<p>We moved from a 3 bedroom duplex to a 2 bedroom apartment and did away with D’s bedroom entirely. Problem solved. :-j </p>
<p>D’s room looks just like it did when she was here, but with more stuff (hard to imagine!). She brought stuff home each summer and there’s a pile growing on the floor next to the bookshelves 
I’ve been asking her to go through the stuff, give away clothes she won’t use, throw out the other stuff. We’ll see if she does make any progress these next two weeks. She’s heading to Pittsburgh for another friends’ graduation this weekend - so that time is out. I think she’ll only sit down and do this if I sit with her :)</p>
<p>Yes, DS’s room sounds like Arisamp’s D’s room–the same but more stuff. Ack! I wanted to get rid of the loft bed and put in a regular bed so if we had guests they could use the room when DS is away. DH said it wasn’t a good idea (great, since it’s his good friend who is the most frequent house guest). I really want to get rid of that bed! </p>
<p>DS is staying at school for graduation and reunions so we won’t see him until the first part of June. I’m glad he’s staying, since I think he should see it before he graduates next year. This will be the first year he could participate, since he had commitments immediately after he finished classes his first two years.</p>
<p>Yes! D moved into an apartment at the end of April. My house is no longer her home. She did a major purge, and the closet is now full of stuff for a rummage. All that’s left is stuff that typically won’t be claimed until a young person settles. Who wants to move a box of mementos from apt to apt? Or a prom dress? Still, all of d’s remaining “stuff” fits neatly in half the closet. </p>
<p>My S has finals next week. He still doesn’t have anything lined up for the summer and I am getting more worried. He had a couple of interviews with large companies, but did not get offers from them. He needs to have 2 co-op/internships in order to graduate. I am concerned that his quiet demeanor/lack of good social skills is catching up with him. From all accounts his computer skills are very good. He says he is still seeing opportunities posted, and feels he will get something, and I am hoping he is not delusional!</p>
<p>My D is home and will start her summer job at a high end retail store this week. She did a brief internship during Spring break but really needs to earn some money for fall and take two online classes this summer in order to graduate on time. She is a lot more focused on studies finally. Nice to see!</p>
<p>S11 was home for 4 busy days then flew across country on Sunday for a 10 week internship. He will fly straight back to college early August to start RA training for next year. We won’t see him til midSeptember when we bring the rest of his belongings from home as we move S14 into his college. I am tired just thinking about it! It will be 4 months til we see him again. 
Still, happy that he is achieving important goals.</p>
<p>Hi all- just checking in as the third year is completing for most of our kids. </p>
<p>D finishes her semester long internship in VA (in what she hopes is her career field) next week and then heads home after a long weekend in PA with friends. This was the longest we haven’t seen her as she often comes home weekends when she is at college in MA. </p>
<p>Her current summer plans are to find housing for next year (hoping to find a sublet as students get their “disinvited back” letters for the next semester), study for and take the GRE, and take riding lessons. Not much chance of a summer job, but she has savings which should see her through.</p>
<p>Congrats to all on hitting the end of year 3. It looks like some will already be graduating.</p>
<p>@mathmomvt, ShawD has declared that ShawWife can use her BR for anything – projects room, etc. She’s firmly ensconced in the condo we bought and if things work well, could live there after she finishes her BS and MSN and for a few years of working and even after having the first kid. ShawSon has done nothing to move out of his room, although he has been done with college for a year. He’ll be living at home/traveling for the next 3 months and then heading out to the West Coast for grad school.</p>
<p>@kinderny, what is a disinvited back letter? ShawSon had an apartment in the area of your D’s school this past year. </p>
<p>And, happy Memorial Day to all.</p>
<p>Happy Memorial Day to all! I think summer has finally arrived.</p>
<p>How many of your kids have started thinking about grad school? D wants to go to med school but is planning on taking a year off in between UG and med school. I am wondering something. She goes to a private school that has a medical school. Would she have any admissions brownie points in applying to the med school attached to her undergrad school?</p>
<p>bajamm, ShawD is in a program to get a joint BS/MSN degree. She was conditionally admitted when she applied to transfer (conditional on GPA and interview) and she was accepted last year. The formal MSN starts in January, but she is already taking classes with MSN students. She is also thinking about whether there is any other training she’d like to get.</p>
<p>I’m not knowledgeable but some med schools seem to like to accept folks from their own school (Harvard certainly does; I’d guess Stanford and Yale do as well). But, it is worth asking. Almost everyone we know from ShawSon’s class at college and HS who is applying to med school takes a year off and does research at a hospital or another medically related job. Seems to be standard. Makes sense to de-stress, but not so much sense as it lengthens an already interminable training. ShawD chose to be a nurse practitioner rather than a doctor in part because the training is so long that it overlaps with the times a woman might like to have kids. A number of female docs don’t have kids and it is hard ot do things like residences with infants or little kids. Later on, it probably isn’t a bad profession to be a mother, but early on, her observation is that it looks quite difficult.</p>
