DD just got an email that she was awarded a $7k a year dance scholarship! She had applied with her transfer application but never heard anything. Turns out no one looked at it, and the department head was surprised she didn’t have one so she took care of it. It reduces need aid, so not the bottom line, but it’s guaranteed unlike need aid (which I am concerned about next year due to company stock vesting). St. Olaf is one of the few schools she looked at that treats transfers no differently in regards to scholarships. She also has the max academic scholarship.
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S23, his gf, and my kids cousin are all debating politics. This is funny.
Nice reading all the updates.
S23 is back for Thanksgiving as of tonight and already headed for bed exhausted. He’s always had a poor rhythm for when he eats and sleeps, but it’s become more intense in college with the less regimented schedule and the demands of his classes. He stays up most of the night most days then whenever he doesn’t have class he sleeps into the afternoon. Sometimes dinner is his first meal of the day and the second is one he makes himself in the dorm kitchen at 3am.
Unsurprisingly, he’s pushing the limits of what’s possible against our suggestions. Students in his college typically do 4 classes a semester. He’s technically doing 7 and is maxed out on units they allow. Five are full academic courses, 4 of which are STEM (2 math and 2 physics), 3 of which are combined graduate/undergraduate level courses. He took full-year accelerator courses in both math and physics last year that has allowed him to jump to these higher course typically done junior or senior year in his sophomore year but is doubling down on each to try and get through the material that will make him competitive for research roles in a pool that includes juniors and seniors (and he has numerous peers doing the same). Plus he’s taking a distribution requirement humanities course (with a ton of reading and writing), a jazz performance class, and the school gives him credit for private lessons with one of their faculty members (which is cool as the person is a multiple-Grammy winner). It all adds up to a lot of hours in class and many more out of it.
The upside is he seems to be paying on in terms of the research. He was invited earlier in the semester to join a project where he’s the only undegrad among several PhD students and full professors and it gives him access to the servers at CERN. Unpaid for now. They offered him credit but he couldn’t do it because he was already maxed out. Next semester he can appeal to try and get an exception on the credit cap. They may or may not (TBD) be able to pay next summer.
Downsides are he has prioritized this against any social or extracurricular life this year. Last year we were pleasantly surprised that he quickly made a couple large friend groups of other first years, some linked by math and physics and some by the dorm, and regularly did things with them most weekends. This was unexpected. But this year with the dorm off campus and so much homework time, he seems to have mostly abandoned social activity. He’s basically living “the P-Set Life” every waking moment. Other downside is, as typical, he’s putting all his eggs in this research project basket even though they didn’t commit to pay and he could be applying to other options as backups if it doesn’t. It’s unclear if it doesn’t pay if he’d be eligible for housing or have any way to do it.
We always worry about burn out or over-extending but so far it seems to be working for him. His college experience is vastly different than ours or his older siblings. First, in terms of less social or extracurricular time. But also academically. So far every course he will have taken first and second year are full year with the same profs and other students the whole year. The course #’s change between semesters but the spring is always an extension of the same class picking up where it left off last semester. So it’s more like HS that way. Not a single example of a one-and-done semester course yet. He, unsurprisingly, already has a spreadsheet that has mapped out every course he intends to take through graduation, carefully timed and sequenced, maxing out units every semester (if he keeps up the jazz which is the only part that isn’t essential to graduate with both the math and physics majors at a college with a lot of distribution requirements requirements).
He’s always done his own thing. All we can do is watch.
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S23 had the whole week off for break, and spent the first half staying with his girlfriend at her uni, and then I met them at my parents house where we were all together the past four days. The “kids” stayed in the guest house at my parent’s suggestion, which was a funny shock to me, as even when I was in my late 20s and had been living with my boyfriend for a year, my parents put us in separate rooms when we visited as we “weren’t married.” 
We all had a really nice visit—cooked a lot, walked on the beach, played games, and baked cookies. I don’t want to go home myself!
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S23 has a serious gf. We like her. Shes around all the time when hes home. She has him getting his act together.
But the divorced mom that I am worries as I met my ex and married super young. I dont want him to make the same mistake.
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I know this is from February, but I wonder how your daughter ended up doing with Mono? How quickly did she resume dance? I had responded at that time about my oldest daughter’s experience, but now my sophomore daughter has it. She was diagnosed right when arriving home for Thanksgiving, but had a fever, headache and dizziness the week prior, so we’re assuming she’s likely on week 3, at least. HUGELy swollen glands and terrible sore throat last week. She also had walking pneumonia and completed a course of Z-Pack. She slept and was in bed all of last week. Returned to school Sunday. Feeling better generally and only a mildly sore throat remaining. Glands back to normal, but still has fatigue and is easily winded. Is not doing out of season lifts or agility with team this week. Not sure about resuming next week, she’s going to see how she feels.
