NYC at Christmas is fun IMO - busy and an absolute zoo, but I still find it charming with all the lights and decor. Just don’t expect to walk fast anywhere near touristy zones:)
Not sure when my kid is going to be home yet! Their last final is late on the 16th, but I am not sure when they will head home. They have a car so no need to pre-plan on their part. It is just me who wants to know for planning purposes:)
You get spoiled in the south. Right now it’s 40-something out, and I am wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with a hoodie and jeans, and I’m annoyed that I’m still cold. (And our heat is on 72, plus I have a space heater going. 
)
I shudder to think of how my D26 is going to fare if she gets into RIT and decides to attend.
I love NYC during the holidays! It’s truly magical – hope your kid has the best time.
My oldest is also not flying home until late on the 17th (classes ended last Friday, lol) because she wanted to soak up every minute of fun with her friends before being stuck with us for a month. 
My son, on the other hand, got home last week – much to the dismay of his sister who is trying to study for her own finals while he is yelling at his video games in the next room. 
Thank you. I’ll have her do that.
I wish I could see the invoice I paid. I’m assuming that that the health center fee is what was refunded, and it is my bad for not looking more closely at the breakdown of fees. The problem I see being an ongoing issue is that it appears that her school puts the full charges into the tuition fees, requires those fees to be paid before a student can register, and then sometime after registration takes off the health center fee if waived. I’m concerned that if I purposely underpay to avoid this happening that they will say she is delinquent and not let her register for the next quarter’s classes. But there must be a way; there have to be a number of students for whom this is an issue.
Thanks again for your response!
ETA: In case anyone in the future has this issue, the group that runs D25’s 529 just said I need to have her endorse the check to me and then I can re-contribute the money to her account, and to just keep the check and the quarterly statement to show what we did.
ETA2: Just talked to the cashier’s office at her school. The refund is not for the health waiver. It’s her scholarship. I paid the bill too quickly before they put the scholarship money on her account, so they sent the scholarship directly to her. They don’t think she needs to put it in the 529, as the 529 money was used for the appropriate purpose. And it sounds like the housing bill will go out before the end of the month, so if we’re on top of it, we could use this for that regardless. Thanks, everyone!
Are you paying the bill directly from your 529? We pay via credit card, then ask to be reimbursed from the 529 for the tuition. If you back out whatever the health fee is from what you ask for from the 529, that should keep you in the clear.
I made bad assumptions. It was her scholarship, not the health fee.
Her school charges a significant fee for using credit cards, or doesn’t take them, I can’t remember which. I’ve been hoping to simplify my life and not have to get reimbursed for every check we would have to send the school, but your way makes sense and would give more wiggle room. Hmmm…
If I was in your shoes, I would be asking for an itemized invoice that breaks out all the separate charges, and then not pay the items that didn’t apply to my student. That’s your right. Overcharging you each semester and then issuing a refund is ridiculous.
S25 lucked out and only has one final on the first day so I am picking him up this Thursday. Almost a week earlier than expected. His other classes either have a big project or paper due as the final.
Since he will be home earlier, will wait and see how Spring registration is going and housing for 2nd year which opens tomorrow if he is staying on campus. Based on the tuition bill, it does not appear he has registered for at least 12 credits (could be waitlisted). Also waiting on the school to add the meal plan to the account to get a final semester total.
My S23 Cuse kid has never been to NYC. He has friends there and may spend a day or two after finals this semester. I have no idea when he will be home because he is winging it. Also not worried about it. I encourage my kids to travel and explore because I never got to as I had to live at home and commute to college.
I am currently in Iowa for a work trip and will drive the 4 hours back home late Thursday night. I then immediately jump in the car Friday morning to drive the 6 hours to pick up D25. Fingers crossed for good weather. We already have a hotel booked as I do not really want to do 16 hours of driving in 36 hours.
Sigh. End of the semester is not going great. Remember how I was worried about S25 managing his work and getting stuff done and dealing with his exec functioning issue when he went to college? And remember how he needs to maintain a 3.0 to keep his scholarship?
Yeah. We see where this is going. His first exam was today - he got an 80, but must’ve been failing because it only brought his grade up to 69.4, which is a D. For the class where he’s already turned in his final project he’s thinking he’ll finish with a C. If he miraculously got As in his other three classes he’d have that 3.0, but the text he just sent was “I think I can get them all to at least Bs”. Sigh. Which suggests they are not and now…
Technically, he has until the end of freshman year to get that 3.0, so if he can get even one A now and rocks next semester he can pull that GPA up.
