<p>VAMom - I will be billed all at once for my Ds summer abroad program. It includes tuition, room, board and airfare.</p>
<p>D1 will be coming home this weekend for Easter, even though she has no extra time off. Her main motivation to coming home is for us to do some clothes shopping. We have definitely heard less from her this term, so I am not sure how her classes are going. Hopefully, we will be able to talk when she is home.</p>
<p>D2 is having issues at HS. She is technically being bullied by some of the boys. The boys were mainly in her History class. I sent an email to her teacher and her GC asking if she could move classes, but since the school is so small, I would understand if we had no other options. Within 30 minutes, the principal called me at work and asked if D2 wanted to be moved to the Honors History class, starting the next day. I got the impression that the situation was pretty bad if they reacted so quickly. H and I met with the GC, the Vice Principal, and her History teacher. They expressed concern that this particular class of boys is the worse that they have seen in years. They are taking action against individual boys and are having bullying experts come in and talk to the class. I hope it works.</p>
<p>GSMomma</p>
<p>Thankful they took her and you seriously!</p>
<p>GSmomma, that is great that the school reacted so quickly but terrible that your daughter has to put up with it at all. What grade is she in and is it a private or public school, just curious as to how things are handled in different schools. We have some kids who are BAD (public school) in my 9th grade D’s school but they cannot kick them out unless they go to jail. Nice huh?</p>
<p>Emilybee, my husband has squeeked by the age thing for the past few years, making it by seconds! He broke his foot (jones fracture) 4 years ago and was down and out for a few months but has been going strong ever since. I actually get so inspired every year that I say I am going to start running but never do. I would rather walk briskly with my dog while chatting and solving the problems of the world with my friends.</p>
<p>Started a real estate licensing course today, 3 days a week 4 hours a day need to do 60 hours, not sure its what I want to do but figure a license can’t hurt. </p>
<p>I am dreading the bill for the summer program as my D gave me the estimate which we cannot afford (over 11,000) she says she is expecting 10,000 from some program that she applied through, lets hope she is right.</p>
<p>Vamom, hope sons housing issues resolve themselves quickly and that your actual summer bill for the summer program is only 10%! LOL</p>
<p>D2 is at a public high school, and she is in the 9th grade.The entire student population is less than 300 students. She said that the boys in the honors classes are much nicer than the non-honors boys, but the girls are more ‘stuck up’ in the honors classes. Go figure? Currently, she is in only 2 honors classes, but she has motivation to be in all honors classes next year.</p>
<p>D is not coming home for Easter, either. We will be going down to New Haven for an event on the 15th of April so will get to see her then, which will be nice. She’s staying down there for the summer (on a grant so she can keep working at her lab) and we’re not sure when she’ll have any vacation, but we’ll take what we can get. Anyone else going to be @Yale that weekend?</p>
<p>Highhead, no headed to Boston that weekend and Yalegirl will be taking the train up on Saturday to meet us. My D will be in New Haven for 5 weeks this summer and is subletting an apartment with 5 other girls there for the summer or at least that is the plan. Will you daughter live on or off campus this summer? How did her housing end up working out, is she ok with it? I hope so, her story mad me upset about kids who don’t have regard for others feelings.
I thought I prefered the housing system at Yale but having to pick roommates from only your residential college often makes it harder than it has to be. My D’s best friends are all in other residential colleges and although she is happy about rooming next year would have preferred to room with some other friends. Enjoy your weekend with your D!</p>
<p>My D is coming home this weekend - her school is closed both Friday and Monday which makes it easier. She will be in the area Thursday night, but a group of her school friends are staying at another local family’s house and they are heading into the city on Friday for a day of museum hopping and ethnic dining. What a fast year this has been - hard to believe she’ll be home for the summer in less than 2 months! And really hard to believe that next year at this time, S will be finalizing his college choice. Time is just flying too quickly for me…</p>
<p>gsmomma - great that the school administration was so responsive. It’s hard though for kids to go through this. Honors classes - after not taking one in freshman year, D took each and every one she could the remaining three years, along with any possible APs. She said that in the non-honors classes, the kids were there just to have fun. The classes were not interesting and definitely not challenging. She found a good peer group of friends that pretty much took most of the same honors/AP classes and that helped a great deal.</p>
<p>One month more and they will actually be coming home - the first year is almost (almost!) over. Hard to believe!! D is currently very stressed out - a lot going on. But then again, it seems hard to find her not stressed out :(</p>
<p>Thanks, EAO! I agree about the limited pool of potential roommates in the housing system. D is talking about living off campus junior year with some of her a capella friends, who are all in different colleges. I can’t say I am happy about the idea, but I understand why she is thinking about it. As far as next year goes, I haven’t heard anything beyond the fact that she was taken in by a suite that needed a 6th person. She really likes one of the girls; I suspect she is just getting to know the others. D is the sort of person who has limited energy for socializing, so once she finds 2-3 friends, she stops. All that energy was going into her freshman suite. Now she needs to start over. Maybe she’ll learn a lesson from this.
