<p>How can a school tell students to “split” but not have anything in place for those who don’t live nearby?? Can that be possible in a residential college?</p>
<p>My daughter’s all “Sandy? Sandy who?” in San Diego. The ignorance and self-absorption of the young…! I will be affected not at all and even I am still nervous and skittish for all my friend in the East and for all of you and your kids. Good luck, everybody.</p>
<p>Well tell your daughter some of us parents on the gorgeous West Coast have kids in schools on the East Coast. 
San Diego’s weather has been glorious (what’s new?) and it can be hard to fathom real weather, particularly of the magnitude that Sandy appears to be.</p>
<p>MIT’s closed tomorrow. Looks like they’ll get strong winds and lots of rain and possible/probable power outages. My cousin and aunt are in NYC; I hope all of you with kids in the path will check in with us and let us know how they’re faring.</p>
<p>Jaylynn, it’s not surprising that college kids in CA wouldn’t know. When I was in college myself I hardly ever paid attention to the news. Granted we didn’t have cell phones or the internet at our fingertips back then, but mainly we were merely interested in our own schedule. I think that’s normal.</p>
<p>My oldest went through all the tornados in the south (GA/AL) two years ago and they had to come home early due to all the destruction in the area even though his college, itself, was only out of power (no damage). Finals ended up canceled. For kids (like mine) who did not live in the area there were contacts through the college and community who were willing to take in a student or two until they could make arrangements.</p>
<p>And that day I only learned of the devastating tornado outbreak when we got a call from our son letting us know he was ok even though the area around him wasn’t. It felt eerily weird that we were going through our daily afternoon/evening activities and had been clueless about the news/weather while he had been hanging out almost all day in tornado shelters. Granted, there was no advanced notice about the tornadoes as there is with this hurricane, but still… (Cell phones were hardly working that day due to the damage - very spotty signals.)</p>
<p>Wagner College yesterday: “We are asking all resident students to leave the residence halls by 12 noon and go home to weather out the storm, if they are able — and consider taking along a friend or three who live too far away to go to their own homes.”</p>
<p>They added: “We are fully prepared to take care of students who cannot leave campus during the hurricane — but conditions on campus will be rugged, with an evacuation to the gym likely and the possibility of a lengthy loss of power.”</p>
<p>Both of my D’s are in NYC. Older one is hunkered down in her apartment which is in evacuation area B and D2 is in her dorm. Both have plenty of food and water to ride out the storm. Classes are cancelled at least through tomorrow. </p>
<p>I agree that it is very strange to be here in San Diego where it will be 75 degrees today at the beach with both of my girls in the path of the storm. Thank goodness for cell phones and that my girls like to stay in touch with us!</p>
<p>Thanks BarnardMom - I spoke to my Chicago daughter yesterday and she thought I was nuts to suggest she get a flashlight. She was in Chicago two years ago when they had that blizzard that closed campus for the first time in decades and she thought that was so much fun. </p>
<p>For those kids in NYC and LI, this will be a great adventure. No one will be hurt, the kids will have fun for a day or two and then if things aren’t back to “normal” (ie - no electricity) then the kids will run out of patience. But it will still be a great story.</p>
<p>Me? I’ve got my MIL spending the next few days with me, bragging about how hard LI is getting hit. Okay, not everything is a competition, but if you insist, you win.</p>
<p>Sending best wishes to safely ride out the storm to those of you in its path. </p>
<p>S is fairly safe in the Chicago area. (although I was surprised to see how widely the storm might affect different areas thanks to the info you all have shared!) He’s blissfully unaware of the storm, we mentioned his sister was in its path and he knew nothing of the storm. </p>
<p>D is in western MA, with classes cancelled today. Thanks to an online group of college parents. I know something about campus plans and will stay aware of ongoing circumstances. D went to the coast yesterday with a group of fellow researchers to collect snails and crabs, hmm, maybe not the best day to do so. At least she made it safely back to campus.</p>
<p>Remember everyone that texts often get through when phone calls (both cell and landline) don’t.</p>
<p>Hope that all the emergency planning is for nothing and that this is a non-event.</p>
<p>@mihcal1,@notakid,@2016Barnardmom,@college_query - thank you for all of your words of advice. I’m happy to report that Son is digging in to show he “has grit” and inspired to re-evaluate his studying practices and learn from his mistakes so he can improve. This is the time for him to learn that as the saying goes “when the going gets tough the tough get going” and he can build character from this experience. We’ll see what happens but the next day he had a much better attitude. No cookies but a Halloween surprise on the way too should help.</p>