I don’t think he knew the “can calculate at end of year” thing, and it sounded like (from text, and interpreting tone across text is dicey) like he was really really upset and mad at himself. I told him he had more time to get the gpa up, and I hope I’ve got him calmed down enough - that it WILL be ok - that he can get himself together enough to prepare for the three remaining exams.
But poor boy. I just feel so badly for him.
I understand your hesitation. We have our own goofy situation as C25 is at a foreign university where there is no meal plan and they have to cook. All of their grocery trips and occasional restaurant meals are charged to one dedicated credit card so we can easily segregate their food expenses from expenses that the 529 can’t be used for. Plus, we have to keep an eye on the published cost of attendance so we don’t go over the amount allotted for meals. It’s always something.
Hugs and commiseration- you are not alone. D25 has been struggling with executive function issues, anxiety, and focusing this semester. Over Thanksgiving I started thinking that she was so close to that semester finish line, and really looking forward to winter break. Today we got an urgent text followed by a long email about how she downward-spiraled last week, getting behind on all her assignments.
There is still “light at the end of the tunnel” though… she serendipitously had an appointment with her new therapist this afternoon… so she has some newfound insight into her maladaptive behaviors. And one of her profs realized she was struggling and reached out.
Anyway, she still has to get THROUGH it all, but I’m hopeful she has support and will get to the other side of this semester. I really, really, can’t wait to have her home for break!
Thank you for sharing this. It helps to not feel so alone.
Frustratingly, it seems to have gotten WORSE since I last posted. The class he thought he had a C in is landscape design. They have a final project, which was due at noon. He was ready to turn it in on time, then noticed that he needed to also have a 200 word description. He got thst done - still in time. The he had to convert it to a PDF because she won’t take word docs. And in the two minutes that took, he lost his connection to Canvas, couldn’t immediately reconnect and it hit the noon deadline and the portal closed for submission. He emailed her immediately to explain what happened, and she said it’s his fault, he knew the deadline, and she gave him a zero on his final exam/project grade. Not even partial credit even though the whole project is done. He’s asked her to reconsider, and she said no. With a 0 on the final he’s got a low D in the class.
I’m so sorry to hear that. Can/did he email it to her immediately so there was documentation that he was done?
Oh I’m so sorry. He did the right thing emailing her. I would advise him to send whatever he completed and ask her to refer to the pdf properties to verify time completion. Or something like that. My kid has done that and received partial credit. These are really tough lessons to learn and it’s hard to watch. 
Last final done. 
My D is packed. And gets to fly home tomorrow for winter break!!!
The semester overall was a success….but they all seem to have something that will be different than hoped for…… and that “other shoe” dropped a few weeks ago for her.
Happy with her grades
Great roommates
Great teammates
Got active and involved in everything….and then some other things too!
3 hospital visits (need to bubble wrap this one!)
Unfortunately, she’s spent the last 2.5 weeks now on crutches. The initial ortho emergency appointment thought this was a sprain and gave her a fracture boot and crutches to make it back for Thanksgiving with the hope that it was actually just an ankle sprain and would be better several days after they saw her. Unfortunately, it’s still swollen and painful and she still needs the crutches/boot just to get around. So a followup with a local surgeon is already scheduled back home for Wednesday. Hoping she can recover over winter break and that this doesn’t impact her spring season of her sport!
Oh dude. That is a harsh lesson. 
I get it – it’s college, responsibility, blah blah – but come on, if a student emails you immediately after the portal closes with the finished project, SURELY you can show a little grace, especially for a first-semester freshman. We’re all human.
Does he have any accommodations at school for the executive function issues that might help with this? Any extended time on assignments or anything like that?
Thanks all for the commiseration. He did email her within moments of the portal closing and with the PDF with time stamp attached, she still said no. He’s reached out to his advisor (a professor the same department, the woman who gave the zero is a “guest lecturer” teaching for the semester, so he’s hoping she doesn’t know what leeway and authority she might have and that his advisor might talk with her).
He doesn’t have any accommodations in college - they needed more recent testing than what we have and given the cost of testing and how little he relied on it his last year of HS, we decided to just go ahead without. We really thought with an ability to structure his time how he wanted, and only have five classes and not seven, and taking classes he wanted to take, that it would be ok. This is feeling like a very big mistake right now.
I’m so, so sorry. Big hugs.