<p>Thanks, Shaw. It is interesting that you brought up kids. D did talk with me about kids when she was here at mother’s day. I am not sure what she will decide about that, but she is thinking. I don’t think that she will change her mind about med school unless she doesn’t get accepted after a couple of application rounds.</p>
<p>My own family doc is a woman. She is in her late 40’s and just got done with her residency in her early 40’s. She has several kids that are 15-20ish at this point. I would think that med school with older kids and their activities would be harder than med school with an infant.</p>
<p>Agreed. It doesn’t work well either way. You have to chose several years when you rarely see your kids, I think. Infant or older. We’ve seen it with our female doctor friends with kids. The training just isn’t designed around child- rearing bad child-raising. But it is clearly doable. </p>
<p>Bajamm. I think that most med schools give preference to students from their own undergrad school. You might be able to find stats from your D’s school to see if that’s the case.</p>
<p>Many female doctors manage families. It would be very difficult to have a baby during med school or residency, but I’ve seen some of my H’s colleagues do it late in residency or afterwards. Once training is complete, there are work options that allow for a decent work-life balance. </p>
<p>My amazing internist who recently passed away at the far too young age of 45 had three young children-11, 9 and 8 and by all accounts was as great a mother as she was a doctor-it can be done. Her husband’s profession allowed him to work at home so he was able to do the things that need to be done for the children at those ages.</p>
<p>@shawbridge I so wish we had been able to buy a condo when you did. My poor boy was just accepted off the housing WL and I am glad he had the patience to stay on it. He was in such a hurry last year to have an apartment when he didn’t get on campus housing that he entered into a lease in March and by the time the move came he already knew it wasn’t a good fit with a couple of the kids. He realized very soon after that how much he loves the morning sun as his apartment was one of those walkups so half of the place was underground and his room was very dark.</p>
<p>I had to reassure him when the subject would come up this time around to be patient! There were a lot of places available in the fall last year via sublet and I gently reminded him of that. I also suggested he put in for campus housing just in case and when he didn’t get it suggested why not go on the WL in case he couldn’t find anything-perhaps it would come through. It did last week and after thinking about it a couple of days he decided to take it. He made the decision on his own just like last year. Unlike last year he knew a lot more about what he needs to like a place-so he learned the hard way but he learned. I never even told him “I told you so” even though a couple of months into the lease he said that I was right about the whole thing=music to my ears but I told him I took no pleasure in that since he was so unhappy (but between you and me I did!).</p>
<p>One of the benefits though is he sometimes just needs to come home to get that sunshine and this is one of those weekends so it worked out perfectly!</p>
<p>Good news for S for the fall. He received an email from his Enteprenurialship prof from last semester informing him that he is one of two students selected to be the class TA’s for the fall term. He is quite excited about the opportunity as he will make a lot of excellent networking contacts in the Washington and Baltimore area. Sounds like his senior year is going to be very busy.</p>
<p>Congrats to AvonHSDad’s S! Great news! I hope everyone else is doing well this summer before senior year. DS came home sick and he’s supposed to be submitting his Med school application, but he’s not quite finished since he’s been sick. He needs to get well, he doesn’t have time to be sick!!!</p>
<p>Congrats AvonHSDaD’s S. </p>
<p>ShawD has been in her summer classes for two or three weeks – doesn’t love any of her clinicals because of either a difficult setting or a bad instructor whereas she has loved every previous clinical experience that she has had. But, it is only for something like 8 weeks (maybe 10) so she can manage it. She has decided (at least at the moment) to do the masters part of her program full-time rather (with a part-time job) than part-time (with a full-time job). She’d heard about the pros and cons but one guy who has been very realistic (good credibility) told her that it was hard to really focus on the classes while working full-time because you will get tests and really can’t organize your life to focus on them, for example. It does mean that she’ll be a nurse practitioner just before her 23rd birthday and fifth high school reunion, but she is very mature.</p>
<p>bajamm and VAMom2015, one other interesting thing. Everyone of ShawSon’s friends who applied to medical school took a year off after college. As have kids of our friends. 100% as far as I know. I suspect that having a year to get over college burnout is a good things. ShawSon had no interest in med school but was really, really tired after a strenuous senior year and would have benefitted from a lighter year. He didn’t get it. A year later, he’s taking a month off and is finally starting to feel a little less tired. So taking the gap year prior to med school may be a good idea and may make it easier to have time to do the applications.</p>
<p>Congrats to Avon’s S! Vamom, I hope your S is feeling better so he can attack those applications.</p>
<p>Shaw makes a good point about the advantage of taking off a year before applying to med school, but I think it can work out either way. My D1 had several friends who went to med school right after undergrad without problems. They took the summer after graduation to recharge. Medical training is a long haul, and some students want to move forward as quickly as possible. </p>
<p>One thing that I have observed with D1’s friends is that when the college grad is undecided about the future, it makes more sense to find a job than to go to grad school. </p>