Leave tomorrow for orientation and class registration. Sat down with DS to come up with a schedule goal. At least walked DS through the thought process so when he’s by himself having to make inevitable changes to it he’ll know what to think about. They intentionally have parents somewhere else during this part of the orientation. :-SS
@TexasMom18
What you describe above is a thought I have been struggling with recently. Compounded by the fact that although we have an idea of what AP scores will look like, it will be very tight between their release and their acceptance by the school.
DP Jr. has a few classes he HAS to take, one of which is only offered once. Those required ones are easy… but it makes the 1 or 2 classes he gets to “choose” that much more crucial.
Also, looks like he will only schedule 14 credit hours first semester, for a couple reasons. This has me both anxious (will he be behind?) and, well … anxious (are a couple of these classes too intensive to even do 14 hours?).
Point: I will always find something to worry about.
@DavidPuddy we always find something to worry about. My DD is scheduled for 18 Units, I remind myself she was an IB student, is not planning on working the first semester and certainly is capable…but still…18 units.
One thing my DD did smartly IMO when she registered for classes was she kept her sleeping patterns in mind. She does not have a single class before 11:30 am and two days a week she only has one class, a lab and it starts at 2 pm. She also gave thought to having breaks between classes, so she chose knowing she wanted a break in between. She gave a lot of thought to how she wanted her day structured and she is very happy with the final schedule she came away with.
On a humorous note, D18’s final HS transcript shows that she cracked the Top 10% of the class (her four APs this year pushed her overall GPA to 4.2666667 – gotta be precise!). I remember last summer and fall, when she was worried about being just outside the Top 10% and how that would affect college admissions. Turns out it didn’t matter at all … almost everyone got skunked at the Top 20 schools (kids in the Top 10%, kids in the Top 10, etc.). I think it was our zip code!
@droppedit sorry to hear that all the Seniors in your HS had such a hard admission cycle this year. I think your zip code theory is real.
Graduation is done. I had arranged to take the day off, but didn’t realize he had a morning graduation (the county spreads them out). I had thought I could sleep in a little, but had to get up at my regular time. I also had to squeeze in walking the dog, which I don’t do on days I work. It takes a while for seven hundred something graduates to have their names called and walk across the stage, but it was fun seeing some kids we’ve known since pre-k on the big screen. S leaves for London with his grandparents imma little less than two weeks, and his orientation is in the middle of July. We need to fit in a dentist appointment somewhere, and we’ve also decided that enough things are going on with our old car to replace it.
While the kids I taught this year graduated Sunday, my daughter still has 2 more weeks.
This weekend is prom.
Next weekend is college orientation in NH.
The following weekend is Graduation.
A weekend off
Then her grad party
One more weekend off
Then we go to Disney World.
It is a wrap!
Graduation was last night! Been a busy three weeks with alumna pinning mass and ceremony, baccalaureate mass, class day, parents banquet and award night, prom and for good measure a dance recital and D20’s Sweet Sixteen party with over 60 guests!
Got my sobbing out last week at Class Day. My daughter and her best friend got up in front of over 600 people and sang a duet and received a standing ovation. We sent our daughter to this private all girls school so she could find her voice as she is very shy and had lots of anxiety. She has blossomed beyond my dreams and to see her get up and do that was the most amazing parent moment I have ever had. Not only has she found her voice but she has found the confidence to use it. The ovation was not only for a great performance but because her classmates knew what a big deal this was for her. She has received so many compliments since then and they all start out with “I never knew you could sing like that”. It was a transformational event for her and I know she will carry the strength of it with her as she turns the page to the next chapter and embraces college.
@bjkmom I think Disney World is the perfect celebration…but I am biased as I am a Disney travel planner. My daughter and three of her friends are going next week then the four of us are going at the end of July for our “last” family trip of her childhood…I am so excited for that time together in our happy place!
S wrecked his car on his way to celebrate graduation with his friends. No one was hurt, the other car was damaged, but the front end of his car was crumpled pretty badly. I was able to drive it back home; it’s a situation where you take it to the body shop and say “can you make it driveable?” It’s a 1993 Saturn, so its days were probably numbered anyway. Maybe he’ll be motivated to learn to drive a stick shift now, since both are cars have sticks.
I’m so glad no one was hurt!
I am curious to hear what some of the small/trivial summer tasks for others are, ahead of heading to school in the fall. I am not referring to major trips or programs, but minor things that might be done to make the transition to college smooth.
For example, DP Jr. should probably get an Uber/Lyft account set up for emergencies. We will probably also try enrolling in TSA pre check. That kind of thing.
