<p>DS has been home since last Friday. When asked about his semester, he said he’s having a lot of fun. Not sure what to make of that comment…</p>
<p>Found out that he only registered for 3 classes for next semester. Went online and helped him pick out a GenEd class to take that fits his schedule which was surprisingly full for the number of classes scheduled. Told him that next time he needs to get all of his registrations done as soon as they are open so that he doesn’t get closed out of any class he wants to take.</p>
<p>Not sure about grades yet…resisting temptation to bug him to go online and check. Does not sound like any major concerns based on what he said about test scores, but there can always be surprises.</p>
<p>Compared to some other posters on this thread it seems that things are going quite well for us.</p>
<p>“BI - I too have an overachiever friend that is so organized it makes my head spin. If only I had 1/10th of the organizational drive just to plow through…sigh.”</p>
<p>You know fogfog IRL? ;)</p>
<p>FamilyFeud is in full steam ahead mode. One cousin brought up something that happened 60 years ago that her mother is still holding a grudge about. </p>
<p>I’m sorry there are a few kids who have less than stellar grades but try to remember they were only first semester freshman. Reading through the recent posts has brought me to the conclusion that I definitely am not even going to mention the subject of his grades. If he wants to tell us when he gets them that is fine but if he chooses not, that is fine too. They are his grades, not mine, and it is his life. He’ll either do well enough to graduate from the college he’s at or he won’t.</p>
<p>Avon - Hope recovery is going well for your wife. So glad that all the margins were clear and lymph wasn’t involved. Glad it was caught early!</p>
<p>Emilybee - I’m sorry if I am smiling over the family feud, I am sure it is not humorous from the inside… My mother’s family lineage involves some pirates, so I guess we settle our differences a different way, walking the plank or being shipwrecked or something…I’ve yet to experience true feud, just unsaid squabbles.</p>
<p>Ds is keeping his scholarship which required a 3.0! Yipee, guess the threat to make him go to state u. worked. I believe he ended the first term with a 3.25 or something. Nothing to brag about but again, 18 credits, engineering, and we will take it. Just learned the lesson that the curve goes both ways - up and down. He has a friend who had a 72 avg. being graded to a D because they fell below the curve.</p>
<p>Anyway, presents bought and wrapped. On to planning the big dinner and getting that prepared. Have a good night all!!</p>
<p>Amanda, no need to be sorry. I copied and pasted every feud related email and sent it off as my joke family holiday letter to my closest friends! </p>
<p>Everyone howled with laughter - especially when it got to the email where one of my cousin’s mentioned - but none of others knew - that the one possession (a Chagall lithograph hand signed and numbered) at the heart of the controversy never belonged to my Nana and was just loaned to her by a nephew who apparently forgot about it as he is still alive but never asked for it back!</p>
<p>Hi all!
Well after a week of seeing the whites of neither boy’s eyes until at least 12:30 pm each day, imagine my surprise this morning at seeing Yalie downstairs before me at 7:00 am?! One quick look outside answered my question: 15 inches of snow, and still coming down…powder day! S1 was a bit harder to get out of bed, but the two of them were out of the house and headed to the slopes by 8:15. Thankfully when they returned they tackled our driveway and the 20+ inches that accrued, good timing on Mother Nature’s part to have this happen while the college boys are home!</p>
<p>Grades for S1 are in, two A’s and and A-, polymers, math and fluids respectively
Grades for Yalie are 3/4 in; two A-'s and and A in Language, Economics (Game Theory) and Language respectively, waiting on a international affairs class, thinks he did well on the final.</p>
<p>I totally agree with BI, at this point our influence is negligible and taking credit or blame is irrelevant and (in the case of good news) presumptuous. I’m happy for those who are happy and hopeful for those who are hoping for better results.</p>
<p>No drama in our household, another blessing. My parents made the cross country flight a few days ago and fortunately made it in before the storm. DH is making gnocchi for dinner tonight after rediscovering his passion for Italian cooking. Wishing I had the foresight to make FF’s focaccia recipe, although we may be reaching a critical starch mass…</p>
<p>Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Blessings to all of you!</p>
<p>So many of D’s friends and parents of friends are posting facebook statuses saying things like “First semester of college and Suzy made Dean’s list!” Or “all As first semester” I’m so happy for all these kids that did so well first semester but it just makes me feel even worse about D’s grades.</p>
<p>I’m not happy about 2015 and Mamom’s kids doing as poorly as my D but I have to say it does make me feel better to know there are other kids out there that have 1.9 GPAs like mine!</p>
