<p>My S is coming home this Friday. He’s already asked my husband to plan a “man feast” with another father/son, which is what they did in August before they left for school. A man feast is a grilled steak with other delicious proteins not usually available to him in college, at least of the same quality level. </p>
<p>It will be good to see him … Can’t believe freshman year is already almost over!</p>
<p>Friday is the coming home date here too. We’re not bugging him in the meantime as he had a couple of tests this week.</p>
<p>I love the idea of a manfeast!</p>
<p>Youngest is taking the SAT Saturday, so we’re doing a pizza buffet for lunch afterward. Perhaps a manfeast for Sunday…</p>
<p>Glad you all are planning some awesome family spring breaks. DS is not coming home, he is going to some music fesitval in Miami and then to visit his girlfriend’s grandmother for a few days. He is also planning his 1 month trip to India. He called last night to ask if we would like him to come home for 3 days before going to India and then heading back to Miami for a 3 week job. We said, “YES!!!”. LOL! We miss him a lot, but he is soaring so high, and really doing well that I just have to celebrate with him rather than focus on him not being here. It is really good to see him doing so well. </p>
<p>I will still be jealous when you all talk of your family adventures! :(</p>
<p>I’m jealous of those who get to see their kiddos over spring break, as well. My D is visiting a friend in DC for part of spring break, then back to school for a few days, then off with another friend in town for contra dancing. It sounds like she’ll have a great time, but it means we won’t see her until May.</p>
<p>S was home for (most of) spring break last week, early for most colleges. His midterms are already over. He’s doing MUCH better this semester than last, though still not quite as well as I’d like. We talked about the work he needs to do in this last half of the semester if he wants to avoid a financial aid/scholarship appeal (he’s good to go for the school’s academic standards). He basically needs a 3.33 this semester to be clear of all consequences of his bad first semester. I’d prefer to see him at a 3.8 or so. When we went over everything he saw that was attainable so hopefully he has the follow-through to put that bad first semester completely behind him.</p>
<p>Housing request for next year has already been put in…he’s thought about classes but that doesn’t happen until later.</p>
<p>Hope you all enjoy spring break, or whatever part of it you may get with your kiddos!</p>
<p>DS will also come home on Friday for two weeks. Lots of big changes around here. DS2 was accepted into an MD/Ph.D. program and it now seems clear that I will be sending off another kid to a far-away place less than a year after sending off DS3 across the country. This spring break will probably be the last one where my boys will see each other. Part of me wants to stop time from moving and part of me wants to just wake up when the transition is over.</p>
<p>Congrats to DS2 Mim! Those programs are difficult to get into - glad he made it! Can we ask which school?</p>
<p>My D1’s plans spring break plans are in flux. She forgot to submit her application for job-shadowing, which was due 3/04 at midnight. However the app was still “live” online so she submitted it this morning. I don’t know if they’ll consider a late app or not. </p>
<p>She was going to come home just for the first weekend of her week-long break, but without the job-shadowing she can stay home longer and maybe spend more time with HS friends whose spring breaks coincide. </p>
<p>I don’t know whether to be upset about the missed opportunity, or glad that we might have her home longer.</p>
<p>D is home for 10 days at the end of the month. BF’s family invited her to join them on a trip, but we told her we are not thrilled, however, it is your money and your choice. She decided against as she wants to be in Spain next year for study abroad spring term and we only supply limited funds.</p>
<p>S just found out housing for next year. He got the bldg he requested and the room type he wanted. Same set up he is in now, but only 1 RM instead of 3! He is thrilled!!!</p>
<p>He needed some happines-not feeling very confident about most recent mid term. He doesn’t even want to look and see the grade. I hate that he did so well in HS and worked so hard to get to this point and his confidence gets put thru the ringer! He knows what he is doing in this course, but when it comes to the mid term it is worded in such a way that they were not taught, it makes it a lot more difficult. Maybe that’s the way they all are, but it is upsetting to him. He did speak to others and they felt they did not do so hot on the mid term either.</p>
<p>He will be home this friday! Definitely needed but has a lot of work to do on break.</p>
