<p>Harriet–I was thinking of you recently – wondering how your 7 yo was doing & if your older ones were coming home soon! Have a fabulous weekend! 7 yo & I made ‘welcome home’ signs for son. He was okay w/the one on the front door, but mortified by the one I’d put on a stick in the front yard! ha.</p>
<p>missypie–I am totally, totally thinking about that (oos tuition at UT). Scholarship gives more wiggle room re: majors, in a way. But, then again, if he’d had an amazing comp sci exper at UT, maybe he wouldn’t be considering a switch… You can never know, though. </p>
<p>Treetopleaf–I think it depends on the grad school prgrm. I’ve found that for a masters or PhD in history/classics, you definitely have to have several languages, to read the ancient texts (or older texts) in the original languages. I’d imagine it would be diff for say, a math major.</p>
<p>Son knows two guys at the same OOS U, from different parts of his life. He’s told each of them to be on the lookout for the other one. Well one of them discovered the other guy because he’s already become notorious on campus!</p>
<p>Guy X (the notorious one) lives in a dorm with a bathroom that two rooms (4 boys) share. Each boy takes a week where is responsible for cleaning the bathroom. Guy X comes in late at night, very drunk, makes it to the bathroom and throws up all over the place. The other guys get up in the morning, are grossed out and ask Guy X why he didn’t clean up after himself. “Because it’s not my week to clean the bathroom!”</p>
<p>What a way to become “famous” in a large freshman class!</p>
<p>I had considered Berkeley’s program in archeology after my undergraduate degree. They required (and still require) “command” of two ancient and two modern languages to enroll in advanced courses.</p>
<p>Eddie Haskel’s - I can spot them a mile away! Drive me insane how they win so many friends (and the confidence of parents) and then be the worst influence you’d ever want your kid around. Most amusing is the parents who haven’t a clue. I always tell my kids that whatever they do, don’t make me the parent who other parents are pointing to saying, “oh if she only knew!” For the most part I know enough to know that if someone says my kid did something, they probably did and won’t deny it if asked (or caught!).</p>
<p>Interesting re: the lang req’s at Berkley, TheAnalyst. Son loves his Greek/Roman mythology class & I think the teacher is v. persuasive. Already talking about going on a trip to Greece this summer w/the dept. Everything has it’s nuts & bolts, though. He says he’s “fine” w/lang req’s. Guess we’ll see. </p>
<p>missypie & SJTH – my brother lived in a frat. The tales he’d tell the family (and they were just the PG ones!) were hard to believe (as a girl…).</p>
<p>JS, your son’s plans sound divine to me. If one of my boys had an interest in something like that I would be ecstatic. I had an opportunity to go on an archeological dig in Egypt one summer as an undergrad (as the interpreter for the group based on my smattering of Arabic learned in the military). I passed it up for financial reasons, but was always attracted by that career path. I did find the language requirements to be intimidating. I had some Arabic, French, and Greek (lived on Crete for 3 years), but was never good with the spoken side of things so not sure if I could ever rise to anything remotely considered “command” of a foreign language. I probably would have been fine with any dead language, since I can read and write other languages OK. Sumerian would be cool.</p>
<p>JS, a guy I used to play squash with was getting his PhD from Harvard in either classics or some kind of arcane literature. He became a successful fund manager for a big company and then ran a hedge fund for a while. Not sure about what he is now doing, but one can need not go unemployed as an undergraduate classics major, but grad school will be a necessity.</p>
<p>Guy X is just like the daughter of a woman who works in my building that was one of my D’s HS classmates. She comes across as the sweetest and most innocent thing alive, but I don’t think her mother has ever looked at her Facebook, what my D showed me was totally shocking - both pictures and language!</p>
<p>I totally agree with Modadunn - I have told parents who my D’s have friended on Facebook (I don’t use it) to let me know if they see anything on their pages that are questionable or may be taken in a different way (one was a pic of D1 sipping her sparkling grape juice from prom that I had her delete PDQ)</p>
<p>I have to say, the idea of doing archeological field work sounds really thrilling to me, too! I totally ‘get’ how exciting that could be, vs. working as a computer programmer (nothing against that, just personally couldn’t see how it could be fun).</p>
<p>Then again, my hub has worked w/archeologists – says it’s not as exciting as it sounds (most professions aren’t, though). I bet it must depend on where you work. And, if you get a good education to position yourself as someone who can contribute to interesting projects.</p>
<p>Love the refrigerator magnet and super glue comments, and agree that Sumerian would be cool! </p>
<p>Ditto the EWWWWWW on the bathroom lack-of-cleaning; yuck!!!</p>
<p>Yay! for kids who are home for the long weekend!!</p>
<p>Spawn is sitting on the sofa making rude noises while he types on his laptop. The ride home was much longer than I expected, and I’m glad to be out of the car at last! One of spawn’s high school friends also goes to Simon’s Rock, so rode home with us, and it was interesting to listen to the two of them yakking about different goings-on at school; this was the whole point of the drive: the intel! Didn’t need the yakking in the car to learn that spawn has a girlfriend (!!!); he invited her to come to lunch with us. :eek:</p>
<h1>theorymom,</h1>
<p>
</p>
<p>There’s no grade 12 at Simon’s Rock; it’s a small LAC. You might be thinking of Bard High School Early College, which is in Manhattan and in Queens. </p>
