<p>jrmama496 – I get it. There is a magical quality to the Vandy campus. Very seductive. seems ot me that there are a lot of kids on this forum that are going. I think we should plan a reunion of sorts at the Ingram Center over Family Weekend and put some faces to our avatars!</p>
<p>Congratulations to all who have decisions in hand, deposits paid, roommates selected and bedding ordered! Now that the decision has been made and deposit completed, go2girl is just trying to muddle through AP tests, finals and lots of friend drama. Seems like so many friend groups are breaking up. Is anyone else seeing this kind of stuff going on? </p>
<p>I am so envious reading about the schools that don’t make seniors take finals or give them some time after finals are over…here it is final exams right up until the last day of school and graduation on June 13, with I am sure some last minute, nail biting drama about final grades that will be posted after school is out for the summer and you can’t reach a teacher to save your life.</p>
<p>Oh our college shopping hasn’t even begun. Each summer after graduation I’ve taken each boy out for some one-on-one mom time and we get the bulk of the shopping done in a way even they enjoy. This year’s will be my last…</p>
<p>Kohls has been “the” favorite store of my older two. We’ll start there first with youngest, then wander the mall, and even the thrift store (getting cheap plates, cups, etc). Why change what isn’t broke?</p>
<p>@go2mom I haven’t seen the friend groups breaking up wiht my S as I did with my D. With my D, it didn’t happen until about halfway through the summer though. I believe it is part of spoiling the nest. These kids are stressed, it’s hard to think about leaving their friends so they spoil the friendships. It was especially complicated with my D’s group because there were twin sisters in her group and one of them died from cancer on July 7th that year. From that point on, the group was completely fractured, each of them dealing with their grief and college stress in different ways. </p>
<p>You probably all know this already, but come time to pack? SPACEBAGS. Oh my goodness, I bought some last night. My oldest moves on Friday and I had a queen-sized memory foam mattress topper that I needed to stuff into something. It is now the size of a pillow! Yes, d’14’s bedding will definitely be space-bagged for the trip to college. I swear, if I could find a way to space bag the dorm fridge and the microwave, I’d be all over that technology.</p>
<p>Everyone I am so sorry I don’t have time to congratulate everyone on such wonderful news but I took my daughter and her friends to Coachella over the weekend and I need to catch a plane in 4 hours to go to St. Louis since my D’s robotics team qualified for the World Championship. As soon as I get back I have to turn around for my DS’s graduation from Ohio State. I am in a complete panic because I have nothing planned in terms of celebration for him. I tell you I knew I was crazy when I woke up in the hotel on Saturday and I had no idea where I was and why I was there. </p>
<p>Any how I have a weird situation and want to know if anyone else is encountering this- when my DD decides she is not going to attend a particular college I have her send a nice email letting them know this fact. A couple of weeks ago a state school told her she “needed to cancel her application”. She wrote University of Arizona and they just wrote her that she needs to do the same and fill out some forms and mail them in. Has anyone encountered those kind of requests? I don’t really want her to cancel her application because I think that let’s them know count her acceptance and I find that misleading. With the school that wants her to fill out forms we really don’t have the time; she is already in St. Louis and will barely have time to eat. Would it be rude of me to not fill them out? We are on the road constantly past May 1. All the other colleges sent nice emails back thanking her for letting them know. These two colleges want her to do something different. Thoughts???</p>
<p>Staceyneil I am so happy your surgery went well and I sent quick recovery thoughts your way. </p>
<p>D2 is reporting about where her friends are deciding. My favorite so far: a friend whose first choice offered admission…as a sophomore. Friend needs to attend somewhere else for freshman year, and is right now favoring…the first choice school’s bitter sports rival. Should be interesting to see how this works out.</p>
<p>ordinarylives, hadn’t thought of using spacebags on the memory foam topper! D2’s school is an hour’s drive from us, so move-in will be very different than her sister’s cross-country move-in. I am looking forward to just tossing everything in garbage bags and then into the car. D1’s packing operation took over the home office for a couple weeks in order to get everything squished into three bags, with the big BBB pickup on the other side of the country. :-)</p>
<p>@jrmama496, I am happy for your son knowing so well where he would like to go. We visited Vandy last month and just loved everything. My son also doesn’t have a final decision yet. May 1 doesn’t come fast enough for me.</p>
