Thank you for mentioning the mattress topper! I’ve been intending to get one for S23. I ended up getting a Tempur-pedic but from Costco just now, so it might be a little bit cut rate, but it was $125 instead of $197.
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It was hard pushing that ‘complete order’ button for the topper. I’m trying to do the ‘price per sleeps’ math of good quality topper that (fingers crossed) D23 will have for the 4 years of undergrad. It’s the only way I could even begin to justify.
On the other hand, Target was having some good sales on comforters so she found one she liked for less than $40! And found some very cute twin XL sheets on sale at Macys for $12. So maybe the topper will be the only super big expense for D23’s dorm room? I can hope, right? 
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D22 told me she didn’t need a mattress topper and I felt delinquent for not getting her one. However, I decided to wait and see if she changed her mind. She never did so it isn’t a must have for all kids.
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My kids are all huge fans of toppers, usually a gel one with a down topper on top of that. Makes a huge difference!
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We bought a fancy tempurpedic-style mattress topper for S21, and he took it to college and hated it. 
Couldn’t sleep a wink. He asked us to buy him a dirt-cheap foam topper like the one he had in his room here at home, so we sent that via Amazon and drove back the fancy one after Parents’ Weekend. So his sister (D23) already has a barely-used fancy one ready to go. 
I do recommend that if you are wanting to get the IKEA-style Frakta bags like many people do, get on that early. They will sell out!
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I’m a little embarrassed to admit we bought extra Frakta bags for D23 when we bought them for D20. I mean, I don’t regret it but I have had those bags in the closet for almost 4 years now.
They really are the best and make move in so easy.
ETA: Ok, I’ll admit I also bought some for S24 at the same time. Yes, I have 8 unused Frakta bags in my linen closet waiting for action.
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I have honestly found so many uses for them even outside of moving children up and down the state of CA for college!
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D20 uses one of hers as a laundry bag to haul her clothes and detergent to the laundry room at college.
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I’m told our toppers are Lucid brand - not sure if that’s good or not but it’s made into get warm (I’m told). Kids both liked them.
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If admissions says “We superscore”, does this mean you send the superscore report only? I know one of S24 schools says they need all scores sent and then they do the superscore, but other schools don’t specify. I will obviously have S24 ask admissions directly but curious in the meantime.
Many schools allow for self reporting on the common app.
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If on commonnapp, it’s most likely a school will only see the highest sections as you report them.
Once you accept their offer, then you’d send in the tests to verify.
So it’s likely you’ll be ok. But some require you send in now. That adds up cost wise but hopefully only the superscore would still be evaluated.
The self reporting leads to more apps I believe as it keeps costs down for the student.
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Our S23’s college has had only one email in weeks matter of factly providing a list of things to do over the next few months (housing by mid-May, transcript by 7/1, etc.), and that’s it on the official side. What is super annoying are the minimum of 3 emails a day (sometimes more), 7 days a week, from the student store pushing sketchy sales promotions (“whole store up to 60%!”, when in reality maybe 2 items in the closeout category in some unpopular size are on sale). All this because we bought one t-shirt after he said he was committing. None our older kids colleges were this sleazy and aggressive with spam email.
Spam emails the worst. D23 isn’t getting spammed from her college or their student store and now I am just going to be grateful for that. They have chosen to separate emails depending on what the topic is (Housing one email, Health forms another). Imo that’s smart as I think many young adults miss information in emails that have multiple parts to keep track of.
She did have to block a different school she had applied to as they kept coming back with multiple emails saying, “Hey there’s still time to pick us!” after she said no in their portal.
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My child has benefitted from the generosity of Stanford donors, which made her attendance within our financial reach. I will forever be grateful that donors believed in pouring back in so that we could afford for my daughter to attend. Just yesterday she had a zoom call with the donors who provided this year’s financial aid for her. They were colleagues of a dear employee (Stanford grad) who passed away unexpectedly during COVID and they were SO excited to meet her and give back to an engineering student at a school that he loved.
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Pretty cool how there was a personal connection rather than nameless donors!
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Many allow self reporting, followed by a required confirmation of scores if the student is admitted.
Some don’t require the paid score report from the College Board, but will accept scores listed on the high school’s official transcript. Worth it to check, it will be on each college’s website.
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Off to CVS ! We’ve stared the convo on this at home, but my good girl daughter is squeamish about the subject of sex drugs rock and roll. I was a very good girl in high school and … was not by my second semester in college. I told her not to buy weed from a stranger, that mommy will take her to the local weed store (she’s stay sort of local, but gonna live in the dorms). She gasped.
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My hippie mom told me the same thing and I had the same reaction
Of course there was no official weed store back then, but she definitely had contacts…
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I am scared about weed. This is not your grandma’s weed anymore. The THC content is very different. I told the kids that they shouldn’t even try. It is a slippery slope.
And maybe folks here think I am naive :-). Sometimes, as a parent, saying what they should not do is important. I am a parent first and a friend later.
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