Thanks @SincererLove! I’ll call my credit card companies tomorrow and inquire about it. I am busy trying to tick items off my list of things to teach D before she goes off to college. We are working on budgeting and credit tomorrow and D just got a new job, so perfect timing. 
@itsgettingreal17 Two of my sons (15 & 17) are authorized users under my Amex card. They have their own cards and I get a pop up on my phone whenever they use it. They are aware of the pop up and they know only to use it for emergencies. I don’t think this will help building their personal credit strength, but its nice to know they have it for emergencies.
EDIT: to add link
@sincerelove - Ga Tech is not sketchy. DS13 is a rising senior at GT and DH works across the street. While there are areas of Atlanta I wouldn’t want to wander around the GT campus is fine.
Intro:
Mom of three boys DS13,DS17 & DS19. I grew up in Michigan and now we live in Georgia. I spent way too much time trying to figure out the best college for DS13. In the end he just wanted to go where a number of other kids in the neighborhood go so that was that.
DS17 is undecided about a major. I am not going to have him apply to as many schools as DS13. Mostly because I went way over board last time. Plus a this point he doesn’t seem to have any real objections to any of the colleges I’ve mentioned except the one DH and I went to in Michigan because he thinks we would send him there as a punishment. lol.
DS19 wants to go to GT and he has the engineering mind for it. But It’s getting harder to get in so I will be looking at more schools for him when the time comes.
Alcohol:
DS13 decided to wait until he was 21. Maybe it was a goal or maybe it’s the fact he has seen plenty of kids acting stupid when they are drinking at college. Anyway he waited until midnight on his birthday and tried to find a place to buy alcohol in Atlanta. It seems it’s harder than you would think because it took a while to find a place. It might have been easier if he hadn’t turned 21 on a Sunday. lol.
Another thing to consider, as depressing as it is, is if you are planning on taking out loans or cosigning loans for your kids, you might want to investigate term life insurance policies. I read a sad story about parents whose Dd died and they were left paying off all her college loans. Term life on young adults is cheap.
Re: CC under parents’ account. I am not certain of this, but I didn’t think that did anything for the child’s credit. I had a card issued under my account for each boy the first summer each commuted into Manhattan, but I don’t know that this gives them credit history.
Having said that, I just had an AmEx issued for each of them (playing mileage games), and that application asked for SSNs. AmEx issues a different card # to each cardholder, while MC & Visa issue everyone the same #. A bit of a problem if a card is lost or compromised as all cards are cancelled and reissued.
Older son applied for and opened his own CC this past winter. I insisted he set up auto pay to his own checking account as I didn’t want him incurring the late payment penalties. Of course, then the bill is paid ‘magically’ so I am probably losing out on a lesson here.
I have the feeling this has made it MUCH easier for him to buy concert tickets and albums, but it is his own money.
I had younger son change his custodial account over to a checking account with ATM card last week, as bank of Mom is not interested in funding his social life. He still needs a source of income, other than untapped birthday and Christmas money.
@eandesmom Thanks for the info on the CO schools. No worries on the stats comment. It may very well be a reach for S too – he has great test scores and a very good UW GPA but he’s yet to take his first AP (only a few offered at school) and isn’t top rated for his class. An academically cutthroat environment may not be his ideal school anyway, but I’ll add it to our list of possibles.
@picklesarenice I’m also thinking of your friend and community. I saw the headline this morning and remembered that it wasn’t long ago a marathon runner was attacked. So sad all around.
We got our D17 a credit card last year through our credit union and we had to co-sign. Not sure if it will help her establish credit, but it is a start in the right direction.
So I did talk with college placement and even though my son cannot get an appointment he can send all the emails he wants. She can answer questions at home I guess. So when we get back from our trip he will be busy asking questions. I guess maybe my son should call the college himself and ask the question about requiring 2 but preferring 4 social studies. Who would be the person to contact? Would it be admission? Also my son is being very secretive about his naviance account and won’t tell me his password. He also has not put in any colleges so he can keep tract of his essays and applications. Any ideas how to get him to open up. My husband read something online about not talking about colleges and where your thinking about going so now he is clamming up.
@fun1234 – our HS gives parents their own Naviance log-in and parents are welcome to add colleges to the ‘Schools I am thinking about’ list (or whatever it is called). Schools are flagged as added by parent, student, or GC.
