@dfbdfb @MAandMEmom Your guys’ kids don’t seem to believe in “easing into it”. I’m sure that when they go to the pool, they’re the sort of people that first stick a toe in, and then say “whatever” and jump in.
@dfbdfb @MAandMEmom There will be a few late nights next semester! Good for them, though.
S19 registered October 25. The 2nd semester of Accounting, Macroecon, Stats, Speech, and German (because he wants to do a semester abroad in Zurich later).
And I’m rather proud of him - his current Accounting prof is known to be the toughest one in the department, and he only has a B there. He still chose to take her next semester because, in talking to his peers, he feels like the prior corporate experience she brings to the class has allowed him to learn more than them.
@MWolf yeah those engineering majors have tough schedules from the get go!
S19 has his four top picks in his cart and finds out out Monday what he gets in phase one. Then the kids go back in to request other classes if they don’t get all four. He will likely get his math class (some Math Reasoning class that comes after linear algebra for the math majors) but not sure about the others. He’s not requesting any intro classes and trying to get into higher level classes that mostly don’t have prerequisites - a history class on the 60s, a class called Art of the Essay, and Astronomy (which does have prerequisites but he’s taken them). All of these classes will be harder to get because they are on the super small side (essay class is 12 kids!) so we will see what happens.
Many of his friends this year took some bigger intro type classes (meaning like 40-50 kids) but he didn’t have any of those this time. Math and physics under 30. I think math more like 20. His art history class had 18 students and he thinks the 2000 level classes are just more interesting since they are more specific. In the case of art history, it was an African Americans in Art class versus Intro to Art History. He just loved it. Thinks the prof is the bomb. And then all of the kids have a small freshman sem so his fourth class is also small and specific in content.
He was thinking about taking Micro Econ this time but his advisor told him it would be “easy” and said that, if he’s not considering Econ as a major that he should choose other classes. Hm. I was sort of hoping he’d take it because, one, Econ is never a bad thing to take and maybe even minor in and, two, maybe an easier class for this cold, dreary winter semester wouldn’t be bad thing! He’s just not interested enough and I let it go. Do you guys ever want to nudge your kids to take certain classes?
He contacted the essay professor and told her he’s really interested in her class. She got back to him and told him that he should request it and she’s already put him on the waitlist in case he doesn’t get in and someone drops. Classes there aren’t allowed to be over-enrolled. He’s really hoping for that class!
Eleven days until he’s home. We can’t wait!
@dfbdfb and @MAandMEmom: your students will certainly stay busy next semester.
We didn’t attend Family Weekend which was hard on all of us. But, the cost of flights and hotel to spend only one or two days with D just didn’t seem worth it. Plus, she had a midterm the following Monday and we didn’t want her to feel guilty for visiting with us when she should be studying. She’ll be home for Thanksgiving though. And I’ve learned my lesson: buy plane tickets in September! The cost of her Thanksgiving flight was 2.5x more than usual.
She selected five classes during advance registration and will find out soon if she was enrolled in any of them. After advance registration, she can play around with her schedule during the drop/add period. She was shut out of a few classes this semester so she’s hoping for better results this time around.
Housing selection for next year begins in January. Her school sent a glossy postcard reminder to discuss options with our student over winter break. Several of her hallmates and prospective roommates are moving off-campus which has her floundering a bit since hubby and I want her to live on campus at least another year; we don’t feel savvy enough to navigate the Philadelphia student rental scene yet. She is considering applying to another program community since living in one has been a rewarding experience thus far. There are lots of options and plenty of time to decide.
@mountainsoul The anxiety around figuring out soph housing is a bummer. I’m not sure when S has to decide. I get that they are all “adulting” but pairing up with other kids who you’ve only known for a few months and the chance that so many kids are left out. I don’t even know how it ever all works out!
I know kids at many schools move off campus soph year but we didn’t love that idea either and we’re glad that S19 won’t ever have to move off campus. Plenty of time to live in an apartment after graduation!
My D’s crew team has decided to apply for community housing together. It’s a house just steps off campus that they would be assigned to as the sole group living there- it houses 16 people. She loves the idea of team housing, but also of having a kitchen to bake in, and a porch to sit on. She is also applying to be a customs person if the plan to pay them under work study is ratified in the spring, but she can’t afford to apply if they continue to go unpaid. I have no idea how competitive either plan of hers is, so I guess we will see! There are five community houses on/near campus, which I think is a cool idea.
@milgymfam what is a customs person?
I believe the closest thing to explain it is an RA, sort-of. They live on freshman halls and assist all year with the official year-long orientation program, which haverford calls customs. Until now it has been an unpaid position, but it requires time and effort that preclude other jobs. Haverford is moving toward paying customs people next year. There are three rate plans up for a vote, from $800-$2400 for the year, but honestly any of them would enough to allow some full financial aid kids to apply.
