<p>Son is just finishing his freshman year at USC in computer engineering. We are from Montana and he did not know another soul going to USC. We never had a lonely phone call or can I fly home request.</p>
<p>He loved Birnkrant and while he and his roommate got along they did little together socially. He has made some good friends in the engineering classes and other students on his floor. He has an apartment in Webb with the engineering buddies next year and seems very happy.</p>
<p>My wife has an Uncle in LA fairly close to Campus so he did have a place to be at Thanksgiving since we could not fly him home. We had not thought through all the holidays and travel plans ahead very well.</p>
<p>We were worried about shipping the bedding as well but we got the ad from a company that lets you buy the bedding and then delivers it on campus so it is waiting for them. It was a little pricy but not too bad and it was very convenient.</p>
<p>Overall he has had a great year. His twin Brother is in another PAC-10 School and the rivalry is funny to watch LOL</p>
<p>To drizzit: How did your son like computer engineering at USC? How hard was the academic work load? Did he find something to do this summer which is engineering related? Thanks. My son is going to Viterbi Engineering in the fall.</p>
<p>BTW, even though he's graduated my son still has an account at the Credit Union. It is easy and cheap, free, to transfer funds from my account to his at the credit union. It's done by fax. When he was a student I had it done automatically on a monthly basis. </p>
<p>I wasn't able to transfer funds, except by wire through the Federal Reserve, from my account to his current BoA account.</p>
<p>my son had a great year and really enjoyed USC. He did find his Calculus classes to be very challenging and the writing was tough. Overall he said he had to work hard but the load was manageable. He also worked remotely for a local company about 10 hours a week.</p>
<p>He skipped calc 1 due to his AP calc classes in HS and I think that was a mistake although he disagrees. He says he also drew a couple of tough professors.</p>
<p>He has a job as a software engineer with a local company and is coming home to work here in Montana over the summer. As I mentioned above, he works remotely at USC for the same company during the school year. The company manufactures and supports communications equipment and software for some large police forces and the department of homeland security. Kind of interesting work. They have offered him a job when he graduates but he likes the pacific northwest so time will tell where he ends up.</p>
<p>More questions for experienced USC parents:</p>
<p>1) Did any of your kids start a new-to-them language at USC? My s is thinking about taking Japanese or Chinese--anyone have any opinions? It would mean taking all 3 semesters as he couldn't test out of any semesters, but his hs language was Latin and he's interested in speaking something useful. lol.</p>
<p>2) In general, experienced parents, is there anything you learned in your kid's freshman year that you wished you would have known before? I appreciated the advice to expect the kids to have some stressful days at the start--in all our excitement about how great the college is it's good keep to our expectations "real". </p>
<p>Question for experienced parents about Parent's Weekend in October:</p>
<p>Would younger siblings (13 and 7 yrs) be out of place? I know they will be missing each other terribly so I would like to bring them, but would they be the only kids there? The younger kids have that week off from school, so we were thinking of arriving Monday to go to Disneyland, and then on to parent's weekend on Friday.</p>
<p>^ I don't think they'd be out of place. It's my impression that USC is very open to "family members".
Besides, during the several weekends that my D and I have been on campus, we've seen people walking around (locals I believe) with children, walking their dogs etc.