For the summer, D is also planning to sublet with some other people. Maybe our D’s will be living together! Again, I haven’t heard much. I suspect they are all too busy to deal with it right now and assume something will come together at the last minute. There seems to be an area where undergraduates rent off-campus (different from where we lived as grad students), and there is undoubtedly some sort of electronic message board where people find sublets and roommates. I am hoping to learn more when we see D in a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>Hi All</p>
<p>Agree that roommates, housing etc can create drama.
Thankfully while most of our k1’s closest friends are on the team and all are in other RCs…we advised k1 to be a good roommate and to not limit the social stuff to just team, just entryway or classmates/labs etc…spreading out what little free time there was has been helpful
K1 and roommate are actually really great great friends…the roommate matching for freshman year worked in this case
So k1 and roomate joined a 6 to make an octet for housing…with others in the RC…</p>
<p>Just spoke this am with a parent of a dd at a different U and her dd had wanted to be with teammates…that fell through in the last 2 weeks, when led the dd to plan B and a different roommate–the dd and the olanned roommate planned to join a quad to make a suite of 6. That feel through in the last 24 hrs…so the dd is now either going as a single or will take a randomly assigned roommate. The other girls in this case have left this friend’s dd in the lurch twice over housing. She is quite upset as is the mom. </p>
<p>Looking back on my years at a U and housing…As in incoming freshman I was assigned to a Jr (who was a single in a double) THAT did not work out and I moved out within 2 weeks or so.
I moved directly into a double with a soph -up one floor-there were ups and downs, yet she ended up as a bridesmaid in my wedding.
Soph yr I moved to a double with a fellow sorority pledge. That lasted a semester and a girl from down the hall moved into my room.
Jr yr I moved off campus into a condo, and 2 of the 4 of us were Srs, I was a Jr and my roommate a soph. There was girl/roommate drama- in part to us all being from different walks of life … it was good in the long run that we four “grew up” a bit…
In fact eventually my soph roommate and I came to understand and know eachother better. She is the godmother of my firstborn and was a bridesmaid in my wedding and I was in hers…
Sr yr I stayed in that condo as the lone Sr and 2 other sorority sisters of my roommate moved in.</p>
<p>All that is to say–I think there is a good bit of drama with girls and as young adults they are figuring it out…they each have their way of doing things/nesting etc because of how their moms impact them and they are sure to call home and look for support when life at college doesn’t go theri way… Hopefully they expand their relationships… and get included more than excluded. Reach across barriers etc. We all remember how it can be a painful time.</p>
<p>My k1 was most concerned during the recent housing lottery that they roomed with “normal” people saying there are some strange/odd-ish people on campus that you don’t want to be forced into a group with…I am hoping next year works well. Going from a double to an octet will be a big change and as a engineering/math/applied science student plus 2 a days in a varsoty sport (with travel) k1 has only limited Sat lights for “play”, is up early (5:30am practices…) k1’s roommate is a very very good student and there has been no drama.</p>
<p>My DH has some pretty bad roommate stories to tell—</p>
<p>S and his roomate decided to stick together for sophomore year. They ended up with a lousy lottery number and are in one of the older dorms next year which is two blocks outside of the campus gates (off campus). Now he is talking about getting a bicycle. We will discuss this summer. At least he and his RM are compatible and operate on the same schedule. The freshman matching service did a good job.</p>
<p>He did get in to see his advising dean and got his probable major sorted out. He was leaning toward political science with a business minor then he considered a business major which would require a transfer from the college to the business school, then he talked about a double major in economics and political science. After his meeting it looks like he will stay in the college (arts/sciences) and major in political economy which is a mix of economics and poly sci. His next issue is to decide if he wants to continue with a foreign language. Its his hardest course and its pulling his GPA down but he feels it will help him career wise if he ends up majoring in econ or business. Our advice was to take it next fall and if its giving him a lot of trouble then withdraw before the drop deadline. With his AP credits he is 4 courses ahead of schedule and only has 3 core requirements left for next year.</p>
