@melvin123 – yes our kids in NY got it - grateful that pediatrician was very on top of this.
@momma2018, sounds like you have my S on your couch! Exact same situation and personalities in our house 8-}
Hard to believe this time next year we will be anxiously awaiting our kiddos’ return for Thanksgiving.
Thanks for the heads up @3scoutsmom! We were traveling today and S is apparently STILL in need of reminders to check his email regularly. Anyway I checked his portal and he got the AES Honors scholarship, tuition plus $3k per semester! So, for those wondering about UTD merit awards it was definitely purely stats-based in S’s case, and unaffected by early acceptance of admission. He submitted no essays or LORs, and accepted his offer of admission back in September. He is very high-stats though, so maybe for students with slightly lower numbers the essays and LORs are considered. I guess the next step is to check with the financial aid office and see if we need to do anything with that award now or if it’s fine to wait until after NMF status is (hopefully) awarded.
Congratulations, @traveler98 !! What great news!! Do you mind sharing S18’s stats? I have lost track. But no worries if you prefer not to - I’m a sucker for the information gathering. :-bd
Congrats @traveler98 !! <:-P <:-P <:-P
Not in our house. 
It’s most likely that D will be in Canada, where they don’t get a break for American Thanksgiving. Even if she’s at USC, it may be far enough from home that it won’t make sense to hassle with traveling. That will be SO WEIRD to have Thanksgiving without her. :-<
Sure @kayak24: 4.0 UW, rank 5/~750, SAT 1560, SAT math 2 790, SAT chem 800, national AP scholar, NMSF, will graduate with 13 APs. He also took the ACT (34) but did not submit that score (it didn’t add anything and I didn’t think it was worth the score report fee).
For those who have concerns about an acceptance at a selective pricey school but without the financial aid package to make it affordable, I know you may be rolling your eyes at me but I want to reiterate to please have the gentle conversations (ongoing) that if the aid package doesn’t come in, he or she will have to pass on it. I went through this with older D - we had a December EA acceptance to the school that was her #1 and then 3 agonizing months of waiting for the FA package to arrive. In the meantime, we revisited her #2 which we knew was affordable, and talked about how college is what you make of it, yada yada yada.
We did such a good job of it that when the #1 FA came in and it was affordable, she was torn. That was a good place to be.
ETA: I should add that there was no “squish” for us if the acceptance was to a higher ranked school versus a lower ranked school. My budget was “x” regardless, so that made things easier.
@traveler98 WOW!! 
Those are some fantastic stats!!
@suzy100 , no eye rolling at all! In fact, I found your post to be a very important reminder. It’s so easy to get carried away with a certain notion or even with what others are doing or can do. Many of us need to remain grounded with cognizance of our own, individual limitations - especially since a fantastic education can be had at a great number of schools (not just the traditional brand name ones). Great post!
@traveler98 pretty sure we’ll get to meet in person at UTD in March 
and looking forward to it!
@Kayak24 if UCF is in Orlando FL, aren’t there cheap nonstop flights from like Latrobe airport to there?
@melvin123 there is the conjugate Meningitis vaccine that is required in some states. The one our kids in PA get at 11 and booster at 16.
The Meningitis B vaccine is relatively new and is recommended in addition to the other one. I think Ped said you need two doses of Trumenba six months apart? So December or January might be a good time. Not sure how the shot series goes with Bexsero, the other Men B one you can get.
This is just me on a rabbit trail as usual…
@mommdc , is @Kayak24 near Latrobe and I never realized it and missed my chance to meet her?
@mommdc , I’m actually over four hours from Latrobe but there are cheap nonstop flights to Orlando from many places in PA, thankfully. But just knowing a plane ride is required seems to bring more of a mental production and a feeling of significant distance for D.
@MACmiracle , too funny! 
It really would be cool to run into some of the CC crew someday!
@ShrimpBurrito Maybe your kid will be at our house. I think we have 5-6 USC orphans for Thanksgiving this year. Had about the same last. They are much more interesting (and well behaved) than family!
Thanks @mommdc for clarifying that. The nurse I spoke with at the ped’s office was very confusing. You know when you ask someone a yes or no question and the response is “purple” or some other non-responsive question, so you’re left trying to fit the pieces together to get your answer. So at least NY colleges require you to submit proof of vaccines, including the regular meningitis vaccine sometime in July before Freshman year.
I wonder if different states have different vaccination requirements, so our kids might not have something that another state might require? I also wonder whether any of those vaccines require multiple doses, so if we don’t start now, there will be an issue? So this meningitis B vaccine requires 2 doses 6 months apart. Does any state require this vaccine? When I read the thread about that vaccine it was confusing to me because I thought someone said that the vaccine had an extremely short effective date, like a half life of 1 month and totally ineffective in 48 months. My D’s next pediatrician appointment is in May, so hopefully that won’t be too late for anything she would need. At least we’ll know what school she’ll go to by then so we can have the schools physical form completed.
Immunizations - you made me look.
Surprisingly, for Ohio immunizations are not required for college.
“Please note that Ohio law does not require vaccination of the student, nor does it require the institution to provide or pay for vaccines. The law requires only disclosure of vaccination status of the student.”
Obviously it is everyone’s interest to get it done, and my daughter is fully dosed up with whatever she was required to have through her senior year of high school. Just to be safe I will call our local health department (which is quite good and on the ball with these things) and see if anything else needs to be done.
A quick Google revealed that her top colleges (all in Ohio) are requiring the state shots, and recommending the newer one. I guess at some point it might require the newer one, but there would likely be grandfathering/phasing in.
I will get the shots (my kids are fully immunized with required shots) but I would be lying if I said I was a fan of any “new” shots. I prefer them to have a history and better proven safety (or at least enough data to indicate with some degree of confidence that they aren’t extremely harmful).
In other news, I have emailed the FA contact at D’s ED school on two different matters and have gotten, as my kids would say, “crickets” in return. /
When my D got the Men B shot Trumenba, I called the Ped office to see if they could order it. I was surprised they even knew about it as we live in a small town. She got it in June, Aug, and Dec of that year, freshman year of college.
I was also torn because of the limited data on safety and effectiveness, but since tgis is such a quick acting and devastating disease I was not going to take a chance I could possibly prevent it.
It is recommended for young adults living in dorms, especially freshmen, becayse they are apparently more susceptible to the bacteria when first exposed to it.
I don’t know if it has been proven in enough studies how long it lasts and how effective it is, it probably varies by person too, but I would think any degree of protection would be better than none.
When S went to his checkup in September the Ped actually mentioned getting Trumenba (and HPV) and said it was now only two shots. Another one they might think about getting is HPV which I think requires 3 shots.
http://www.immunize.org/laws/menin.asp
State information about Meningitis requirements
This might only be regarding the conjugate Men shot, not Men B
I think Pitt required MMR and conjugate Men shot for students