So i will say that with S22 off to college now for almost two years, i have no trepidation about becoming an empty nester when S24 goes off in the fall. Our relationship with S22 has bloomed in so many different ways as he has stepped fully into the role of a young adult. One benefit when they stop living under your roof all the time is that the “tasky” nature of parenting can leave your relationship (if you allow it to), and then though you may have less time with them, we have found the quality of that time is so so much richer.
Good luck as you navigate this transition - it can be a wonderful thing too! I have to say i find this stage of being a parent - watching young adults we have raised finding themselves in the world and seeing all the ways they are so capable of independently handling their lives - to be the most rewarding one so far!
You are riding high now with so many fun end of year activities, and such enthusiasm for your kids. It’s awesome to see. I hesitate to offer this advice, as it might be seen as a bit of a bummer - that said, as a parent of a college junior now, I guess I wish I had known how difficult freshman year can be for some kids. It was for mine. Lots of tear-filled calls home, lots of support needed. Lots of worry on my part as a result of a somewhat rocky start. But she grew so much that year and now is truly thriving, and I didn’t know just how much “parenting via FaceTime” I’d need to do. Even though they are out of the house, some kids need a lot of support through the transition. I also wish someone would have told me not to worry so much, that there are late bloomers even at the college age, and they do bloom in their own time.
Hmmm, my daughter’s bff just got a call from Wisconsin offering her a full ride. Bio/ neuro major. Super high stats. She had planned to go to USC, no merit aid. They are well off, but she’s looking at med school later on. I say take the Wisco offer. What do you all think? I don’t know enough about the bio majors at either or what med schools think of each.
Okay - so the decision has been made (and deposit placed) - it’s across the bay to Cal for my engineering kiddo! Woo hoo! So not how I thought this was going to turn out even a few weeks ago, but with the RD Berkeley admit on Ivy Day, he was enamored with it. Both DH and I went to UCs and thought we’d send our kids to privates for sure, but this was his choice in the end and we fully supported it. I’m hopeful with the smaller size of the engineering college (4K) and the Engineering Support Services that he’ll be sufficiently supported. And he loved the campus (despite being across the bay and having a grandparent in the east bay he’d never been on the Cal campus before), and wanted a rah rah school with a traditional college experience as well. So, in the end, it seems like a good fit for him. He’s pretty excited, so that’s nice to see. And thinking of all that cold hard cash we’re gonna save too. I guess we’ll just drive him over for drop-off day and then maybe hop a flight to Vegas!
If I was offered a job that paid me $380K-400K more than I make now over the next four years, I wouldn’t let the door hit me on the way out of my current one.
My general rule of thumb in life is to say NO if someone springs something on me and uses time pressure to force a deal.
However, if she can at all get out there between AP exams, even if the visit is only for 4 hours, it seems like too good a deal to pass up without giving it serious consideration.
I was at the high school for a meeting two weeks ago and passed the “Senior Wall” - a Spring tradition with one long hallway wall covered with 8x11 printouts - one per senior - with a photo and the plan for next year (includes military and colleges). This wall usually has a few hundred by now (senior class has been around 500 each year for the past 5-6 years; about 80% pursue college over the past five years according to Great Schools).
My s19 had 2 nice bikes stolen at UW Madison before he bought into the cheap & crappy college bike plan. Oof
(Both off campus, so maybe your son’s on campus location will help!)
Wisconsin has a fantastic bio program and is looked on very favorably for med school. Don’t know much about USC bio but would expect them to be well funded. Students applying to med school need a high GPA, and should ake advantage of as many research /shadowing/ volunteering opportunities they can get throughout UG. Wisconsin Biology has a fantastic research program so the student will likely find many opportunities there. The schools should be able to tell the student what their med school placement % is for the last few years. I would take Wisconsin with a full ride for sure!
One note from a Class of 2023 parent, when you’re making hotel reservations for drop off and you’re unsure of dates, make a bunch of (refundable) consecutive one-night stays and then cancel what you don’t need. A bunch of parents last year made single reservations for 3+ nights and then when trying to drop the unneeded nights didn’t realize the hotels saw those as brand new reservations with whatever new minimum night restrictions (and prices) were then in force.