in her sorority. It means having a roommate, a shared bathroom and having to eat meals on campus but I’m proud of her for changing her situation. She plans to study abroad for Spring of 2024. The roommates are very supportive of her decision, and they have each decided to go their separate ways next year also (although I know they will still hang out).
There’s a lot of social pressure to have an Instagram-worthy college experience from day 1, but like my older daughter says, Insta is just a highlight reel - it’s more likely that the frequent picture posters are also having down days and feelings of loneliness and uncertainty.
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@AlwaysMoving We did not get to got parent’s weekend sadly! We got a new puppy at the beginning of October so had to change plans and visited her at the end of September. She went to the parent weekend game with her roommates and their dads though- she is not big in to football but had a blast and they got to rush on to the field. 
@CollegeNerd67 I was worried D would be more isolated in the apartment but luckily it has worked out for her so far. She does want to move to the more social neighborhood next year though. He freshman dorm was a weird situation - not on the main campus, the floors were set up in an odd way so she could go days without seeing anybody else, just not very social in general. It was just bad luck though because we know kids in the other off campus dorms who loved it. I hope she loves living in the sorority house!
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Please allow me to brag: D applied to 4 internships (EE major) and received 4 offers. The one she really wanted came in today. And to top it off, a crush from her true tribe year old friend group is now her boyfriend!
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How are all the kids doing as the end of the second yr approaches?
DS is doing research in Europe this summer, thanks to a grant from his school.
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@Aguadecoco research in Europe sounds incredible!! and a grant to make it happen, even better. D has a 12 week internship this summer in Dallas. D has ruled out grad school, as research was not her jam.
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I’m still on CC frequently for S23, and it was so nice to see the Class of 2021 thread jump back up to the top of the ‘latest’ threads.
For those of you who had followed D21’s very unhappy college search, I’m happy to report that she’s loving and thriving at the much-unloved ‘safety school’ where she got a full tuition merit scholarship. She has a 4.0, is presenting her research at a state-wide conference this month, then studying in Africa this summer and then Patagonia and Antarctica this fall, and has been an All-American in her sport both years and loves the team and found her ‘people’. All with her 529 left mostly intact for grad school, although the two study abroads are now making a nice dent in it.
How are more of the other 21’s doing? It’s great to see everyone’s updates, and I hope that life has improved for those whose college journeys have taken some unexpected detours. Hardly anyone will have perfectly smooth sailing though the HS and college years; it’s just a question of how big the waves are.
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D21 is finishing up working as a volunteer on a research project at SLO this academic year and has been working part-time in her future career field, hopefully.
She will be spending the summer down in SLO continuing to work, accumulating hours. Her future career field will require a graduate degree. Those apps are planned for senior year. At least that’s the plan for now.
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These two years have gone by rather quickly.
S is happy and well. He will spend a huge chunk of summer in Central Asia strengthening his critical language skills at a university, and living with a host family.
I enjoy reading what other 21’s are doing.
That senior year of our kids applying, and then waiting and making decisions; and finally, for freshman drop off seems so long ago. I was very thankful for this group to share in that process. 
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D21 is so happy in her college community! She declared her major, history, which was not a surprise. The history depart at W&M has so many excellent professors and interesting classes.
After D19’s graduation, she and D21 are going to see Taylor Swift on D21’s birthday, which they are both over the moon about. Then, D21 will be studying in Scotland for five weeks. When she comes home, she will go back to her summer camp job, which is hard work, but she loves it. I will have all three of our kids at home for 1.5 months!! I feel so lucky.
College has been 100 times better than high school for D21. Way less stress, and such lovely friends. She does get homesick for family, and she did have some rocky times while adjusting, but I wish had known how well it would turn out!
It’s great to read the updates. Keep them coming!
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