I am definitely looking forward to our new grocery bill without a teenage boy in the house. And the 33.3% decrease in eating-out expense 
S19 had senior day(last home game) for baseball yesterday. Laid down a squeeze and team won 4-0 over their rivals. He made a poster after and is asking a girl today to prom. Going to admitted day this weekend. 45 days until graduation. Itās getting real!!!
@gzza73 The girl canāt say no now. Your DS laid down a squeeze bunt that helped his team beat their rivals. 
@parent2one Yes. I can see our grocery and eating-out expenses going down too with D19 heading off to college. Clothing expenses will go down also. Woohoo!!!
@SJ2727 Itās going to be big change for S23 to be the only kid in the house. I know he still communicates with D16 frequently. With D19 going away and us not being able to contact her at will, itāll really be a big change for S23.
@ninakatarina My D19 is the opposite. Her room is a pig sty. She leaves her things all over the house. Doesnāt clean up after herself. Leaves stuff in her Wrangler. Well, itās not her Wrangler. She just drives it to wherever she needs to get to. Part of it is our fault because weāre not forceful enough to make her clean up after herself. Wellā¦ where we failed, Iām sure the upperclassmen will make sure her bed is made, clean clothes are folded neatly and put away, and room is clean everyday.
Itās starting to sink in a little bit more today. Yesterday, we had supper at the venue with the family that we are going in with for the grad reception. We looked at the room (actually, an upstairs loft of a local bar & grill) and decided on decorations, placement of tables, etcā¦ We just finalized their grad reception invites too. I think Shutterfly has a sale going on for invitations.
@ChicagoSportsFn sheās about to be in for a culture shock. Sheāll learn real fast how to clean her room at the Academy.
@ifer67 Congratulations!!! @gallentjill Great!
D deposited to UCB tonight.
D deposited to Pitt last night! I admit took some prompting, but she is happy to have it done.
Congrats on all the deposits/commitments! Exciting!
@scholarme @coolweather - Congratulations!
@coolweather & @scholarme Congratulations on your daughtersā decisions! Celebrate and enjoy the euphoria of being done.
Itās been a little over a week since Dās decision here and anxiety is now kicking in for me, trying to plan the next phaseā¦housing, orientation, health insurance. Feel like Iām constantly nagging D to check her email. Anyone else?
@momzilla2D Housing is the most important part. The decision to choose where to live, who to live with will have a big impact in the coming years. There are many unhappy posts about roommates on CC. I think the young people are pickier than our generation. My two older kids were lucky and did not have any issue with roommates.
You should not worry too much about health insurance, orientation,ā¦
Congratulations on all of the choices and deposits! We also finally paid our deposit yesterday. I told D now that she has a roommate she couldnāt keep making me wait. She face timed with her roommate for the first time last night. I was asleep but got the very quick version this morning - it went well, they seem similar (like to stay up late, are not into sports, like the same music, both have a hard time waking up in the morning uh oh!) and by the end of the conversation she even invited D to come stay with her for a music fest in NYC that they both have been to in the past. Phew, one less thing to stress about.
Iām anxious to get all the local scholarships done but trying not to nag DD too much. Itās quite a week for her- soccer games M-Tu-Th all over an hour away, prom this weekend. But, last night she addressed grad party invites and completed 3 scholarships. This morning before school she went to a local board meeting for a photo and to receive a check for a scholarship. One day at a time! Iām not sure what date I can next pin her down to do more scholarshipsā¦Sunday night she wants to go to the movie, Monday a track meet, Tuesday soccer gameā¦although she may have time to work on them in school.
Last admitted student visit completed:
Originally, we were going to do a two day visit, but D has missed enough school, so we did the abbreviated 1 day event instead. D had already done an overnight last year, and I didnāt think I needed two days of rah-rah. Nice reception the night before, and I was impressed with how well the faculty and student reps engaged with everyone. Of course, it makes sense to invite the most personable professors.
Next day, the kid bailed on the midday tour, so we veered off the agenda to find an EE professor whoād called her last week. He wasnāt in his office, but a CS prof stopped us and took us to his office for about 30 minutes. Took me about 1 minute to take in the size of his office and realize he wasnāt just a random prof, but was a very down to earth dept chair. Gave pretty objective comparisons of CS departments and different schools, including his alma mater. Discussed the importance of math in the schoolsā CS curriculum, their focus on teaching and easy availability of research. Asked her a lot of questions. Heād apparently assumed she was a prospective applicant (looks young for 17), not an admitted student.
Main negative is they are behind the eight-ball in mapping out coordinated Study Abroad opportunities for the engineering and CS majors. The other top contenders had this down, and Auburn gets the top prize here.
D is in love, but prepared to walk away.
S19 officially accepted his scholarship on Monday, and then received an invitation to apply for a prestigious program at his chosen university. We thought the program closed months ago. Now trying to decide what to do. It involves a living/learning community, so it would change some of his current plans, but I think it would be good for him.
I thought we had gotten past the application phase.
Wow @peachActuary73 - sounds like a great visit! I hope it helped add clarity. Hopefully you will have a decision soon!
Wow, so many decisions and progress with making next-step plans. Congrats to all! So exciting! I donāt know when this decision is going to happen for us, but Iād rather not wait until the last couple of days like we did with my D17. Sounds like some really good choices @peachActuary73 !
S19 and his tennis teammates won their region semi-finals match yesterday on a beautiful day. So fun to watch them and Iām off to watch the finals today - so different from the start of the season when I was bundled up with many layers, blankets and hand warmers. The players are not able to drive themselves to matches and they have a bus take them to away matches but parents have to drive home. Since I rarely have a bunch of boys in my car anymore, it has been fun to do it again this season. It is hysterical to listen to their conversations and hear them trash talk and harass each other. Iām really going to miss that. They are so funny!
@bjscheel Wow! What a busy DD with 2 spring sports. Congrats on her getting the scholarship. Hopefully sheāll get more.
@brentwoodmom Congrats on your DS accepting the scholarship and getting an invite to apply for that prestigious program. We felt the same way in that we thought the application phase was behind us. D16 applied for a few scholarships during the spring of her senior year. She then applied during her freshman and sophomore years for summer study abroad. During her freshman year, she applied to be part of the orientation group at her school. On top of that, she applied to be a Calc tutor during the spring semester of her freshman year. Seems like applications have been part of her life forever! She did get a break for college apps though. D16 got accepted ED, so that cut down her apps by a lot. At that point, her only apps were for scholarships.
For D19, her school nominated her for a bunch of local awards which caused her to have to apply for them. Sheās not applying for any scholarships.
@elena13 Glad youāre having some fun times with you DS. Youāre right. Weāre all going to miss having them around every day listening to how their day went and trash talking, where appropriate. For D16, we get our fix by texting often. D16 also calls her mom around noon each day.
@ChicagoSportsFn Oops she is just in soccer. The track meet is to hang out with her boyfriend who is injured but still going to every track meet and practice, and to see a camp friend who goes to the host school. Some kids have tried to do both in the past but thatās crazy.
In our small town, Sās 15 minutes/minor-celebrity status continues. On Tuesday, a radio spot aired where he told about himself and his plans. Today, there was a photo op with his college pennant and an article in the paper. Tonight, he was asked by the local U for an interview for their āpre-collegeā advertising media. Even though he wonāt attend, he earned several dual enrollment credits from them and they want to highlight his success. This is after an Exchange Club speech and recognition.
Kinda feeling to me like itās a bit much. Is this level of attention normal elsewhere?