<p>We hit up REI this past weekend for end-of-season sales on winter coats (something D hasn’t owned since she was small). In the PNW, you just layer a sweatshirt under a rain coat if it’s 30 degrees and you’re set. That’s probably not going to cut it in upstate NY mid-January. Happily, we snagged a great 3-in-1 coat she loved 40% off. Too bad you can’t find Apple laptops 40% too…oh well. </p>
<p>Son’s last day of school and graduation is June 12. </p>
<p>Havent bought the first thing for the dorm yet, but I think I read somewhere that the room comes with a fridge and microwave, so one less thing to worry about. Yay! Will have to start shopping soon I guess, but since he will be less than an hour away, and he will have his car with him, I dont feel an urgency to BUY ALL THE THINGS, lol. Also, Amazon Prime is our mothership, and we can always just order the VERY IMPORTANT THING that was forgotten and have it shipped to the room. </p>
<p>Things are calm on the homefront, not a lot of stress. I shall enjoy it while it lasts…</p>
<p>@mdcmom - Congratulations! Great school! Hopefully, @2018Dad’s D will make her final decision in favor of Cornell and put her poor dad out of his misery. </p>
<p>@jrmama - I can’t imagine passing up nearly full tuition at Vandy. Congratulations on a great decision!</p>
<p>I am surprised by the wide range of college start dates - mid Aug through the end of Sept. The latter seems really late to me. </p>
<p>School ends here for seniors on May 27th and graduation (if D makes it) will be June 5th. She was back at the doctor yesterday and got new meds. I hope they work really fast. At least she seems in better spirits. AP students are required to take the AP exams at our HS. I’m working on some medical waivers. D said she doesn’t have to study for Lit so she is planning on taking it. At this point, our focus is on finishing school and neither of us cares how she does on the AP exams. </p>
<p>I have been holding off on the deposit under the circumstances. And I can’t even think about dorm shopping yet. I will be really excited if and when we get to dorm shop!</p>
<p>@ordinarylives - Great idea to use space bags! </p>
<p>I’ve not started dorm shopping at all. I figured I would just go to Beth Bad & Beyon and scan a bunch of stuff that we’ll pick up at the local store. As it turns out, DH and I are going to have to split up duties. DS has to report for his sport 5 or 6 days before new student orientation so DH will move him in, and then I will go separately to new student orientation. This way nobody has to be on campus for a week twiddling their thumbs during the down time and someone can be home with my DD to drive her to her tryouts, etc. And since I am foisting off the move-in to DH, I miss out on schlepping stuff to the dorm room and all that fun stuff. All I have to do is show up and attend events!</p>
<p>My next order of business is to find a dress to wear to graduation!</p>
<p>Very smart thinking @2014novamom This is in line with my deal that we have grad parties at my ex husband’s house, not mine. He has a huge flat backyard and mine is on a steep slope which goes to a creek that floods 30 feet into my yard with heavy rains, not uncommon in spring. So all grad parties are at his house. Since his girlfriend has moved out, I did say I’d help him get the house ready over Memorial Day weekend, but that’s better than it being at my house. If it’s not perfect, it’s not my housekeeping that is judged! </p>
<p>Today was senior video filming, that DS said he wasn’t attending. He’s one of those kids who’d rather be in class than messing around. Plus, they’re using powdered paint to throw at each other and he didn’t want to trash his car’s interior. Prom is May 9, but again he won’t attend. He’s never been the super social one but I really thought he might go as he’s been more social this year. May 25 is graduation and the seniors last day is May 16. Just have to study for 1 AP.</p>
<p>@Overtheedge Our school requires the students in AP classes to take the AP exams, as well. Since the scores aren’t in until well after report cards are finalized, they are meaningless as far as grades or GPA are concerned. We have actually had kids put their head down and take a nap during the AP test period. These are not kids with any health concern, just burnt out or lazy. I would assume your daughter could do the same and have a real reason to do so! She should not worry about it at all, if she is required to take them! Just don’t send the scores to any school! For a small amount of money, I think you can even pick and choose which scores to send to universities, so you can wait to see what the score is before you decide to send them and only send the “good” ones.</p>
<p>I like your idea, 2014nomvamom. Unfortunately, my husband has to work out of state when it comes time to orientations and move-ins. So, it all falls on me. That said, I plan to ship the linens directly to Son '14’s dorm. We’ll probably fly Southwest to take advantage of the free bags policy. Then, we’ll get a rent-a-car and hit the Wal-Mart for any groceries the boy wants – a few cases of water, cereal, snack food, toiletries, etc. Then, I’ll help him move in his stuff and put things away, if needed. I’ll jump in the rent-a-car and head to the airport and home. I’m hoping to see him run at least one cross country meet either on campus or at an OOS location closer to VA. He also has orientation, but we head to that in July. </p>