<p>For SR, many kids do transfer out after two years to attend other colleges, usually in pursuit of a major that is not available at Simon’s Rock (because of its small size); top five schools transferred to are Stanford, Reed, Cornell, Bard, and UChicago. Some students stay at SR for all four years for a BA.</p>
<p>Back for some more advice, 'cause I know lots of you have been through this. I find it difficult to look through all the posts here and find the ones discussing a sick freshman, so I thought I’d just do a new one.</p>
<p>My son texted me (yes, at 6:15 a.m. saying: “Don’t worry but did we pack a thermometer”</p>
<h1>1 - Like I’m not going to “worry” when he texts at 6:15 a.m.</h1>
<h1>2 - we DIDN’T pack a thermometer, which really bugs me now</h1>
<p>He said he feels “like crap” and that he was going to try to sleep - he would “figure it out” (one of his favorite things to say to me these days) and would call or text me later. I’m not freaking out or anything, but I’m curious what everyone’s best advice would be for when he contacts me later. Neither one of us has had much practice in this particular situation. I really can’t remember him ever missing a day of school in h.s. because he was actually sick. He’s been very, very independent since we dropped him off, and the fact that he did text me (at 6:15 a.m.!!) tells me he must really feel pretty ill.</p>
<p>I’m going to assume the advice is: lay low, stay in bed, drink plenty of water, see if you can get a friend to bring you stuff to eat. Do you think it’s important to try to get a thermometer to see if he has a fever? I know his health center is not open on the weekend. I’m not sure if it will be open on Monday (he has Reading Days Monday and Tuesday, and I can’t really figure out if Columbus Day is an actual “Holiday” or not.)</p>
<p>So I guess the timing of this is pretty good (4 days in a row with no class and we’ll be out there next Friday for Family Weekend.) I guess I’m thinking like a Mom who hasn’t spent much time dealing with a kid who hasn’t had alot of experience being sick and who certainly isn’t use to living 8 hours away from home. Sorry if this seems trivial - the “unknown” is always a little bit scary!</p>
<p>China, I think your instincts are the same as mine would be in that circumstance. I would suggest he take Tylenol, if he has it, which is good for a fever and won’t hurt him if he doesn’t have a fever. I don’t believe the thermometer is a make or break thiing but would suggest he ask the roommate if he has one or can ask the RA if he doesn’t. That way the RA is alerted to the situation in a “natural” way and can take over from there if his situation seems to warrent further attention. I also like to suggest mega doses of vitamin C when not feeling well. Definitely push the fluids. Hope he feels better soon.</p>
<p>Your post is a good reminder to send our son back from his visit this week-end with said Tylenol, Vitamin C, and thermometer, none of which he probably has with him at school.</p>
<p>Analyst - Thanks…good advice. I’m almost positive we did pack some Tylenol Cold/Flu so when I speak to him later (I’ll call him if he doesn’t call me), I’ll suggest he find it and take it!</p>
<p>CBBBlinker - I really don’t think so. It’s a very small LAC. At least I can’t find any indication that there is any type of weekend coverage (by looking on the website.) Hopefully, it won’t come to him having to make a trip there.</p>
<p>China, not to alarm you but… my son called one night to ask if we’d packed the Airborne, said he didn’t feel well and by the next day when I got a second call he told me he hadn’t made it to classes. I insisted he go to health center and turns out he had the flu. Having had the flu myself this week, it comes on suddenly and quickly so if you get a second text or call, urge him to find out if they have after hour visits to health center. If he has the flu, he can take Tamiflu w/in 48 hours and it helps shorten the whole awful thing.</p>
<p>DS arrived home for long weekend last night, yay! He seems to be doing well, but he had a worrisome report. </p>
<p>It seems his roommate has been quite sick and finally went home (3-4 hours away) last week. It’s not flu, but apparently no one was sure what was wrong with him. He went to the medical center and to the local hospital as well. DS says roomie was in great pain and would get pale and shakey and almost passed out several times. Son has no idea what is wrong with him, but assures me he was not contagious and that he was ok when he got in the car to drive himself home.
I sure hope he recovers soon. I really feel for these kids missing so many classes.</p>
<p>China - My daughter called home ill on Tuesday. She had been to the Health Center on campus. The Health Center suggested she go to an ER because she had fever of 103. Anyway, the ER told her she had Swine Flu. She was not given any anti-viral medication, but rather something for nausea and something for pain.</p>
<p>Bed rest and liquids seem to be working. Once she conquered the nausea, Advil kept her temperature down. </p>
<p>I packed the car to go, if needed; however, she has slowly gotten better. Again, lots of sleep (16-18 hours the first few days) and lots of liquids whenever she woke - along with some comfort food like the Kraft macaroni in a bowl. </p>
<p>And yes - I worried. I made her call me when she woke the first couple of mornings. I told her if I didn’t hear from her, I would assume she was too ill to call - and she might have an unwanted mother (me) knocking on her door. She’s called. :)</p>
<p>I’m really amused by the varying ways D1 describes her college life to me vs. her sister.</p>
<p>To me: “I went to an electronic music festival.”
To her sister: “It wasn’t <em>a</em> rave, it was <em>the</em> rave.”</p>
<p>To me: “We went to a frat party but it was lame so we left.”
to her sister: “We went to a frat party but they’d already finished all the beer, so we stole their Pepsi and left.”</p>
<p>To me: “We went to the beach.”
To her sister: “We went to the beach with some cute boys.”</p>
Didn’t need the yakking in the car to learn that spawn has a girlfriend (!!!); he invited her to come to lunch with us. :eek:</p>