My S24 spent his Fall term in London on a program run through Arcadia university for Hamilton College January Admits. I know the Jan program and other options like it get bad press on this site, but I have to say it has been the most wonderful experience for my kid. He made close friendships with other Hamilton students, traveled on the weekends around Europe, navigated public transportation, learned to feed himself and to live independently in a student apartment, managed his school work, saw amazing plays and concerts, and was supported throughout by advisors and staff members at the main campus in Clinton, NY. He returns home this weekend and is excited to move onto campus in mid-January.
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Iād love to hear more about your sonās experience with Arcadia. My older son - S22 - is studying in London next semester. The program is his collegeās official London study abroad program, but it is run by Arcadia.
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My daughter got home an hour ago, and we went to the local market for sandwiches. She did very well in all her classes. It very much annoyed her that she got an 89.65 in Stats. 
However, her school awards B pluses, so at least thereās that. She is having a little trouble winding down after the intense exam study period. We will help her laze around!
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D24 has one more week. I guess she is doing well but probably wonāt be bringing home all Aās. Her recent text was āhow important is it to get Aās in collegeā.
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S24, packing suitcase for winter break: ādo I bring my calculatorā
lol, why
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My sonās experience with Arcadia in London was good overall. His housing location (Princess Elizabeth House) was a 40 minute commute from the Arcadia center, where most of his classes took place. He didnāt mind taking public transport to get there but it required some pre-planning in order to make commitments on time. Classes were fineāsome stronger than others. Happy to answer more specifics via PM!
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Thank you! My son comes home for break in about a week. I will reach out with any more questions.
So glad your sonās experience was positive.
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D24 called, said her roommate left for winter break on Monday after her last final. D24 also said that apparently, a lot of the professors, instead of having final exams, do final projects, papers, etc. Except 3 out of D24ās 4 professors had actual exams. 
Guess thatās the side effect of taking bio & chem.
D24 said that campus is dead and at breakfast, thereās hardly anybody in the dining hall. By Friday morning, itāll be a ghost town.
Somebody in this thread or elsewhere on CC mentioned https://explorehealthcareers.org/. To whoever it was who posted it - thank you. Learned about a profession I didnāt even know existed: cardiac perfusionist. I mentioned it to D24. She hadnāt heard of it either. Pretty lucractive job (natāl avg of annual salary is something like $178k/yr?). Cardiac perfusionists are the people who operate the heart & lung machines during open heart surgery.
Learned through a small amount of Googleāing that thereās not that many training programs for this (something like 17? or maybe it was 11? in the entire US)ā¦some of them are certificate programs (which you canāt get federal financial aid for) and some are masterās degree programs.
We live in AZ and it just so happens that 2 of the 17 are in AZ: 1 at U of A, and a 2nd at Midwestern University in the Phoenix area.
D24 said, āOh, wow. That sounds cool. I didnāt even know about that. Iāll look into it.ā
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Exams start today at D24ās school. They start and end today for her, as she only has 2 (Chem and Calc), both today. The charter bus service we have used doesnāt run until the last day of finals (the 18th), so instead of spending a week on campus doing nothing, she is flying home first thing Friday morning. The professor in the class that had an exam slot scheduled for tomorrow (but not actual exam for the class) refused to say whether he was going to require students to attend during that session until just a couple of weeks ago. Otherwise, I would have flown her home tomorrow morning. Oh well, she said sheāll use tomorrow to sleeeeeeep in, hit the gym, try to use up her remaining meal swipes and get the room cleared out of perishable items.
Hard to believe first semester is in the books!
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So nice to hear about everyoneās kiddos plans to come home/that they are already home.
S24 surprised us by coming early today. He was so happy to be done with his Chem exam that was early in the morning.
Heās taking a nap in our bed while Im working in the same room. Thatās how we know that he missed us
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I am enjoying hearing everyoneās updates! D24 is living her best life at Fordham. We canāt believe what a great choice it has been. Has made a large group of friends (after a pretty friendless junior and senior year at HS because of our moves). They all want to explore NYCā¦she has been to museums, concerts, Broadway shows and many āshoppingā explorations (mostly browsing thank goodness).