Might be best to just give them a call to inquire though.</p>
<p>To drizzit: Congratulations on a very successful freshman year and your son's tremendous job success. Did your son take the Calculus AB or BC in high school? How were the CS/Engineering classes at USC? Is his job walking distance of campus or did you buy him a car? Thank you for the positive note on USC. My son is going there in the fall and we all think it is a wonderful university.</p>
<p>when s signed up for orientation, it only allowed him to register 2 guests, and he has emailed them about it but they just told him to register the sibling. Does anyone know how we can register a third person?</p>
<p>did anyone request reimbusement of half airfare from Explore? Did anyone receive it yet? It was supposed to take 6 to 8 weeks and it's way past that now and I still haven't received or heard anything about it.</p>
<p>alamemom - the tailgate party and football game are the highlights of Parent's weekend in my opinion so if your kids can get tickets to those you should probably bring them. Also if the 13 year old can babysit the 7 year old in your hotel room, then you can go to any adult functions without them. And since the real point of the weekend is just to see your student, meet his or her friends and take them all out to dinner, I say bring the siblings!</p>
<p>madbean, my two older kids have already graduated from other colleges where one studied Japanese and one studied Mandarin. I strongly believe that speaking Chinese is a far greater asset on the job market, if that's what you mean by speaking something useful. In answer to your second question, one thing it took me some time to learn is that your kid may well call you (and not just freshman year) when things are going badly and he is stressed and/or depressed. He may use you to vent all his problems and frustrations and then hang up leaving you very worried. But the venting will have helped him enormously and he'll be just fine and happy, and barely remember all those seemingly insurmountable problems, the next time you speak to him. So the lesson is not to panic or draw any dire conclusions from any one phone call. You can help him a lot just by listening.</p>
<p>Agreed- I think the siblings will love the football game. Also, if you have time, take them to the Science Museum. It is within walking distance to USC at Exposition Park (right next to the Coliseum). I just took my 14 year-old nephew to the Science Museum, CAAM, and on a tour of the campus. He absolutely loved it- especially eating on campus and getting a USC t-shirt.</p>
<p>I don't think any of the Parent sessions, however, will be appropriate for them. But there is plenty more to do and see. It's never too early to get excited about college.</p>
<p>mdcissp: Both of mine skipped calc 1 and 2 and did great in calc 3 their freshmen fall semesters. They made 5s on the BC calc exams after taking BC calc from the same (apparently great) high school calculus teacher.</p>
<p>madbean: My d started a new language, Spanish, despite taking Japanese three years in high school. I was never clear why she wanted to do this, but she seemed quite pleased with the results and is looking forward to moving on through the sequence.</p>
<p>With S1, I was so sad when he left and was very surprised he didn't feel the same! He could have gone weeks without calling. For the boys, I learned to set up a regular weekly call time- for us it is every Sunday. This was a relief for all so I know I can expect it and they know they are off the hook until Sunday!</p>
<p>Thank you dt1123 and drizzit. How did Physics go? It sounds like the student has to take Physics at USC (for Engineering) and the AP Physics doesn't count.</p>
<p>tsdad mentioned this or something like it- </p>
<p>S or D calls with a BIG problem (sometimes at hours that can really rattle a parent.) The sky is falling. Or maybe their roommate did something horrible. Something awful like that. Supermom goes into overdrive trying to fix it or at least stays up all night worrying about it. Next time you talk, they tell you it was no big deal or they don't even remember it.</p>
<p>Moral: they really can (and should) fix most of their problems themselves. Sometimes, they just need to vent.</p>
<p>Another thing I learned is never to call before noon on a weekend, or really on any day unless you know for sure there was a morning class already. The best thing, if you can stand it, is not to call at all and just wait for them to call you. The conversations they initiate are usually much more animated and informative. I read something funny (can't remember if it was here on CC or not) that said that if you really want your college kid to call you, send a note saying "I was thinking of you and wanted to send this $50 for you to take your friends out for a pizza. Love, Mom/Dad - and then don't enclose the money. You are guaranteed to get a phone call in 2-3 days.</p>
<p>This is such a terrific thread! Our sophomore student loves USC, but is really ready to come home this semester. She had one super-hard course, and I'm thinking she's reacting to that stress. But it's been a great school, and a perfect fit.</p>
<p>Regarding communication - we rely more on the IM than on phones. It's less intrusive, and the kids are so used to texting and IM'ing each other, that they tend to be more open on the IM than in person on the phone. </p>
<p>I second the suggestion above to visit, whether it's parents' weekend, or some other weekend. Our D seemed to be so happy to see us, I think that end of August to beginning of Dec is just too long for a freshman, no matter what they may say. For those of who are a plane ride away - it's worth it.</p>
<p>My son called me most often when he was walking from his off-campus apartment to class. He also called when he was bored. That made for some exciting conversations. I was forbidden to use IM to contact him.</p>
<p>what should we do for Thanksgiving weekend since it's too costly to fly him home? Is it really depressing on campus for the ones that can't go home? Maybe he'll make friends with someone who lives in town and invite him home for the weekend?</p>