@disshar So sorry to hear that.
DS17’s last name group had, I think, 3 different GCs during high school. Other GCs (for other last names) have been with our school for 10 years. His latest GC started in September so we at least have had one chance to meet her.
@disshar – I am feeling your pain along with you. Rumor has it that two of the seven GCs have left, but my son’s definitely has left as she emailed the students and parents last month. In addition to wondering who will write the GC LOR, I am wondering what will happen to the emailed notes she suggested my son has some of his teachers to send to her. Informal LORs, if you will…sentences that she could incorporate into her LOR.
The LOR is the only thing my son needed her for. The guidance secretaries are still there, so I know the paperwork will be pushed through…sigh.
@RightCoaster – excellent news! Love that sport, even though neither boy played. It was the big sport at my own HS growing up and fairly successful at my university (in and out of the NCAA quarter finals, semis, and finals.) It is huge in our town.
@disshar That is so unfortunate! I’m sorry for your DD and all the kids at the school.
@RightCoaster Fabulous news!
Bummer news @dishar
Thanks for the kudos for my son, I appreciate it. We.'ll see where it goes.
** Senior Trip ** I don’t know there is such thing. It would be nice to take a family vacation though.
I would like to visit my mom as a family or at least with children, but I am not sure if the boys want that next summer. This summer I visited her alone.
We did not do anything for our 25th this year either. But then, I don’t know if people make a family vacation or a couple vacation for anniversaries. On our 10th, I was 8 months pregnant. For 20th, we took a family cruise to Alaska, which was nice but the boys did not enjoy the scenery as much as we did.
In corollary,
** QOTD_n ** Have you ever taken a trip/vacation between just you and your spouse/significant other since children’s birth?
My answer: No
Senior trip:
Might take son to Chile next summer to snowboard. Been on the to do list for a bit, would be a great adventure.
Senior trip at our house — will be an extra nice family vacation and since she is an only child we will pay for her best friend to come along also.
QOTD: Vacation with just the two of us?
YES…we went last year to Anguilla for our 20th and loved every single minute. In fact, I need to UNfollow “Anguilla Beaches” on Instagram because it is pure torture looking at the daily pictures.
Most years though, we can feel the trickle of time as it slips through our fingers and since we all love to travel together we have taken only family vacations. We felt it was important last year to go on a trip together so we could remember what we used to do and what we used to talk about before D came along.
QOTD:
Once upon a time, DW and I spent a week on Nevis for our 15th anniversary. @carachel2, Anguilla was the next stop on the small plane after we got off.
We left our 3 children with DW’s sister. They all got sick.
Between cocktails, snorkeling, picnics on the beach, and dining in a fine restaurant with 3 tables in an old sugar mill, we occasionally felt guilty.
QOTEvening H and I went to Alaska last summer (northbound cruise followed by 5 nights with an RV in Denali 
). It was an awesome trip, one I had planned (no exaggeration) for 10 years! We’ve had several shorter trips since the kids came. This fall we’re taking 5 days to celebrate our 25th anniversary 
QOTD #1:
A. At a summer program offered at a local college - No
B. At a summer program offered at a college away from home - No
C. Traveling - mission trip, etc. - Yes, two mission trips, a week of camp, time spent with grandparents.
D. Summer school (local or online at home) - No
E. Working - A little bit, lots of volunteering (trying to get 100 hours over the summer)
F. Hanging out with friends - Yes
G. Other (please specify) -
QOTD #2: No vacations without the kids, I’m jealous of all the adventures of others!
Regarding parking: At Smith I got a parking ticket! Street parking, meter ran out, lots of construction and I lost track of time.
@mamaedefamilia Being from the Twin Cities, love your description of Macalester! Has a great reputation, not on our list because it’s too urban and too close to home. Will you be checking out Carlton or St. Olaf?
QOTD My husband and I have taken the occasional trip without our son. Most of our trips are family trips. We also have each taken a few trips with just our son (mom & son, dad & son).
Popping in with my thoughts on parking. Every time I’ve visited a college they either have sent a printable parking pass or have had designated event parking. Now the only story my dad tells about visiting colleges is the parking ticket his dad got at James Madison- in a visitor’s lot! He ended up being rejected there but he didn’t like it anyway
QOTE: No. We have gone on overnight weekend trips to places just a couple of hours away, but no big long distance multiple day trips.
I got a parking TICKET @ Pitt…does that count?
QOTEve: H and I have taken a few trips w/o the kids. The first was when S was two. My mom watched them for 10 days! Most of our trips have been family trips though. We have fun as a family.
QOTE: we finally took our first trip without the kids this past fall for our 20th. I was stressed as I don’t like traveling without my kids. We usually all go away at least 2-3 times a year but always together. I love my family!
senior trip we didn’t do anything special for my D16 who just graduated, but we were just in Seattle (albeit with extended family) and we are going away next week (again with extended family) so my D17 expressed she would like to go somewhere tropical next summer just the four of us. Sounds good to me!
