I remember a discussion with one of the professors S22 and I had during college visits. He talked about how difficult it can be to pursue research and how he was ready to give up during his PhD studies.
My husband has a PhD. While he liked his grad school, it made him realize that there were things in academia he didn’t want to deal with and joined the industry. Of course, industry too has many things he isn’t exactly thrilled about I wonder if the same thing may happen to S22 in grad school.
S20 will finish his MS this coming fall. He tried research and didn’t care much for it and felt MS was just perfect for him.
I am sure our kids will find their own path. Doing more research now is one of the best ways to figure out if that’s what they really want.
We have a similar situation. My kid is doing a full year study abroad program for his junior year and in Japan, where he will be, the academic school year goes to the end of July. And his US university will start two weeks later. Easy to explain but wonder how it will look to employers after he graduates when he’s competing with students who had strong internships summer after junior year…
Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t think employers drill down that deep to make sure every college summer is accounted for.
DD is taking classes and traveling this summer. Her on-campus job will have some summer training and bridge both school years, so there won’t really be a gap on her resume, but there also won’t be an internship.
I am not worried about it. In fact, I encouraged it because in a few short years, she will be in the working world where there are no summer breaks and every day is Groundhog Day. Let her have one last low-stakes, low-pressure summer.
I asked my daughter about taxes in January and she researched whether or not she made enough, which she decided she hadn’t. Fortunately, it occurred to me at the beginning of April to ask her to check on MA taxes, because even though she worked out of state, it was for a nonprofit based is Mass. sure enough, she did have to file, and when I saw the W2, I realized that she made more than she thought…she was working on the take home pay . She realized this at the same time and filed for state and federal, which isn’t something we are used to, as there are not separate taxes for departments where we are from. So definitely a learning process for all of us!
My S has a very busy summer ahead. He’s not coming home, but is only 90 minutes away so we can run up on the weekends and take him to lunch. He starts as a paid mentor on Monday for a biochem lab for maymester, starting an EMT course in the evenings at the end of May - 3 days a week all summer, taking 1 class summer session 1 and 2 classes in session 2 and working in his research lab 20 hours a week.
I hope he will get a few days off to play with his friends at some point.
D22 just texted that they have a petting zoo on the quad to relax everyone before finals start tomorrow. She’s a HUGE animal lover (as am I) so this went over big with her. I love her school!
She’s off to Madrid for a semester in the Fall. Very excited for her and a little nervous too! We’ll also become empty nesters as her sister will be off to college. Excited and nervous about this too!
Proud moment: S22 won student employee of the year in the intramural sports program. So impressed with his work ethic and dedication. (And off-topic for this thread, D19 just finished her first year at the gallery she’s working for and got a 10% raise, so both kids doing great!)
D22 came home last night. It’s so hard to believe our kids are halfway through college already.
She’s had a busy year, a first semester internship morphed into a part time job for second semester and chances are she will keep working for them next fall too. In addition she is working an on campus job as well (while pursuing a double degree and a certificate, I’m exhausted just hearing about it all )
Now she can just hang out for a few weeks before heading to LA for June and July for an internship. She still needs to secure housing there though. None of us has been to LA before, so we will probably go and visit her and do some touristy things while she works
S22 has been home a few days and starts his internship on Monday. He is returning to the same place as last summer. It’s been nice having an extra driver at home. I haven’t had to rush back to pick someone up!
S22 finished his finals at 10 PM!!! yesterday and is on his way back home. A nice long break before his internship starts in June, and we have a big trip to Japan planned for the end of the month. Summer’s looking good so far!
Japan will be a great trip!! My wife and I were in Tokyo and Kyoto for a few weeks in March. I’m currently planning a return trip when we can take D22 and her bro.
S22 comes home on Friday. He will be home almost 2 weeks before leaving for 10 weeks for research in Boston. I’m super excited that he was able to get this opportunity but we’re don’t even go 10 weeks without seeing him during the school year.
I’m sure many of your students are on top of things with their academic advisors, but my son has not utilize his advisor’s help.
So I told son to meet with advisor to go over his schedule for the next 2 years, to make sure that he will graduate on time.
His college has MANY specific requirements for graduation, and a bunch of courses are not offered in 2025-2026, so I wanted son to make sure that he puts those courses into his Jr year (instead of leaving them to Sr year - when they won’t be offered), etc.
And until you drill down to specific class, on a specific website, you don’t know that this class is “offered infrequently”, so you better have a plan B, if that class is not available that semester, etc.
This Momma is not paying for an unplanned 5th year.
Luckily my D is totally on top of her degree planning. Advising at her school is pretty hit or miss, so she took charge of her planning early on and usually just sees the advisor when they need to sign off on something.
Is anybody else’s student planning to go abroad Junior year? D is planning to go for spring term but has not yet decided on where. She has had four very different front runners, I’m curious to see where she lands, current frontrunner is Sydney.
My daughter has already been accepted to a London program for spring 2025. At her school you apply for study abroad in March of the previous year no matter if it’s fall or spring. She’s really looking forward to it. I’m a little nervous (what if she loses her passport, etc), but overall I am really happy for her.
My son is pretty good at planning the next couple of years. He only has 41 credits left to take for his degree, but will stretch it to 2 full years and start graduate school classes his last year. The housing scholarship is 4 years, but once an undergraduate degree is complete, it ends. There are quite a few electives he wants to take that have historically only been offered in even or odd years, so he’s been planning around those.
He is just now starting to be interested in going abroad. I don’t think he can do a semester at this point, since getting the correct classes would be difficult. He could do it his final semester for year 4 though maybe? I don’t know. I don’t find a lot for engineering classes. But he is talking about maybe going somewhere next summer, even if it’s just a month long program. I know some do 2 different month-long programs, so we’ll look into that when as well.
D22 is headed to Madrid in the Fall. She is very excited! I am too but also nervous about everything that could go wrong. I am trying to push those fears aside and lean into the excitement of it all. I went to Brussels for a semester Junior year and it was one of the highlights of my college experience. What a great opportunity and adventure!
I wonder if the same thing may happen to S22 in grad school.
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. She realized this at the same time and filed for state and federal, which isn’t something we are used to, as there are not separate taxes for departments where we are from. So definitely a learning process for all of us!
