<p>After a lost visa episode which I won't go into, and which resulted in D missing the first 2 weeks of her colege experience, I was amazed and reassured by the helpfulness of all the members of the Smith faculty who helped me deal with the problem. From the Dean of International students who spent hours on the phone with lawyers to try to find a solution, to her Stride supervisor who kept her posted and even registered her for courses they had discussed by e-mail, they have all been terrific.
For those of you who want a A+ education, and to know that your school cares for you and about you even before they have met you, over and above the call of duty, CHOOSE SMITH!</p>
<p>Oh, LIT, you and your daughter must have been completely panicked! I'm glad that your situation was addressed immediately and with care by Smith. I wouldn't expect any less of the administration.</p>
<p>Do give us updates on your daughter as she gets settled. I'm curious about how she will deal with both the culture shock and (as you said several months ago) the not-as-high-as-it-should-be confidence in reading English.</p>
<p>We were! The only positive element (apart from the 8 pounds I've lost in the last three weeks) is that intead of the usual misery of separation, her sister and I were so relieved and exstatic when we finally saw her get on that plane,that we sang at the top of our voices the whole way back from the airport!</p>
<p>Lit, good to see you back. One of the Smith propaganda brochures has a line that says something along the lines of "four years where it's all about you." I'd amend it slightly to say "four years of how can we make this work for you"?</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter...may the rest of her term be less traumatic. I'd guess that her housemates are very supportive as well.</p>
<p>Mwfn, I think I ought to borrow your pseudo now! Culture shock seems non-existant, probably because of the proliferation of I-pods, flipflops and American soaps on this side of the Atlantic. The only complaint is dinner at 5.30 pm, which is anathema in France.Bon dieu, at 8, we're still sipping our apero! But classes have barely begun, so fingers crossed!
The Dad, her roommate was and is terrific. She called every day and it looks like the perfect match. Apparently, they are the only frosh in the house, and still a bit shy of mixing with the seniors but I haven't had much info yet, and will probably get even less as time goes by!</p>
<p>LiT, yes, we're all waiting for news . . . That's what parents do best!</p>
<p>I'm glad to hear that things are going smoothly for your daughter -- especially in the roommate situation. Many first-year arrangements are dicey, although the students overcome them, one way or another.</p>
<p>The dinner at 5:30 is even earlier than most American families eat, but, since many students miss breakfast in favor of sleeping for an extra twenty minutes, your daughter can think of a 5:30 meal as lunch, with a midnight snack as her dinner. :-)</p>
<p>I know that my D is nowhere near going to bed at midnight so that 5:30pm as "lunch" augmented by snacky "supper" later may not be too far from the mark.<br>
One of the things that D liked the least about being home for the summer was that her internships and various household activities in commitments meant that she had to be up at 7am or earlier and thus perforce could not consistently stay up until 1am, 2am, ??? as is her during-school natural rhythm.</p>
<p>MWFN, we got our first phone call of the year later and it was a bit truncated with the "Well, I've a lot of work still to do...." Got to say, there was no easing in for the start of her semester. Sounds like she likes what she sees of all her classes so far.</p>
<p>Yeah, you have to eat by old man rules at Smith (i.e., super, super early). She'll get used to it, pretty soon she'll be starving if she has to wait until 6.</p>
<p>For my d., early dinner has always been a necessity - she has had some kind of Smith or Five-College activity virtually every night of the week.</p>
<p>Agreed. The only reason I mentioned it was that it showed that everything else was going fine. IMO, she has chosen courses that are too challenging (given that she has also her Stride work to do), but that is also because she didn't get to meet the professors or her advisor beforehand. It's a miracle she got anything she was interested in. Well, she's proved me wrong many times before about what she is able to handle.....</p>
<p>"given that she has also her Stride work to do"</p>
<p>I’m somewhat perplexed. Is your daughter a U.S. citizen?</p>
<p>"STRIDE Scholarships are only offered to first-year U.S citizens."</p>
<p>LiT is American, isn't she? So then her daughter would have dual citizenship, even if she was born in France.</p>
<p>"LiT is American, isn't she?"</p>
<p>I didn't believe so, but it appears she is.</p>
<p>I'm not, and D"s not.</p>
<p>In which case I would say that What Is has been Willed by She Who Wills What Must Be.</p>
<p>Congrats to your D on the STRIDE, LiT. Fwiw, I can now report that there is satisfactory Life After STRIDE. After consultation, D has foregone additional research opportunities for her senior year but the employment opportunities were very much to her satisfaction.</p>
<p>There are other paid research possibilities after STRIDE as well. My d. is a Kahn Fellow, and she's having a blast.</p>