@elena13 Heh, if he does end up writing about money you should send it in to the New York Times for their annual feature. It’s a publishing credit!
@Corinthian interesting, thanks!
I’m hoping the cafeteria buffets at college will be good for DD to try some new foods without having to commit to a whole dish of it. Or she may just take the opportunity to eat plain pasta every day. Even she is getting tired of her limited repertoire, but you don’t like what you don’t like. She’s working at church camp right now and when she said that supper was hamburgers, I asked if she ate one. She said “I had to or I’d starve!” Hopefully she’s had to eat a few more meals since then that weren’t breaded chicken or plain pasta.
I don’t hear much from her which I’m taking as a good sign that the homesickness is getting better. I also haven’t straight out asked her how it’s going as I’m trying to lay low instead of making her think about home. Today the messaging was about which t-shirt to buy at the gift shop so I can handle that kind of conversation. (“Can we make an adult XXL into a size small?” “Not very well honey, how about you check out the kids sizes instead!” I think she ended up with a kids XL.)
Anyone considering an instapot for college needs to make sure that they are allowed in the dorms . Some have very strict rules regarding allowed appliances.
Is anybody else being absolutely inundated with mailings from one college? My son has been getting lots of mail, but Reed College takes the prize. He gets postcards from them 3 to 4 times a week lately. He got a huge mailing with a brochure over the weekend, followed by more postcards. They are all different. No wonder the school is 75k per year, they must spend a fortune in postage.
For the record, he has never expressed one bit of interest in Reed, nor any other LAC. He wants to be an Engineer!
@carolinamom2boys you’re right that using an IP might violate dorm rules (and be difficult to keep clean without a kitchen sink). I was suggesting the IP for @ninakatarina (not her kid) as an accessible way to try Indian cooking. I lent out my IP this summer to my D15 during her summer internship and I’m going into withdrawal without it. D15 is living in an apartment this summer so no problems using the IP and she especially loves it for vegetarian cooking.
@ninakatarina I was also worried about my picky eater when he went off to college. He was lucky enough to have some fast food options , nit the healthiest, but things he would eat. He could also use some of his swipes at a POD on campus and could make himself something in the common kitchen. Attending school in an urban areas also gave him the opportunity for some other options occasionally. We were pleasantly surprised at some of the options offered now . For example, DS16 has a kosher/vegan dining hall. Furman has Mongolian Barbeque options , omelette stations and many other options. Big difference than when I went to school.
When we were on a college tour, the guide told us that she never eats fruits or vegetables and always has plenty to eat. She said it more than once, one of those times was as we were walking through a healthy food cafe area. She got the side eye from current students who were eating their veggies. We laughed.
@ninakatarina my younger daughter is the pickier one in our family but she helps find recipes (and cook with me when time permits) and she’s gotten much less picky over the last year or so. I highly recommend it.
While we’re on this topic of college food, I found the system at Occidental College to be really interesting and I don’t know how widely it’s used. They have basically a food court with made-to-order selections as well as standards like cold sandwiches and salads. It’s open to the public. The kids also pay by the item to eat there, but their cost is 50% off and of course they pre-pay and then swipe cards. Seemed like a good way to reduce food waste and the Freshman 15. The selections were really nice, fresh foods too. I’m used to the old cafeteria style dining hall that was only open for set meal times, and the only “charge” was one meal out of a 10-, 14-, or 19-meals per week plan. Seems like this by-the-item approach with a ton of choices is more of the model now? I have opposite concerns for my two teenagers. D19 eats too little, takes forever to eat, and can be stubborn about her choices, and S21 can often times overeat, and tends to make ridiculous food choices (today I took all my kids out for lunch and he ordered mac and cheese in a bread bowl and fruit punch…).
My teen also has a very variable appetite - sometimes he barely eats enough to keep a mouse alive, other times he’s going back for third helpings. I like the plan I’ve seen at a couple of colleges that have mixed meal plans - you get x number of swipes at an all you can eat dining hall per week and then bonus dollars to spend at the cafe/light snacks place that’s open later hours.
Kiddo is likely to sleep through 87% of the breakfasts anyhow.
At University at Buffalo, students can use meal swipes for a food court type area as well. The dining hall isn’t open for lunch (I don’t know about breakfast), but there is a food court in the student union with a number of options, plus a handful of other counter serve type places around campus. It seemed like a good system to me, since most students don’t tend to eat huge meals at lunch and are often on the go at that time of day.
When we visited, 2 of us had Moe’s and the 3rd had a smoothie.
My D17 got lucky in that the one main dining hall on her campus was completely renovated and a new dining service company brought in right before she started. They have lots of good options and many kinds of food stations, but she said the variety of fruit can be lacking at times. I do like that everyone has the same food plan and it is unlimited (and open late). I think they have a smaller cafe on campus as well as a food truck. Since her school has made a commitment to good financial aid for low income students, the dining plan makes it so some kids don’t have to try to skip meals to save money.
Kiddo is at a college application boot camp today. He had late rehearsal last night and (I suspect) stayed up afterwards playing video games. I am a mean mother.
What is a college app boot camp?
It’s put on by the county. The kids can bring a draft essay and get feedback from an English teacher, they meet with college admissions representatives, they get help setting up their Common App account, and they get to hang out with other college-bound teens from nearby high schools.
We have a College app boot camp too. Well, d19 does anyway. 3 mornings next week. Ours is one we had to pay for and is just at our school, not run by the county.
I’ve never heard of anything like that. I wish they did something like that here.
The closet thing we have to college app boot camp is on PSAT day in Oct, my HS has representatives come from different colleges to help students complete applications.
I think this is a program that our county sets up in low income neighborhoods. Many of the parents around here will not have finished college (some not even high school) and so college-bound kids need a bit of extra help. We have a higher income than our neighbors (still not rich) but I’m not above sending my kid to something like this if it could possibly help.
He just texted me and said that three of his close friends are there too, so they’re going to have fun hanging out together.
I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or not but it seems like the search function has changed on CC and it is confusing. When I put in the name of a college to search recent comments about that school, the results are completely different than they had been previously. Even when I select to sort by date, I get a list of comments that are definitely not the most recent. Any thoughts?
I had never really used the search function and now I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it.