<p>My husband still has his wisdom teeth. Maybe we’ll get lucky and not have to do my son’s. @12dandelion we chose the same meal plan! The debit is apparently all available up front, so some people run out at the end of the semester. My S is unlikely to run out (his staple food, bagels, aren’t going to cost too much). Last year he had so much debit lunch money left over at the end of a 3 week college course he bought a $60 book on origami LOL. He’ll be the one buying everyone lunch during finals.</p>
<p>@renaissancemom, we did buy those jersey sheets for S1 and they held up just fine.</p>
<p>Meal plans. We did talk about it briefly. My son’s school has four meal plans for freshmen. The 19- and 14-meals a week are out, he said. He just does not envision needing those. Well, the 19 is understandable, but he can do breakfast in his dorm room – he will have a four-person suite, and the guys can go to the grocery store for yogurt, milk, cereal, etc I thought the 14 would be good, but again, my son balked. Thinks he won’t use them. We’ll see. All the plans are the same in price, so he just needs to tell me if we need to switch amounts-per-week. The fewer the number of meals, the more “dining dollars” you receive to use at places like Chick-Fil-A (his favorite). </p>
<p>Had not thought about a weekly allowance, but since he’s doing most of his meals on campus, we’ll still need something for him. A subject to talk to his dad about. The older son hated the food at school, so he burned through a lot of money heading to restaurants. We gave him $100 a week his final two years as he was off campus, but in an apartment! He had a full kitchen, too, but only used it once in a while. Now, he says he regrets not learning to cook more and taking advantage of the facilities he had. He will make use of the kitchen a lot in his new apartment at law school. In fact, he asked for recipes from me, because he wants to cook in bulk on the weekends – a great plan, I think. Son '14 also likes to cook, but probably won’t do it too much his first year unless his roommates like to cook, too. </p>
<p>I know Son '14 will be happy if he receives a regular care package from me with his favorite cereal, trail mix, canned fruit (the kid loves mangoes!), etc.There is a little girl at his high school who just thinks the world of him (he has given her rides home from track practice). I would not be surprised if she wanted to bake him cookies and send them along sometime this fall!</p>
<p>This weekend, we need to decide what jackets we will take to school, along with other items. Here’s hoping it is a civilized conversation. Any mention of college seems to trigger anger. Got a feeling that Son '14 is a little nervous about the whole ordeal, but he is not a big talker nor does he express his feelings too often. So it’s easier to lash out at those we love, because we are a little more forgiving, than others. Maybe once orientation is over, he will relax.</p>
<p>We chose the 19 meal plan for S- he is trying to build muscle and I would rather err with too many meals than too few to start . We gave S1 $50 per week and that worked well so we will go with that for S2’s discretionary budget.</p>
<p>Minnymom: I thought about the 19-plan too, but my son said it does not work with his practice schedule. Practice is 7-9 a.m. six days a week, and he has cross country meets on five Saturdays in the fall so he will not be campus. </p>
<p>DS chose a 17 meal plan, which comes with $150 in “Case Cash” to use at participating outside vendors. We’ll also give him spending money but likely will give it to him on a per semester basis. He handles all his money now and has done a very good job so I think he can manage to budget.</p>
<p>Every freshman gets the same meal plan, but can change I. The first two weeks as they see what their habits are. I know d will change. She has an 8:00 and won’t get up to go eat breakfast before class, so wasteful to have the standard plan. </p>
<p>As for spending money…uh…no. Bank of mom and dad is not footing that bill. She can earn it this summer and use her work study money. </p>
<p>My d’s school is all declining and if you live on campus you get the same amount, but can add to it if it runs out. I like that much better than tracking how many meals you eat in a week.</p>
<p>For meal plan, we got a 10-meal plan and $500 (comes with the plan) dining money that she can use anywhere on campus. She’s a yogurt/cereal/muffin/bagel/fruits person, so she can eat those for breakfast</p>
<p>We haven’t done any shopping aside for a new Mac laptop for D. For discretionary/spending money, she has enough of that on her checking/savings account from her earnings and graduation money. I would probably put a very tiny amount to her Visa Buxx card.</p>
<p>money saving tip re: booking flights (maybe you all know this one already) but I booked my round trip to Charleston for move in – $275. Then I went to book a one way for S – $299!!! I thought I was a victim of “cookies” (once Expedia knew when I needed the one way for, the price would never drop) but I tried it on a different computer then on the airline’s website itself – that’s the price! I wanted to get this out of the way so I priced round trip tickets for S and just picked a random date in the future. $228 round trip. I bought trip insurance for $19 so when I cancel the 2nd leg of his trip, I should get $114 back. Pretty neat huh?</p>
<p>If this is illegal or something please don’t rat me out. :)</p>
<p>to any parents buying your kids dorm stuff i recommend dormco. its cheap and they have everything. so you wont have a crazy huge bill for dorm shopping. <a href=“Dorm Co - College Dorm Supplies, Dorm Bedding, College Comforters, College Trunks, Dorm Furniture, College Bedding, Twin XL Bedding, Twin XL Sheets, College Dorm Essentials, Dorm Comforters, Dorm Room Rugs, Twin XL Comforter, Dorm Stuff, Dorm Decor and Cheap College Dorm Products all Ship for just $2.95!”>Dorm Co - College Dorm Supplies, Dorm Bedding, College Comforters, College Trunks, Dorm Furniture, College Bedding, Twin XL Bedding, Twin XL Sheets, College Dorm Essentials, Dorm Comforters, Dorm Room Rugs, Twin XL Comforter, Dorm Stuff, Dorm Decor and Cheap College Dorm Products all Ship for just $2.95!;