<p>i think since in many cases mid terms are the first test in a class, they are doubly tough sine you don’t have an idea how the teachers structures his/her test. it takes a little while to get into a groove how to approach each test and each professor does it very differently. It is good if there are practice tests from past years just to get comfortable with that professor’s style.</p>
<p>My freshman does not have break until the 15th and then we are all heading for a warm weather vacation. I cannot wait!!!</p>
<p>Have we had a discussion about taxes, the AOC and how to file it? What a pain…I’m getting some help from the good folks over in the financial forum but wow, this is hard.</p>
<p>Well, nix on D1 being home longer over spring break. She’s been invited to Passover at a friend’s house so now she plans to bug out Monday morning. :p</p>
<p>@itsthatime-This was his 2nd midterm for this class. The practice midterms they have been given (at least the 1st one) were another professors midterms. In fact on both midterms he has done very well on the practice midterms.</p>
<p>We have a new teacher at school who recently graduated from the same univsersity so she is my go to person to ask questions. She is not familiar with this particular professor, but she stated that this is another “weeder” course. I figured we would be done with that after the first semester. </p>
<p>He just gets very aggravated because he knows the material, is not struggling in the class, quizzes, lab reports, pre-labs, post-labs, etc… are all fine. It is just the midterms that are the issue. And to be honest-I am not even sure that it is an issue. He may have done better on it than he feels. He is very much the one to beat himself up for grades that are not where he wants them to be. Not a bad quality. I think he was born to be a student and it makes me happy that he wants to do well. It hurts to see him so down when he thinks he did poorly. Roller coaster!!</p>
<p>OHMomof2, I used taxact.com to file my taxes which was very helpful in figuring out how to claim the American Opportunity Credit. I’m sure TurboTax would be equally helpful. As long as you have qualified college expenses (which include tuition, fees and course materials, but not room and board) that you have paid for out of pocket (excluding from a 529 plan), you can claim the credit using form 8863. The good thing about the online tax programs is that they ask you questions and then automatically determine which of the education credits or deductions work best for your situation.</p>
<p>D’s spring break ends the day before Seder, and her grandparents will be here for the holiday, so we’re making her skip a day or two of classes for Seder. It is a long spring break!</p>
<p>My D will be home for a week, only she’s planning to go meet some friends from school for a few days up in Seattle, so we won’t get to see her the whole time. It will be good to have her home though… She seems happy and her school is a good fit overall.</p>
<p>D2 is coming home next Fri for spring break. We leave on Sat for a week of beach vacation. It will be nice to catch up with her. Much has happened with her this semester - sorority, new BF and many clubs.</p>
<p>OHmom - Happy to hear of your son’s progress. It is amazing he could achieve 3.3 after a bad first semester. I am sure it gives him confidence that he could do the work if he tried. I often think that’s the hard part, to build up someone’s confidence and not second guess one’s ability. He will get his 3.8 very soon. Congrats.</p>
<p>My RIT son was home last week at the end of his quarter, and we found out he got all As. He is my super motivated son as he knows exactly what he wants to do. I can’t say enough about how perfect a school like RIT, which admits kids in to a specific major, is for a student that positive about what he wants. He is just driven. This was my slow starter kid and we continue to be amazed by him now.</p>
<p>My other two are due home tomorrow and I am excited to see them, especially my d who I haven’t seen since Dec break. She is the one who had to drop out of Chem first semester. Now she is having trouble with Bio. Its funny because she is a science kid but a very hands on one. Her Bio labs consist of a 1hr experiment and then hours of number crunching results with some kind of computer program I know nothing about. She would be much happier dissecting things, doing field study, observation, heck, cleaning out animal cages, anything hands on. I feel badly for her and hope she makes it through the book stuff to get to the real thing. She is doing really well in all her other classes. And it doesn’t help that my brother is a professor there and reports getting email from the school saying that profs are giving out to many As and need to cut back.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thoughtful words, oldfort :)</p>
<p>Mom2jl - it does, but our situation with lots of grants/merit is really confusing as some applied to room and board. There’s a question about taking the whole amount or applying some of the grants to R&B which increases my tax credit but he then has to declare as income. Sigh…</p>