I’m sorry for all who are watching their kids go through friend drama and first love heartbreak. Junior year was awful for D24 on both fronts, so I know how it feels.
On another note, we attended an accepted student event at Stevens Institute of Technology on Sunday. This is my favorite part of this whole process - the accepted student events. It is so much fun to go back and see our student be wooed and celebrated and start to get really excited about possibilities (instead of indifferent or angsty or hyper critical like on first visits).
It was a great event and D24 came away from it pretty enthusiastic about this option. I had noted in another thread that our first visit there was an unguided walk through on a mostly empty campus (late in the afternoon on Good Friday)…not only was D24 really not invested in the process enough to evaluate it based on anything important, the only students we encountered then were international graduate students, studying hard at 4pm on a Friday. So we had some concerns that the environment might be a little too academically intense for D.
Happy to report that the campus was lively and full of (in D24’s words) “regular-looking” prospective students. She came away from the visit saying, “I really like the campus, there were more females there than I anticipated and it seems like there are plenty of things to do.” In her mind now, it is really just between Stevens and RIT. We still have a visit to Bing on the books for April, but I’m not sure if we’re going to bother after she revisits RIT. That said, if Tuition Exchange doesn’t come through for RIT, that will take it out of the running, and D24 feels fine with choosing Stevens.
I have taken the first baby step in the process of detaching from the other schools by unsubscribing to the Rutgers and Bing class of 2028 threads on CC
It seems like a tense time of year for lots of kids, even some with great acceptances in hand. I suspect that many kids are more stressed than we may realize about leaving their high school and home lives behind, and that this stress is expressing itself in all sorts of ways.
S24 has been quite content since his ED2 acceptance came in, and is particularly looking forward to his last season of his spring varsity sport, which is starting this week. Last year, he suffered a serious leg injury at one of his early games and was out of commission with surgery and physical therapy all spring and summer. Fingers crossed that this last season will be more successful!
In the meantime, I have started to knit a throw blanket as a graduation present for S24 - I figure he can use it to cozy up his dorm room. I highly recommend an absorbing craft project as a stress management technique for anyone so inclined.
Love the craft project! I am finding I need a distraction too, esp between now and when the rest of decisions come out so am finding my love of knitting and photography again.
My DS24 is coping with emails and mail from UNC, his only acceptance so far. I heard him saying “UNC wants me, UNC wants me, I love them” after receiving a postcard last night.
I am working on a quilt for mine - with fabrics collected from family and friends as well as ones she’s chosen. I made her one before she was born, one when she was 9, and this one she will take to college… wherever that may be. Just like the college tours have been almost more valuable for the 1:1 time together than the actual tours themselves, the process of working on this project together has been really nice.
D24 is experiencing exactly the same thing with what she thought were her close friends and their self-centered daily drama. I am telling her that it’s 3 more months and she wont have to deal with it and she will get to start with a clean slate in college.
She is really invested in going to a college with a diverse student body and more importantly have the ability to mingle with emotionally mature people. It’s going to be a tough spring/summer to transition into college world.
Last summer my son had a 3 week “romance” with a girl. It ended as quickly as it started. Surprisingly he was heartbroken longer than it had lasted. He threw himself in to body building/gym and now seems to be wiser about relationships in general. He has a great set of friends who have each other’s backs so that’s good too.
He is however being careful about who/whether to ask someone to the prom.
I’ve been saving t-shirts for one of those t-shirt quilts. I had one made for my C21 and while it lives at home, they do enjoy having it when they are here. My S24 wants one as well and I imagine it too will live at home. My C21 knits, maybe I’ll ask them to knit a cozy blanket for D24’s graduation. Thanks for the idea!
I am thoroughly enjoying watching S24 experience senioritis. Maybe I’ll start planning ahead a bit.
S24: need to remove some ear wax
Me: hmm, let me make a note to include the relevant supplies in your medical box for when you go away to school
We have a long time (6.5 months) but I might as well start making the list now so I don’t forget. Probably a shared document/spreadsheet, “S24’s Dorm List.” Minimalist is truly best, though I don’t mind including a few tiny things that I know he’ll appreciate having on hand rather than needing to run an errand to get something or wait for amazon.
He is definitely coping and prepping for eventual rejection from Duke. We visited NC during last week’s ski week break. He liked the UNC campus but really loved the Duke campus, unfortunately. All the schools after it didn’t measure up.
Given the uncertainties of the admission process, we are keeping our RD expectations low.
I’ll admit I am a fan of what I like to call cautious pessimism. You can expect things will probably not work out well, but be open to the possibility you are wrong.
Obviously not always, but it seems rather applicable to RD reach applications.
I’m going to admit “secretly” to my hundred or so parent buddies here that I hope D24 gets admitted to NYU but they want full pay. There is no way we could afford that, and she knows it. She doesn’t want to go to NYU at all (it isn’t a supportive enough environment–it requires too much independence, and she knows this also), but she applied at a less certain time in her plans. I would love it if she got into at least one reach, but she wasn’t tempted by getting money from this one!
Omg this is mine. Trying to drag her to admitted students days or check her portals for interviews is getting OLD, but I think it’s actually avoidance. She is not ready to think about life away from home. Gonna have to force it though!
I was asking my D tonight what she thought about her last school that she is waiting for a regular decision. She wasn’t sure but didn’t seem too concerned.
I said “Well last year several high stat kids got denied”. Her response cracked me up. She said “Well those kids don’t know how to be a human.”
. Hugs
