@NorthernMom61 @VMT @jmek15 Thank you for the encouragement and advice! I spoke with DD again today and she seemed in okay spirits - still not getting much sleep, but handling it okay. I had suggested she talk with her boss on campus about dropping work study for the remainder of the semester and got the go ahead so that will help give her a bit more time. She’s coming home for Christmas - the first time she’ll be back here since she started college, and I’m so looking forward to that! And I can make sure she catches up on her sleep 
@ILMom13579 Sorry to hear about your D’s difficulties in getting into the classes she needs to - I hope she’s able to find a good solution!
I think sophomore year has been more of a dose of reality than freshman year…D is doing fine in classes but this year we are dealing with a BAD case of home sickness!? D will spend the first time ever away from her family for Thanksgiving and on top of that her finals are literally less than 10 days after the Holiday, so she is asking for a lot cyber hugs or skyping more than she did all of last year…I guess, sophomore year can be defined as the middle children syndrome effect one has whether you are in college or high school…not the oldest in the group and not the newest…
Break is close and then Spring semester and then this group will be dealing with our kids half way being through college…
“I guess, sophomore year can be defined as the middle children syndrome effect one has whether you are in college or high school…not the oldest in the group and not the newest…”
I think this is so true, @Hoosier96. D is doing well in school, but I think she’s starting to parse through the friends she made last year and wondering which ones are “true” and which were there for proximity/convenience. I’m glad to see she is working through that.
I do feel bad for the kids who can’t go home for Thanksgiving. Does your D have somewhere to go? We will have one of D’s friends coming here for the holiday, which makes me happy.
It’s too far/expensive for my D to go home for Thanksgiving but I just found out she’ll be traveling with a couple of close college friends and stay with one of their families. While I wish she could be home I’m at least happy she can spend it with another family.
Hi @ILMom13579, DD is also on a GPA merit-based scholarship, which is another reason I’m OK with her taking a tougher weed-out course this summer at a community college online, when she’ll be less stressed about it–I worry about her health. The credits transfer, but not the grade, which eases anxiety—and making above the minimum grade necessary to transfer credit is not a problem.
This is a pre-req course that won’t be part of her day-to-day major. The Community College uses the same book as her university so it will still mean plenty of reading though and that’s tough for her–she struggles with multiple LD’s.
Honestly, I think once she’s in her major it will be more engaging and more hands-on. But I never know what it will be like for her until she gets there. Fingers crossed she does get there.
Good luck to your daughter. DD’s school counts the summer session as part of the previous academic year, so a couple of online A’s in the summer directly with her university can help retain the scholarship GPA minimum needed to trigger the next year’s scholarship–don’t know if it works that way at other schools. DD would prefer to also work this summer, so hopefully it won’t be necessary…
@insanedreamer before your D takes classes outside the university double check the schools restrictions on transferring credits. We had thought D might take a class while she was home last summer but when we checked into the details with her school it was unworkable. I was surprised how difficult they made it b/c they are known to take a lot of transfers.
D is not coming home for Thanksgiving this year. The school president and his wife host a dinner on campus for kids that stay, which is really nice. Then there is a huge football game on Saturday so many kids will be back early to attend. My countdown app shows only 29 days til she is home and complaining about the cold for winter break!
@insanedreamer - thank you for your kind thoughts. It looks like she will not be able to get into the class so on to Plan B and major reshuffling of classes. For some reason this class is much more popular in the spring semester than fall (neither classes were full this fall term) so I’m hoping she can swap something out next fall and bring it up for this spring but even that scenario looks challenging. Hoping her advisor has some options.
@Maystarmom - I think this is the last of the weed-out classes except for the one she was locked out of and I don’t believe there is a transferable option for that one. The rest of her classes now are majors so we are stuck at this point. I just hope she can kick it in to high gear and pull up the grades with some great test/project scores now.
