@mom2twogirls LOL. She put the shampoo in the bag… :))
I seriously just spit coffee all over myself laughing about that!
HI there - I’m brand new to this site and forum. Just checking in to say hi. BTW - it’s 12:15 and my son is also still in bed and will want to play video games all day too!
welcome @Shishycat!
@homerdog she actually didn’t get that far. My husband was brushing his teeth when she went to do it. He yelled down to ask why I was having her put conditioner in a baggie. I said she wasn’t, she was putting shampoo in a baggie. Then I went to see what was going on and she was standing there completely confused. I had to patiently explain what I meant. And that I didn’t mean to squeeze an entire bottle of shampoo into a gallon size ziplock bag.
I’m going to pretend she was still only half way awake.
@mom2twogirls - I am cracking up!!
My D19 is not doing anything this summer so far. The original plans were SAT prep, learning to drive and French 3 online. Turns out the don’t do French 3 online in the summer, we haven’t practiced driving once and she hasn’t done one minute of SAT prep. Need to get on that stuff this week!
So far she has slept in almost every day, hung out at the beach a little, gone to the mall - she did volunteer at a VBS camp for one week so that was good. Oh - and I have had her come in with me to volunteer at the soup kitchen every Wednesday. I usually have to take off in the summer so I can be home with the youngest but he is old enough to stay home now (doesn’t like going there) so I drag D19 & D21 with me.
Oh - and she picked her classes. We can still change them if we have to but we wanted to get them booked with the Dean so she at least knows she has something she likes. She is going to try the AICE Math/Pre-Cal class although she is pretty nervous about it. We picked some easier electives so she can really focus on that class and APUSH.
AICE Math
APUSH
AP Eng Lang/ Comp
Chemistry Honors
AICE Sociology (not sure about how hard this one is yet)
AICE Travel & Tourism
Creative Photography
French 3 Honors online
She could drop one of the AICE electives or photography if she decides this is too much. She really wants to take photography even though it is only a 4.0 so I think that one will end up staying put.
S is working 40 hrs a week, attending SAT prep 5 hrs a week, chores 3-5 hrs a week. All other hours seem to be spent watching inappropriate cartoons and sleeping.
Note to self. Today I must sit down with D19 and help her come up with a plan for completing all AP summer assignments, memorizing the show music, and doing PSAT/SAT prep before band camp starts up in early Aug. Given the fact that we have a 2 week vacation in July this is more of a challenge than I thought.
@mom23travelers I hear you. In June, it’s so easy to just think there will be plenty of time. And then all of a sudden, it’s August!!
I’ve gotten as far as opening Khan Academy on S19’s computer once or twice, but he is in the first week of summer vacation and isn’t having it. Fortunately, he managed to pick two AP classes that don’t have summer homework. I think he just has to read almost literally any book for his English class.
Oh, and he won’t even let me bribe him to do SAT prep - “You shouldn’t have to bribe me, I’ll do it at some point.” Translation: “I will look at a geometry formula at 11:30 p.m. on the night before the test.” Hopefully, he’ll come around.
Did everyone but me know about this really cool comparison tool?
http://colleges.startclass.com/
It’s not that intuitive, but I muddled through and you can compare up to three colleges at once, side by side.
Pretty neat stuff.
S left for a 3 week technology oriented trip to Israel yesterday. We got out of school Memorial day and most of his summer besides being a CIT for 2 weeks at a game camp, was sitting in front of his computer 12 hours a day. He has a license, but wont drive (and really does suck at it still 
). In 3 weeks I will get him at JFK and do a couple college tours. We had RPI set up, but it was too expensive to then drive to rochester and fly out of there, and WPI had no tours, so we decided to stay a day wtih my brother in Jersey and then go see Drexel in philly… i thought he was the only lazy kid around, so its great to see that others are similar.
My D17 who starts GW in the fall has been my big mess. She took a job as a counselor at a sleepaway camp for the summer and wants to quit and come home, as her campers supposily “bully” her, her co counselor also “hates” her, But she has nothing to come home to, as she broke up with her BF before she left, and really did not have many friends, and her Best friend is out of town in college already. She has had 2 30 hour breaks when she has come home (its 1 1/2 hours away) and done nothing but cry. I feel bad for her, but at 18 years old, this is a pattern for her that just keeps repeating itself, and she is going to have to resolve… i asked the psychologist if we should defer her from college, and he said no, that she really needs to go and see if she can do it, and delaying it wont help her to grow up.
Meanwhile i still work my 40 hour a week job, but luckily work from home.
@sd0625 Sorry to hear your D17 isn’t having a better summer. I had a lot of reservations about sending my D16 away, and really, being 1500 miles from home was exactly what she needed.
Yesterday, S19 shared some more of his deep insights on his potential college choices. He “doesn’t see the point in visiting campuses because they all seem nice enough for him to live there.” Also, he would like a school that offers “math and science.” That narrows things down quite a bit, haha.
