S19’s orientation was this week - he made his schedule beforehand and the advisors meet with them to straighten out any issues. He has one little snag that still needs to be worked out. The day was long, but very well organized. We saw the outside of the dorm and checked out where his classes will be. JMU has a big sprawling campus, but as a music student, he will not even have to leave the quad area and some of his classes are in his dorm. Most rooms in his building are 17 x 10 which isn’t such a bad size, and I was able to get info on the bed height.
Since I have a DS who doesn’t care about these things, I am just picking up random dorm things here and there. I’ve piled up sheets, towels, blanket, comforter, pillows, lamps, a rolling cart, hangers, and a hanging shoe thingy so far. The mattress topper possibilities are overwhelming. After staring at them online for at least an hour the other day, I think I will just buy the cheapest one on Amazon that has good reviews and get on with my life, haha.
AP scores have been viewed and processed. He did better than expected on AP Calc and worse than expected on AP Gov and won’t be getting credit for either. Oh well! He does get 3 credits that don’t count towards anything for CS Principles, so I guess if he randomly ends up with only 117 credits after 4 years, he’ll be set.
@Stuffedquahog My D saw her AP scores in her college portal earlier this week. see if you can do the same. I think the browser or app that was mentioned last year is Puffin. I opened it and it said something about it not working anymore after July 1, 2019 but it seemed to work. I am in Texas, in the first group this time, so we are able to see scores this morning. Good luck!
@Stuffedquahog I tried to post the website and my post was taken down by the mods. I didn’t know I couldn’t post it. I could have sworn people have posted it here in the past. Sorry!
S19 got two 4’s. - French and Macroecon. He got pretty lucky if you ask me. He didn’t study at all on top of the class he took. He can get credit for Macro and Bowdoin only does placement for French so there was really no point in him even taking it. At the time, though, he had schools on his list that had foreign lang requirements and he took the test so he could pass out of those
@jellybean5@homerdog Thanks for info. Yes! I remember it was Puffin now that you reminded me. Too bad it doesn’t work this year. I checked college board today and my D’s aren’t posted yet. For CT it’s Sunday for release so I guess I have to wait.
Aside from being curious about the AP scores we are making progress on the dorm list. Today’s big purchase was her fridge. I really wanted her to have the same one as our S but thought probably not since Sears went out of business up here. Well I was shocked and happy to see I can get a Kenmore black 4.5 cubic from a remaining Sears appliance-only store in RI, only 45 minutes away. It’s on sale for the 4th so I ordered it and we pick it up next week. Super happy with that find!
We also ordered her computer from Bentley this week. They have a negotiated price with a local vendor so it was easy. (Yet still expensive, and annoying because my S had his computer built into his bill when he was a freshman at the same school. All new way of doing it this year). There were 2 to choose from unless you wanted a mac (we didnt). You could upgrade the RAM (which we did) and extend the warranty/campus IT support from 3 yrs to 4 yrs (which we did). That comes in next week so that is exciting for my D.
She also made a Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBB) order. My silly D went with whimsical cartoon llama XL sheets. Super cute! Plus she found a matching comforter. (My son went with whimsical cartoon fish his freshman year. Picking crazy sheets is kind of the thing to do in college). She also did a Target run with her Grammy and got so many necessities like stapler, hangers, command hooks, etc etc. Then she went to Homegoods and got some decor for her walls. She is so happy. It is very sweet to see her excited and relaxed this summer!
She doesn’t pick classes until 7/23 (online with an assigned time slot) and she will find out about her housing and roommate on 7/24.
@ChicagoSportsFn I got a little teary, too, reading your post. You and your daughter are both AMAZING. She for being a rock star and you for supporting her and being her rock. She has known she wanted this since the 8th grade so luckily it sounds like she knows what it’s all about. I’m sure she is going to thrive. It’s harder on us parents, I think a bit. Modern tech what it is, even if our kids are away, they’re usually just a text or phone call away. You just have to pretend this is the 80’s ; ) I know we all can’t wait to hear about her 6 weeks, so please do share after that time has, I’m sure, flown by.
xo xo
My understanding is that earlyscores is working this year for AP scores. Just a thought!
