Same for DS2022.
He needed peso for his 2months long internship in Mexico City and he didn’t know his pin #. That was a fun little glitch. Kinda hard to pay street vendors for some tacos with ApplePay.
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Well we wouldn’t know b/c someone I know is still terrible at checking email 
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We are back from freshman orientation. We flew down last Thursday and spent almost a week there. The first part of the week was so he could participate in fraternity activities (the SEC begins rush in the summer). Then orientation on Monday and Tuesday. It was a ton of information and we are both beyond exhausted. But it really solidified his choice for school and he is excited. He also got to meet his direct roommate and one on his suite mates which was nice. He is flying down again in a few weeks for another rush weekend and going alone this time. He booked his own flights, airport transportation and hotel. Nice for him to do all of that himself. He still sucks at checking email though 
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Hold on. They start rush before school even starts? Is this common?
So S24 is definitely overwhelmed by the placement test/advising/course selection process. We talked it over a lot last night and he realized he just needed to get over what he called his completist mindset–in HS he was sort of able to just follow and eventually max out a bunch of different tracks in each major area, and now he is not going to be able to follow more than a tiny fraction of what he could do. But he is making peace with that and is closing in on a decent plan to start, understanding he could change course once he is there and really gets into it.
Unfortunately, due to procrastination he is now trying to do a bunch of this from his graduation-gift trip to Switzerland. It is a little disorienting to me to one minute be looking for a good schnitzel restaurant, the next looking at the requirements for a Biology minor, but we did promise full guide services . . . .
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Schnitzel is always the priority.
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We know class of '24 boys from our high school that have had bids from a certain SEC school since March.
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Are they legacies? (I know dirty rush starts way before organized rush, and not just at SEC schools!) Just curious how boys still in HS might be on the frats’ radars that early
I think there’s just enough boys from our city every year that the previous classes know the incoming ones pretty well. I’ve even heard some have “pledge duties” at home this summer…
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At most colleges, no, this is not common. At colleges in the South? Yes. Ole Miss, for example, has Rush week occur the week before the fall semester begins. It’s apparently a really big deal. For example, students will even work on getting letters of rec from sorority members in the hopes of getting into their preferred house.
Some colleges, on the other hand, purposely have rush occur during the spring semester only.
It’s a topic that has many flavors of ice cream. 
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We just flew back from Basel two days ago. It was wicked hot in Lucerne earlier this week.
D had all of her advising done the week before we left (though I am not sure what I was thinking scheduling her two day orientation the week before she left). She couldn’t get into the honors philosophy class she wanted and she froze and is taking a class she doesn’t need instead, but it’s of interest and it’s fine because if she doesn’t like it she will know it’s not right for a double major).
It recently struck her that she has 12 hours of history credit from AP, which puts her like 3 upper level classes from a minor, so she may pick that up since she loves history.
Mostly we are just waiting for AP scores now. She only needs 3s generally, but a 4 on Lit would let her start as a sophomore, so there’s been some repeated parsing of AP Trevor’s tweets with the distribution and outcome information. Still waiting on Seminar and Gov though.
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It is in the SEC and makes it VERY difficult for us out-of-staters, that’s for sure.
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Yes, sorority rush starts the week prior to regular move-in at most of the SEC schools- they spend the summer getting recommendation letters, etc. Then the week of their official rise each day has a different thing they do (pref round, philanthropy round, etc.). The guys rush all summer and show up for move-in with everyone else.
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In case anybody’s interested, this website has compiled data released so far from College Board’s head of AP, Trevor Packer’s tweets about this year’s AP score distributions:
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I just got back from climbing around the city walls of Lucerne in a sunny 86 degrees. It is going to take a lot of Rivella to replace the moisture I lost . . . .
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looks like my son is probably right about bombing physic c e and M. he also needs a 5 for credit for eng lit which also seems low probability
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Thanks for this
D24 had her advising appointment yesterday. Apparently Calc 1 will sub for one of the 2 required math classes for her major, so that freed up a slot in her fall schedule.
I had to laugh because at the beginning the advisor was saying that they usually recommend 15 credits for first semester freshmen, and by the end of the conversation she was fine with the 18 and thinking D24 could look into a second minor. I think those two will get along great (she will be the advisor for the first 2 years).
On the summer job front, we have decided to admit defeat and plan the rest of the summer accordingly. She put in over 150 applications starting in March and continuing through June.
Most ended up unwilling to hire for just the summer, or bait and switched the job location (what, you don’t want to commute 2 hours a day for a mediocre paying job?). One place had her do a training session (where she got positive feedback from both the trainer and client) and then…just…ghosted her?
In talking to her friends with jobs, they were like, yeah, it took 5-6 months to get. Or they already had multiple years of experience working with kids from a previous job, or another “in” like having attended the summer camp when they were younger or lifeguard certification.
We are both disappointed, but taking the lessons learned and moving on. Going to recalculate college budget stuff this weekend, fun fun.
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I don’t think it’s the worst thing not to place out of intro classes at Williams. Subjects are taught at a high-level from the beginning. It can be a grind no matter what department and there’s so much to adjust to and get involved with first semester.
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We are officially done with HS here. HOORAY!! The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of senior activities-senior sunset, elementary school walk through, Prom, yearbook breakfast, graduation. Throw in an 18th birthday and an unexpected eyelid infection for S24, it’s been a rollercoaster of highs/lows. Thankfully, the infection was resolved in time for him to not miss most of the activities and his friends were sweet and supportive. Celebrated his 18th birthday and HS graduation with a big backyard party and I am just about recovering from planning and executing that. On to other items on the to-do list…credit card, health proxy, Finanical proxy, Bank accounts, vaccinations etc. I think we will convert his minor credit union bank account to an adult one and keep DH on it as co-owner. Will probably add him on to our Chase cc for emergencies.
S24 had his first advising assignment and it looks like he will go in with quite a few AP credits for electives. He is trying to figure out if he wants to do a minor in CS or add a second major to ME. Not all schools are as organized as ME is at Purdue in publishing their study plan. It is hard to figure out how much longer a second major will take and what the course load will be for each semester.
Anybody else stressing about sophomore accommodations? Purdue doesn’t guarantee accommodations beyond first year and I hear that the off-campus apartments get booked before the lottery assignments go out in Oct-Nov. Trying to figure out how to navigate finding a place/signing a lease even before finding potential apartment mates.
Just have to trust that it will all work out.
Hope everyone is enjoying this summer! can’t believe we will be dropping off the kids in a few short weeks.
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