<p>Sewhappy:</p>
<p>Did your son try the Center for European Studies? I don’t know if they have funding for undergraduates; I imagine they do, as other area studies centers do. I don’t know what amounts they would give out, though.</p>
<p>Well, DD left today to go back to Cambridge. I have to say that the longer Holiday break was really a good thing as we got to spend more time with her.</p>
<p>Now that I think back, one of the highlights of Junior Parents Weekend was the big House dinner. All the juniors and their parents were hosted by the House Master, and special food (an upgrade from the usual House fare) was served. </p>
<p>I’m not sure that all the Houses do this, but this event was also one of the major fund-raisers for the House. After dessert they held a big auction of stuff for the parents to bid on - stuff like having the Master bake warm cookies and deliver them to your S or D during reading period or some such thing. But this being Winthrop House, the grand prize that closed the show was auctioning off getting to stay in the JFK guest suite during Commencement. I don’t remember how much it went for, but there were some big wallets in the room. I think it was perhaps about eight or ten thousand bucks. I tended to bid more on things like the cookies.</p>
<p>We drove our daughter back to school yesterday after the long break. It’s always so lovely spotting the house tower as we drive into Cambridge. The houses really do have such a great sense of community. This will most likely be our last trip to Cambridge until graduation. I’m going to miss our visits.</p>
<p>Our son went back Sat midday. Seems like they really put off opening the dining halls,
[Which</a> Dining Halls Are Open? | FlyByBlog | Harvard Life. To Go.](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/1/22/reopen-jan-dining-halls/]Which”>The Harvard Crimson)
I wonder how crowded Leverett was on Sat. night?</p>
<p>The d-halls were surprisingly not busy - it appears that they anticipated return rates well.</p>
<p>That’s good to hear, I guess I was mis-extrapolating based on my S and his roommates.</p>
<p>Well, D’s second semester has started with a bang. Last Thursday, she was diagnosed w/ strep and sinus infection yet was determined to move in as soon as possible. Brought her to campus Friday afternoon. Then that evening I got a call asking me to come back to get her. Saturday the antibiotics were still not making the expected progress so she put in a call to her doctor who ordered a blood test. It’s strep and mono. She stayed home until last night and stayed on campus for the night (mandatory 8:30 math class meeting), then attended PS1 and we picked her up to come home again. Looks like we are going to be driving her to campus and then picking her back up after class until she feels well enough to truly move in. I feel bad for her. She was so looking forward to her second semester and now she worries about the impact the mono is going to have.</p>
<p>So sorry to hear this, smoda! I hope her proctor, advisor, freshman dean are all aware of her situation and advocating for her.</p>
<p>Another reason I’m glad my son is at Harvard…</p>
<p>Fire on the Mountain, a Bluegrass Symposium
Saturday, February 6, 2010</p>
<p>[fire</a> on the mountain a bluegrass symposium](<a href=“http://web.me.com/folkmyth/Folk_&_Myth/Bluegrass_Symposium.html]fire”>http://web.me.com/folkmyth/Folk_&_Myth/Bluegrass_Symposium.html)</p>
<p>Ends with performance by legendary fiddler Bobby Hicks. Also includes founder of Compass Records and banjo player, Alison Brown; Matt Glaser, head of Strings Dept. at Berklee; mandolinist Sam Bush; Neil Rosenberg, author of <em>Bluegrass: A History</em>.</p>
<p>And I thought having Orhan Pamuk at Harvard was cool.</p>
<p>Thanks Quill Pen - I shared your flyer with D1 who left home in Georgia detesting country and bluegrass music and discovered a passion for it at Harvard, of all places!</p>
<p>Heading up to see D2’s a cappella group in their spring jam on Valentine’s weekend. The single room at the Irving House, two blocks away from Sanders Theatre, is $85 a night, with a free breakfast and muffins all day long in the basement lounge. If you haven’t yet discovered the Irving House, you should!</p>
<p>gadad, my son is a fiddler whose summer job last year was playing with a bluegrass band at the dude ranches near Yellowstone National Park. He was the mandolinist at the Harvard freshman talent show this fall.</p>
<p>The Boston music scene was the deciding factor in his choosing Harvard over Yale. He is taking lessons off-campus from a jazz fiddler who is helping him with his improv technique.</p>
<p>He listens to blues and heavy metal, old-time Americana and world music, and all kinds of roots music, especially Celtic. It’s all there in Boston, on campus and off.</p>