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So sorry to hear! My daughter ended up modifying her dance participation for the full four weeks that were recommended when she had mono but was able to resume full participation after that. This was timed from diagnosis.
Hope your daughter feels better soon!
Thanks for the info. Was she sick/did she have symptoms for long prior to diagnosis? D had fever, headache and dizziness for at least a week to 10 days prior to diagnosis.
Not really. We saw her the weekend before and she was mostly fine. A bit tired. She had a swollen gland on her neck and I told her to go in and have that checked out. That’s when she was diagnosed.
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In case it helps… My son’s teammate just had mono. He was not allowed to practice for 3 weeks. After that he was rechecked and allowed to resume practice since the swelling was gone and he felt generally ok. He was eased back into practice over a week or two.
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I’m happy to have my son back for winter break. I feel like we’re finally getting into the routine of him coming and going.
He had a good semester at the public flagship he transferred to for sophomore year, and says he made the right decision. He spent a lot of time hanging out with his best friends from high school but also hung out with new people in the dorm, study groups, etc.
I think overall the biggest difference for him has been having so many more good food options, and more options for intermurals. OChem was a big stressor all semester, but he managed to survive.
He’s whining a bit about having to work a bunch of hours over break, but knows he’s fortunate that the research lab wanted him back, and grateful he doesn’t have to look for a summer internship this year.
We’re all so much more settled than last year, when he was deciding to transfer, which I appreciate. Happy holidays, everyone!
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Thanks! She resumed work outs last week- with permission of doctor, and as long as she felt better, which she does. She was just told not do anything that could cause a ‘blow to the abdomen’- in case spleen was enlarged. Her glands are no longer swollen and she is pretty much 100%. She’s in at least week 5 or 6. Incredibly grateful she didn’t get it until after the season ended! Looking forward to having her home this weekend to rest up! Happy Holidays!!
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Resurrecting this thread to celebrate a bit. S23 got a summer research position on a NASA grant at ASU. Plus it looks like they already have the money up front, so we don’t need to worry about it being cancelled now.
Pretty happy for him… he didn’t apply to many internships, so it was pretty much this, or odd jobs this summer.
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That is great news!! 
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Congrats to your son! It’s wonderful to hear a positive story regarding research this summer.
Both the twins have internships this summer. Econ twin will be doing a business internship at an investment company in San Francisco and has already done a few interviews for summer 26. He got very lucky early in the process and had only applied to 20 jobs and had an offer right after Thanksgiving.
After 400 plus applications starting in July, CS/Math son found an internship listing over winter break that guranteed an interview to anyone who solved 3 problems. After 4 rounds of interviews, he’ll be interning at a Private Equity Firm in Dallas. He got one interview from the 400 + applications. Crazy time to be a CS major and a lot of kids at his school had or were aiming for Gov’t or Defense Contractor internships this summer, so crazy on steroids right now.
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Curious - which schools? Congrats to both. Persistence pays off.
Twins will both be studying abroad next fall in Copenhagen. Econ twin in the city and CS/Math twin outside the city at a Technical University. So they will be celebrating their 21st Birthday abroad.
Any other students planning to study abroad next year?
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Bowdoin and UMD
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DD (who transferred so is a semester behind the class of 2023 now) just got a job at her school for fall as a Student Instructor for calculus. She has decided to major in math with an engineering concentration and completed Calc in the fall with a 100%. She did a J-term class/internship thinking she wanted to be a math teacher but after one day in a public city high school quickly changed her mind. She’s also applied to be an orientation leader. Hoping that there will be internships and money available for STEM students next summer. There is a DOD scholarship she also wants to apply for and I am worried about funding cuts.
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How cool!
My S23 did a summer study abroad in Cambridge last summer and loved it. My D23 is doing a London one this summer. I think you get more out of the semester long one, obviously, but they’re both double majoring and couldn’t make the credits work out without staying in undergrad longer.
My son has an internship in our home city this summer. Man, I wasn’t prepared for the internship challenges. He started applying in October with what I thought was a strong resume (and relevant internship experience) but only got one call back and that was because we knew someone. Luckily, he landed that job (friend could help with the first interview, but nothing further). Daughter has an internship during the year (event-focused and it ended yesterday, but they asked her to extend for the next two years - until her graduation - so she’s pumped.) I would like her to do more than one thing for her internship, but we can talk about that next year! She’ll only be home a month this summer due to the study abroad, so I am not sure that she will get the chance to do much else. She may give tours at her college for that month, which would be great (since we are already paying for the apartment.)
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