<p>D needs the 2.75 GPA avg for the whole first year. I have calculated it out and if she gets 3 As and 2 Bs she will have it! If however she gets 2 As and 3 Bs, she will have…get this…a 2.7444444. That probably won’t count though. Realistically the odds of her getting any As are very slim but I can dream. We’ll just see how it goes. We’ve had two “talks” about her needing to own this and change her habits, etc, etc…please keep your fingers crossed for her!</p>
fingers crossed! S needs a 2.0 (how low can you go? apparently that low) to maintain his almost full tuition scholarship. I have to do some digging to see if they give him a semester to pull his GPA up or if he loses it all now. </p>
<p>yalemom - hope the boys had a great time on the slopes and that was good timing. I seem to always be home alone when the big storms hit. :(</p>
<p>AK - congrats to your S for doing so well, especially as an engineering major. I know all the hard work involved.</p>
<p>Room for me on the S.S. Disappointed? DS ended up with a C,C,B+,A- and D…put it all together and you get a 2.429. His scholarship is based on a 2.75 (with 2.5 grace period first two semesters). Initially I was going through my mental list: one roomie slept all day and up all night listening to music (he is not coming back), girlfriend dumped DS, Java teacher got hurt and fell behind on grading and had limited office time, etc… and then I stopped. Life is full of hurdles and he didn’t jump them like I know he can. His choice…not mine. We are capped at our contribution amount. If he drops to a lower scholarship, he makes up the difference.</p>
<p>Having said all that, I am thrilled to hear of all the successes other students are having. Bravo to them!</p>
<p>I’ve been sick all week (bronchitis, sinus infection) so haven’t had a chance to do more than skim here. Congrats to those with good/great grades and an “I’m right there with ya” to those whose kids have hit a bit of a roadbump. DD got the official email today saying she is no longer part of the honors program and lost the small ($1,300/semester) scholarship. I do think it’s all been a big wake-up call for her but we’ll see. She knows that she has to pull her GPA up next semester or she won’t be accepted into the Early Childhood Ed program. She needs at least a 3.0 so will need at least a 3.2 next semester. </p>
<p>Still sending lots of prayer and positive thoughts to AvonMom - I was pleased to hear such positive news and hope her recovery from the surgery is quick.</p>
<p>Back to the couch for me but happy baking, shopping and wrapping to those who still have a long to-do list!</p>
<p>D1 is finally home–arrived at 2 am last night due to delays, etc. So happy to have both my Ds home and D3 has really missed her sisters. No sign of grades yet but D is applying to get into the engineering program and needs to meet some somewhat nebulous, not quite clear threshold. She thinks she did well so I’m not really worried but will be glad when she knows and then hears from the department so she can have that behind her.</p>
<p>After 3 nights of one loong continuous Monopoly game, kiddo2 beat us all…mostly due to hotels on Montreal and Riga which fetch 20mil per stay…haha
This and the win kiddo2 had over the Thanksgiving break makes a change in the house where kiddo1 used to stomp us all. hahaha</p>
<p>Some grades in, still waiting on one. Kiddo isn’t happy and at the same time we are fine with what we see. Not an “all A’s” report.</p>
<p>Kiddo did say that over the semester for both mid terms in physics, the TA made errors in grading etc and both times the prof had to give back points taken off–an avg of 10 each time…and 10 out of 100 is alot to make a mistake in grading. Kiddo wasn’t happy at all with the exam score and cannot believe it is accurate…so first stop in Jan. will be to see the exam results/grading and then to the prof to have it corrected if history has repeated itself. It tweeks me to think these TAs are so sloppy with grading…even adding up wrong the points earned…pulllease! This isn’t grade grubbing–just a matter of sloppines on the TAs part. Glad kiddo has been proactive in this area.</p>
<p>My grad school daughter mentioned TA’s last week when we were talking about her stat’s class. None of my kids had had TA’s before because they all did, or are doing, their undergrad at small colleges. My daughter needed some help in her class and said that the TA was of no help at all and his office hours conflicted with her classes and/or her office hours. She said that most TA’s that she had had were at college solely to get their own degree and had no interest or experience in teaching. She went further to say that really colleges (or at least her college) that have research as their main focus don’t tend to cultivate good teachers. I thought that was an interesting observation, but it also made sense, but was funny in a black humor kind of way. All the time and talk spent on “highly qualified teachers” for our k - 12 kids, goes out the window for College professors.</p>
<p>D doesn’t have the TA situation, but she said her Econ professor has been kind of wacky in posting grades, giving credit for each graded assignment, etc., so that she has to keep checking with him. On one of her courses, all her course work was a B to B+. So how did she end up with a C+?</p>
