My two cents: If the advisor is recommending 2 labs, if lots of other kids are doing 2 labs, and the school is the right fit … your daughter will do great!
Also, I believe that the culture at a CTCL school is not going to be the same at a school that truly might view the intro lab courses as weed out classes. Her freshman year is going to be really hard, for lots of reasons (including labs), but it sounds like the school will provide lots of support. And your daughter will get lots of chances to practice self-advocacy!
As for the 8am classes … my S24 found out he will have an 8am on Tu/Th. He is going to a big state school. I told him going to every single one of those 8am classes will make him a rock star and it will be noticed.
For context, I went to a large state school and routinely missed my 8ams. H went to same large state school, had an 8am with 500 students enrolled (class was held in an auditorium), and fewer than 20 attended regularly! I told S24 to view this class as a positive—this is a way to stand out. He seemed to buy into that way of thinking about it. (He doesn’t yet realize an 8am college class is really different than an 8am high school class, but that’s ok—we are going in positive!!)
My son had 8am classes every single day his first year. He was a great student and went to every single one (UTK - so Big state flagship). Your son will do great, it prepares him for being responsible.
Just purchased three plane tickets for August move-in and one plane ticket for D24 for her Thanksgiving break. Had already booked hotel for move-in and family weekends. Still need to book accommodations and return plane tickets for DH and me for our post-move-in empty nester trip in CO. Sports banquet is over, prom is this weekend, finals are next week and graduation is 2 weeks from today. I made a photo book of 18 years of selected pics for my older daughter for a graduation gift, but haven’t yet started one for D24, need to get on that this weekend so it will get here in time.
My son and I were looking at his college information system (is that what it’s called?) account and noticed something that I hope is not going to be a sign of future trouble.
They changed his Federal loan amount offered from $5500 to $6500. I am guessing this is because he earned 31 credits through dual enrollment, so he is a sophomore already by credits completed. (He has another 12 or 16 through APs.)
That will be great for priority when enrolling in classes for Spring. But it is going to be a disaster for housing if he is counted as a junior for Fall 2025 since housing isn’t guaranteed for Juniors and (due to the way they determine precedence for housing) he would have the lowest priority.
FWIW, it was common at my D’s school to be classified as sophomore/junior as a freshman because of credits but it didn’t impact housing at all. You may want to have him check with housing just to be sure but I think he should be OK.
Yes. The last few weeks he is out with friends most days. S24 who was never a party guy (more hangout with a small set of of friends) but he is even going to the parties now because he feels he will miss out the chance to be with his friends.
Today is last day of finals/Classes for S24. Graduation next Friday.
Boys and their planning:
S24 has 3 graduation parties to go to today. I knew about one till just now. The other two went something like this.
Friend #2 (at 9 AM): Hey my parents are throwing a graduation party at a fancy hotel today where family is flying out from around the world. Want to come?
S24: I’m down!
Friend #3: (At 10 AM). I decided to have a graduation party today. Can you come? We will shoot hoops.
S24: For sure! I have to go to a fancy party in a hotel right after though.
Me wondering: Will he show up sweaty and disheveled at his friend’s fancy family party after shooting hoops?
Meanwhile - I’m still waiting to hear from my S24 and his friends re: what they want to do for their senior trip. Time’s running out as everything is booked for the summer.
That happened to my boy and friend group. They couldn’t decide and ran out of time. He’s now going for long weekend to Vancouver with his girlfriend. The boys wanted to go to Magaluf to party. We were not thrilled with that idea. We are happy that he’s going Vancouver instead. He even noted that he has learned after two post graduation parties that he’s not a partier. Music to our ears.
When the kids started driving in HS, we got them added (one at a time) to a special lower-limit credit card in our name that they could use for gas, etc., then repay us.
As soon as they turned 18 and finished senior year, we had them each get their own credit cards in their names. The credit card companies loosened up between the years of the three kids. The first had to put down a security deposit basically equal to the credit limit. Bu the third, he had no problem getting his own low limit card despite having even less work history than the first one had had.
The real motive in each case was to start them establishing their own credit histories so that by the time they graduated from college and got their first real jobs they would have great credit and be able to get better cards, do well on apartment applications, get other loans without us co-signing, etc. Worked out well in each case so far (third is still in college so too early to call).
D24 had her Baccalaureate mass last night and graduation this morning! So hard to believe high school is over. Both ceremonies were beautiful and we lucked out into the best weekend of weather that we’ve had all spring. Tomorrow is her final dance recital, and then we will all need some rest!
Same here the S24 and his friends could not decide so now it looks like nothing is going to happen. He seems to be ok with it so we said fine its your choice.
On the other hand the my friends who have daughters have all planned the trips and are going in the next two weeks.
D24 graduated on Thursday and has been out of class since APs started and I think pretty much every night / afternoon has been some kind of friend thing. She’s a bit of a walking zombie and probably needs 3 straight days in bed. Torn between “soak it in,” and “eeek you need to recharge!”
If student gets need-based aid and/or scholarship at a university, are they required to report any additional scholarships they receive to the school. Is it possible that the college will reduce the needbased aid if they come to know student has received a new scholarship worth $x per year for 4 years ? Some scholarships come from estates, and the lawyers disbursing the fund might ask that the amount go directly to the school(towards tuition). What do students typically do in such situations. The fear is that new scholarships are not adjusted for inflation each year while the university based need-based fund is guaranteed to be adjusted. Looks to me it might be best to not accept the additional scholarship.
I’m pretty sure that policy depends on the institution. Usually, you do report any external scholarships received. Some may reduce the amount of need based aid a student receives, but some will just add that on to whatever aid they’ve received up until that point. For specifics, you should contact an institutions financial aid office and they can tell you their exact policy concerning additional scholarships and specific situations.
