My older son (rising college junior) is working in Albany for the summer (we live in VA). He went with some college friends to the beach in NH for the long weekend, and yesterday he lost his phone. He thinks he had put it in a box, to keep it off the sand, and a friend threw away the box. It was either found and the SIM card removed, or it was destroyed or buried under something that prevents a signal from getting through because it was fully charged and Find My Phone can’t find it.
This isn’t the end of the world, just a massive PITA. Not only is it expensive to buy a new phone (especially because he doesn’t have a trade in to offset the cost) but just getting it will be hard. The complex where he’s living for the summer has been really challenging for deliveries and he’s not home during the day to sign for anything. He doesn’t mind saving some money with a refurbished phone, but then you have to go to the Verizon store and they charge an arm and a leg to set it up for you (and since he doesn’t have a sim card, I don’t even know if they can just transfer his line?)
He’s never bought a phone before, we gave him his first one and an upgrade, but he’s taking responsibility for this and buying it himself. I just wish I could talk to him and tell him what the options are and reassure him a bit. I know I would feel unmoored without the phone. He called me from a friend’s phone yesterday and seemed ok but (1) he was in the middle of all of his friends, so I’m sure he was putting a good face on it, especially since one of the other guys is the one who accidentally threw it away and (2) there was so much background noise he couldn’t hear me.
Sigh. I wish he’d call me back again, I just want to talk with him.
Kindasorta. All of the newest iPhones have eSIMs. Some older (but still recent) iPhones have eSIMs. Android phones, including the most recent models, are more likely to have physical SIMs.
He can’t afford a new phone at full cost, so no, he can’t just go to the store and buy one. He needs to buy refurbished or get a deal. There is no “expense aside” in this situation. So that’s part of the problem, he needs to be able to order and get a phone delivered since most stores don’t carry refurbished in the store. I just feel badly for him - it’s a PITA to deal with and he’s got a lot of other things going on.
His phone that he lost had a physical sim card - I know because we had to transfer it from his old phone into that one, and the Verizon folks charged us to do it. It would be lovely if there was some sort of other eSim that would make this work easier, but I suspect not.
He should look into having it delivered to the store. If buying from a third party, delivered to the UPS store.
It doesn’t matter. If the new phone needs a physical SIM and doesn’t come with one he will need to pick one up, but otherwise you just call and they activate the line to the new SIM. iPhones have had eSIMs since 2018, but also had a physical one. I can’t imagine his refurbished phone will predate that.
He should also look at what kind of deals Verizon is offering or even consider swapping providers. A lot of times you get a new phone with a change and depending on the situation it may be worth it for him.
Excellent to know re: activating the new phone, thank you! And I hadn’t thought about delivery to a UPS store, that would solve a decent part of the problem.
I checked with Verizon this morning - since it’s an existing line and he doesn’t have a trade in, no deals. He’s been on our plan, but maybe going it alone and starting up with a new carrier would be worth it depending on what they give him for a phone. We had agreed that we’d pay for his plan through college, so I suppose we could just figure out what we spend per year now, and give him that amount of money and then he figures it out. All good options, and all things I’d like to let him know as he’s considering what to do next. Once he gets back to Albany, he has a work phone so he can at least call us, so that will be something.
To try to get a bit on track to Class of 25 stuff, I’m moderately frustrated that a few of the colleges my son is looking at don’t release their required essays until August 1. The plan was to get things dealt with during the summer. Return to HS is mid-August, and we are planning to take a week of vacation. So while yes, he can still get essays done before school starts, it’s just a bit more compressed then I had been hoping.
And yes, I know there’s still plenty of time before Early Action deadlines. Just I know this kid and he is not great at time management, so I was really proud of him for coming up with the strategy to spread the work over the summer (and seemingly sticking to it). Oh well…
This is common. It’s ok for him to contact his AO (or do a virtual admissions session) at the schools on his list and ask if they know if the essay(s) will be the same as last year. That’s a fair question to ask, no AO will mind that and he’ll get some demonstrated interest points where that’s a thing. FWIW the school where I work hasn’t decided on essays yet
Not to set the thred back, but we have had good luck with parents/child posting on Facebook the story about losing phone and asking if anyone has an iPhone in a drawer somewhere that they are willing to part with for a good price. Have been able to get really nice phones this way.
Another option for phones (and then I’ll get back on topic, too): ebay. My kids and I have never had a truly new phone. He may or may not have time to do the searching, but I’ve gotten really reasonable deals for non-latest-model phones. For example, my kids and I all have iphone 12s, and I got the kids’ ones last Christmas for $275 and $295, both in excellent condition with batteries >90%. I just made sure that the seller had been around a while/good ratings.
How are everyone’s kids’ lists? Are they totally finalized? D25 is gone, and I think her list is sort of, kind of, finalized, and my lack of clarity with this statement is not feeling fantastic. I wish she were excited about schools that felt like a lock, but no dance school on the list is. She actually really liked St. Olaf aside from the dance piece (and she did not clue into the fact that the indoor track/climbing area/ice rink/gym/soccer field meant that you needed to be inside for good chunks of the year), so she will apply, but it would mean that she was letting her dance dreams go.
There are pros and cons to your kid having an all-consuming passion, I’ve decided. She’s motivated, focused, and driven, yippee! But she also has trouble envisioning any other path, and if she needs to pivot, I think there will be lots of hard emotions. Yes, this is part of life, but I will shed my own tears for her, too, and pray hard that I will be able to support her well. But I guess we’ll cross that bridge if we need to. My planner side wants to prepare for all possibilities, so I repeatedly remind myself that that isn’t my role right now (or ever, really). Day by day, step by step, right?
@2plustrio --I just realized that all my data pulling might be for naught–I have no idea if those GPAs are weighted or unweighted. Sigh.
I dealt with this by having options, often (usually) forced upon, based on my knowing my own kid. And then I explained to them that just because that option existed, it didn’t mean they had to take it, but that it was better to have a choice than no choice at all.
I like that statement. We’ve practically done this–that’s why she visited St. Olaf in the first place–bc I really thought it would be a good fit outside of dance, but I think I could do better with the explanation piece. Thank you for this!
There is a list and it runs the gamut from an assured admission at the state flagship to a number of probables / matches to a few reaches. My guess is that sometime between now and RD submission deadlines, one or more new schools will be added to the list. There are one or two on the current list that I think should come off, but its her list and its not worth an argument (I questioned the basis for including them, but I did not offer any great resistance to the rationale offered).
Are very related in our house right now. My son has a list. It currently has seven schools. It was eight, and he decided last week that, while one of the schools is prestigious, and has a good program, and he has a solid chance of getting in, and it’s within budget… that he just didn’t want to go there. So off it came.
And that’s fine with me, because I agree with his rationale, it just didn’t feel like the right fit. He’d be happy if our list were final with the seven he has, but of those seven, there are really only two that he’s excited about - and one of those two is a reach. So I’m adamant that he keep the others on there, because I want him to have those options.
In fact, my issue with his two favorites is that at both, if the major he’s interested in today turns out to not be so interesting later, then they really don’t have anything else that calls to him. I’m sure he’d find something, but it’s better to have a fall back option. He’s got three schools on his list that he hasn’t visited - one I’m hoping to catch this summer, one in the early fall, and the third he’ll only visit if he gets in and doesn’t get in anywhere else that calls to him more. I’m really hoping that the two we’re planning to visit pop for him - I’d just like him to have choices that he’s excited about AND that will offer him more fallback options, if needed.
