Maybe it’ll warm up! We’ve been cold here in the northern plains. Tonight’s predicted low is below zero again, but next week, all of a sudden, upper 50s. Just nuts.
DS flew back to college today . . . miss him already. Hard to believe the homestretch of freshman year has started for him!
I hear you, @glido. My DS flew back to school today, too.
DS called over the weekend to wish me a Happy Birthday. He still finds himself being dragged down by a nagging cold. It continues to hamper his track season, too. The good news is that he made it through the first cut for a student ambassadors-like program, as well as earning a nomination for student volunteer of the year. When I asked about classes, he said, “What classes?” Snow canceled classes a couple of days last week. But the weather should turn warmer down south this week.
Here’s when I get a little jealous of my d in school in the south. It was 71 and sunny yesterday so she spent the afternoon watching a baseball game. Although our snow is melting it’s not quite the same.
My D also headed back to school yesterday. She is so at ease with the airport travel now - it’s great to see. It looks like the weather in Philly has turned the corner & will be in the 40s & 50s for the coming days - hooray! She was pretty much done with the deep freeze.
Our D also flew back to Philly yesterday and is fairly comfortable navigating the trains from the airport into the 30th Street city station where she changes to a regional train that stops right on her campus. Three more weeks and she is off again for a 5 day Easter break and then back for the home stretch before we pack her up and bring her home in early May.
DS flies home today after spending a long weekend with DH in Madrid (DH is still there). He has been an experienced traveler for some time. He used his passport for the first time at 3 months lol, and has made annual solo trips to the west coast to visit his grandparents since he was 13. This was his first solo international flight however.
He’ll be home until Sunday. Luckily most of the Virginia schools (UVA, Tech, and William & Mary) are also on spring break this week so he has already made plans with his friends who are home.
D comes home Thursday for Spring Break. I haven’t seen her since the start of this semester. I am so looking forward to spending some time with her. The dog really misses her too.
Hi folks- I am also checking back in after being away from this thread for a long time. My D’s spring break is next week and she and I are going to do a mother-daughter road trip in California together! I am really looking forward to seeing her. Like some of your kids, she is having a harder time this semester and I’m worried about her. It will be good to be able to spend some time with her. She and I always had fun on our college-tour road trips and had some of our best talks while driving.
Spring break already? And some school are done with it, already? Time flies!
My daughter’s spring break is not until end of this month. She’s not coming home to the West Coast. She’s staying with her friends either in NYC and/or Rochester.
She’s also having a harder time this semester but at the same time she’s learning more about herself and her strenghts as well as her weaknesses. She’s having a harder time with non-STEM classes. She’s breezing through her Math and CS classes not so much on her liberal arts distribution requirement class.
@staceyneil - Your trip sounds fun! I wish D and I had trip plans. My guess is that she will mostly sleep and look for a summer job. I made reservations at a great new restaurant and we will likely spend a day shopping downtown. Maybe through a massage and mani-pedi in there. Nothing as exciting as a trip.
Hello, All! I posted a detailed discussion in Parent’s Forum but I wanted to throw it out there here and my other D16 class. My DS19 has been accepted to Early College Academy at his high school where he will take college classes through all four years and graduate with both a high school diploma and a two year college Associate Degree in humanities. I’ll leave out all the rest of the details from the discussion but wondered if any of you guys have experience with this type of program or does anyone have kids who have taken many college classes (more than 3) before graduating high school. Is this a good way to go or should we go back to traditional high school with a few college classes/AP? Thanks for any input!
@cakeisgreat, congratulations to your son! My only question is would going the Early College route limit his choice of universities later if he’s seeking merit money? At some schools, only incoming freshmen are eligible for the big merit awards.
cakeisgreat, Bard College has two public early-college high schools in NYC that work the same way. State Us admit their graduates as juniors but most privates don’t, and consider them to be freshmen, eligible for merit aid. They use the coursework for placement but not for credit, similar to how very selective privates consider AP credits.
Talk to the school about this. Surely they know!
The NYC Bard schools are very rigorous and I can say anecdotally that a lot of kids are overwhelmed. Lots of homework and other demands from day 1!
The first high school my daughter and I toured in the crazy NYC high school admissions system was one of the Bards. I really loved it and wished I had gone to a high school like that. My daughter thought the opposite: “I want to go to high school in high school and college in college!” So we crossed it off the list.
Quick question: I’m getting a “no discussions found” for the past few days when I click on the “colleges and universities” and “Ivy league” forums. Are you all getting the same thing?
DS was selected to be an RA in his dorm next year! He just sent an text letting us know. He will have to go back to school earlier next August, but drop the cost of school. And, the snow is starting to melt 
@luciethelakie that is a great point about merit money …I forgot that’s another concern I have. I’m starting to think going regular row is better. He can take dual enrollment Jr and Sr year and will be mature enough then.
@oldmo4896 thanks for the info on bard! This is what I fear…that I’m going to pay all this extra and schools will only use them for placement. What’s the point for that then. Great words… high school in high school and college in college. Liking traditional more and more
cakeisgreat, it really depends on what the each high school is like.
Both high schools must have information about college placement and granting of credits, and just about every college I know about has info on its website about how they deal with alleged college credits earned during high school.
I remember when we toured Cornell, the admissions officer said that they accept credits for courses physically taken on the college campus with other college students. So, dual enrollment = yes; college classes taken with college professors in the high school = no. The Bard high school-college courses are given by genuine professors from Bard, but kids I know who went to selective private colleges started as freshmen.
My daughter’s high school has Project Lead The Way engineering courses that can be registered as official one-credit Rochester Institute of Technology courses with payment of $225. But Cornell said they don’t accept them.
I think there are plusses and minuses to all of this. If the student gets credit for AP/college-in-high-school/international baccalaureate work, s/he loses the opportunity to start with foundation courses and, if s/he is already familiar with the work, to build up a good GPA before tackling more advanced work. And it can be a not-great thing for a kid to start college at age 18 and graduate into the real world a mere two years later. Plus, how many students change their majors along the way? I don’t think it’s money in the bank for many/most students who graduate high school with these associate degrees.
D is home for Spring Break! Poor baby is so sick though. I think she may have the flu. She started the 71/2 hour drive yesterday, but was absolutely miserable with a 102 degree fever (which I didn’t know till she was already on the road). The ex (D’s dad) drove me to meet her on the road so I could drive her the rest of the way home.
Some Gatorade, soup and NyQuil in her, she is now sleeping soundly in her comfy bed. I’m just glad she survived mid-terms and now has a chance to rest and recover. She is worried about finding a summer job, but I figure she’ll feel better in a few days and have time to job search before she heads back to school.