Poll
A. At a summer program offered at a local college: yes, she did 2 weeks of iDTech camp at Stanford campus
B. At a summer program offered at a college away from home:
C. Traveling - yes, we all went to Copenhagen and Paris for a couple of weeks
D. Summer school (local or online at home): yes, she’s taking an online digital painting class through a CC
E. Working: she will be volunteering 1 week as a CIT at a kids’ art camp
F. Hanging out with friends: somewhat, but her friends are also traveling and busy. She is spending a lot of time hanging out with her home-from-college big sister! (when big sis is not busy with her own internship
G. Other (please specify) summer homework! Jeez, they really piled it on this year. She has 2 IB Visual Arts projects, a lot of reading for IB English, review packet for IB Physics, review packet for Calc 2nd year. The only classes for which there are no homework are history and Spanish.
I’m envious of you on all the trips!
Theoretically, when we are empty nesters, we will have many opportunities.
Interestingly, my mathematical “n-th” QOTD_n turned into QOTEvening. I like it!
Have a good evening everyone! decaf ~O)
** QOTD ** Yes, I took my husband for a long weekend to San Juan Island (Washington state) for his 50th birthday and we left the kids with friends. It was a great getaway.
** Parking ** I got a ticket at Brown! Apparently you aren’t allowed to add money to the meter, the time limit is for real. We got reimbursed for parking at Tufts - they have these tokens you can get in the admissions office. Elsewhere, we mostly have gotten passes.
@Atyraulove Now that you mention it… 
** St Olaf campus visit **
Our last visit was to St. Olaf, on the same day as our Mac tour. Northfield is located about 45 minutes’ drive to the south of St. Paul and is also the home to Carleton College, which we did not visit (no merit scholarships offered, why torture ourselves?). The town of Northfield (pop. 30,000) is pleasant with a typical Main Street type of downtown. It is a couple of miles from the campus of St. Olaf, more bikeable than walkable. The college runs a regular shuttle into town that also takes students to the Target, the Cub Foods, and to the Carleton campus. It also offers regularly scheduled transportation into the Twin Cities.
Our campus visit was very personalized. We were the only people to sign up for the early afternoon info session, so we had a one-on-one discussion with an admissions officer prior to our campus tour. Some highlights: St. O has a structured January term during which students take a class, travel, or do some sort of research during 3 of their 4 years. There is no Greek life. Officially the campus is dry; the reality is that discreet partying happens. As our student guide put it, the advantage is that you don’t need to see the evidence the next morning of beer bottles, Solo cups, and worse, littering the hallways and grounds. A majority of the students pursue music in some form and study abroad. St. O offers a global semester abroad that involves travel to multiple countries, unified by a specific educational theme. It also emphasizes something called the “Great Conversations,” a variety of great books type of tracks, some embedded in the Western tradition, some not. The most ambitious version involves a five-course sequence with a dedicated living/learning community. Scandinavian heritage is very strong and is expressed around the year in various festivals and performing arts events. There is definitely a strong regional slant to the student population, with many students coming from WI, MN, and the Dakotas.
Campus tours are one student guide per family. Our guide was a very sweet, enthusiastic girl from one of the Dakotas. When she learned that my daughter was a dancer, she made sure to show us one of the practice studios. She later introduced her to another student employee in admissions who is also a dancer. We also viewed music rehearsal and practice spaces, the chapel (magnificent and also the site of a Pokestop!), the science building, student union, library, etc. The campus is very beautiful – traditional stone buildings on the outside and modern, clean, Scandinavian interiors with lots of blonde wood trim and abundant natural light. The only slight let down was the sample dorm room which seemed a bit small and drab comparatively. We were told that the food is very good. The campus is also implementing alternative and sustainable energies with the goal of becoming carbon neutral. A large wind turbine provides about 1/3 of the campus’s energy needs. The campus is situated atop a hill with lovely views of the surrounding countryside. At its foot is several hundred wooded acres of reclaimed farmland.
After the tour, my daughter had an interview with a kindly, older gentleman on the admissions staff and it went well. Towards the end, I was brought in and given an opportunity to ask questions.
Conclusions: They really did a nice job of showing their school. The overwhelming impression is that this is a campus full of kind, wholesome, sincerely nice people. However, my daughter felt that it would be important to visit again when classes were in session to get a better sense of the student population and the intellectual tone of the place. While it checks many of her boxes (music, dance, no Greek life, minimal partying) the curriculum in the humanities seems a bit conventional to her. She is also not particularly religious and while we know that there are secular-minded students there, are there enough of them? She’s a bit quirky, how would that fly? Is it diverse enough? How liberal is the student body? An atheist acquaintance attends St. O; they will talk soon. Right now, it’s a maybe.
Final verdict: Of the six campuses we toured, she almost certainly will apply to three (Oberlin, Mac, WUSTL, ranked in order of preference). A pretty good rate of return out of six campus visited! Also from a parent-child bonding perspective, we made some great memories and got to explore an area of the country that was largely new to us. While we were tired by the end, it was fun too!
@disshar Crossing my fingers that doesn’t happen here. That’s a real bummer. I love how admin likes to only tell you after it’s a done deal.