And for those who, like my kid, have a fall break in mid-October and are from a state that mails ballots to all registered voters (or have early in-person voting), make sure they complete that ballot or go vote while they’re home!
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You just have to be a little in awe of the confidence of the kid who thinks nothing of going full monty in a shared room three weeks into the school year. I’m fairly certain my kid is probably still changing in the en-suite bathroom in her room.
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My S24 is definitely not tempted to change up his sleep habits.
So I told him he should suggest putting it on the roommate compatibility survey. He was not amused.
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Maybe roommate thinks he is a VeryNiceUnparticularYoungMan so will not say anything? He could say something gently like bruh…
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Heard from The Child yesterday evening. She got a low C on last week’s chemistry quiz, but reported that “everybody did horribly” on it. She’s signed up for tutoring at the tutoring center on campus, 1st session is this evening. In “thinking out loud,” I have a few thoughts about this:
- glad to see D24 demonstrating some maturity by signing up for tutoring. The high school version of her would have balked and resisted until the situation was dire.
- when I was in college, I always goofed off the first week or 2 of the term, and then there was a quiz or midterm or SOME graded thing and BAM, reality set in. I think that’s what is happening now.
- what do you want to bet that the professor purposely made the quiz tricky in order to wake them all up out of their reverie?
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That is too funny. D24 at BC also went to a frat party at MIT and I believe it was with a friend from Harvard. I was told MIT parties are great(I still dont believe it).
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Nice! I heard that it is not easy for the guys to get in.
I imagined that at the frat parties they are drinking and playing competitive chess. That is right up S24’s alley – well the chess part.
While I’ve occasionally stopped by this thread in the past few months, it’s been a while since I checked in here.
We dropped D24 off at Pomona a few weeks ago. For various reasons having mostly to do with her being admitted off the waitlist, it was everyone’s first time there. We were very impressed! The move-in and family orientation was extremely well organized, the campus was beautiful, and everyone, from students to cafeteria workers, was extremely friendly. When we parked in front of D24’s dorms, there were about a dozen current Pomona students who loudly cheered our arrival and then immediately helped schlep D24’s stuff from our car to her room, which was a nice first impression. While the Inland Empire (east LA County) varies from meh to gross, we loved Claremont, which reminds me of a collegiate version of certain posh Bay Area enclaves like Los Gatos or Saratoga. I’m looking forward to hanging out more in the village when we visit for Parents’ Weekend in November.
D24 is doing well. She’s seemingly made a number of friends from all over the States, world, and 5Cs. My early impression is that the Claremont Consortium is very interconnected, both socially and academically. She’s made a couple independent trips to LA via the train, which is much more convenient than anticipated. (Like Swarthmore, they get free transit passes.) Pomona had a club fair last week, and D24 seemingly joined about a half dozen clubs. She’s also discovered the gym in a big way.
Her biggest complaint so far is that she has too much free time, even after two weeks of classes. She was the type to almost enjoy being overloaded in high school, so I think she’s still getting accustomed to the distinct cadence of college. Anyhow, we told her to enjoy it while it lasted. Her academic workload should dramatically increase, she’ll have increased club commitments, and she’ll start her work-study job soon, which will be 10-12 hours a week.
One downside has been the lack of AC in most freshman dorms given the recent heatwave. It’s been in the 100’s and the AQI has been terrible the past couple days because of a recent nearby wildfire. Some freshman have been sleeping in common rooms and other air-conditioned spaces the school has opened for them. D24 hasn’t been particularly bothered, but I’m sure it’s been tough for some freshman.
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In the midst of exchanging Instagram cat reels tonight w/D24, she briefly reported that she went to a meeting on campus this evening for the pre-health society/club. Outwardly, I said, “ok, cool.” Inside my head, though:
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Claremont is a great town. A very good friend of mine works in the area.
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Checked in with D24 last night. Things seem good. Says she’s still not meeting a ton of people, but she seems to have a few that she is doing things with and referred to them as “my friends” (this is big. D24 is a slow burn kind of person…no fast friends for her. She will refer to someone as “a girl in my class” for a long time, iykwim). Getting along very well with one of her roommates, the other is rarely there. She went to a party over the weekend and shopping and out to dinner with her roommate and roommate’s boyfriend, so all in all, seems like it was a good weekend.
