It really is fascinating what they all view as important and then what they don’t at all. I always wanted 4 kids. We moved to this house when I had 3, but we did have 5 bedrooms. At the time the 5th was a small playroom. When my twins were about 14 months I was so tired and said “that’s it, I’m done”. My oldest was almost 4 then. Welp, wouldn’t you know just my luck, I had a surprise pregnancy about a month later. Best surprise ever it turned out because I can’t picture our family without him.
Anyway, the furniture in his room ultimately was the furniture from my oldest’s room when he got all new furniture, but parts of it was also that kid’s baby furniture (dresser). So this kid still has in his room a white dresser that is 24 years old, the first big boy bed that my oldest had (twin) and then some crappy desk from IKEA that we did buy for him. For years I’ve been trying to tell him I want to get new furniture and redo the room and he says no. I figured finally he will be gone, and I can just get rid of the crap, get a new bed and make it a simple room. I said something and he said NO. Omg, wth? I know it’s his room, but seriously. I’d be happy to give him my other son’s room too and revert this to something else. Even a mancave of some sort for him and my husband. My other son when he comes to visit can sleep in the basement.
Our top kids did well, but with different schools than historically. For example, we usually have 3-5 at Vandy and UNC but not this year. Meanwhile, many more going to UVA than typical. And Indiana was also unusual. This is in no particular order and not the complete class (of 111) but I think I got all the ones with multiple attending.
Brown - 2
UVA - 6
Northwestern - 3
WashU - 2
Tulane - 6
Michigan - 3
Wake Forest - 5
Indiana - 3
Notre Dame - 5
TCU - 3
UT-A - 2
UNC-CH
Georgetown
Columbia
Cornell
Middlebury
Bowdoin
Davidson
Dickinson
Denison
Colgate
Tufts
BC
W&L
UGA - a good many
GaTech - 4-5
I remember a TV show called The Middle (loved that show!). Axl left for college with a toothbrush, a towel and an inflatable palm tree. (Meanwhile, his mom went berserk in Bed Bath & Beyond.)
@Faulkner1897 Yup. I checked everything (perks of having a mom who’s an engineer). Plastic water kettle is approved and the surge protectors have grounding and the right amp/joule ratings per the Brown requirements.
@skieurope I don’t remember the last time I’ve been to a mall and the only physical store I go to is probably Costco once in a while. I even use delivery by Wee! for Asian grocery. I’ve helped design every key feature and navigation you’ve seen on every major retailer website. Trust me, I know the value of online shopping. I also know that I don’t want to be in line to deal with the crowd on moving day to pick up things and the last thing I know my son wants to deal with is first weeks of school and lugging stuff from student mail center to his dorm. I know my level of patience and aversion to crowds (hence, the love for online shopping) and I know my kid’s mindset. Getting a luggage cart, if even needed at all, and putting bags in the mini van rental is way more convenient for us than dealing with move-in chaos and not knowing if things will be delivered on time or if they show up messed up or broken.
@srparent15 I wonder if he uses the plastic bag for travel? Before COVID, I traveled often for work, and I just put my dry cosmetics in a ziploc bag and liquid in another ziploc bag in case they randomly pull me out of the TSA line to check. I didn’t want to sort out cosmetics when I traveled so the ziploc bag was my travel kit
Bedding is tough. I think my daughter would want a preference color (thankfully, it’s a neutral color). I just got my son a combo of grey and sage green. Neutral baby decor colors and they won’t bleed when they choose to throw everything in the wash.
Any suggestions for how to transport/store jewelry? I’m not a jewelry person myself, but my D has a handful of necklaces and bracelets she plans to bring (nothing super expensive or special) and I am struggling with ideas for how to manage that without getting a tangled mess. Don’t want to bring her current jewelry box. Open to suggestions.
Save your empty toilet paper or paper towel roll and either wrap the necklaces around the toilet paper roll twice or cut the paper towel role to size to manage the necklaces so they don’t tangle.
I like frugal ways. Thread the necklaces through straws and put in a ziplock. Lay sets of earrings out on a large sheet of press and seal plastic wrap. Press around the earrings. Roll up the sheet of earrings and put in a ziplock. Alternatively for the earrings - poke small holes with a pin in a paper plate and put the earrings through. Can use press & seal on the plate, too, if desired. Put the plate in a ziplock.
Clearly an elite HS and it’s not obvious where it’s located because the grads are going to a lot of geographies. Maybe Georgia but interesting that there’s no Emory, U of Miami or Vandy. A challenging environment for students.
I picked a school in Charlotte (Charlotte Latin) that’s $27K/year and its top schools over the last five years were:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
58
Clemson University
50
Wake Forest University
28
Auburn University
16
Washington and Lee University
15
Southern Methodist University
13
University of South Carolina-Columbia
13
College of Charleston
12
Elon University
12
North Carolina State University
12
Our public high school sends about 10% to UT-Austin then a bit more to Oklahoma (6%) than Texas A&M. Arkansas is #4. Pretty easy to tell what MSA that’s in.
Ha! Good catch. Yes, we are in GA. And also a good point about how the commitments are all over the place… another sign of an unusual year for our school. Typically we do have Vandy and UMiami. We did have one Emory, which I missed in my write-up.