<p>D1 went back to the HS today for “alumni day.” It is a time for the recent graduates to come back and be a panel for an assembly of juniors and seniors to talk about “Life after HS”. When she was in HS, she said it was very helpful, so she decided to go today. </p>
<p>I am in the middle of wrapping, but I need to get more paper for D2’s presents. One of my friends said “I never really finish geting ready for Christmas. I just run our of time.” I think that is how it will be for me this year.</p>
<p>I am very amazed that for such a large school my son had no TA’s and found all the professors he went to meet with during office hours very helpful and generous with their time. I would think he just got lucky but it was a very nice way to start college.</p>
<p>gsmomma–I’m definitely of the “run out of time” persona. I have great aspirations to get things done, but life gets in the way.</p>
<p>Warning: Mini Rant: DH (and today that D isn’t for Dear) informed me Wed nite that we’d have an overnight guest on Thursday night. OK, so there went Thurs am getting guest room ready. Then Thurs night at 9pm informs me some friends are passing through the area and will be coming on Friday for lunch. WHAT??? A little notice would be nice. So off to the store this am for lunch items. Grrrrrrrr! Then when I (nicely) mentioned that it would be nice to have more notice (I’m sure he’s known for at least a week), he turns it around and says “I thought it would be nice to see them”. Well, of course. But I’m now jumping through hoops and my stuff gets put on the back burner for the second day in a row.</p>
<p>So needless to say, still no wrapping done. Thank goodness I tend to shop online so the gifts are all here. By the way, DH still hasn’t gone shopping at all. What’s that southern saying? “Bless his heart”. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Grades are in and they’re not all A’s but my S is pleased/relieved (he needed at least a B- in calculus to be able to declare a CS major, and he wasn’t sure he’d have it, but it came out to a B+). Everything was as he expected, or one plus or minus higher, so he’s happy. I feel that he’s at just the right level of school where he has to struggle/worry a bit, but can still wind up with very nice grades by working hard. He loves being surrounded by other smart/competent people, and says that this is the first school where he hasn’t had to dread group projects, because everyone pulls their weight. </p>
<p>He does have TAs but I haven’t heard any complaints about them. I did hear complaints about one of the profs He’s applied to be a consultant next semester for the CS class he just completed. That’s lower than a TA (who runs a discussion section) – I think they just have office hours where they are available to consult with students having trouble getting their code to work. He said it’s a 5-10 hour per week commitment and is paid, and will look nice on a resume He also got cast in a few bit parts in a play he auditioned for, and works on one of the engineering project teams, so he’ll be keeping busy this spring, which is a lovely thing.</p>
<p>The AvonMom update is good news. We brought her home yesterday and she is glad to be out of the hospital. The doctors are still very optomistic although the final pathology results won’t come in until later today or early next week. </p>
<p>S has 4 of his 5 grades. He was so excited to find out he got a B- in Spanish as he really was worried he was going to get a C or even a C- (he admitted he overslept 10 minutes and was late to the final! :eek:). It appears that the tutor paid off. He also got a B, a B+ and an A-. His government class is last to report and he feels he should have an A or A- so he will be somewhere in the 3.2 to 3.4 range which is quite acceptable for the first semester. :)</p>
<p>We had a brief conversation last night and he readily admitted he had been able to skate a lot in HS but he really had to learn how to study and use better time management in college. This is from a kid who had all A’s in HS and was a co-val. It’s a difficult transition as we are seeing and hearing about from all the kids represented in this group. I am just glad that he was able to realize that he needed to make the changes and took the steps, with some pushing from us, to have a reasonably successful first semester. I think the couple of early tests that he tanked became the wake-up call for him. I am happy that he is not repeating my slow start in college many years ago!</p>
<p>Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas wishes to everyone!</p>
<p>VAMom2015 – kill him. Really. No notice then he’s nasty? Santa’s watching. The mean Santa.</p>
<p>I think I’m getting to the bottom of D’s grades. This is a kid who got lots of good grades in HS and is a good worker. She chose to take all “200” level classes (i.e., what a sophomore would take) instead of “100” level classes which are what most freshman take. So even though she’s only taking 3 of those 200 level classes, it may be tougher than taking 4 100 level classes.</p>
He’s applied to be a consultant next semester for the CS class he just completed. That’s lower than a TA (who runs a discussion section) – I think they just have office hours where they are available to consult with students having trouble getting their code to work. He said it’s a 5-10 hour per week commitment and is paid, and will look nice on a resume