As with this entire college admission process, your HS may not offer that feature. Each HS decides which features of Naviance to use (purchase, I suppose) so this varies widely also.
Well parents can go on as a guest, but i don’t see any of the things your talking about
Hi everyone! Thanks for the responses to the “to do” list.
Yesterday while trying to gather up vaccine records to schedule up to date shots prior to college, office wouldn’t give me D17’s two HPV shot records because they wanted her to sign a release. Only needed the dates to prove she had 2 doses so I could schedule the 3rd vaccine (btw I scheduled the original HPV appointments, was there when she got the vaccines, paid for the vaccines, and she’s 17)… Glad I started early and that was definitely a push for the medical POA, given my kid would never think about vaccines other than nearly fainting when she has one!
D17 has good scores, GPA in top 10%, single digit APs, moderate ECs, no Intel/research awards, likes small schools with the ability to talk to a professor. Likes science but isn’t sure exactly what field to major in, doesn’t like to be cold, would prefer no shoes! So we are looking for a school that is academically challenging/inspiring where she can wear flip flops!
School has overworked (too few) CC. We learned about SAT subject tests from this site (and almost everything else). We are very thankful for the site and the parents that post. We would be floundering without it!
@fun1234 – not as a guest. That only allows you to view info. Useful, but what I said was that our HS gives parents their own log-ins, as in, user name and password. This is helpful for parents who have multiple children in HS at same time, although I would be happy if they removed my S14 from it at this point!
I am kind of a little mad I spent money because I wanted to see the questions my son got wrong on the sat with answers. but instead I got his scores. I could look on line for them. He took in in April. Did anyone do this and did they get them yet?
@IABooks if only a few are offered that may not hurt him at Mines, you can’t take what isn’t there. In her case (3.93 UW, school doesn’t weight or rank) I think she had 2-3 AP’s and not a lot of honors classes. Did better on the ACT than the SAT but neither were earth shattering. Soccer and Music EC’s. She started out on the mainstream math track, possibly english and science as well (can’t recall) and bumped up/doubled up on math to make it to Calc by senior year. She went to a different HS so I don’t know what her honors options would have been but don’t recall her being in many if any honors classes. For the AP’s she did take, she didn’t test. Which seems silly to me as she would likely have done well but that was her mom’s call. It worked out fine as she went ED for Cal Poly, a far better fit on every level (applied to Mines while waiting on the ED) but it was a bit surprising as she wasn’t going for engineering at either and clearly the recruiting didn’t impact chances at all. Still, it’s pretty competitive and she would have hated that, at that level. Balance is key and I think that would have been hard for her there. I will say though, all the staff that went there…are amazing and top top producers so for the right kid, it is an amazing choice.
I don’t know about Boulder but I do know that mechanical is impacted at CSU so EA is the way to go there for mechanical (not sure what discipline is being considered).
@fun1234 our school works similarly to @CT1417. There is a parent log in that offers different features than the students. I can add schools and it will show as added by parent. Only S can remove schools or rank them by interest level or move them to “colleges I am applying to”.
You may want to contact your school and confirm that the feature is not available to you.
He did give me his log in though, which is good so I could remove all the ones that have been cut!
@fun1234 – CB used to offer something called Question & Answer service. This service was available for the Oct, Jan & May test dates and cost $18, IIRC. Student would receive A copy of the test booklet (not his copy, as the PSAT used to send) and a score sheet showing his answer and correct answer for every question. The report usually arrived three to five weeks after scores were released.
April must have been an in-school state administration of the exam…or so I am guessing, as March, May & June were the regular Saturday administration dates. We had a March in-school administration in CT, just days before the first regular administration in March.
I do not know what score verification options were available for the April date so you may want to call CB and ask. I have found that the phones are answered fairly quickly, so not a painful call at all.
Yes it was with the school, but they had no problem taking my money.
@picklesarenice I’m sorry to hear about your friend’s loss. I am currently reading a book about bear attacks, “The Mark of the Grizzly”. Bear attacks are rare, but bears are so powerful that an action that would be a “warning” to another bear can easily be fatal to a human. Such a scary way to die. 
Is there a way to get a bus to the airport from tulane? My son is from Maine so there are never direct fights anywhere. He will not have a car so will he be able to get to the airport. My son does not drink so do you think he’d be able to find friends that are not into parties. He is interesting in there outing club. They would not party at those things would they.