My D got her official acceptance to pharmacy school, so happy for her.
She worked in a local pharmacy last summer and is planning on working there again this summer.
Congrats @mommdc!!!
Thank you!
@mommdc that’s like our first sort of grad school acceptance 
@mommdc great news! congrats to your D!
I noticed my DD also only focused on classes so I asked if she could find a club to join…she and her apartment mates joined an animal rights group!
I also nudged her saying if she wants to go to Med School, she needs to start volunteering. I also told her that if getting that task going is overwhelming, to break it down into smaller steps.
Congrats @mommdc for your D’s pharmacy school acceptance! That’s great!
I had a bout of swearing off this website, but decided to log back in because people on this thread are so nice. Just wanted to report that my daughter got an REU offer for the summer. She was getting discouraged as some of the notification time frames went by, only one rejection, but the fear that she was going to be waiting forever, shortlisted with no offers. She is very excited, and the lab she has been matched to has a rather accomplished, still quite young, female PI, which adds to the excitement. Thanks everyone for your support.
@NorthernMom61 Congratulations to your D! Hope she has a great experience!
D was accepted to her study abroad program for fall. She will be in Spain this spring for a Spanish program. Then travel through Europe, for about 7 weeks. Home briefly, and then off to Chile for about 5 months. Her goal is to be bilingual and complete most of her Spanish major by winter semester of her junior year. I am excited for her upcoming adventures!
Thanks @jmek15, happy daughter, happy parents. It’s the end of spending summers with our kid (though we’ll get two weeks in August). But it is an amazing opportunity for her.
@NorthernMom61, Sounds like a very cool opportunity for your D. She is transitioning to successful adulting. It is hard not seeing or kids for long stretches, but at least we know they are doing well and having meaningful experiences.
Congratulations to your daughter as well @mtrosemom, that sounds like it is going to be a great experience for her as well.
@NorthernMom61 That’s great news! Congrats to your daughter. Sounds like a great opportunity for her.
@mtrosemom I’m sure your D will have a great time in Spain and Chile - both are beautiful countries. What a great experience!
My D had been applying for fall co-ops, but now has decided to study next fall and co-op next spring. So she’ll do a summer semester, finish her junior year this fall, and then do a 6-month co-op next year before starting her Senior year. So we won’t see her for 2 summers!
She wasn’t putting her heart into co-op applications for this fall which concerned me a bit, but she was advised by the career center that spring+summer was better as it provides a 6-month stretch which companies like for co-ops (which tend to be longer than internships). And being only a year away from graduating, if she’s accepted by a good company to co-op with and they like her (and she them), there’s a strong chance of employment there on graduation. We shall see.
@insanedreamer we have three young nephews who studied engineering and their internships or coops between junior and senior year resulted in employment. Two struggled to find internships but it worked out. One got an internship then funding by the company to do his senior capstone project, then an excellent job offer. Your daughter’s school seems to be giving good advice, they are a top career placement school, I suspect they are right.
@NorthernMom61 after being shut out of REUs last year D also was accepted to one for this summer, one of her first choices, at Columbia in NYC with housing and food and travel costs covered plus a stipend, she’s pretty excited.
She will live within two blocks of where i grew up and the office my dad worked in for most of my childhood. She never lived in NYC though I grew up there, so it’s weird and exciting for me too.
So nice to catch up on our 2015’s, especially as I try to distract myself from the impending decisions for S17!!
@NorthernMom61 and @OHMomof2 Congratulations to you both!! Any advice on successfully obtaining and REU is most welcome! For example, when did your D’s start applying, how many did they apply to before getting a response, etc. My D is all set for this summer (study abroad) but she needs to get an early start for summer 2018 judging by how difficult it is to secure a position. She is ChemE.
@mtrosemom the traveling opportunities sound amazing! I completely agree that a happy child = a happy parent.
@insanedreamer wishing you D much success in her co-op search. As a fellow chem-E parent I am especially interested in where she ends up!
@jmek15 - both years she (and I actually) did a lot of google searching to find programs. Narrowed them down to manageable number. Many sites change from year to year as most are federally funded, so it’s hard to get a list that doesn’t change. Some offer housing, travel, room, a stipend or some combo, some offer none. If she needs to work over the summer for $ for school, that’s a big factor.
Much like college apps, there are essays (and or resumes, cover letters, long answers to questions like “why are you interested in doing research with X?”), professor recs and sometimes interviews. So one thing she can start to do now do is develop relationships with professors who she will ask to write recs for her. D used the career center a lot to get help with her resume and cover letters too.
Some programs would particularly like more women or men, URMs, low income or first gen kids. Have her look for those that she might be in a preferred group for. Some are open only to juniors or sophomores or whatever, some open to all but prefer a certain amount of credits completed. Have to look carefully. Obviously some are more for Chem majors or Math or Bio or whatever. D is a Statistics major now, last year she thought Chem, so there was very little overlap from last year to this.
EDITED TO ADD: I just looked at her spreadsheets for last summer and this (she kept them in a google doc that we both could access). The program she got into this year is one she didn’t get into last year but when they rejected her they urged her to re-apply this year. So there you go.
Apps seem to open in the fall and deadlines seem to fall around Jan 1-March 15, with some programs rolling so early apps get some advantage. There is no universal “reply by” date so if accepted to one early she may have to decide before hearing from the rest - D had to do that this year.
Last year she applied to like 12, this year more like 6. Last year she had a “safety” (an unpaid internship with funding from her college to cover expenses), this year she was working on one when she got the accept.
Overall it was a much less organized process than college…no common app, some more like academic applications and some more like jobs. Deadlines and dates to accept all over the place.
Good luck!
Thank you!! I took a screenshot of your advice that I will share with D in late summer. Very helpful as we learn another system to navigate!!