<p>Anxious mom, what college is your D in at Rice? I have a soph D in Hanszen. Rice has been great. Agree about the driving home from Houston.....
Karen</p>
<p>Sandiegomom- I'm so glad she's home. And, like I said to Sac, I hope you fit in all the hugs you can this weekend. She sounds like she is doing well --- but she always seems to!</p>
<p>Our son is happier than I have ever seen him at Stanford. He says that he has "stepped out of his comfort zone in a good way." Here was a kid that never went far from home yet now he is 18 hrs away and thrilled with it. He even called this weekend and said his sister can move into his old room!
Academics are very challenging, however it sounds as though it is that way for most of the students. He has formed strong bonds in his dorm and has plans to room with many of them next year too. He was not a social being in high school but has a much more active and satisfying social life at college. After all the apprehension, we are so happy to see this adventure head in a very succesful direction.</p>
<p>Chiming in here as I have been away for the holiday....
I kinda feel guilty in joining in as someone else said there are so many happy stories on this thread that if someone's child is having a tough time freshman year, it might be hard to post a follow up after reading such positive stories. </p>
<p>However, my D could join the tally of those who wrote that they have never seen their child happier and that she is overwhelming thrilled with her college experiences to date. It seems like my D has found the perfect college environment for HER though who knows that she would not have been just as happy elsewhere. But in any case, from the very first day she has been extremely enthusiastic about the whole thing. Even now she is off campus for the weekend and answering relatives' and others' queries of "so how do you like it?" and is bubbling over with the "I love it so much" answers. </p>
<p>As far as roommate, she got lucky in that they are a great match and are good friends. They have some friends in common and do some things together but not everything. I think my D has more friends at college after three months than after four years of high school (even though she always made friends easily). She says her whole dorm is like a "family" and I know she does stuff with them. But she has friends from some other things too. One thing I am glad of is that she has done more social things than I have ever seen her do. She was always so busy with school, homework and ECs that she never really just did plain social things with no spare time. I know one might think it was harder to have free time in college, but actually for her, there is more time. In high school, school used up seven hours of classes and then ECs were every afternoon, night and weekend and tons of homework. While she does those things now, classes in college take up less hours and she does not have quite the same number of hours of ECs or travel to these (well not this semester). She seems to be fitting in social things to do and it is nice to see. She also says how much she likes the kids at Brown. I think while they are diverse, she has lots in common with them in terms of the type of student/people they are. </p>
<p>Meanwhile as far as classes, she is enjoying them all. She says they are hard and a lot of work but she often calls up with a thrill in her voice just to share the good grades she is getting on papers/tests/projects. I think she feels satisfied to be doing well academically where the student body are all "brilliant" (her words) and the calibur of work so high, given where she came from. Today on a 9 hour car ride, she had brought home all her papers to show me and I read them (way above my level) and it was neat to see, plus the comments she got. She likes exploring several areas of liberal arts. </p>
<p>She is also on the varsity ski team and so far loves that group of kids. They have been in dryland training 7 times per week and the group has gelled. It is one set of friends. Over the winter break, they will be going for 3-4 weeks to stay at a ski area in NH for ski race camp, staying in condos and I think she is looking forward to that. She will be going away every weekend in winter to races out of state, plus skiing two mornings midweek in MA. </p>
<p>In terms of location, she really loves that too. She grew up in a rural area that she loves but did want to go to college in a contrasting environment. The area RIGHT by Brown is really fun for her...to be able to walk a block from her dorm and have restaurants and shops, movies, and conveniences, is a novelty and just a fun extra thing besides campus stuff. Also, within walking distance is downtown Providence with an array of things to do. She has gone there several times and still has much left to explore and do. She has not had a chance to go into Boston yet (less than an hour by train) but has been there lots in her life before. She also really enjoys going to lots of on campus events and performances, plus parties. </p>
<p>She had to meet us in Phila. to spend the holiday with relatives but we have now come back home and she got to come home even if just for less than 48 hours. She is going to ski and then is having a little "reunion" of high school friends at our house tomorrow night, none of whom she has seen since August. </p>
<p>I'm happy cause my D is happy. While I miss her a bunch, she was ready for this and I think earned this chance to have this wonderful experience. I hope it always stays this good for her. </p>