Classes have been fairly easy. Something to be said for being a big fish in a small pond, especially freshman year. She likes her Macro class, Finite Math is straight forward, and her theology and medieval history classes were interesting enough. She is raring to get going on the ārealā business classes sophomore year. The small class sizes have been great and she has been fine with Fordhamās fairly strict attendance policy. (Her roommate who regularly sleeps through her alarm and classes is having some issues 
)
D24 spent HOURS researching professors and classes. She made a dozen possible schedules. It paid off. She talks to friends now who complain about 8am classes and difficult professorsā¦turns out they were slow to register and did little to no research on classes/teachers. This boggles our minds! Our entire vacation day centered on finding strong WifI and being set to go!
We have made 2 train trips to NYC to visit and she came home for Thanksgiving. We are very thankful for how close she isā¦but she also feels plenty far away.
D27 is beginning to look at colleges (sports is in the mix so earlier timeline). Trying to point out how great it is to be close. D27 would rather be warm than close lol.
D24 wonāt be home until 12/21. Just heard that her vagabond brother S19 WILL make it home for the holidays. Yay! S18 is spending the holidays with his live-in girlfriendās family. Boo. Just the beginning of sharing my kiddos with othersā¦
Hope you all have a lovely winter break!
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Extremely excited to have my S24 home. Such a contrast from all the anxiety this time of the year last year (both his and mine) when there was so much uncertainty.
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S24 was disappointed be couldnāt work EMT last summer as they arenāt hiring short-term and require an additional course beyond national certification. But, good news, he was on his game early in year and has secured 3 internship offers for summer doing patient triage at clinics for underserved communities. All pressuring him for an answer asap, so quickly trying to identify any identifiable pros and cons. Starting early in year seems to have paid off. Also, one wasnāt interested in short-term, so he pitched himself that heāll work any hours and heās the one to show up first and stay the latest and assured them heād make an impact. It worked and they are making an exception!
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Oy, witnessed the first naked donut run in library yesterday for better or worse. Unspoken that we can keep that one to ourselves around grandparents who would be horrified. Wasnāt sure how to respondā¦congrats? Iām sorry? Donāt you dare get any ideas! How many?!
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Well S24 had his last final yesterday, and was sick with fever and a sore throat. Lots of drugs and pushed through. Ready for him and S21 to come home tomorrow. It is going to be crazy having them both home for a month!
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December is such a minefield to stay healthy coming back from
Thanksgiving and quickly heading into finals. Sorry that happened and hope he feels better fast.
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I have always let him stay home and rest when he is sick because I never understood the alternative. This finally made him realize he needs a warm jacket!!
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Yāall . . . my S24 can be so smart, and also such a dumb***. He mixed up the day for one of his finals and missed it. Yup, like everyoneās worst nightmare. So, he got a zero on the final. He reached out to the professor and, not surprisingly, he was not allowed any makeup. Fortunately, he had a 96 in the class before the final, and will end up with a B, so itās not the end of the world, but he is absolutely devasted. This is really out of character for him. He has not missed a single class all semester. And, he is finished with exams now and just waiting until I can drive up to get him tomorrow. Poor kid.
Fortunately, all of his other exams and final projects went well, and it looks like he will pull of a 3.7 and the Deanās List. But, in spite of that success, I donāt think heās ever felt so stupid in his life 
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D24 got a 6am flight home this morning. I picked her up at 7:30 and she was home by 8:30. Door to door the trip was just shy of 4 hours. I donāt think Iām going to easily convince her to take the bus (7 hours door to door) any more.
She was somewhat chatty on the ride home (sheās generally pretty quiet). It seems as though overall, school is good and she is happy. She didnāt offer up too many details about grades except to say, āI think Iāve done fine in all of my classesā ā¦so, I guess weāll see what that means? 
. As we pulled off the highway and entered our town, she did note how pretty it was where we live. The area where her school is located is very blah, but I think this might have also been a case of absence making the heart grow fonder.
Anyway, she got in the door, ate a quick breakfast and then headed off to her room for a long nap. Apparently, she didnāt bother to go to sleep last night, since she was up late already and needed to get up at 4:30 for the trip 
I know she is excited to see all of her hs friends, especially the one at 'Bama who has not been home since August. Iām trying to keep my expectations low about how much time she will spend with us, but hopeful that with four whole weeks at home, weāll get some good quality time in.
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Arghh ā¦worst nightmare like you said. My heart goes out to your son. A girl in my sonās class overslept (8 AM final) and missed it. Everyone in her class has been very empathetic towards her. I am not sure if the teacher let her take the exam at another time though.
Hoping your son has a relaxed and happy holiday season that will help him forget this.
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