The best way to build her credit is to have her become an authorized user on one of your cards, even if you never let her use it
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Correct - the secured card is - ehhhhhh.
My kids are both getting big offers - one working, one in school - but both have been authorized users.
They no longer send the secured cards.
I think building credit for a college kid is overrated - as long as you / they donāt have past debts from before.
If they graduate and get a job, theyāll get credit.
If you want them to have their own card, you can give them the one of yours that you donāt use - thatās what Iāve done with my college student.
You can do the secured of course - but thatās bank selling vs reality of what is needed.
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Or check discover. They have student credit cards that arenāt secured.
Iāve done it both ways. One kid had to build up his from scratch. USAA happily gave him a regular card at 18, as did discover.
2nd kid 3 years later with the same profile was denied by USAA. I quickly put him on mine but a few weeks later, he got his discover card. He used that for his purchases. He used mine for things I would have reimbursed him for/emergencies
I will say life was much easier for me with the second scenario.
After finally getting FAFSA packages last week (because S24 had to resubmit FAFSA on 4/21/24), S24 SIRād to UC Davis and declined UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly SLO. Hope this helps their waitlists!
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Congratulations! Welcome to the Aggie family! 
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Congrats! My S23 just finished his freshmen year in the FYE program. Purdue has been a good fit for him and he really enjoyed it!
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D24 is sleeping in on her first day with no classes. D20 graduated this weekend. Iām excited for them and their future adventures, but the empty nest is looming and Iām not quite ready for it.
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S24 began his Senior Project today, which is basically an internship with a (very) local environmental group about which he will then give a school presentation. And while he showed up at their office on time, they did not! Turns out they donāt normally work in the office on Mondays, and kinda forgot. I thought that was a rather fitting introduction to the often casual nature of small non-profits (not least the environmental onesābut this is a family forum so I will not speculate about what they were actually doing this morning as they were wakinā).
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H and I took our last trip up to our D24s boarding school to see her in her play this weekend and it was a fantastic visit that definitely was bitter sweet. (D24 and S24 graduate on the same day, but 500 miles apart, so I will be the only parent at her graduation.) The play was, I thought, the best one to day, and we got to spend some good time with her and her friends, which is always a treat! She also packed up more than half of her room, so hopefully the final move out will be easier. She has her big end of the year capstone project presentation today, and she released the final edition of the newspaper yesterday. Lots of big, special traditions coming up and I am just so very happy that she has had a truly wonderful high school experience with amazing teachers, great friends, and more growth than I ever imagined.
S24 had his very last AP exam this morning and is all finished with the academic part of school They have some school traditions and activities this week, but hopefully it all will be fun. He also has his advising appointment to sign up for his college classes next week! So, he is busy doing the placement tests, filling out the forms, etc. for all of that. All is good, but I am definitely entering a slightly teary phase
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I think we might have the āfinalā decision from S24. He just came off the Cornell waitlist on Friday and he will be switching to Cornell from CMU. He is pretty excited to join his cousin and friends there and probably wonāt choose Stanford even if he gets off the waitlist. We are almost there.
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Congratulations!! Seems like waitlists are moving this year. Saw a Pomona one further up in the thread, too.
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OK, this is fascinating to meācan you tell us what happens when someone calls ratting out an applicant??? I didnāt know people actually did that!
S24 was give guaranteed transfer transfer as Sophomore to BU for Sep 2025, which he accepted as it was not binding. Today he got an email saying that they had a spot for him in January 2025 spring admit as freshman for college of general studies. They need a response if we are interested by May 15th. So basically in 48 hours. I have not heard of BU doing this and at this point I am not sure we want to take this offer for spring admit. Need to have conversation as family before we make a final call on this.
Any one have thoughts on BU CGS is? He applied for Economics at BU.
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I havenāt been in any of these conversations, but as one might expect itās students and/or their parents calling to say X applicant is lying on their app in some way, or applied ED/SCEA/REA/EA in some not allowed combo, etc. I do know that sometimes the charges are investigated, sometimes not.
True story of one of my D19ās classmates who applied ED to Northwestern and EA to Georgetown (which is restricted/doesnāt allow an ED app.) Classmate told the entire AP lit class sometime in the fall that she did this. By the end of the next day, each school had cancelled/pulled her app. I have no idea who called these schools (not me or my D), but I wouldnāt be surprised if it was multiple students/parents.
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Donāt know much about that specific program, but how great that he could start much earlier!
My S23 was offered this program last year. I think there are a lot of really nice things about it. It puts you in a smaller group the first 4 semesters, but you do take one class in your major outside CGS for 3 of those semesters. It gives you a more LAC type education, with proscribed classes that are interdisciplinary. If that appeals, it is great, but if you donāt love the LAC style, it isnāt. You have a semester abroad in London (the summer after you start).
You do have to start a semester late, but they give you some support in what to do over that gap semester. And because CGS is a strong cohort, you arenāt coming into a class where people have already made freshman connections & you miss out.
My son decided he preferred the more tech focused (and closer to home) WPI, which was also about $10K/year cheaper.
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BU CGS would start with a gap semester for fall. What would he be doing then? Options for a meaningful gap semester may be limited at this point.
Spring semester on the Boston campus (check a previous spring schedule, are the 101s of the 101+102-type classes he needs readily available in the spring?)
Then he has to do a summer intensive. 16 credits in 6 weeks? Either the content is compromised or the student is spending 2.5X the amount of time they would have during a regular semester (30 hours becomes 75, for instance). Grueling.
Next up, another year of interdisciplinary classes, a capstone, and more electives in the other colleges.
If a student comes in with a number of general requirements met through AP or DE, not really digging into major requirements until junior year might feel limiting.
I would do the following:
- Determine likely transfer credit from AP/DE. Get clarification on what classes are not allowed during the CGS program. Only electives in the intended major because the major requirement classes require the major to be declared?
- Make a 4 year plan for the CGS to Econ major, checking past course schedules to see when/if classes are available.
What does CGS give aside from an unplanned gap semester, one additional off cycle semester on campus, and a forced intensive? If the current freshman year school is decent/good, guaranteed sophomore transfer option seems to me like it would make more sense for most kids.
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Thanks a lot for sharing more info on the how this program works. I will discuss with S24 more tonight but based on what I am reading I am not sure CGS is right fit for him. He did not apply to any LAC type of colleges for a reason.
Also not liking what I am reading about the summer 6 week in London and how they expect to complete a full semester work in 6 weeks.
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Thanks a lot for info on the BU CGS program and some things to consider if we want to go this route.
I am not a big fan of late start for my S24. I need to look into AP credits and how many he will get at BU. Also I think not taking major related courses until Junior year is kind of a deal breaker with BU.
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D24ās school is starting to publish info on social media about where seniors will be attending college this fall. Looks like today, they posted about 8 students. 4 are attending ASU, 2 going to U of A, 1 going to Univ of Rochester, and 1 going to Univ of Alabama-Huntsville for computer science. I went to the UAH kidās senior project presentation about a week ago and the mobile app he created for his project was pretty cool. $100 says that his COA is cheaper than attending in state! Lots of the other majors are in the medical field (medical studies, physiology, neuroscience, neurobiology, biochemistry) with 1 chemical engineering kid and 1 industrial engineering kid.
I know that Univ of Rochester usually does on campus visits at our HS in the fall, so thereās usually 1 or 2 kids that end up attending there each year.
Itās exciting to see where everybody is going!
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