<p>Next "big" thing is that she wants to drive a car (that was my Dad's new car before he died last year at Thanksgiving and had promised to give it to my now almost 16 year old niece in Alaska after he died) to Alaska this coming summer and then work in Alaska for the summer. I realize my D has never done anything unsupervised until college for the most part, that she is growing up and I am doing pretty well in adjusting to allowing her to be an independent young adult. That will be a big deal. </p>
<p>I have enjoyed reading the followup to all your kids' college experiences after sharing in their admissions process. It seems like so far it has worked out well for the majority of kids!</p>
<p>And to those who have current applicants involved in the admissions "frenzy", see how all that is behind these kids and most end up really having a great time in college. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>This seems like a particularly happy (lucky?) group of freshman!!! Hurray!!! I think that's something to celebrate - it sounds like, with a few bumps, everyone has pretty much ended up in a good place after all the angst of last year. And, even those that haven't are on their way to a better place. What more could we ask for? Congratulations parents of the class of 2004 - sounds like you all have done a good job!</p>
<p>Hi everyone. My son too (at Stanford like bahamamama's, but moments from home) is happier than I've ever seen him, and it feels to me like he has found absolutely the right fit. I think that perhaps it is a credit to the admissions offices of these schools, and the wise and careful investigations done by parents and students, to have managed to design all of these good fits. </p>
<p>Most of my son's friends seem happy and engaged too, although one is already back home, not having been happy at his college (big state U. in the southwest), and another at one of the UCs has so far not found enough challenge. So certainly there are students still looking for the right fit within the campus or beyond the first school.</p>
<p>Glad to hear all the happy stories!</p>
<p>My N is loving her freshman pre-vet class and has already delivered a baby goat and castrated a sheep. </p>
<p>What kind of crazy class is that? S asked.....:p</p>
<p>Reading these posts proves my belief that most students are very happy at the college they eventually choose, provided they do some "due diligence" during the application process. There is really no perfect college or university, but many very good ones for any particular student. If more students and parents understood this, there would be a whole lot less angst their senor year.</p>
<p>My daughter is absolutely thrilled with every day she spends at Duke. Her roommate is wonderful, her classes/professors are outstanding, she is being challenged academically, her ECs are very fulfilling (Duke Chapel Choir - toured Washington, D.C, and performed there recently; will be performing "The Messiah" several times next weekend; Project Child - tutoring underprivileged school kids in Durham two times per week; DanceSLAM - club and performing group; several Bible study groups which meet weekly), and her grades are very impressive so far.</p>
<p>Beyond that, she is forming very close friendships - particularly with the many international students at Duke. We have one of her friends from Bulgaria spending this holiday weekend with us. Our daughter is particularly drawn to the international students at Duke because they tend to be the more serious academic types who frown upon excessive partying. They realize the extreme privilege of being accepted to Duke and take their academic responsibilities very seriously. </p>
<p>In addition, she finds basketball season exhilirating! This is particularly interesting because my daughter is usually all about dance, piano, and theater. She even plans on "tenting" in K-ville in order to obtain basketball tickets this season!</p>
<p>Overall, she has never been more enthusiastic about anything in her life than she is about attending Duke.</p>
<p>Sandiegomom1--my D has also found the pace of college language classes to be lightning fast. She is taking Latin and her roommate (who took 3 years of Latin in high school) was a great help--for about SIX weeks--after which the college class started covering new material. </p>
<p>I wonder if other classes at college compare in the same way to high school classes. . .</p>
<p>Daughter is still extremely happy and inspite of the cold New England weather. I was shocked as she did not even wear a heavy coat come. The temerature is in the 50's here today and she has gone to Serendipity to have frozen hot chocolate with some of her friends from high school. Althought she is happy and excited about being home she is excited about seeing her friends once she get "back home to Hanover". </p>
<p>It been interesting but she has handled it well. I am in awe of her becaue she really did leave as my child and has now come home as a young woman. She has shared her experiences at school with us and even though there have been times where she has been up really late with homework and papers, she feels that she has learned so much and is so appreciative of the opportunity which she has been given.</p>
<p>My son's a sophomore, and I agree with the idea of not torturously trying to decide the perfect fit, but doing enough research to just find colleges that will work.</p>
<p>Our son has had an interesting l l/2 years at MIT. First semester he did fine. So then he decided that he would double major in two very demanding majors. Crazy! We talked to him a little bit, but figured it was his lesson to learn. It's taken him two difficult semesters but he is finally ready to throw in the towel. Meantime, his GPA has taken a beating.</p>
<p>Will that mean that one of his dreams is gone--that of going to grad school at MIT? Yep. Does it matter? Probably not. He'll do fine in another grad school. Maybe this last year's lesson was one he needed to learn right now, and will inform other important decisions later in life. It's just part of the twig being bent.</p>
