Yeah, so I’m just over here hanging out being all calm and nonchalant. S19 decided that he wants to come home for a recharge weekend after midterms wrap this week. He’s totally happy at school. Just wants to get out of the dorms for a quick break.
It’s all good. We’re less than three hours from his school and buses run from there to a nearby city. So no big deal. We can provide transport to and from the bus station.
He’ll probably spend more time hanging out with friends who are still in town than with his family. Hey, whatever you want to do honey. We’re all adults here.
Whatever, you know?
OKAY, FINE. HE’S HAPPY AT SCHOOL AND I LOVE THAT FOR HIM. BUT I AM REALLY FREAKING EXCITED TO SEE HIM. OKAY?!?! I JUST WANT TO GIVE MY 6’3" 19-YEAR-OLD BABY A BIG OL’ HUG AND ENJOY HAVING HIM BACK IN THE HOUSE.
Really, it’s all good. Whatever. No big deal at all.
Is this what it will also be like when he and his younger brother are like 35-years-old and they come for a visit? LOL!
@momsquared33 Yeah. I think math and science classes are typically more of a grind than the social sciences. But I have heard a lot of kids dropping or deciding to take their foreign lang pass/fail!! Foreign language there is hard!
S19 is definitely going to change up his schedule a bit next semester and try to take two intro classes that will cover some of his distribution requirements. And he’s staying far away from foreign language!
I really enjoy reading about life at other colleges. And what an exciting adventure for your son @ninakatarina! D19 was just home for fall break and it was so nice to see her after what felt like a very long six weeks.
She has struggled with the environmental changes from Denver to Philly. What we thought was the usual freshman sickness turned out to be environmentally-induced asthma due to the difference in air quality. She has lost ten pounds because the dining hall food is greasy and unappetizing. We eat very clean in our house so her digestive system has had a bit of shock. Still, she has adjusted well socially and continues to be quite close to her hallmates. They are her core group of study and gym buddies.
Echoing posters upthread, D19 also spends a lot of time on homework but feels most of it is busy work which annoys her to no end. She loves being busy though and is balancing classes with a club sport, two clubs, and her residential community requirements. All of the kids are busy though; it is definitely a work hard, play hard atmosphere. Midterm grades are starting to come in and so far she has all As. Regarding class size, her largest class is Bio (250 students) but it is the only section offered. Her other classes have 25 students or less.
Family weekend is in three weeks followed quickly by Thanksgiving break. This school year is moving along!
@homerdog My social science kid took econ as his math requirement he hates it so much;) The science one will wear his butt out I know. I am sure he has a lot more writing coming up ahead though for the rest. I haven’t heard the pass / fail comment yet but it might be coming…
And here my daughter is absolutely loving her calc and science classes, but is already dreading having to take a class next semester that will require her to deal with (gasp and horrors!) writing in the humanities.
Just pointing out that we have this idea in American culture that math and science are hard while the social sciences (except maybe econ) and humanities are easier, but that’s only a cultural assumption—in actual fact, they’re all difficult, it’s just that different people have natural aptitude or training that lets them deal with some of the difficulties better than other difficulties.
Agreeing with @dfbdfb that the math/science might not be the harder ones --thst it depends on the kid. My D19’s most dreaded class is her Freshman English class. (Honors kids are required to take it even if the have 5s on both AP English tests. She doesn’t have that but some of the Honors kids do.) She’s enjoying her foreign language classes and while she finds Calc challenging, she is enjoying it except for the tough exams.
The biggest surprise was how much she looked forward to discussions in her Freshman seminar. She’s finally surrounded by intellectual peers & that is priceless.
She will have Physics next semester and the semester after & she’s not looking forward to those classes. But, the professors are supposed to be engaging so she might end up liking them. Who knows?
@dfbdfb exactly. I know some really good math/engineering students (mathmos, as they were termed at one of my alma maters) who just couldn’t actually write a long essay properly, and/or found the kind of argument/reasoning often involved in the social sciences really difficult. Just different. Of course, many social sciences require some form of quantitative reasoning now too.
D19 is not a big math person (she’s actually not too bad at it, definitely not brilliant, but is one of those kids that has a mental block about it) and is avoiding it as much as she can, it seems like she can also use Econ as a math credit and will probably go that way.
@mountainsoul , sorry your D is having physical difficulties there. Is the asthma being treated?
@dfbdfb As a mathematician friend once told me, “math is easy, which is why so many scientists and engineers use mathematical models for SIMPLIFICATION”. Math isn’t hard, math teachers make it hard. If math teachers taught basic principles and concepts, rather than forcing kids to memorize templates, kids would actually discover that math isn’t only a lot easier than they thought, but also a lot more interesting. Instead, every time somebody points out how badly the USA is doing in math, teachers dump another hour of homework a day on kids. BTW, American kids already do a lot more homework than kids in any of the countries which do so much better than USA in math. /rant
Even though my kid is taking 5 courses, ballet lessons, dance troupe practice, and various other activities, she’s discovered that she has a lot more time now than she did during high school. During HS, she was spending about 15 hours a week travelling to and from dance, and an hour+ a day to and from school, and any activity require at least an hour travel time. Spending no more than 15 minutes between any two activities has freed up more than 20 hours a week.
