<p>FlMathMom, I always thought the question about liking a room clean or is your room generally clean should be followed up by the question, are you the one keeping it that way!?</p>
<p>Also, they ask the kids what time they go to sleep and what time get up, but really they all have to be in school by 8 or so, so they all get up early and because of that probably go to be early.</p>
<p>Mathmomvt - must be very frustrating to be in a school with such a significant Jewish population yet there is such insensitivity to the student’s needs (of course I’m assuming I know their needs).</p>
<p>AK - you had DH and me in stitches with the “make out” part. Memories!!</p>
<p>PofP - you’d be surprised how late some kids go to bed even though many have 9am classes. Wed, Sat and Sun there are no scheduled classes. Some kids stick to their basic sleep patterns, others are more inconsistent.</p>
<p>Well DS can cook like a champ and enjoys challenging himself in the kitchen, but only on his schedule! He has always been in charge of the Apple pie at Thanksgiving. That may not happen this year as he usually made it a day early. He has an iron, so I’m thinking it might get used–he does know how.</p>
<p>As for cleaning, not so much. I almost fell off my chair when he answered the dorm survey about whether he was “clean or dirty”. He immediately said “clean”. I called him on it and he said, I’m clean, just not neat. Well, yes he likes to keep his body and clothes clean, but room and bathroom are another story. Luckily his roomie seems to not be too neat either and they have a common bath that is cleaned by the school!</p>
<p>AK–LOL on the TMI. No chance I’ll get that. DS might mention those things to DH, but not me!</p>
<p>Amanda - TMI! Everytime I log on (which unfortunately, is becoming less frequent due to work), there’s something here from you that makes me laugh.</p>
<p>Yesterday was my birthday - first without D around. Was a little sad - she texted me in the morning saying she’d call later and she didn’t until late in the evening. Turns out she called late only to prevent giving away a surprise dinner H had arranged. But we skyped for a few minutes and I felt better. She looked a little tired, a little ragged, but seemed to still be having fun and enjoying herself.</p>
<p>Today was another story. I had a long text conversation with her - she was bummed at her grade from a bio test. Did very well on two other tests last week, but apparently not this one. And stressed out a bit on the calc test that’s coming soon. By the end of the conversation, she was hopeful that she could turn things around. She does have a meeting set up with her bio teacher - so she will have a chance to discuss how she could have done so badly and what she can do to improve.</p>
<p>Did I mention I don’t like roller coasters??</p>
<p>Arisamp - just had similar call with my son about his math test. He seems down, so trying to give him encouragement but allow him to make the decisions. I sent him an email of suggestions he might explore such as talking to his advisor and TA. He has another 2 weeks before he can drop a class which is more than fine. I intentionally wanted him to sign up for 18the credit hours so he has the ability to drop at this during this timeframe. </p>
<p>Should be interesting to see what choices he makes.</p>
<p>Arisamp – very happy birthday. Tell us about lovely surprise dinner. So thoughtful of your daughter to wait to call so she wouldn’t spill the beans.</p>
<p>Answering the question about public/private above, FogFog is correct in saying the system here is public. I think there may be only two or three privates unis, although this summer Richard Dawkins & A,C. Grayling among others announced plans to establish a private College of the Humanities. When D was a student, tuiton was £3,000, up from £1,500 the previous year. And of course next year, fees will treble to £9,000. The government actually pays most of the full cost ( estimated at something like £18,000 at the time, if I remember correctly) so D had to apply for the grant (say £15,000) from our Local Education Authority, , make sure it was paid to her Oxford college and then was billed for the balance of £3,000.</p>
<p>emilybee, medicine is the most competitive course here I hope your friends son finds an alternative route into that career. And sounds like your other friends twins are starting at sixth form college (two years) or doing an extra year to re-sit exams. As this is the last year before fees go up, students have foregone gap years so the incoming first year classes are full to bursting, putting severe pressure on university resources. A friend whose D is starting in Brighton said students were being directed to B&Bs and cheap hotels for accommodation.</p>
<p>Re roommates and selection process I couldnt believe it when S put himself down as a morning person he explained he was answering the questionnaire strategically. It seems to have all worked out. Though I have been ashamed to discover myself guilty of stereotyping of the worst kind: assuming that the foreign student from Asia would be a serious, shy all-work-no-play type. In fact, hes been the one getting them into Manhattan most weekends and turning the suite into a social hub… For which Im grateful!</p>
<p>D was debriefing us re her college experience thus far (like there is ANYTHING the girl has left unsaid so far. ) But I digress. What she and her friends have determined is that the major/only change is that “clean” is now a relative term. :eek:<br>
D has been doing her laundry for years, but finding a block of time and getting to the basement to do a load (when the machines are free) is proving problematic. There is an app to notify a student when the dryers are free, but still. Like students since time immemorial, the sniff test is now in use. (This from a girl who, after wearing something for an hour or two, would put it in the laundry hamper. Ah how things change. )</p>
