My in-laws are about to show up in my messy house, so of course I’m here instead of wrangling bedding and cleaning floors (honestly, my MIL will just clean everything all over again anyway if I let her.)
I think S25 has started to filter down his list to a more manageable set of options:
Of the large state schools, he’s most enamored of UW and willing to let Pitt, Boulder, UCSC, UC Merced, Oregon State, and Minnesota go. Still hoping against hope for Purdue, Cal, or UCSB (but I think he’s realistic about his chances at any of these.)
Of the techy schools, I think he’s ready to let go of RPI but not quite over WPI and still Mines-curious (MINES!)
He is probably not going to go to any of the LACs that admitted him, but he wants to linger a bit over Macalester and Oberlin before giving them up. I think what might put him over the edge is this week’s physics test on magnetic fields (I might have made that up but it sounds approximately right.) Lafayette is still out there and he’s still got it in a maybe? category but honestly I don’t see it.
Of my Goldilocks universities-that-are-kinda-small-and-nerdy, he’s strongly considering Case Western Reserve and also contemplating Rochester. Brandeis is not even on his radar.
At the end of the day I suspect it will be UW or Case. Whichever one he chooses, I think I will mourn the other for at least a little while.
I didn’t mention a spreadsheet here, and it’s because my spreadsheets and I have utterly dominated this whole process up until now. I worry that the more I analyze his top choices, the more conflicted I’ll feel about whatever he ultimately chooses. I do think I should send him to his top 2-4 choices one more time (for admit days or something else) so that he can meet the kids who might be his classmates.
In the meantime, my in-laws are coming for Nowruz and tonight we will jump over small (please let them be small) fires in our driveway, shedding the metaphorical detritus of the year behind us and preparing for the year ahead. (More about this ritual here, for those who are curious.)
We have moved Speedwagon and Gizmo to a repurposed-and-fortified chicken coop near the redwood tree. They are continuing to lay an egg a day each.
S25 is making progress on his online gov and econ classes but I predict that it will still be a mad dash to the finish line (these are graduation requirements that he optimistically decided to take online). He might have a secret girlfriend, and we are pretending not to notice. Oh, life! you are so rich and complicated.
Yes, there are some crazy laws. During certain years you can’t go through the maternial blood line and it has to be paternal. You can go as far back as great great grandparents. I’ll need to go back to my Great grandfather b/c my grandfather was born in Ohio when his parents came to the US in the early 1900s. Then when his father lost his arm working on the railroad they moved back to Italy. So as long as my GG never renounced his Italian citizenship I should be good to go. Just need to research. A bit more. Or I can go through my Grandmother’s Father too. I haven’t spent enough time on it yet, but it’s on my to do list for sure.
I think the renouncing (if you mean proactively) depends on years too…
I tried to sort out my own potential Italian citizenship at one point and it seemed like the dead end was my last italian- born ancestor had become a naturalized US citizen (which automatically made him NOT an italian citizen by italian law at time) before my first-born US ancestor in the line was born. So annoying. couldn’t he have gotten married and had a kid a few years earlier?!
And agree lots of stuff is different for maternal/paternal llines..due to various italian laws..
Given state of world maybe I should actually look into it more:) I have a bunch of different immigrant grandparents, but alas no dice getting citizenship there either I love to travel and would love to be able to live abroad easily (particularly now, but always wanted to )
My younger child was so excited to learn that their German ancestry on their dad’s side might qualify them for German citizenship. It got confusing quickly because it depends on citizenship laws at the time of certain ancestors. It sounded like they would have to go back and find the German citizen ancestor and then determine whether each subsequent ancestor leading to my husband and our kids would have been eligible for citizenship. Kind of sounds like a fun project, but not a rabbit hole I have time for.
I looked briefly at Romanian citizenship, which seemed like a slightly easier and faster route than Italian (which I heard takes years). Romanian citizenship requires passing a language fluency exam, so it might end up taking just as long as the Italian one!
My kids have dual Canadian and US citizenship because I am a dual citizen. I was recently having drinks with a friend who said that she was able to get Slovenian citizenship which apparently you can apply for if you have a relative anywhere on your direct line that is Slovenian!
My cousins are Irish as well and it was super easy to get their Irish citizenship. In case you have that option. I’m 90% italian so I’m that’s pretty much my only option.
There is so much in your post that I want to respond to but the above really resonated. This is me. This is so much me. I need to stop thinking about it, because it’s keeping me from being able to be as celebratory and excited as I want to be for him.
Thing 2 - I love that he’s narrowing down his list. I feel him at CWRU more than UW I think. I don’t know why, but just based on the things you’ve talked about, somehow that feels more right to me. Possibly this is because I sometimes see CWRU as the one that got away for my S22 though, so take that with a whole boulder of salt (not a grain).
Thing the third - go Gizmo and Speedwagon! At least your egg bills are getting lowered on the regular (even if small eggs)!
Happy Nowruz! And good luck with the in-laws. I would be right there with you online and not cleaning. I freak about not cleaning, but then keep not cleaning.
Last - Secret Girlfriend? This feels like burying the lede!
I wish I could do this and claim my grandfather’s as I’m of Italian descent by my mom’s father and his ancestors. When my mom was born (not in US, and not to American parents) my grandfather was still an Italian citizen, but then got French citizenship a few months later as he worked in French industry. Then, they came to the US to follow his sisters who married WWII GI’s they met over there, and gave up French citizenship for US (sigh). So, I’ll likely never be able to do either Italian, and certainly not French. Italian seems to be easier to get if not renounced. French citizenship has more strict rules and have to have maintained interest, have to pass a language test (not happening for me) but too many years lapsed and my mom and grandmother last went back in the 70s. And since they double denounced Italian by French and then US citizenship, I don’t think I can do either.
Well, we can cross off Notre Dame. Rejected after being deferred REA. Which honestly is fine, if he had gotten in I would have been shocked. First official rejection! More to come
ETA - best part is I get to delete them from the spreadsheet!
I love to travel and would love to be able to live abroad easily (particularly now, but always wanted to )
a lot of changes in short succession-