My D googled a way to get her scores and was very happy to learn that she got 5s in Calc BC and Psych, and 4s in Physics I and Spanish. So along with her 4 in APUSH from last year, she will get 20 credits at Binghamton. This will allow her to double major and spend a semester abroad!
I"m so happy for those of you whose kids can use these AP credits. They just don’t help so much at LACs I guess. BC Calc score just helps for placement, AP Lang gets no credit no matter the score, APUSH 5 will give him credit for a history class but only retroactively if he takes a 200-level history class and gets a B or higher. Econ does get him one credit. French just placement!
I don’t even really get the econ or history credit. I guess they would leave two slots open for other classes he wants to take or more space to double major.
@zipstermom You’re right! If you Google “AP scores early 2019” it takes you to a website that you can retrieve them with your college ID. My D got a 5 on pysch. She’ll be thrilled because that will give her credit toward a gen ed. Last year she got a 4 on both US history and Environmental Science. So both of those will count too toward gen eds. She also got a 5 on English language last year but that won’t count because her school wants every student to take their freshman English writing course. Sadly, she got a 3 two years ago in Biology (she is not a science kid). Bentley only counts 4 & up. So she got some credits overall with her AP classes. It’s funny because most of these were not only AP classes but also UCONN ECE classes (that we paid for, at about $200 a piece). Had she gone to UCONN (her back up but never a serious contender) she would be walking in with 25 credits (you get credit for how you finish grade-wise, not your AP score). Some other colleges accept these credits too, but not her school. They don’t count it if it also satisfied a high school class to. Oh well.
@homerdog Hmm, that’s kind of a bummer at the lack of AP credit usefulness at LACs. (Both of my kids are at larger public universities, so I have only seen things from this lens).
I’m guessing that AP classes are used more by LACs to determine rigor for admissions, but it would be nice to get the credit as well.
@homerdog That is why D19 did not take any of her AP exams this year. She already took the only AP classes that will help her at her LAC, so why waste more money taking more AP exams?
@MWolf I agree. That’s why S19 didn’t take physics AP. He took the French one because Davidson and Carleton require foreign language and, if he got a 4 or a 5, then he would pass out of that requirement. He took Macro AP because it does count at Bowdoin and the others on his original list as a credit. We didn’t know where he was going to go when he had to sign up for the tests. Believe me, he wanted to blow off that French test but we paid for it and I told him to give it a shot. He didn’t open one AP French study book.
We were able to use earlyscores for S19 and D20’s scores this morning. I was really waiting on S19 as his college placed him calculus and physics with no AP. I’m happy he did well…Calc AB 5, physics C 4, and Stats 4.
@MAandMEmom Sure, it is Sears Hometown Store in North Kingstown. I hear it is small, just appliances. I ordered her fridge on the phone yesterday (I called first to see if it was in stock before driving there - it wasn’t.). They were super helpful and I ordered it via the phone at the sale price. It comes in next friday. We ordered the Kenmore #99059 in black. It’s $169 on sale. We have the same one for our son. It has been great. Some of the ones found in stores like Wal-Mart & Target seem chintzy to me when we researched 3 years ago. Glad we found a Kenmore.
We found D19 a fridge on base for free, but if we hadn’t, her college has free loaners for kids on full financial aid. I think that’s a great feature that we never guessed existed- they have things like microwaves and hangers too.
@SJ2727 Me too, especially on the phone, the font is so light it is hard to read!
D got her room assignment so now I have the room and furniture dimensions. There are also a bunch of pictures on the parent FB page that give us an idea of how big the room is. Or should I say how small?! It is a tight fit but I am sure it will be fine. I tried to convince D that they should bunk the beds so they can have more space for a small sitting area so people can hang out. She said no way, neither of them would want to be on the top.
The school provides a fridge/microwave combo for free (haha - not so free when you look at the tuition!) so that is nice, one less thing to have to think about when I look at the long list of things she might need.