@milgymfam that’s what I thought but I wasn’t sure. Back in the 1980s, an RA at Northwestern (where I went to school) got free room and board. I wonder if they still do that. I’ve thought about an RA position for S19 to offset some costs but no where on the school’s website does it say anything about how much they are paid. Plus, I know it would be a completely different experience for him compared to living with his friends. It’s a pretty big responsibility.
Most schools we researched do offer free room and board in exchange for being an RA, which is why it being totally unpaid at Haverford is hard. They’ve had trouble recruiting for the jobs in recent years. Room and board is something like $17,000 a year, so even the highest plan up for a vote at $2,400 is a pittance, but it’s better than nothing. We are moving far away in the summer, and D just wants to make sure she is able to afford to fly home for breaks next year. Her current jobs on campus pay $9.50 and $16.50 per hour each, but the higher one (Quaker bouncer) is quite sporadic.
@milgymfam I know RAs at Bowdoin do not get full room and board. Maybe it’s a LAC thing that they do not.
Perhaps. A quick google that they’re “relatively well paid” positions at Bowdoin, so at least they’re paid something (hopefully something fair).
@milgymfam yes that’s all I can find too. I’m sure I could have S19 ask. It’s obviously not an hourly gig because the kids are “on” all of the time. In his dorm, an RA is in charge of the whole dorm once a month on Saturday nights so the other RAs can go out and socialize I guess. Other than having three out of four Sat nights off, those kids are expected to be somewhat available to their residents.
It’s one of those things that is SO variable, but seems like maybe it shouldn’t be? Even in the tri-co, they are paid $8,000 a year at Swat, $2,500 a year at Bryn Mawr, and nothing at Haverford. For Bowdoin, it seems weird that the pay is secret.
@milgymfam I don’t think it’s secret. It’s just not posted on the website.
Ha! To me anything that isn’t searchable on the web is a secret.
@homerdog - re nudging about classes, funnily enough I nudged D19 away from a micro class and towards macro. I personally think as a first real intro to Econ, macro is much more useful and interesting than micro - D is heading towards a more general social science degree. But mainly, as an econ person myself, I didn’t want micro boring my D and turning her off the subject 
D’s class selection for spring semester is fairly easy as her course guarantees her 3 of the 4 courses (16 credits) she’ll do, and the 4th (macro) should be fairly easy to get into. She may be doing an internship next semester too; I’m not entirely clear on this aspect but I think on some internships they can get some credit too.
@SJ2727 S took AP Macro last year so he’d have to take Micro now. In fact, he won’t get any credit for AP Macro unless he takes Micro. Then they will give him a credit for his AP test.
D had to sign up for classes this week but her schedule will look nothing like those hard engineering type schedules! I am not sure exactly how they decide what your time slot is, I know Freshman are last but within the freshman class they still had different time slots. D’s registration opened at 10am and he roommate’s opened at 3pm.
It was a little tough to get everything she wanted but it seems like she did pretty well. Not wanting early morning classes makes it a lot harder for her to get the classes she wants! She is still not sure about he major which also complicates things a bit. She is leaning towards majoring in Psych and/or Communications with a possible minor in something called SLAMM (think it stands for School of Liberal Arts Management Minor.) She is interested in learning a bit about business but not enough to make the big commitment for a major in the business school.
Right now she is signed up for more credits than she will take but she is on a wait list for one class so is not ready to decide what to drop yet. As of today she has French 3 (requirement that she would much rather not have to take), Micro, Intro to Communications, Adolescent Psych, History of American Popular Music and her freshman seminar class. She is on the wait list for Abnormal Psych. She will end up with just one of the psych classes and most likely from the music class. She really wants to take the music class but I don’t think she wants t take that many credits so may have to save it for another semester. Of course there are other fun sounding classes she would like to try someday like History of Jazz, History of Cool, Music in New Orleans, Culture of New Orleans, Piano…she will never be able to fit everything in.
Only 6 days until she is home for the week, can’t wait!
One week from now S19 will be heading home for a week. I can’t wait! He hasn’t been home since we dropped him off in mid August and I last saw him in early October. That’s too long. 
I think he registered for spring classes this past week but I haven’t gotten much info. He said he’s in two econ classes and two environmental science courses (one is a writing seminar on climate change) and is on a wait list for a Spanish class. He’s currently taking a 300 level Spanish writing class so not sure what the next one would be.
I’m sad that D17 won’t be home for Thanksgiving (it just didn’t make sense this time financially and it’s such a lot of travel for a short time) but glad that she has been invited home with a friend who lives in PA. I’m also excited for her big adventure tomorrow. Her play writing class (about 11 students including a close friend) is going into the city to see Hadestown on Broadway. There was a donor who paid for the tickets and the college is providing vans or buses (it’s about 1 1/2 hours north of NYC). They’ll have some time to explore and her friend is taking her to the Strand bookstore. That will be a big treat for D as she has always been obsessed with books and reading.