Regarding books, yikes, but she will continue to use two of them next term, and it will be easier to take advantage of rental, and buying used and selling back now that she is there. She did like the loose-leaf options and bought a small binder to carry a chapter or two if needed rather than the whole huge heavy book. We had such an issue in high school with her bag being so overweight due to textbooks that weighed 6 pounds each. She only weighs about 110 pounds and her backpack used to go over 40 regularly. She had a local scholarship award that covers her books first year.
Because the cost of books was such an unknown, I didn’t want to include it in my D’s spending budget for college – I just put her on one of my credit cards as an authorized signer and told her to use that for books (and emergencies). I still don’t know exactly how much she’ll have spent, because she ordered the wrong thing from Amazon at first and has had to return it.
@PhxRising, I also am noticing a decline in food consumption! It’s crazy because I swear my older D doesn’t eat that much. But I guess losing 1 person out of a family of 4 is going to make a difference no matter what. I particularly notice that we don’t go through cereal and milk as quickly.
While I’m here, I have a question, since everyone here just went through the application process last year. My younger D is in 11th grade this year. She just took the September ACT and got a 34. 
I had totally assumed she would take it again because that’s generally a good strategy. But is it really worth her time to re-take the ACT if she got a 34 the first time?
I ask because my older D took the SAT, not the ACT, so I don’t feel like I have a good sense for what it means to have a 34. I know if it were the SAT and she got a 2200 or higher, I’d feel like that was plenty good enough and she didn’t need to retake – so is a 34 on the ACT about in that same range?
@dustypig, here is a conversion chart: http://www.act.org/aap/concordance/estimate.html
Congrats to your D!
@dustypig, she is great with a 34 on the ACT. Here is a link to a comparison chart (note that they do not include the writing score in the comparison so the ACT score is compared to the SAT math and CR score). http://www.act.org/solutions/college-career-readiness/compare-act-sat/ My S is a junior and will take the ACT in Spring as a school district wide test. He took the SAT in May and did well, but not as well as your D!
@dustypig, tell me she took it with writing! If so, she is set. Congratulations to her!
^ what suzy said. If she took writing then she should be good to go, and can even skip SAT Subject tests at many schools.
I’ll add one other concern, and that is the individual math score. If your child is aiming for engineering, computer science or STEM in general, the math score will be looked at with more scrutiny than just the composite score. So make sure that is high as well. It can make a difference for getting into some competitive STEM majors. Congratulations on having a great score!
She did take it with writing! Thanks for all the congratulations – I feel pretty good today, knowing she did so well. She was so squirrelly with me about the results she was getting from her practice tests over the summer (“I don’t know, I think I got a 30? 30-something? I don’t remember”) that I had no idea what to expect.
Her individual scores were: math 33, science 33, English 34, reading 35. Ironically she is a much better math student than English – that’s the way it goes sometimes!
I have been suggesting to her that she might want to look into computer science as a major, but she just says that she doesn’t know what she wants to major in. Her favorite subject is art and she spends her free time drawing anime characters (she is VERY good at that). One of the counselors at the programming camp she went to over the summer suggested she might want to look into game design.
Math 33 and reading 35 is good for most major competitive universities. If she wants a specialized admission like direct medical or some other programs, that may be tough. But if that’s not the goal, she is absolutely set and you should party!
Dustypig my D took the ACT and SAT in December of junior year and got a 34/2250. I wanted her to retake both; after a “discussion” she agreed to re-take the ACT in February. She went in “cold” after not picking up an ACT book in two months- she agreed to re-take it under the condition that I would not force her to study. She DID NOT want to re-take this test. She did it to keep me quiet. D went down 2 points on the February test but still got accepted to all of her “top” schools with the exception of Vanderbilt, where she was wait listed. The moral here is that your D is done unless she really really wants to re-take, and it’s her decision. Congrats!!
@twogirls – I had that same thought. She doesn’t really want to retake the test, though I think she would if I said it would be a good idea. What I think might well happen is that, knowing she already has a good score, she wouldn’t study and her score would either go down or stay the same. Or, more likely, she would flat-out rebel when it came time to actually take the test – I can picture a late Friday night fit of stubbornness on her part.
She might be agreeable to taking the math SAT subject tests, which would establish her math competency in case she ends up wanting to go that route. Though I suppose the AP Calc test, which she’ll take this spring, will also do that.
I don’t think there is any reason to re-take a 34. If she wants to enhance her math score, she can take the math2 subject test. This way, she can focus on just one subject. My daughter did this and she was happy with her results.
DS entered SS-LAC as a poli sci major. He quickly decided to change to Peace & Conflict Studies (without having taken a poli sci class). Last Sunday he was saying he would major in economics so that he could move to NYC and make 6 figures after graduation (at least he’s in intro economics (which is his least favorite class)). Today he’s decided to be a philosophy major (of course, he doesn’t have a philosophy class this semester either). Fortunately, he doesn’t need to decide until 2nd semester of sophomore year!
Thank you PhxRising - that made me laugh. At least your son has some ideas! My daughter hasn’t a clue. She was some how shocked her first day of classes at our very large flagship U - I am not entirely sure why she didn’t seem to get that 6,500 freshman means your classes will be big! Maybe once she gets a grip on the whole thing she will at least have a few ideas for areas of study. How many of these 2015 kids are clearly on a specific path of study? I start to think mine is the only one floating around out there.
Mine has a clue, she enjoys Chem, Bio, Biochem, neuro - science basically. But which of those majors she will choose is anyone’s guess. I’m glad she has until the end of sophomore year to decide.
My D was doing what your S is doing when she was at the end of high school PhxRising! It was making me laugh. I agree that it is a really good thing she doesn’t need to declare until the end of sophomore year. I am kind of wondering if she’ll end up with one major and two minors or two majors and one minor. She was fortunate that her LAC allowed her to transfer most of her dual enrollment classes so she is already 1/3 of the way to an anthropology major.
Mine wants to be accepted into the School of Global Public Health, and she also has a big interest in biology and genetics. I do not see her drifting from those subjects. She plans to have Spanish as either a double major or a minor.
I am a senior getting ready to submit my first essay for NMF application. The deadline is on Oct 7. I just realized I should have my essay reviewed by a few more people than my family members.
I am also just abut to finish my common app essay - first application due on Oct 15th.
Since you all are parents who had recent experiences, I would really appreciate if anyone can review my essays and provide me feedback. Please PM me if you can help.
My daughter is committed to Music Therapy at least for the spring semester - they are going to be working with service dogs this spring, and she’s not going to miss that!