<p>These issues sure are a long way from last year when we were worried about where to attend and whether or not there was any FA at the end of the rainbow.</p>
<p>He is on Easter break and on his way to see his GF. He is not coming home as we are leaving for a week of sun and fun on Friday and he has to be back in school next Tuesday. DD 14 is very happy with this situation as she is able to bring a friend on our vacation trip. :)</p>
<p>That’s about it from our neck of the woods. Major League home opener here tomorrow. That means its a holiday for me. :D</p>
<p>Quiet morning today. Back from page 2.</p>
<p>Avon: I’m glad that your son had good luck with his roommate. I remeber when we toured Georgetown years ago that it sounded like they had one of the better roommate match programs. His choice of major sounds excellent. He will have a lot of options. My D1 was a history major, but got lots of interviews for business and consulting jobs.</p>
<p>MLB opener is here tomorrow also, but it’s hard to get excited about our team.</p>
<p>GS- I know what you are dealing with. Our D15’s HS is pretty rough once you get out of the Academy classes. Luckily this year that only means PE and Spanish. Anyway, she came home yesterday and said that the Spanish teacher put a quiz up (on the overhead maybe?) and then turned it over and told the kids to start. D noticed the answers were written on the back and told the teacher. Some of the kids asked her why she would do that and she said “because people shouldn’t cheat”. One other kid replied with a comment that she just cost the class good grades. D responded with “no, you not studying cost you a good grade”. </p>
<p>I’m proud of her but, at the same time, worried. We had a friend who had his D threatened with a box cutter and had to transfer, and DW teaches there and comments how some of the kids are the worst she has seen in 28 years of teaching.</p>
<p>Hi guys…</p>
<p>So last night my k2 shows me the prompt for the English paper that’s the current assignment…and tells us about how the teacher is teaching them how
life as we understand it is meanngless
its all about yourself
nothing you do reallly matters anyway …</p>
<p>the assignment is from 3 of the recent books they have read, how they are to pull 2-3 quites per book to support what “the meaning of life is” based on the books…</p>
<p>I had to go to wikipedia to be reminded of what Existentialism is and there is no wonder why my k2 is complaining how dark this teacher is… </p>
<p>So I mention in passing to a friend about k2’s struggle and having been ill…and said something about the english teacher…My friend interrupst me and tells me MANY parents have demanded the school not assign their student to this crackpot’s class. </p>
<p>Guess mine got “lucky” as I don’t keep tabs on that sort of thing …</p>
<p>grrr</p>
<p>Fog, when boychild was in middle school I was complaining to my friends about boychild complaining to me about his French teacher and how mean she was, and when I mentioned her name, in unison all said, oooooh…Mrs. Bieberrrrrr. </p>
<p>Then it turned out that several of them were actually friends with her so I asked them why she was so mean and they said she is even mean to her friends! She actually said to a friend of mine’s daughter when she answered a question incorrectly in front of the whole class, “why are you so stupid, do you have a steel plate in your brain!”</p>
<p>Seems like every school has one of those. Older D had one who would insult them …we were all half hoping that he would use a racial or ethnic slur, because teachers get fired for racial or ethnic slurs, but there didn’t seem to be any penality for the highly inappropriate “■■■■■■.”</p>
<p>I was pretty fluent in French at one time, but I don’t think I ever learned how to say ‘steel plate’ :(. Maybe Mrs. Bieber should hand out a list of French insults at the beginning of the year so everyone can use them.</p>
<p>I think it can be a hard thing to balance. D’s school was so politically correct that the teachers were afraid to say anything at all; S’s favorite teachers are the ones who call him names. But it’s a boys’ school, so maybe there is a more direct translation of ‘are you a moron?’ to ‘I love you and know you can do better’ than there would be in a coed school.</p>
<p>My kids school overseas was chock o block full of teachers from UK, Ireland and NO one can hand out insults better than them, are “you an idjit?” "Get out of my class you Jackass…etc etc. Stupid, dumb, etc. etc. Then add on to that the German teachers and ones from France, rude, condensending etc. (especially if you were American) your kids had to develop a thick skin and no one thought anything about it. We got into the habit of laughing about the latest insult any given teacher could hand out and not taking it personally! Funny thing is no one thought much about it there, just accepted it, all expect the American parents!</p>