Washington University (St. Louis) Tour Tale
I drove S19 yesterday morning to Washington University in St Louis for a half day Engineering tour. We were already a few miles from the house when I woke up enough to look & see what he was wearing. Sneakers, Shorts, a Hoodie. I said, ‘You couldn’t even bother with a polo shirt this morning?’ S19 quipped, "I have my AP World History shirt on under this hoodie.’
Since we are local, I just dropped him off at the DUC. This might have been a mistake. He was the only kid there with no helicopter parents asking about admission rates and tuition. He said he tailed close to one other family at some point so he looked like another son in their group. He said some graduate student realized he was solo and did approach him and talk to him for some time about careers in computer engineering. He did notice the company that owns League of Legends was listed as an employer for graduates too, so he was paying attention at least!
He thought the campus was confusing. He got lost & had no idea where he ate lunch as he had just followed some people from the tour. I love Brookings Hall and the diag there. The campus is the closest I have come to Michigan Law Quadrangle in architectural style. I think it’s really a small and easy to traverse campus, but he disagreed. He said the tour was always ‘cutting around’ and going down alleys.
He said there was one kid there yelling at his parents. He said one kid was in a full suit with his hair slicked back. He said, ‘Us poor kids were all wearing our Robotics or AP T-shirts to show we were smart enough to belong.’ He said ‘everyone’ was considering pre-med AND engineering degrees. So he clearly picked up on the wealthy and overachieving nature this school draws.
I wound up parking down past the DUC to pick him up. When he walked up to my car, he hadn’t looked that happy to see me in a while! He definitely didn’t feel at home there and comfortable with the kids as he did when he spent an entire students-only engineering day at Mizzou last fall.
So this is a little reminder about fit. My kid clearly figured out he doesn’t ‘fit’ at WUSTL. He’s not THAT much of an overachiever. Pre-med is not at all in his plans. He told me later in the evening he definitely preferred Mizzou over WUSTL.
@MoHeron Interesting visit! Our S19 and I went to a local event hosted by Wash U. On paper, the school is absolutely perfect. Supposedly Midwest-nice, collaborative in nature, yet pretty intellectual. S19 hated the student who presented at the event. He thought he was picked to present because he was the “perfect” student. He was handsome, wore an expensive suit, was an Econ and Film double major, and was part of half a dozen interesting groups on campus. Serious over-achiever and loved to talk about it. S19 totally turned off. Thought the kid was totally full of himself. I feel like the student was chosen because PARENTS would like him…but I didn’t like him either.
Wash U is off of the list. If the school is full of kids like this presenter (or even if it’s not and the school chose him to represent it) then it’s not the fit for S19.
@homerdog, thanks for responding and confirming S19’s assessment.
I’ve taken several classes at their night school program over the years and there were always ‘day’ students in the night classes. They were all very strong students. I was not that confident and self-assured of my intelligence like these kids are at WUSTL at that age!
Good luck hunting!
@MoHeron You too! I’m ok with a confident student, of course, but this kid was downright cocky. And no fun to boot! 
Anybody care to comment on my list? At this point, it is just all over the map. Some are b/c D19 has friends going there. Some are because they’re the cheapest in-state option, or very cheap OOS publics. Some are because we have personal contacts. Some I honestly can’t remember why they’re there. And some are just places that had theater & lax and seemed interesting.
I did this list before D’s vague interest in env. science, and I still am not sure that glimmer is worth a wholesale revision of the list. I might have a better idea after Yellowstone - if she gets excited by the place, that would be a great sign…
Obviously this has to get whittled way down.
Allegheny College
Baldwin Wallace University
Bloomsburg University
Bowdoin College
Bucknell University
Colby College
Colorado College
Cornell College
Delaware Valley University
Drew University
Emerson College
Florida State
Goucher College
Middlebury College
Muhlenberg College
Otterbein University
Rhodes College
Sewanee The University of the South
Skidmore College
Slippery Rock University
Southwestern University
St. Olaf College
Stockton University
University of Cincinnati (College Conservatory of Music)
University of Florida
University of Oklahoma
Ursinus College
Wesleyan University
West Chester University
Westminster College
Ohio University
West Virginia University
I don’t have enough knowledge of the colleges, lax or theater to have much useful comment. But I am impressed you have such a list! Remind me, has your d yet takrn
@Gatormama Love it! Our list was that long not that long ago. I started writing out exactly why each school was on the list. It was very time consuming but really helped narrow it down a little bit. Until we visit some campuses, though, I think it’s good to have a long list. Our only overlaps are Middlebury and Bowdoin which aren’t truly on “the” list since we will be full-pay. I have a separate list of schools that appeal to S19 that don’t give merit and they are on there. Once we get further into our search, we may decide a school on that list just might be worth it.
The only schools on your list that we considered but took off were Colorado College (we saw their rep at a local fair and S19 loved everything about it except the block program- I thought it would appeal to him but it stressed him out) and St. Olaf (I’ve heard amazing things from local families but we aren’t religious at all so I don’t think the fit is quite right.)
I like that your list has big and small. Private and public. Your D will have plenty to choose from!