<p>And before Son '14 moves into his place, I’ll have to help his older brother relocate all his stuff for law school.</p>
<p>Then, I can start to plan for the school year!</p>
<p>I’ve done just a little bit of dorm shopping. We had to take D14’s BF to the bus terminal after spring break, and pick up H that same afternoon from the airport, so while we were killing time waiting for the airport pickup, we went to Ikea and selected a comforter and plain white duvet for it. She wants to get some colorful pillow shams and maybe a throw blanket so that she can swap out those items down the road if she wants a new look. The long dorm sheets aren’t available in our area yet, so will get those when they come out. </p>
<p>Won’t be doing excessive decor shopping other than the bedding. Will be getting some wardrobe items, as she will be outdoors in the weather a bit more at college, getting around the campus. That will just be a an extra pair or two of pants, a few more long sleeve shirts, and a moderate winter coat suitable for Santa Cruz. She just got the new UCSC hoodie, so she’s all set for that level of cool day. Was thinking a second pair of tennies would be good, just in case one pair gets damp on rainy days – she should have more rainy weather than we get here. Since we live in the desert, she is already set with summer weather stuff-- maybe a couple new pairs of shorts, but she just got a bunch of new t-shirts not that long ago. I may have to send her with a couple of nice options too, since they do a lot of dinner events for the FYHP. Nothing fancy, but a nice top with skirt or slacks might be good. </p>
<p>The dorm rooms are too small for each student to bring a fridge, so will co-ordinate with roomies when we get them. She’s requesting a quad room, which is more spacious per person than the triple. But there aren’t many available. FYHP also get priority housing, so maybe she will luck out and get that quad. </p>
<p>@Maryjay60 - my sentiments exactly! Unfortunately, D has one teacher who is extremely concerned about her class scores. D has missed a lot of class and is behind, so the teacher is justifiably concerned that D won’t do well on the exam. The school has a very high AP pass rate and they want to protect it. D has gotten one 4 and the rest 5s on other AP exams - although I’ll admit this one may throw her. The teacher suggested that D get a medical withdraw from her course, and then complete an online non AP class in its place. At this late date that sounds like more work and stress. I’m hoping a medical waiver for the test will make everyone happy (although I have half a mind to send D and tell her take a nap!)</p>
<p>@gotomom My D’s friend drama happened over the winter. Quite sad with a tight-knit group splintering. Not sure why it happened. D seems to take everything in stride but I feel badly for her since they used to all have so much fun together as a group. She hasn’t been socializing much this spring. (And of course, having to be nursemaid to mom this April vacation doesn’t help much either!) But she is spending a LOT of time connecting with women from her class at MHC that she’s met on the accepted students Facebook page. Texting, messaging, even skyping. Many are from the states, and some are from halfway around the globe!</p>
<p>Dorm shopping: we stopped at IKEA on our way home from Accepted Students weekend, and D found a duvet cover, sheets, curtains, fairy lights, a cool wall decal with branches and birds, a folding clothes drying rack (seems like everything she owns is “hang-to-dry”!), pop-up laundry bag, and a great adjustable LED bedside/desk lamp that’s not too bright. (Current students told her that it’s important to get a focused-beam, not-too-bright light so you don’t keep your roommate up when you’re reading.) She plans to look for a few more items, like coffee mug, bowl, etc at our fabulous local Goodwill and yard sales this summer: she likes the eclectic bohemian look :)</p>
<p>@itsv We did have one college request that D sign and formally decline the financial aid offer paperwork. Other than that it was just checking off “no thanks” on the cards included with the acceptance package, and letting them know where she decided to attend. (PS thanks for the recovery thoughts!)</p>
<p>I had to go into the Emergency Room this morning with complications from my surgery. Probably going to be fine, but, man, am I exhausted and demoralized. And poor D had to drive me since H was at work (though he did meet us there,) I think it was pretty stressful for her! She’s being wonderful, though, and taking good care of me. It must be really hard when your mom -who’s usually taking care of YOU- is sick. I have not been in that situation myself before, thankfully, though I know it’ll happen sometime. Anyway- not much a vacation for anyone :(</p>
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