I think the most exciting/interesting part of the conversation was hearing that she is enjoying the reading in her lit class. D24 is NOT a pleasure reader, never has been. She is the anomaly in our family of bookworms. Left to her own devices, she would never have registered for this class (thank you GenEd requirements and scheduling conflicts that made this the only one that fit this semester!). Now, by “enjoying” I mean that after she complained that there is a lot of reading due for each class, she acknowledged that “the book is good, though.” She’s reading The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, which I personally really enjoyed…so, it’s just nice to see her enjoying it, too.
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S24 texts or FaceTimes pretty much every day, his decision.
Roommate is sick, so assuming his time is coming. Volunteered to go first on a presentation in his seminar class and loves his professors and classes. Yay!
Joined some sort of medical club and officially has his reciprocity for his EMT license so hope that works out for him at some point. They just changed rules to needing certification prior to joining so hope that works in his favor. 
He’d really like to join their intercollegiate taekwondo team but is concerned about time commitment as things ramp up in semesters ahead. He really liked the group and alum that heads it, I guess they place really well too. He feels bad the practices would be outside hours he claimed to keep on his roommate form. Not his ideal either as an early bird. Sad to see he has to pick and choose so early on as it’s a good social emotional health outlet.
Seems he’s been a good ringleader on spike ball games and such, organizing a trip to Newport for this weekend while they still have the nice weather. Seems to have hit it off with one kid in particular but says it’ll all likely evolve as he meets more people. Agree with that, just glad he has an outlet for now.
D25 signed up for a college zoom a while ago and wasn’t thinking about time change. I said I’d set an alarm and login so she wasn’t a no-show as she had an exam today. My body clock woke me up 1 minute prior to alarm, never off duty during college application season.
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Lots of kids seem to be steadily finding their activities as the days unfold–college really makes so many things like that so easy, and it is fun for me to remember how exciting this was.
Speaking of which, S24 has made the third and final round of closed tryouts for travel club sport #2. This is the highest level school team for this sport (actually the highest level for the sport in general), but it was also his best sport in HS, so . . . knock on wood!
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Knock on wood indeed and all the 
of good luck to him! My S24 got the invite to the arts club of his dreams! Finally got that update… Probably not as difficult as needing to be good at a sport (we’d be in trouble). 
But I’m thrilled for him. Keep us posted.
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Depends on the individual, no? NiceUnparticularMom was one of the top HS tennis players in her state back in the day, so S24 got some natural talent that way. In fact they both can basically pick up any sort of sporting equipment for the first time and be reasonably competent with just a little practice. As for me, I am . . . pretty good at darts.
But then it is amusing to watch NiceUnparticularMom try to draw something. Me, I was whipping out zoos-worth of charming sidewalk-chalk animals on demand, but she just did a lot of variations on what people would identify as, “Maybe a dog?”
Anyway, some talents and activities lend themselves more to competitive contexts than others, but I personally admire anyone who can really flourish in anything.
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Mom of MIT frat bro here:
- son shared that he’s really enjoying living at the house
– the guys have been staying up to 3am for many days putting together wicked fun Rush plans and party plans.
Big party on 9/20F, after their big career fair - need to blow off some steam
@Mom2024a
not just competitive chess
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Same thing here, S24 seems to be settling into a calmer routine though still quite busy. He’s enjoying his classes and his A-Level prep is standing him in good stead this semester, though I suspect things will get harder . He also made the soccer travel team (his roommate too, nice!) which is something he was hoping for. Sport has always been a large part of his life and he wanted to continue it a competitive level, though not too time consuming and this seems to strike a nice balance with a game and 2 practises per week. He doesn’t seem to have suffered any particular culture shock with regard to moving alone to the US and is making friends nicely and going to Richmond town often, which is a plus. (food is great on campus and they have loads of dining dollars, but we found the city to be a real foodie heaven!). Missing him loads but everything seems very good and he’s been keeping in decent contact, which is nice (and slightly unexpected…). Hope everyone’s C24s are settling in nicely as well!
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I feel so far behind everyone else!! Dropped S24 yesterday for a pre-orientation trip. Move in and orientation are next Tuesday. Classes start 9/23.
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Last through the mine field is an enviable position . . . .
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so how did drop off go?