<p>My Ds have been doing laundry for years. When they attended day camp and would come home with wet and muddy towels, they used to leave them in the laundry room. Apparently, the Laundry Fairy didn’t magically wash them. We told them “If you want a clean towel for camp, you need to wash it yourself.”</p>
<p>The laundry payment system in my D’s dorm had been broken since move in. The kids were able to do their laundry for free. D called me the other day to inform me that the laundry payment has been fixed. She said “I paid $7.50 for 4 loads of laundry!!” </p>
<p>She has a Fall break in the middle of October. She is now strategically planning to save her laundry until she comes home in 2 weeks.</p>
<p>Oh emilybee!!! I had to come to the safety of our little forum here to let you know your response to very upset parent made me spit my pumpkin spice latte on my computer screen. So short, to the point, and SO TRUE!! Thanks for the laugh my friend!</p>
<p>^^^ I was laughing too at the response. (Albeit guiltily because I can be a wee bit obsessive about some things. Usually I stop myself before too much harm is done. )</p>
<p>went and read that “very upset” parent thread…sheeesh… hope someone smacks her little head and says “straighten up”
What a horrible role model. If the calculations are done on weight of courses/grades …it is straight math and not subject to this mom’s opinion of one course being harder than another…it just is what it is. I think it was a year or so ago our hs had a tied for Val…they had the same GPA to the 3rd decimal… </p>
<p>My younger student is a soph and the whole process will be different than the older kiddo. Different strategies, different needs. </p>
<p>We have discovered skype chat. I really, really like it!! I can leave messages for Bluejr that he will get when he sits down to his computer. Unlike text, we (I) can type faster and it flows more like a short conversation. This morning I left a message about a fantasy football trade. This is big business in our house and Bluejr and I are in the same league. I was online when he got up. We chatted for about three minutes. Not a word about school, friends, or invasive stuff. It totally made my day. Yes, an electronic connection. He is also in four other leagues with hallmates so our league doesn’t keep him from connecting with kids at school. </p>
<p>It seems to be a nice way of keeping connected that is working for us. Sometimes he leaves me messages, or if he sees me online he’ll say hello for a few minutes when he’s waiting for friends, etc.</p>
<p>I had to go read the “very upset parent” thread after all the hoopla, and it did not disappoint. Loved Emilybee’s response! Obviously, the problem with this parent is that s/he thinks this is his/her life - very sad for the student, who I hope goes to a college far, far away - maybe Mars? </p>
<p>I am so very impressed by all the posts about very accomplished children in the household arts. If I had known about the collective parenting skills in this group, I would have would have requested a weekend bootcamp in a centrally-located city. I am terribly organizationally impaired, as is DD, but with a mother with a masters in Home Ec and fashion design, I did at least learn to cook and sew. Could never get there with DD, although I did put together a little sewing kit with a broad range of thread colors, several sizes of needles, a tape measure, saftey pins, scissors . . . . Hopefully, her roomate will know how to use them! Also got an iron and small ironing board - ditto about the roommate. I don’t think she has ever read a clothing care tag, so assume that she will continue to find out the effect of machine washing and drying on dryclean only clothing. I even sent her a shoe care kit - will be interesting at the end of the year to see if it was ever opened.</p>
<p>From reports last week, things have sounded great. Now that classes have finally(!!!) started, we heard nothing - no calls, no reply to emails - so I resorted to a post on Facebook, which got an immediate response. Things still sound great - she knew going in that the workload at Chicago tends to be large, and that has been confirmed, but she’s joined a choir and I think is looking at plays. No worries about this one about a social life!</p>
<p>Yup, yup, yup. And it wasn’t just with the college search. That couldn’t have been more different for my two - which also goes for almost everything else in life. They both are fun, interesting, smart, creative, caring people. But they see life and adapt to life so incredibly differently. I could go on for pages, but it’s easy to imagine. </p>
<p>Talked to D - she’s working hard, struggling, but persevering. Schoolwork is challenging - this particular kind of program really is very difficult and time-consuming, and she knows that. She knows there will be rewards, but she says at this point she’d really like them to “kick in” soon. But she also knows that she can be impatient and fussy. It’s all part of the education.</p>
<p>“Oh emilybee!!! I had to come to the safety of our little forum here to let you know your response to very upset parent made me spit my pumpkin spice latte on my computer screen. So short, to the point, and SO TRUE!! Thanks for the laugh my friend!”</p>
<p>Thanks for helping add some levity to that thread…it needed it. </p>
<p>I was just teasing you about the restriction, you know that. I hoped by bringing that up the OP would see that we ALL need to be redirected at times. Hopefully I have/will not ever be that far off course, but if I am I know my dear friends here will ‘course-correct’ me. Peer-review is an amazing thing. :)</p>
) But I digress. What she and her friends have determined is that the major/only change is that “clean” is now a relative term. :eek:<br>
Thanks for the laugh my friend!</p>