My D22 just had her fall engineering career fair and got one actual interview from the career fair - she’s just waiting to see if she gets a call back for a second round interview.
Her university (which is pretty competitive and attracts all the big name companies) has fall and winter engineering career fairs and she’s had zero luck even getting interviews for internships from them - both of her internships were positions with smaller companies that she found online. So getting an actual interview was a step up from years past.
D22 and my DH made a list of the top 20 companies she was interested in applying to and then, for the ones that were accepting applications online, she wrote cover letters and applied. They also studied company profiles for culture, new and current projects, etc. so D22 had talking points. D22 printed 20 resumes and went to the fair - over two days, she was only able to get to 15 companies. And of the 15, she felt like two were promising (the initial screener passed her along to a second one and they scribbled stuff on her resume). A couple of the companies she targeted were not actually hiring for her discipline, despite advertising as such - so that was frustrating. She intentionally avoided some of the highly sought after companies for her discipline because they often have receptions and other events for pre-selected groups of students (of which she was not) who get priority access to interviews and/or only hire new grads from their intern pool, so D22 felt waiting in those lines would have been a waste of her time (and they always have the longest lines).
My D worked in the mountains again last summer. The physical work, fresh air, and nature made a good contrast to the mental work of her school year in/near the city. I’m sure it gave her time to reflect on what she finds most important in her life, and as long as she stays focused on that, I’m happy. I refuse to stress about the future, more than I’m stressing out about the today. The whole world is changing, and I think we all have to become very flexible in our ideas about work. This is why having healthcare should no longer be tied to one’s job; that whole set up seems to be collapsing.
Like you all though, I’m surprised that these last years have passed so quickly. Bittersweet.
Whelp. No call back for a second round interview (they called everyone yesterday). Career fair #5 was also a bust.
Sigh. I was really hoping this would turn into something and that she’d be one of the lucky ones that had a job wrapped up before the end of fall semester. She’s been so stressed the past two years during winter semester trying to find a summer internship … it worked out both times, but it was not fun.
ordering 2026 graduation stole!!!
Their class year sent out reminders.
Graduation professional photo shoots:
I read some students do it in the Fall for pretty foliage:
do students purchase their cap/gown that early? Or is that photo props?
The 2026 stole pick-up in the Spring, so we take Spring pictures?
I’ve been planning to do pictures in the spring so we can have all the regalia, but now that I think about it, I know that I’ve seen posts on our parents Facebook page offering to sell used regalia. So maybe some people buy it early or borrow from a friend who graduated the year before? Or maybe local photographers who do grad pics just have a lot of it that can be used?
My pre-graduation checked off item was dinner reservations. Since we’re going to be a large group and have a person who has trouble hearing, I wanted a place that had enough room for all of us and also isn’t too loud - which is a surprisingly complicated set of factors.
Time sure did fly by. Hotel booked for graduation weekend. Had a hard time finding internship for science major. Working at hospital for 2 summers now and decided to go to medical school.
I just booked an Airbnb for graduation weekend so that the grandparents and our daughter could join us. I also cannot believe how time as flown. Just thinking about it makes me tear up. Also, trying hard not to feel great anxiety when reading about current job prospects. S22 has mentioned a few times how panicked his friends are. I think he is too but I keep reassuring him that it will all work out. Mainly because I don’t know what else to say at this point! He’s applying to a few grad programs that cut their acceptances last year already by more than half. Not sure if they will even take anyone next year. And he’s planning to pour his efforts into applying for jobs as soon as finals are over this semester. Fingers crossed for all of our hard-working kids!
Mine is camera shy so we will have to wait until the grandparents and family are all on campus and insisting on photos! We will probably have about 500 iphone photos and 0 professional ones. Lol!
S22 is in the midst of applying to PhD programs. Everything seems very uncertain this year, so he is applying to quite a few both in the US and Europe. I am afraid our Thanksgiving will be mainly about grad school applications. I wish there was a common app for all/most of the grad schools, but no such luck.
The professors he has been doing research with for almost 3 years have helped him make a grad school list and suggested advisors he may want to study with. He is actually meeting one next week. Fingers crossed.