<p>honorigo – I think a lot of our kids, depending on personality, bite off more than they can chew at some point in freshman year. There’s also this effect of knowing where you stood in the various hierarchies in HS, and having to figure it all out again in college. It’s been an interesting journey so far.</p>
<p>So tell your DS to hang in there. He’s just at the beginning of his college career!</p>
<p>honorigo, someone on another thread recommended people read Cal Newport’s book, “How to become a straight A student.” I figured, before I gave it to my son I should read it over so I got it from the library. It is only about 200 pages and has a number of points that your son may or may not do. I know for myself, I wish I had tried a few of his ideas when I was in college. You might look into getting a copy.</p>
<p>@IJustDrive & @Lakemom</p>
<p>Thank you and I will check out that book reference. Have a great day!</p>
<p>D reports tree down across street. No school tomorrow. Two roommates went home (NY) for weekend & didn’t return, so it’s just D & Calif roommate. She seems fine.</p>
<p>Glad to see I am not the only neurotic parent. Visited my son in Boston this weekend from sunny California and was horrified to arrive back there and learn that a hurricane was on the way just after I would depart. DS was fine. Refused to come home with mum when I meekly suggested it. Good sign, all in all, regarding his adjustment to college life in just two months. I confess I texted wildly all day and received numerous 1-3 letter responses: K, Yep, Mhm, etc. All seems fine and mum’s going to leave him alone for now.</p>
<p>laplatinum, that’s funny! I managed to refrain from texting my kids yesterday. I knew H would text them plenty (he did); figured I’d let him be the annoying one! Did receive a lovely email from the president of D’s college assuring us that safety measures were in place. </p>
<p>S received his new phone yesterday so spent some time with H on the phone for set-up instructions. He dropped his phone in September and while it was still operational, he could no longer make or receive actual phone calls on it. He was due for a new phone in October and said he could hold out until then. So we’ve only SPOKEN to him once since August, when he was visiting his sister over fall break and used her phone. I wonder if he will call more now?</p>
<p>I hope everyone is ok this morning. I feel for those with major cleanup/rebuilding to do.</p>
<p>We kept power all night, but appear to be lucky with that as our local news has talked about thousands (locally) without it. Several roads are closed too.</p>
<p>We talked with our URoc boy last night and he was kind of miffed that ALL of the schools around him, colleges and schools, were closed today, but not URoc. 
He’s doing fine though and has the contents of a couple of recent care packages (from us and our church) to survive on if he chooses to skip the dining hall. I did encourage him to go to classes if they have them. He loves his T/Th classes (Brain & Cognitive Science and Chem). He also has a Chem test on Thursday…</p>
<p>It’s getting light here so I’ll soon head outside to see if there’s damage. With the wind, rain, and now cold I’m not really looking forward to it. I might check the radar to see if the rain is due to get lighter in the near future.</p>
<p>for fun, I checked out the Class of 2013 thread. So glad we didn’t have to do all this with a major storm affecting ED guidelines. So glad that we are on the other side of this now…though many have decided to transfer.</p>
<p>I hope that all the east coasters are okay this morning… I am sure the wait for power and cleanup will be frustrating… My friend’s D that is in school in NYC is doing good so, now just have to wait to hear from family in NJ.</p>
<p>Got to see D this weekend and she is doing well, calculus is getting better and has A’s in other classes.</p>
<p>Well MizzBee you forget the New England Halloween blizzard of 2011! I remember DD hit send on her EA app just hours before we lost power for days. So the schools actually have some experience dealing with this. I do feel for the kids affected though. It just adds another layer of stress onto an already stressful time.</p>
<p>Massachusetts was pretty much spared this storm, we did not even lose power, neither did DDs in Boston. Family in PA and NJ are all sitting in the dark, but thankfully no major issues. I hope all of our NYC wackaloons came through unscathed and that the DCs will get back to classes soon.</p>
<p>We are going to D2’s a capella concert next weekend. She is worried that we will be upset by racy language, etc. in the performance. “it is a performance for college kids, mom.” Jeesh do they think we were born yesterday and are complete innocents? This from the kid who played the lead in Spring Awakenings and pretty much immunized us for future shock value.</p>
<p>My two D’s in NYC came through the storm fine in NYC. D2 decided at noon yesterday to head from her school up to her sister’s apartment on the UWS. She was able to grab a cab, but said it was spooky how deserted the streets were. They never lost power although their lights did flicker last night. School is out for both of them today and I have a feeling probably tomorrow too. All of D2’s roommates went home last weekend to NJ and NY so I don’t know when they will be able to get back to the city. D1 said there may be some limited bus service in Manhattan later today, but don’t know when the subways will run again.</p>