Otherwise, it’s great hearing about how other kids of the Class of 2019 are doing. Unsurprisingly, it seems that it’s mostly harder for us than for them - the ungrateful wretches, after all that we did for them, they could at least PRETEND that they miss us all the time…
Agree with comments above. My D17 hates math and thinks she is not good at it (really not true) but regularly reads 25 books/semester and writes long papers and essays that many students would despise.
Similarly S19 says he’s not doing great in Calculus - hoping he can bring it up and just get through it. However, he’s getting very good grades in his high level Spanish writing class where most of the other students are struggling. Most of us can’t be great at all subjects.
My guys have settled in, are happier than pigs in mud, and having a blast. Both are loving that they are steeped in their majors, and loving living in a city. They were able to get out of many of the general classes due to college credit from an accelerated program they did in HS. They have met a ton of friends and seem to have people to hang out and have fun with. One has been phenomenally busy writing, playing and recording new music - and the other hit the ground running with Architectural studio work. (He likens this to competing on the Great British Bake-Off show, if any of you have seen it). I miss them immensely - but they are SO happy, I couldnt be more content
Re comment #18860, Yes @InfiniteWaves - it is EXACTLY like that. I have three kids in their 30s, and that’s exactly how I feel when I see them!! @Mountainsoul - hope your kid is enjoying the city as much as mine are!
I didn’t mean to say that math and science classes are always harder. I do think that S19’s math and science classes are harder than some of the social science intro classes. It’s been even more challenging because his classmates are mostly not freshmen and they’ve got this college thing down while the few freshmen in the class are just figuring things out. S19 is definitely spending just as much time on his humanities classes and they cause just as much angst. Lol!
He’s actually enjoying his fall break in the library since he’s able to work without feeling rushed. I think it’s almost been more relaxing than if he would have flown home, spent two days here, and then flown back. He’s feeling more caught up now. It’s been like a mini reading week for him. There are still some kids around so campus doesn’t feel too empty and the weather has been nice. He’s been sending us gorgeous shots of campus including a beautiful purple sky last night. That being said, I’m sure he will be ready to come home and see us and his friends over Thanksgiving!
It’s interesting hearing about these fall breaks. I’m more familiar with west coast colleges and I rarely see them having any breaks from Labor Day until Thanksgiving. I like the idea of fall breaks, especially for freshman to “recharge their batteries”.
@homerdog Thinking back to the discussions about accepting the AP credit conversions versus repeating courses. Didn’t even consider that the institution would remove the choice.
@peachActuary73 If S19 didn’t want to continue with math or physics, then he could have used his AP credits to “pass out” of the math and science distribution requirements. But, he might major in math or physics so his AP tests plus the placement tests given by his school in these subjects placed him in his classes and he couldn’t choose to take a lower level class. For example, he took BC Calc as a junior and got a 5. Took multivariable calc as a senior. After taking his score into consideration, as well as a math placement test that they give all students, they told him that he would not be allowed to retake MV and had to start in linear algebra if he wanted to study math. I believe that, if he wanted to major in something else, he could have used his 5 to pass out of the math requirement for graduation. Same happened with physics.
Like I said in an earlier post, his friends at Cornell and Vanderbilt who also got 5s and took MV were allowed to retake MV if they liked. So, for them, math this semester is a quick review of what they did senior year.
All the talk about fall breaks makes me sad because I’m not going to see S19 until mid-December. Bud he left later than everybody else and only had two weeks of classes so far. He says chemistry is the hardest class, and physics is actually easier than his AP class was (big surprise!) He’s not happy he didn’t skip freshman physics. In summer, he couldn’t do all the problems in his placement test and decided not to send it in, and now he met a guy who solved the same problems but was allowed to skip it. I told him an easy class in his first quarter might not be bad at all. Hopefully it gets more interesting later. He does spend a lot of time on homework but says it’s reasonable so far.
My math/science kid is already dreading the required writing seminar she has to take next semester. Apparently, the workload is very heavy with chapter summaries due every class.
Yes, @SJ2727 her asthma is being treated. Student Health Services prescribed an inhaler and her symptoms immediately improved.
@Britmom5 She is quite happy in the Penn bubble and, aside from a few college house events, hasn’t explored the city at all. The excitement of city living may be fading as reality is proving to be dirtier than she anticipated. Glad to hear your sons are enjoying themselves!
@socaldad2002 my D17 goes to school in southern CA - her school has a “fall break” which is essentially just a three day weekend (no classes on Friday). S19 is here on east coast and his fall break is same thing, just a 3 day weekend.
D19’s school has the 14th and 15th as fall break. As she does not have Friday classes in her schedule this semester, that gave her a nice 5 day weekend. Did I mention it was D26’s birthday this weekend? We kept the D19 visit a surprise and she fetched her from school Friday! It was such fun. Been a great weekend.
Break was today and tomorrow so kids could leave after class on Friday and come back to school on Tuesday night, but S19 had a XC meet on Saturday and a lot of work to do so just stayed. Honestly, we will probably have him stay next year as well. It wouldn’t make sense to fly home on Sunday and return on Tuesday. If he could have left right after his Friday class and had Sat, Sun, and Monday at home then maybe it would have been worth the trip home. Also, parents weekend starts the 24th so we figured he could wait ten more days for us to have a mini-reunion.
But let it be known that he already has set plans for seeing friends during Thanksgiving week. Not sure how much time we will get with him!
