<p>"Surprised by how great the food was at at Cornell."</p>
<p>That brings me back. My first semester at Cornell taught me (a) how bad my mother's cooking really was, and (b) how hard it was to fit into my clothes after gaining 40 lbs.</p>
<p>I couldn't think of anything surprising until prompted by greybeard's post regarding college food. I am astonished at my D's new food preferences. Vegetables, particularly legumes, now fill her plates as she is avoids the substances masquerading as meat. She's also developed tastes for ethnic foods. Who is hiding my picky eater?</p>
<p>1st year D at U. Chicago:</p>
<p>surprised at how quickly she took to college. She handles everything well herself - with no parental help, sniff, sniff.</p>
<p>surprised at how a kid can get A's at a school with legendarily tough grading. </p>
<p>surprised at how messy her room was when I was there two weeks ago.</p>
<p>not surprised at how a very conservative kansas evangelical roommate did not mix with a liberal "agnostic jew" from the northeast, and moved out.</p>
<p>surprised at how we had few calls the first few weeks and now we get several a day.</p>
<p>Newmassdad -- assuming you might bear some relationship to the old Massdad -- delighted to hear your daughter "took" to college. A's at Chicago are impressive.</p>
<p>Charlesives, your son's journey sounds fascinating and a real growth experience. I hitchiked around europe when I was 17 (many, many moons ago) and it had a big impact on me. The one thing you may want to watch for is culture shock going back to school. Our D, who spent 3 weeks in India doing relief work is having a hard time adjusting to being back at school. It was truely a life changing time for her and she just wants to go back. She is finding support, at school and at her local Quaker meeting but it is not seamless transition. Going from 90 degrees to -7 degrees didn't help.</p>
<p>Newmassdad:</p>
<p>I've been wondering about the roommate. Glad to know the situation resolved itself, and congrats to your D for doing so well at a notoriously difficult school!</p>
<p>Sac, Marite, I was most impressed with D's Spanish grade. She was probably the only kid in her class with no prior spanish exposure. Nada. The first two weeks were murder for her. To hear her, you would have thought she was failing. She was, in fact, getting B's and a C or two on quizzes. Then things clicked. Now she complains that it is too easy.</p>
<p>Music theory turned out to be her hardest. She took the class for music majors, which included a piano requirement. So she had to teach herself piano for part of her grade. </p>
<p>Marite, yes, old roomie went to a single in another building. D has a new roomie that she already knew, and who is just as messy. New roomie has a bf, so there may be a little sexile going on, but D does not seem to care. She's far too busy this quarter with 2 sciences, hums, spanish, ultimate frisbee, orchestra, chamber and a lab job to be in her room...and she loves the pace.</p>
<p>Newmassdad -- Don't you love seeing her take advantage of so much they have to offer? Sports, music, lab job, classes. The true definition of a good "fit".</p>
<p>Sac, yes, it is interesting. Another surprise is seeing a kid use freedom to explore but still keep grades up. And, my D is already discovering one of those unique Chicago features: her ultimate frisbee teams is a combined undergrad, grad and prof. school team. You can bet she'll learn far more about next steps after undergrad from her teammates than from any advising session, or anything 'rents can tell her.</p>