Find the equivalent of UberEats - My DD went to her orientation and they don’t have UberEats in the area - she was stuck with Dominoes until she sorted out a food delivery service that served the University.
Buy text books before they are gone
Talk to pharmacy about transferring any meds and sort out how your kid will pay/refill
Same with knowing the hours/locations of a local urgent care or whatever it is the Univ suggests.
Get Renters insurance
I’m watching airfare for Christmas Break
Book the hotel and air for Parent weekend - we have had the hotel for awhile but bought the airfare today when Delta prices dropped.
Review students budget with them so they know what to expect in the way of pocket money etc.
@mstomper, sorry about the wreck. D has had more than one fender bender. It’s a bummer and it’s expensive. I’m glad that nobody was hurt. I’m also glad that my D won’t be driving much next year. 
@DavidPuddy, good question. One thing we did with older D was to make sure that prescriptions that she fills at the drug store when she is home can be transferred to a pharmacy near the school. It’s easy to do that with CVS. Also, D uses Uber a lot when she is at school, not just for emergencies. Also, having an Amazon Prime account has been a huge help.
just today signed up for a bank account and a debit card. We will all now download Venmo. She has Uber/Lyft apps on her phone.
@suzy100
Yep, Amazon Prime is on the list too, right in front of “buy new laptop” !
@SnowflakeDogMom
The Parents weekend (or similar) idea is a great one. I doubt we will be making it there for it though.
@amom2girls My kids introduced me to Venmo - I love it
That said - I wanted to make sure that if I needed to get her funds fast that I had a way so we visited our Credit Union and had a link added to our account where we can transfer directly to DD’s account. I cannot see her balances etc. but I can send her immediate money 24/7. Today she emailed me her expense report from orientation and I logged on and transferred. She had her money in a matter of minutes. This take the Venmo transfer time out of the equation.
@DavidPuddy We won’t go every year and most likely will never go again but Dad hasn’t seen the campus and can’t go with us for Move-In. The airfare dropped today and I grabbed it up - I had booked the hotel/car months ago but the airfare needed to cooperate to make it doable - today, it cooperated and I’m thrilled. Dad will get to see where his Princess is going to school.
Don’t forget about Medical Power of Attorney, if choosing to do so, when they turn 18.
We have the chance to preview the actual dorm room in early July, so will do that and then shop!
@mstomper, Sorry to hear about your Son’s accident & I’m glad to hear the everyone is OK. When my S15 headed to college, I gave him my 2002 Saturn. He hasn’t gotten into an actual wreck, but he’s pretty much done his best to wreck that car through neglect. I bought the car when it was new & did all of the fluid changes myself whenever they were due, as well as changing the spark plugs, filters, etc. I remember a while back when he came home & told me that the car was making weird sounds. I started the car, and (sure enough) it shook and sounded like an old locomotive engine. I was stumped until I pulled-out the oil dipstick and saw that there wasn’t even a drop of oil on it! I just looked at him with this sad look on my face because I basically knew that he had killed my car. Believe it or not, that car is still running. Those old Saturns seem to be pretty reliable cars!
My D18 will be in college 3.1 miles up the road from your son. She heads to preorientation @ the second week in Aug and then we head to Ithaca for the regular orientation on Aug 17th.
Wow, I haven’t been on in a while and there are so many great updates. Congrats on all the awards and graduations! All of you should be very proud. I’m really impressed by these kids. My S18 graduates on Friday night. Senior awards night was great - he got an award from the science department, a local scholarship and some cords, etc.
A little surprised that the person 90 percent of us thought was Top of the class was second instead.
After graduation, we are hosting a dinner for about 20. Then my S is spending the whole weekend with his 5 closest friends. They are going from house to house so each of us have them for a bit.
Go Warriors! ^:)^
It is great to hear all the wonderful news about kids wrapping up high school. DS graduates next Tuesday, and I will exhale when it is finally over. I held my breath today when I received final 4th quarter grades and final grades. He eeked by with maintaining his overall GPA despite the senior slide 4th quarter. I had to laugh at the post about attendance because it has been a struggle to get my son to school on time for the last two weeks. I’m living with a stranger right now. I sure hope it is stress and not a permanent personality change.
Orientation doesn’t happen until July, so we have some time before we need to focus on that. Meanwhile, he starts a new job for the summer this Friday. DS17 is home working for the summer, and aside from my moody senior, it is great to have a 2/3 full house. I’m trying to enjoy it because I know that big changes are coming in late August when the house will be horribly silent. Congrats to everyone.