<p>This also relates to the regular debate on whether it's best to go to a less-demanding school as an undergrad, be a star, and then get into MIT-type schools as a grad student. My son could have done that and chose not to. He's enjoying the atmosphere at MIT. He probably would have enjoyed being a star as an undergrad, and then doing grad work at MIT, too. Not worth worrying about!</p>
<p>I too can chime in with the child that is extremly happy at her choosen college, U.C. Berkeley. This is a fabulous year to go to Cal, what with their football team being #4 in the nation and all of the new technology coming to Cal(Nano science center, also a large stem cell research center) I remember this time last year and how stressed we all were at our house, getting the college applications out. My DD was deferred from her ED school, Georgetown, in Dec. of last year and really took it hard. There were alot of tears over that one, but when it was all said and done in April she choose Cal over Georgetown, USA, UCLA,UCSD, George Washington Johns Hopkins, and Tulane for many reasons, one of which is that they gave her a nice scholarship, called her on the phone and encouraged her to attend Cal, and that Cal is the #2 school in the nation for her major (Political Science). I get phone calls home all the time, just checking in, but many times letting me know how she did on her papers or tests ( she is doing fabulous!!). My DD has really gotten involved with things on campus, has an internship with the student government, doing an outreach program through Cal Alumni, was accepted on the Mock Trial team as a freshman, she was given the part of an attorney, and now has the opportunity to travel around the country with the team to their competitions. She is enjoying the speakers and musicians who perform on Campus, and has the added benefit of being so close to San Francisco. She is so proud of her school, I think she lives in Cal spiritwear, which all came home over Thanksgiving to be washed!! GO Bears!! I hope they go to the Rose Bowl because it would make New Years so fun!!</p>
<p>Dear Duke Parent: you might want to read this book, "I am Charlotte Simmons." I just started to read this book, written by Tom Wolfe. His daughter just graduated from Duke, and evidently he spent quite a bit of time over his daughters undergraduate years there. He became a staple around campus, attending all of the basketball games. He is hard to miss in his white suit and tie. Any way, this book is considered to be about Duke University. It is set at "Dupont University, a North Carloina university housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic Spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition". "Dupont University" has a national championship basketball team. See any similarities? Warning, the book is really quite raunchy, but if Duke is really like this, you may want to pull your child from this school.</p>
<p>Karenindallas-
I have a fresh s. in Hanszen--just LOVES Rice! (which anxiousmom knows...nice to have a parent chat). To those parents of HS seniors -- if your child does his/her homework, they will find that perfect fit school and love it as much as our kids do. And rest assured, if your child doesn't get into that first choice school, chances are they will love wherever they go, and couldn't imagine being anywhere else. While not everyone loves their school, by far most do. Hang in there parents-- and enjoy your seniors while you have them....</p>
<p>Sandiegomom -- So glad your daughter is not as lonely as you feared. Sounds as if she's thriving. My son did not bring home laundry -- proudly announcing he did ALL his laundry before coming home and, for the first time, not only did not dye anything by mistake, but also got a stain out of a white shirt and took it from the dryer wrinkle free. He also vacuumed his room and added a dustbuster to his holiday wish list. The shock of all that would have been enough to make my jaw drop. Except he DID bring home "a few things for mending." I have now added a sewing kit to the holiday list and already bought and wrapped two packages of white socks to replace all the ones that he turned lavender.</p>
<p>Carolyn -- I keep trying to hug him, but it feels as if he's grown so much taller in three months. </p>
<p>When you see all the different classes and interests students here are involved with -- from castrating goats to studying Chinese to touring with the choir to nanotechnology -- it becomes so clear that no one college is right for everyone, but that there are many colleges that would be great experiences for someone.</p>
<p>I am Charlotte Simmons is a fiction book. It paints as true of picture of Duke as Man in Full does of Atlanta! I wouldn't run away from Duke based on Wolfe's novel. But maybe you were kidding. :)</p>
<p>The book is a piece of fiction written by a 74 year old who wears white suits!
(He went to Washington and Lee and Yale.)</p>
<p>Wolfe interviewed students at HYP as well as Duke for his book, which has been widely panned.</p>
<p>Yikes, he also did a lot of his research at Stanford. One of my friends is reading it (a former athlete himself) and he warned me to stay away from the book or I will never sleep at night!!!</p>
<p>Socal--I am so glad that your daughter is happy at Berkeley. I hope that you keep posting about her experiences because I think it is important to have a first-hand perspective of the UCs, as many are assuming, without knowing, that the budget cuts have impacted the quality and it sounds at least like so far things are great. My husband is a Cal grad from a long time ago and did his usual degree of smirking after the Big Game....</p>