<p>Round two of shopping done today, plus some done online last night. We also bought DS a new MacBook Pro last week and that should be here Monday. Almost done, I think. Just some small odds and ends and since we are doing a 2-step move in, I can pick stuff up after he gets there and bring it to him at orientation.</p>
<p>On another note, DS signed up,for classes yesterday and it was really easy. He got all the classes he wanted and since he placed into Calc III, he no longer has any classes before 10:30 which makes him very happy. </p>
<p>S1 moves into OU on August 15. Got room assignment, met his randomly assigned roomate. They have decided to split costs on a room fridge and microwave. This is starting to feel real. Almost surreal. The kid just graduated from HS and thanks to AP tests is already almost an academic Junior. Class sign-up is in a week or two.</p>
<p>I finally negotiated the labyrinthine college web portals to confirm that my S’s AP scores have been received and credited appropriately. Except for the 10th grade AP Govt test which had not gotten into the same College Board account as the rest, which I was able to rectify with a phone call. Whew. Most of the credit won’t help with his requirements, and I don’t expect him to graduate early, but it might help him leapfrog intro courses for upper level biology which might be a side interest.</p>
<p>@2014novamom No classes before 10:30 sounds fantastic! My son does not object to 8am classes (yet), as that’s later than his high school started. Keeping our fingers crossed on scheduling. He has to sort of take what he’s given this first semester, for the most part. </p>
<p>Meal Plans – S1 liked the 14 meal plan – he did breakfast in the room and liked being able to get full meals for the other 2 meals/day (all you care to eat) as he has a big appetite and would have gotten a lot less food for the same money if spent as dining dollars. Sophomore year he had to get an unlimited plan due to the particular dorm he was in which I thought was a waste, but in the grand scheme of things, not a big deal. </p>
<p>UVM pretty much requires freshmen to be on an unlimited plan with just a small amount of dining dollars. Since he will get up and eat a big breakfast (and likes “real” breakfast, even though we only do cold cereal at home) it probably won’t be wasted on him. He’s allowed an unlimited number of visits and unlimited food each time, and there’s a dining hall near his dorm open 10:00 pm - 1:30 am Monday through Wednesday nights, in addition to the obvious meal times. So, I figure he’ll get his money’s worth, and I’m not expecting him to spend too much on food. We’ll send care packages with snack foods as well.</p>
<p>He decided to quit his job at the end of the school year, so he doesn’t have a lot of money for spending. I planned to work out with him what the $1500 or so in his bank account means in terms of dollars/week, but I’m not planning to oversee his spending. If he runs out of money, I guess he’ll have to get a job or stop spending money. Since I know he’ll be fed, I’m not going to worry about it.</p>
<p>AP results were 5s in Calc BC and Chemistry, 4s in Biology and Psychology. I think he was hoping for a 5 in Bio but not too disappointed, and pleasantly surprised by the 4 in Psych since he didn’t take a real AP class for that one, and wasn’t sure how well he’d done after the exam. He’s going to decline the credit from Calc BC (but take the credit from AB) and decline the credit for Physics C Mechanics since (a) he’s going into mechanical engineering and wants to make sure he has a strong foundation, (b) he had to take both those classes online, and for Physics especially didn’t feel firm on the content (even though he got a 5 on the exam), and © I think he thinks it will give him a softer start if he has a couple of “easy” classes, though I think that can sometimes backfire (if they take for granted that it will be easy and don’t work hard in the class early on).</p>
<p>My son really has not looked at the fall schedule. I’m hoping his older brother will encourage that this weekend. He knows he can take Calculus III and some mandatory, one-credit class on freshman life. We plan to suggest that he take one, honors class. Talked briefly to my husband about spending money. He feels it should be limited since the boy will be on a meal plan, and he liked the food during his visit. So, that should be a point of discussion again this weekend. I made a compromise with the boy. I cleaned his bathroom and made his bed with fresh linens. He needs to cut the lawn and help pack for orientation. I think I got the better of this deal. His older brother said in a note today that his kid brother is nervous about college. Here’s hoping orientation will change that.</p>
<p>Thanks all on the feedback on invitations! I made them up using a free online editor that works like Photoshop. Saved them with a fine quality, high resolution. Sent them to Walgreens with a 41% off coupon and got them printed for about 17¢ each! They look fine! (Walgreens does crop, so leave a croppable edge and check the centering!) If anyone else is doing this, I found the right size “social envelope” at WalMart (after trying craft stores, office supply stores, Target…) for under $5 for 50. They have colored ones as well, if you want a more festive look. Some of the other stores had the envelopes for as much as three times the price of WalMart. </p>
<p>Talk about being real - I just paid the semesters tuition yesterday! The countdown is on for me for tuition payments. I’ve been paying private school tuition since she was in K, 7 left to go!</p>
<p>FInally the mods have listened and the post numbers have been added!.. Thank you mods. 
</p>
<p>I’m glad, too, that the post numbers are back so that we can refer to them. The other thing I miss is that we were able to click on the post numbers and just get that post on a page, which was helpful if I wanted to either send it to someone or print it. Wish they didn’t mess with that when they retooled the site.</p>