I’m a big fan of the gap year. Sudsie, what will your girl be doing during the year? Did she defer after college acceptance?
@cameo43 she has been accepted to college and deferred entry for a year. She will be participating in a program that teaches independence and life skills, will take a couple of community college classes and hopefully find a part time job. She needed a break after the intensity of junior and senior year at BS.
Can I ask what sort of meal plan everyone has signed up/signed their soon to be frosh up for? 7D1’s school considers the 12-meal + some $ that can be used at various approved eateries on/near campus to be the default, but coming off BS experience, that seems like it might not be enough.
Signed up for the minimum figuring it is always easy to upgrade the plan, add dining bucks to it (most colleges make it easy to do either) - or supplement w/cash to kid if kid prefers to eat outside the plan. Older child got off the dining plan as quickly as it was possible to do so (sophomore year). Institutional food grows old after 4 years of boarding school.
@SevenDad I honestly forget the exact plan I signed S1 up for at Penn. I think I went low on the swipes and higher on dining dollars. I can say I was SHOCKED at the cost per swipe on the plan - it worked out to something like $12/meal.
S1 headed off to college was strangely anticlimactic. So much more anticipation on boarding school move in day.
@SevenDad 21 meals/week. No choice in the matter.
Sorry, I’ve not been following this thread for a bit; those interested in the Exeter college matriculation data can find it up on the “Where Exonians go to college” tab on the Exeter website, showing the running total for last 3 years 2013-2015 (it is always posted that way, as a running 3 year total). The Exonian at graduation had the matriculation data for each graduate, but for privacy reasons that is not published online.
Overall, HYPSM numbers were very stable compared to prior years, the running total of 33 to Harvard is unchanged, for example. For the data oriented, it is possible to find those documents online for prior years and create a prediction model.
My D suggests: the top third of the class was very happy with admissions overall. The mid third did well at top 25 universities, with good choices. The lower third without an athletic or other hook did not fare particularly well.
14 a week. College students unfortunately do not eat breakfast much! On weekends, it’s a “brunch”, so max is 19.
2prepMom raises an important but not frequently discussed topic: College matric for the lower half/third of even the most selective/prestigious BS. For applicants/prospects who think a school like Exeter or Andover is some magical pipeline to Harvard…think again. And remember, unless you go to TJ or Bronx Science, you are going to be in a much stronger pool of peers at a selective BS…so your chance of being ranked lower are higher at a selective BS than your LPHS.
Back to the college meal plan, I upgraded 7D1 to a higher (more “swipes” per week) meal plan based on a discussion of how she was used to eating at BS. We’ll see how that works out first semester and then cut back if she isn’t using all/most of her available meals. The difference in cost was minimal.
Regarding college move-in vs. BS move-in…we have one of each this coming weekend, on consecutive days in different states…so this week (and last?) have been a bit chaotic.
I will say that there is a certain amount of smugness/pride/amusement that creeps in when shopping in Target or other BTS stores around this time of the year…there are plenty of obvious first-time college parents walking around bickering with their student about what to buy from a checklist in hand. Been there, done that!
While we are not first-timers with regard to moving our kids into a dorm, there is a certain additional angst regarding 7D1’s start at college. It’s the same, yet different somehow. I know she’s excited to get started, and that helps allay some of my normal (a little is normal, right?) parental anxiety.
Back from moving 7D1 into her college dorm. One big “plus” of being semi-experienced BS parents is that we have learned what constitutes a reasonable amount of stuff to bring to a dorm.
I saw one mom at the wheel of a FULL ((loaded high enough that I could see a wall of stuff behind the front two seats!) Dodge Sprinter panel van. I saw parents carrying down empty boxes for new 40+ inch TVs. As I joked to one to one of the helpful upperclassmen porter/RAs…“It’s great to have help carrying stuff up stairs for move-in…but what about move-out?” Missing my kid already, but happy she’s on to the next big thing.
How are everyone’s frosh doing at their respective schools?
Has (as with our experience so far) BS helped ease the transition to college/dorm life for your child relative to his/her roommates/floormates/classmates?
Can I get an “Amen”?
My BS child moved into college on their own and seems to be super happy and adjusting with zero issues. The only downside, @SevenDad, is that I feel VERY unneeded.
@SevenDad While going from a class of 330 to a class of 1660 has been a bit of an adjustment, the transition to dorm life has been a piece of cake. Unfortunately, we don’t have dorm parents to bake cookies anymore.
Not sure why, but I haven’t been here in forever. It’s fun to see some familiar names. DH and I are just back from a post-dropoff mini-vacation for adults 
Our youngest is happily ensconced at his LAC and we are taking a big breath. Both kids are at LACs and BS is finally in the rearview mirror. What a journey!
Dropping the youngest off at college was so easy compared to dropping at BS. The transition to college has been easy, and I know from talking to friends whose kids didn’t go to BS that our college drop-off is exponentially less stressful. I didn’t even cry! And in the ten days or so since we said goodbye, we have had just as many conversations comparing how this time would be if the kids hadn’t gone to BS. We didn’t send them to BS with college in mind, only to get them into a better HS experience, so the benefits of BS college prep have come as a nice surprise, and small reward for the heartache of sending them away early. I don’t think I will ever forget how hard the BS journey was, but we are reveling in how worth it it seems now.
Our son has been at his college for some time now and reports that he’s well-prepared for the academics. Before Labor Day weekend, he said that he was about three days ahead on his work and planned to relax all weekend. That’s priceless. Thank you, Choate. As you would expect, he had zero transition issues with dorm living and roommates, though I have to say that dropping him off at his college was completely different than BS dropoff. I’ll come out with it–he’s at a service academy. We dropped him off for basic training just three weeks after graduation so we didn’t even get that final summer with him. Instead, we got the mandated 60-second good-bye before he was led off for “processing” and that haircut. Then, six weeks of silence while he transitioned to soldier. Communication re-opened when the academic year started a few weeks ago. He’s doing very well, made the crew team, and he’s happy as can be. We’re completely superfluous now as he doesn’t even need us financially anymore. Ouch. We’re proud of him, but we’re not a military family (well, I guess we are now) and couldn’t have seen this coming in a million years. Like I was with BS, I will continue to keep my head in the sand while my son forges his own path and will save my worries for the day we hear the word “deployment.”
Oh, he’s rocking that uniform, though. 
Congratulations on ChoatieKid! Be very proud!
Here majority of scouting families are ex military and scouts are seriously considering service academies or military. Earning Eagle must served ChoatieKid well. A neighbor local school Eagle Scout just joined West Point. I am enjoying all the wonderful photos of young cadets on Facebook the family is sharing. Photos at Flirtation Walk during family visit weekend and so on. He was not in the pillow fight by the way.
Still I would be dumbfounded if any of mine chose the path.
Thanks, @payn4ward. “Dumbfounded” about sums it up.