We made our last tuition payment last week! S22 is graduating a semester early, though he’ll walk in the May ceremony. He’s looking at various job possibilities and also thinking about grad school in London. Our deal with both kids (though D19 is uninterested in further degrees) was that we would pay for undergrad outright, no student loans, but grad school would be on them. We might help out with a personal loan, but S22 would need to pay us back. His career path (communications/marketing/production) doesn’t require graduate education, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he can’t go right away. We’ll see!
We are in the same boat. My son is doing the finishing touches on his personal essays and statement of purpose. We are very relieved, though, that he has all 3 LORs submitted by the profs. So he doesn’t have to stress about that. My husband had the conversation with him to not procrastinate and get them done before the deadline. Some are Dec. 1 some Dec. 15.
Probably no professional graduation photos for D22. She is as cheap as I am and phone pics are good enough for us
Still going back and forth about booking an AirBnB. we are 1.5 hour drive away from her school and would normally drive. But we will most likely have grandparents in tow and there will be at least three ceremonies, since she will get two degrees from two different schools plus the unified ceremony, which I hear is not to be missed.
D22 has a second round job interview today. I know it wouldn’t be her first priority, but it would feel good to have something in hand. Eventually she will probably go to grad school but she is wavering on which direction. She was always opposed to law school but took a LSAT practice test two weeks ago and scored well without any prep, so that might be an option down the road as well.
Good luck to your son. Some students really struggle to find the right people and then you never know if the recommenders manage to send their letters on time.
I don’t think my son’s LORs are submitted yet, but all 3 of his recommenders already wrote him LORs for a couple of recent scholarship applications that required university nominations. The letters must be ok as he got both nominations. He recently got an additional list of colleges and potential advisors from his first REU advisor. I am not sure if it means even more applications. It will certainly help with the applications that require him to name 3 or more faculty members he would like to work with.
We didn’t bother with official graduate pictures for S20 either. Neither S20 nor us were interested. We were able to get some really good ones ourselves.
Good luck with the job interviews. Having an offer in hand at this economy would be priceless even if it isn’t the first choice and she may decide on a very different path.
We just made a last payment too as D22 will be done in Dec although she will go to the May 2026 ceremony which we booked hotel a few months ago. She will be going to Prague and London with a friend after finals and will come home a day before Christmas. I was going to gladly pay for her trip because she’s earned it, but she’s paying it with her savings from her work study and internship.
I’m usually on top of things like grad pictures, but I’ve been wrapped up with my current high school senior and my college freshman.
D22 is applying to grad schools. And by that, I mean she has concepts of a plan for applying to grad schools. She’s been busy enjoying every last second of her college experience, lol.
I’ve booked hotel rooms for graduation – it’s going to be interesting as D26 has an AP exam in the morning two days later, and S25 will be in the middle of finals week. DH and I don’t want to miss receptions and what not a couple days before the graduation ceremony, and I will probably stay and pack up D26 so she can move back home. So the four of us might be on four different flights. Should be interesting!
You just made me look up AP test dates, I had not thought of that. S26 only has one and it is the day before his graduation, which is a few days before D22’s graduation events begin. It’s all close but should work out. If all goes according to plan we will have two weeks of graduation festivities, first high school, then college
D22’s graduation is on May 9, and D26’s is on May 23 – so we have two weeks, thankfully. And even though we have a lot of logistics to figure out with AP exams and what not, there is no insurmountable hurdle that I’m seeing – right now, anyway.
We did tell MIL to not travel for the college graduation – it’s too much for her – and just plan on coming to D26’s high school graduation instead.
Yikes, I can’t believe all these milestones are happening at once. And didn’t our D22 kids JUST graduate from high school??
In a similar boat here with D22/D26 graduations in May 2026. D26 will be stacked up with 5 AP exams in the two weeks surrounding D22’s college graduation on May 9, so we will only spend one night with D22 and then right back home to finish the HS semester before D26 graduates on May 23. And it looks like I will have to travel for work on May 4-7.
Parellel lives, lol. My D26 has Lit and Bio the week before, which should be fine – but it’s that May 11 Calc BC exam at 8 a.m. that is problematic. Rice’s commencement finishes at like 11 p.m. Saturday, I’ve heard, so I guess I’ll send my younger two kids to fly home with my husband the next day, while I stay and help D22 pack up her dorm room?