I am sorry for those kids who are very stressed this year. Expectations are definitely higher and many kids are taking major-related classes, so more is at stake. D is doing fine her sophomore year so far. Her classes are difficult, but I don’t think they are substantially more difficult than last year because she was in upper div classes as a frosh due to university classes she took as dual enrollment in HS. She is doing an independent study research project which has a huge 25+ paper as its culmination. The deadlines for that are stressing her out a bit. She is hoping to be able to submit that to a conference or journal. She is looking at study abroad programs for next fall in South America (she wants a Spanish speaking country). And she gets a week off at Thanksgiving so we are flying her home. I am hoping the change of scenery will be good for her health. She seems to have caught every cold that is going around her school!
Your new avatar is making me smile, @mtrosemom.
@jmek15 Thanks for the advice - if she does that we’ll be sure to check they transfer. At this point she wants to do a co-op or internship next year (ChemE related). Actually next year her college is implementing a new program for the first time where students can do a summer semester at the university and then take the fall off for internships, and she’s considering signing up, with the thinking that it’ll be easier to get good internships/co-ops because in the fall there are fewer students competing for them than the summer.
D is beginning to think about study abroad for next year, spring semester. She had 6 years of Spanish in HS, plus a semester in college, but it appears her likely major (Stats) will mean she has to study in an English-speaking country, likely New Zealand or the UK, though Hungary is on the table with a special math program.
Beyond that, things are going well. She’s working hard, feeling pretty good about classes (there have been challenges but she’s been able to get the help she needed to do well). Socially all seems good.
I’m looking forward to having her home for a week soon.
Our daughter is going to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend’s family. The hosting uncle lives relatively near their school, and they also don’t want to take the whole weekend away from school because of their workload. Like @insanedreamer, we are glad that she is spending the holiday with a family. We do like her boyfriend a lot. My husband jokes that “if they end up breaking up, we might still date him.”
Someone up-thread mentioned the concept of being halfway through by the end of this academic year, yikes! Seems like they all just got into schools and got started. This is going by way too fast!
@OHMomof2 hope your D lands in just the right place for study abroad! Spending time abroad is a great opportunity. My D really wanted to do that - and in fact colleges with good study abroad programs was one of her top criteria when first applying - but it turns out to be quite complicated to do it with her major which has lots of requirements, so I’m not sure it’ll work out. We’ll see.
I spent $800 to bring my D home freshman year. Not this year! She’s hitching a ride with a sorority sister and she’ll spend Thanksgiving with some of my family members a 6 hour drive from campus. She’ll have lots of cousins, a couple of Aunts and Uncles and a Grandma. It’s the first Thanksgiving without her and I know I’ll be sad. But, I’m glad she’ll be with family. I’m thankful I have family not so far away.
D just sent us some info on study abroad programs she is interested in that are in South America. They are much less expensive than her a semester at her school. It’s kind of amazing!
@mtrosemom, I always had to stifle a laugh at the admissions presentations when they proudly said that studying abroad would “only” cost the same as studying at their university.
D14 will be studying in England this spring for much less than her university costs me. She’ll be independently directly enrolled at the school, with a leave of absence from her US school. She chose the school and specific classes with the help and approval of her adviser.
I’m encouraging D15 to study abroad also, and she has expressed some interest in Argentina. It remains to be seen if she’ll be able to make it happen.
@rhododendron do they still allow you to count the courses studied towards your degree if you do it that way?
@insanedreamer Yes, D’s classes will be counted towards her degree. Her adviser helped her choose the school and the specific classes so that they would fill requirements. Direct enrollment at the study abroad school was her only option, since her university does not have a program at that school.
@insanedreamer, It will depend on the program your student picks as to whether their school will accept the credits. D is looking at programs recommended by her school’s study abroad program. They will accept the credits and also classes that count towards her major. Depending on the program, she will get 15-19 credits for that semester. It is the same for summer programs. If the school approves them, she gets credit towards majors/minors and graduation.
@mtrosemom that’s interesting; I didn’t know that was possible with direct enrollment in another college. So then you pay the tuition of the college you’re going to instead of the college you’re enrolled in for that semester? In my D’s study abroad programs, she doesn’t pay tuition abroad but does pay her local tuition. Her local tuition is much more expensive but it’s covered in full by her scholarship. I wonder if she enrolls independently elsewhere if her college will cover the tuition there – something for her to check out. She’s looked into the study programs available through her own college and they’re quite restricted for her major and hard to pull off due to course scheduling conflicts.