<p>This term Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Omara Portuondo, Natalie MacMaster, Angelique Kidjo, The Klezmatics, and Crooked Still are all playing at Sanders Theatre. (Partial list.) For a musician with my son’s background and interests, Boston beats New Haven. Harvard beats Yale.</p>
<p>Oh, sorry. The Klezmatics are playing the Somerville Theater, March 13th, not Sanders. Think that was my only slip.</p>
<p>Son saw the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Somerville Theater this weekend. He says it’s a nice venue. The CCDs are probably the finest old-time band playing today. They are an African-American stringband, playing music of the Piedmont region. It makes me happy to know son is able to continue his education in American roots music by way of all the first-rate acts who come to Boston.</p>
<p>Marite - Thanks for your well wishes. I did speak with my daughter’s proctor when I brought her to campus last night. He offered any assistance she needed. We had yet to take any steps beyond that but we will the minute that I/we feel that her academics or health are in jeopardy. In a sense, I am glad that it is shopping week and that things like labs and such have yet to begin. She should have a solid week at a lighter pace.</p>
<p>Smoda- So sorry to hear of your DD’s mono and strep. I do hope she is able to use shopping period to sleep and regain the strength needed to tackle the semester. Cyber bouquets to you both!</p>
<p>Smoda- Its good the mono was caught right away and that you can help make it easier for your D to rest. Full recovery can take several months but hopefully she will soon get strong enough to move back into the dorms. Our oldest had a less severe form of mono his freshman year; he was able to stay in his dorm (not at H) and managed to do well in his classes, but he recalls going to bed early for months and not having had much of a social life that term.</p>
<p>Smoda: I hope your daughter makes a quick recovery. My son had strep and mono during his sophomore year. A prednisone pack really helped. He needed to sleep a lot. At his college (not H) he was put on some sort of health watch list which went out to all of his profs. They were required to accept late papers, problem sets, etc.; they were all actually quite understanding. You may want to get in touch with the freshman dean to see if there is a similar type of setup at Harvard.</p>
<p>Smoda: I had mono my freshman year in college years ago and can empathize with what you all are going through. I hope your daughter can make a quick recovery. </p>
<p>I remember the mono experience quite vividly: I slept for hours in the first few days of the illness, had a horrible sore throat, and deep sweats and chills. The hardest part of having mono for me was the recurring cycle of periods of feeling better only to be followed by a sudden relapse.</p>
<p>If there was one thing I could do all over again, it would have been not to have pushed myself to get back to class in the early days just after the fever subsided, trying to maintain a normal school schedule. I think this was a costly mistake that delayed my ultimate full recovery by months. I did get through my spring semester classes and exams with the grades I wanted, but it came with a cost: exhaustion. </p>
<p>Plenty of rest and sleep over the succeeding summer months (and the comforts and quiet of my parents home) allowed me to slowly regain my strength. I resumed a normal active schedule the following fall term; but it was a full 12 months later until I could say I felt 100%.</p>
<p>Pardon me for posting this query in this thread, as it may seem unrelated. Since all/most of you are parents of Harvard students, I was wondering if you would share with us info on what GPA/SAT/SAT-II/etc. that your children had that got them an admission into Harvard? For example, I keep hearig stories that if you have a few Bs on your transcript, you can forget Ivys, etc. How true is this? I think you are the best source to get some hard facts.</p>
<p>Thanks for any/all responses.</p>
<p>Thanks all for your messages about your families experiences with mono. I just came back from picking her up for today. She pretty much made it through the whole day and did not begin to crash until dinner. It’s seems like the pain may be past (horrible sore throat but no fever). She is home tonight and then maybe again tomorrow night. Interestingly enough, she has found out that one of her friends also came down with mono at the same time as my daughter (104+ fevers but no sore throat) and the two of them have a common close friend that had it in November (8 weeks ago - the incubation period).</p>
<p>I appreciate all the pointers on notifying the deans and professors. I am guessing that after D puts in her study card and classes actually get rolling that she will contemplate those notifications. She should also have a better sense of how her recovery is going by then.</p>
<p>To Ruar12 - D was rank 1, 4.0/4.0, 35 ACT, 790 Math II, 780 Bio, 720 Chem</p>