D is taking her last final exam in 2 days then finished with jr. year. She has another internship this summer at the same company (Texas Instruments) in Dallas. She is hoping for a job offer. We have a sublease lined up near SMU. She is excited as she turns 21 later this month and will be in trendy part of Dallas for young adults. Her boyfriend of 1.5 years will be in college town with internship in his major. Junior year has been so much better mental/emotionally since meds, counseling and pysch doc. She is now stable on meds and in a good place now. She is no longer working on campus as the engineering project labs are so time consuming. I am hoping she realizes that her meds are upmost important for her mental health and even though she feels fine to not stop them and pick up the refills without my naggingā¦
I have not logged into CC for AGES! Happy to read up on everyoneās updates!
D is finishing up her junior year at JMU; she definitely chose the right place! She went in a psych major, is now a Media Arts & Design major with a concentration in creative advertising. She spent fall in London with a JMU program focused on her major, and did an internship at a small publisher. She interned last summer at a financial services company, and this summer will be living in Florida interning at another company in their marketing department! Sheāll be home for a couple weeks, have the wisdom teeth yanked, then off to Florida.
Hope everyone is doing well!!
Countdown to exams and several big papers due next week! My D is exhausted, fighting a bad cold and a little sad that junior year is ending but happy to come home for a bit of respite before an exciting mid-late summer in DC! @TVBingeWatcher2 I hear you about the trendy part of a city for a young person. After sweating it out for awhile I found (yes, a bit of helicoptering on my part, but my D had NO time and has no knowledge of DC neighborhoods like I do) I found her a place to stay in the area between DuPont Circle and Adams Morgan, a gorgeous part of DC and a quick walk to the metro. I think she will grow up a lot this summer and be more confident to hit the world as an adult after graduation in a year. Like yours, sheās already 21, but itās a processā¦she never worked in large city before. She did have a summer in Florence but lived with another W&M student and studied all day with W&M students. The stakes are much higher in this situation. She wonāt have a car, so Iām so relieved to have found her a place in the center of things, convenient to all public transportation and a pretty easy commute to her internship.
I hope to hear more updates from everyone!
I love reading these updates! It sounds like theyāre all finding their way. So great!
Mine is loving Engineering at a big state school. She has decided she wants to do med school, but needs a gap year. Itās so tough to squeeze it all in! This summer is research in the Bay Area doing something with imaging and feet. I heard coding, arthritis, joint gaps, and imaging. Iām not a STEM person so it makes no sense to me. 
I survived D24ās admission cycle. Each kid is so different!
Son is home for now lol. Heās may be going back to Lubbock for the summer if he gets an internship he applied for that is over, should know in a couple of days. Heās taking one online class this summer and then graduates in December!! Aahhhh! This all went by so fast!! Now the goal is shifting to Operation Find A Job lolā¦he got a little discouraged that he wasnāt able to secure an internship for this summer. We keep hearing the job market is tough for finance/business grads right now but I told him it will be okay!
Hadnāt visited the board in a good long while. S21 has wrapped up his third year at UChicago. Heās had a great experience; the intense academic atmosphere has him hooked. He has taken full loads every quarter to try to graduate with a double major in Math and CS while posting awesome grades. Has a nice group of friends and has really matured as a person. Heās adapted to the cold climatesā¦sent me a picture the other day of going to class in a t-shirt and Birkenstocks while the weather was in the low 50s.
D21 returns to the US this week. Sheās been doing a semester abroad in Iceland, studying āClimate Change and the Arctic.ā She loved it, but was disappointed that she couldnāt work with puffins, as she had planned. Sheāll be a senior at Hamilton this coming year and decided not to continue being an RA so that she could live in a suite with 5 of her best friends.
Does anyone have an advice what debit card charges no foreign transaction fees and is widely accepted abroad? Discover seems like a no-fee card but isnāt accepted by many foreign vendors. D22 is thinking of studying abroad in her junior year.
We have a Chase Visa that has no foreign transaction fees that was widely accepted throughout Europe.
Thank you. D22 uses a debit card now and would like to continue same habits while abroad, thatās why Iām looking for one.
Our credit union has no foreign transaction fees on debit transactions.
Capitol One 360 debit card has no foreign transaction fees or ATM fees. I just got back from Germany and used my Capitol One debit card freely with no issues at all.
Charles Schwabb is another popular one.
Do you mind sharing what credit union is that or DM me?
BECU in WA state, has a mastercard logo and Zelle too
Thanks! Does the debit card have Visa or MC logo on the card? I read that some vendors look for that. And does your account have a Zelle option?
Thank you!
Daughter expects her first LSAT result tomorrow morning! 
Any good thoughts sent our way are most welcomed!
In all honesty, a slightly less-than-optimal score would be Ok in my book. Shhh, donāt tell my D, but I hope she does just well enough that she feels confident that she CAN reach her desired range after a little more prep. She hit a plateau in her practice tests for a long time and broke out of it and inched up in the couple of weeks before the real testā¦almost, but not quite to her her desired level for the schools she set her sights on.
I think she would benefit from taking a jobā¦almost any halfway interesting job for a year before taking the professional school plunge. And I want her to be sure this is what she wants to do. Lately, D has resigned herself to the idea that it might not be the worst thing in the world. No law school penalizes it and many strongly prefer an applicant with some experience. OTOH, if she happens to get a surprising fabulous score, who am I to hold her back? Itās all good. Iām proud of her work. 
My D18 graduated in 3 years and I begged her to stay the extra year or get a masters or work before going to law school. She wanted to go right away. I worked out great for her as she got a full scholarship to UF and is starting a big law job in Miami in September.
Keep in mind that law school admission is all about two things LSAT and GPA. Most schools will give money to students who are over the schools 75%tile. Other considerations on where to apply are type of law she wants and where she thinks she ultimately wants to practice.
I would suggest applying early and broadly as lots of rolling admission with the scholarship money being awarded early.
Here are a couple of sites that are helpful in deciding where to apply and outcomes for recent grads. Lawschooltransparency.com; ilrg.com. 7sage.com; law school numbers.com. You can also look at the ABA 509 reports for each school she is interested in.
If you or your daughter have specific questions feel free to PM me. Good luck to her.
Sounds like your D is doing great!
I have question for you about law school admissions. I know LSAT and GPA are the main criteria. I have a student who played a varsity sport their first two years of college and the GPA was low (3.0ish). Quit their sport, now with higher GPA, 3.6ish. I expect they will test well. I know elite law schools wouldnāt be in the mix, but how to figure out targets with this trend? No LSAT yet, but letās assume at least the 90%ile mark. And how would a 95%ile LSAT impact things?
Merit for the high score may be available at a lower ranked law school. I would also anticipate that the level of law school might impact available career options, so I would make sure the student is aware of that.
I think it makes sense for the 3.6/high LSAT (how high? 170?) to apply to a wide variety of schools and throw in a few schools in the T14. If I recall, there may be online calculators to help gauge chances. Post college work experience is looked upon favorably, so that might be another angle to consider. It has only been a few decades lol so things may have changed, but I imagine that such a student would have targets in T15-25.