Not to me!
Including because I think your D25 would benefit just as much if not more. Like all the kids I know in S24’s class who were done after ED/REA/SCEA/EA 1 seemed VERY happy with that fact, and were able to relax and really enjoy the rest of senior year.
One and done was awesome for D24 (and the rest of us)! She would definitely do it all over again. Of course, i think your child has to truly have a favorite (doesn’t have to be by a large margin).
She couldn’t be more different than S24, she’s happy at any of the 4 and all safety/targets, but choosing this one as it has all of her possible intended paths giving it a slight lead for ease of pivoting. More of a concern on my mind is if she’s deferred and wants to ED2 or wait.
She’s taking 4 AP’s (2 last year) and I think her gpa is going to be much higher at new school due to happiness at school, quality of teaching, and classes of 4-8 students. Former was a deflation school, so they may defer and see how she’s doing making ED2 a tough one. High ACT score above 75%.
I think D24 would have been tempted to ED2 had she been deferred but I’m guessing she wouldn’t have in the end. There wasn’t a second school that stood out so much from the others to warrant it. Best of luck to your D25! Sounds like she’s off to a great start of Senior year.
D24’s 18th birthday is tomorrow in the midst of a heavily-scheduled orientation. I’m a bit sad we won’t be there to celebrate, but her suitemate’s parents have confirmed that her birthday packages have been picked up from the mail center and will be given to her tomorrow. These contain thirty individually wrapped brownies (from Fat Witch in NYC) to share and two of her favorite games (Catan and Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza). Hopefully their timely delivery on her special day will reaffirm that while she is gone, she is not forgotten!
D24, who swore she’d never go to a football game (and didn’t even apply for student tickets despite me pointing out she could pass them along and be quite popular if she wasn’t going to use them) just sent me this. I’m so happy she’s at least trying the whole college experience.
My daughter’s AP Calc teacher taught this way and she loved it. He used all the videos he had recorded during Covid times. She could go back and listen to sections whenever she wanted and it made the classroom time much more conducive to asking questions and collaboration. So happy you are getting good reports from your daughter!
Long talk with S24 this evening, and it was quite reassuring–making friends, exploring clubs, classes seem good although a week in they have not gotten into real stuff yet, and so on.
But the biggest repeat issue seems to be all these kids he is meeting (including his roommate) who are very focused on a specific professional plan, which is not at all what we have encouraged S24 to do. So I think he is finding it reassuring just to talk to us and have us reaffirm his more measured, exploratory approach is perfectly fine.
I think this is a thing at many schools. S22 struggled with this at UMass when he was there - he felt that everyone but him had a well thought out plan and it freaked him out a little. As a junior (now at UNC) he still doesn’t have a firm plan and that is OK with us - he is getting educated, gaining skills and figuring himself out. Your son is doing what is right for him which is all that matters.
So the request today was for a sleep mask. Seems the blackout curtains provided by the school do not black out, ha! And where did he call me from, the practice rooms!!!
I need a dark room to sleep so I understand. There’s a gift shop on Spring Street that may carry sleep masks. It’s called Where’d You Get That? It will probably have a goofy saying on it, but that’s the beauty of a single! You may want to call the Williams Inn to ask if they carry sleep masks. The staff is always lovely. Hope he’s having a great orientation.
Yours too!
Between us, this was a little bit of a concern in the back of my mind when S24 chose WashU over Carleton. I knew if, say, he continued to explore Biology, he’d be around a lot of pre-meds. And not that there are no pre-meds at Carleton, but I think the sort of pre-meds who choose a college known to be “good for pre-med” (a dubious concept, but a popular one in certain circles) might not exactly think the way he thinks about college.
I do believe he ultimately had the self-confidence to handle that anyway, but I am still glad he is starting to get involved in activities where there will be upperclass students (and possibly even grad students–apparently they are participating in some club sports teams thanks to COVID giving them an extra year of eligibility). I have a feeling they will help moderate some of what he is getting from his fellow first years.
Tell him to hang in there, Organic Chemistry will weed out at least half of those pre meds. 
No kidding. I still remember one of my college roommates, who became a successful Marine Biologist, complaining about Organic Chem.
And in fact according to S24, they have been told around 1/3rd of pre-meds change their plans after the first exam in the first-year inorganic Chem sequence! Sounds like a lot but then I remember the studies I have seen about how quickly the pre-med count drops in just the first year, so maybe it does happen that fast.
Dropped off S24 and it was a non-event pretty much. It felt like we were dropping him off for an extended sleepover that’s 45 mins away. He has been ready for this for quite some time, and frankly us too. So far so good. It was a completely different experience for my S21 who had a rough start when he joined so I will take this all gladly.
Roommate is an expressive sweet talkative kid who we loved right away. I felt like he and S24 were already good friends when I saw them interacting. Roommate’s parents/family were also very sweet and friendly. Going random had been a concern for them too initially.
We havent heard much from him other than “I love you too Mom” but got some details from S21. He’s been busy finishing prerequisite materials for his courses and attending various events there. His close buddy at Harvard invited him to a frat party at MIT so it looks like he will be socializing at more than one college. I have my concerns but on another note who knew MIT frat parties are "lit’?
I agree that this is just very common these days, even at LACs. S has already complained that “everyone here is an Econ major” of Amherst. In MY day, even at the big state U, I remember people being really defensive when admitting to being business majors. Ah–the 90s!
I am so sorry to hear this and wanted to let you know that we went through pretty much everything that you have stated here with my S21. He had an awful awful start to college and I can totally understand what you are going through. It is so painful when you feel helpless and they are not willing to listen to any advice.
All I can say is hang in there, it WILL get better. S21 would only call when he was miserable and it would take every ounce of strength just not to break down to hear the pain in his voice. It sounds cliche but he is getting life’s lessons very quickly and will mature faster than the others. It will all work out. S21 cannot imagine being at any other place than where he is now. So happy and thriving.
We are a family of sleep maskers. This one is not the cheapest, but became the preferred one once the amazing Bucky’s once they stopped making years ago met their demise and were no longer ebayable. These are great because there’s room for you to open and close your eyes and those rings are adjustable and can be positioned for perfect fit.
Thank you!
That’s the one I use, too. I bought it at MoMA, so you know it’s the most stylish sleep mask available 
