Orientation done and registration mostly done. S25 said they got some good information at orientation. Needs to complete the placement test before registering for a math class or wait for the AP scores.
Wasn’t able to find a roommate before the grouping process closed so will have to wait for random assignments that come out next week. Hoping his random assignment goes well too.
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I don’t know at Hofstra but when S took it his first year, almost everyone had already taken Physics C. For him, the class was not difficult but demanding and interesting enough to be enjoyable. For most it was challenging, and it’s a brutal class for those taking it for the first time.
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Where is your daughter attending? (I remember you saying you all looked at Rose-Hulman, but I can’t remember where she decided to attend.)
She is commited to IU. The art, culture, and language oppurtunities there is what sold her over Rose and Purdue. She is bringing in a lot of credit from high school between dc and ap (52) and the majority fulfill some sort of gen ed requirement there.
As a parent I was very impressed with Rose overall. I think that they have a very strong program and community. She said at least one kid from her school is headed there who was in her physics class this last year. I wish your son much success there it seems like an amazing place!
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That’s awesome! I hope she loves IU! I have heard such good things about the school. S25 also planning to major in math and wants to add a foreign language. Rose only offers two years, though. Hope your daughter has an amazing experience!
Speaking of foreign language…S25 had a meeting with the Japanese professor at Rose this morning for a “speaking test.” He wants to test ahead to the second year of Japanese, as he’s been obsessing studying for the past year. You can take a placement test online as long as you’ve taken a formal Japanese course. However, if you self-studied the language, they require a speaking test with the professor prior to allowing you to take the written test. He said the meeting went okay, but our internet cut out at the end. He was upset about it, but the professor still email afterward and said he could move forward with taking the online reading comp/writing test. Honestly, he is well beyond the grammar and vocabulary from the first year, but he cannot handwrite a lick of Japanese. (and can barely handwrite in English!) That alone may keep him from moving forward (and probably should!), but I’m proud that he is advocating and pursuing this on his own. Even if he has to start from Japanese 1 this fall, I think he will enjoy getting to formal study the language.
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Are they maybe asking for all of that for an “accommodations” reason instead? Seems strange that all of that would be needed to address a prescription.
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S25 just sent me a very excited text that he placed into second year Japanese. The teacher sent him a really detailed email back about his interview and placement test with feedback and suggestions. I told him to email her and tell her he can’t handwrite, but I think he’s going to try to take the second year course. I know this might seem like small potatoes, but I love seeing him pursue a language all on his own and come up to speed so quickly. Hopefully it won’t kick his butt next year, but he is rather obsessed with studying it.
Thanks for letting me share our tiny win today!
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Nope, not for an accommodation. It’s very clearly for the health center. But luckily for us, I’ve since found out that it’s not needed to get a refill if your doc prescribes it. But it is needed if you want their docs to prescribe for you. I gather it’s part of their way to try to tamp down on unnecessary medication.
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Ah that makes some sense- they’d need more to start a new prescription under their own names, etc vs when kid is already under a different MDs care
But wow- a lot!
Fwiw I found accommodations process (no meds) at college so much easier, simple and sane than at either HS I’ve dealt with - ymmv - especially depending on accommodations - but have been pleasantly surprised
@TonyGrace - haha, too true. I apparently didn’t think while I was writing that day! I think what I meant is that he will pay for things for the family from time to time using his debit card, I will reimburse him for that but not for his personal expenditures. He will also be an authorized user on my credit card for emergencies/air travel home. Still on the fence about getting him his own intro credit card this year. Thanks for catching the incomplete thought!
Soooo. Anyone else hardly ever seeing their 25 around the house?? I swear I’ve caught him for a sum total of about 2 hours in the past two weeks. Some of it’s on him, some of it’s on me, but it sure does make it feel like we’re running out of time. He had a great trip to Philly for Nationals. Got to see lots of the top kids and, while his relay squad didn’t meet their goal, his friends raced really well in their open events, so that was great for him to be there to support them in their last races of their high school careers. He came home, and then I left to check on my mom, who is having health issues not uncommon for a 90-year old. She lives a day’s travel from here, so I was gone for several days. And now he’s gone again to see his girlfriend, who does not live locally either. It sounds like nobody lives here, doesn’t it?
Based on our brief check-ins, it seems he was able to register for 3 of the 4 classes he wanted. He had to pick one of his backups for his fourth class. He chose Russian for his foreign language, a history class, principals of econ, and his freshman seminar. I don’t quite get why he picked the intro-level Econ class, since he’s waiting to see how he did on the AP, but his advisor didn’t seem to think AP credits could count as a pre-req for more advanced classes, so I’m confused about that. Truth be told, he had not really done enough digging/research ahead of time, so he may just have to live with it. It will satisfy a core curriculum requirement (but wouldn’t a 4/5 on the AP do the same thing? 
) Once he has his AP scores, I will have him reach out to his advisor, as well as the relevant departments, so he can get some clarity about how he can use his AP scores. I think he only gets 1 day to add/drop once he gets there, and they don’t make it easy for first years, so this may be a case of “if only he’d done just a little more prep like we asked him to before registration…” And maybe he’ll do a better job of it for the J-term/spring registration.
He says he found a roommate. I do wonder if this will mean he does not end up in his first choice dorm, but I don’t think he cares too much either way at this point. He’ll make it work. Flights, hotel/Airbnb for move-in are booked. Just need to take care of the rental car and then begin the awesome and just so fun task of getting him to start going through his stuff. Planning to travel with 4 checked bags right now (me, the husband, the 25, and the 27 who is joining us), and then purchasing linens etc. when we get there. The Airbnb has a washer/dryer so we should be able to get that sorted when we arrive in MN. Next up on the travel front: looking into Thanksgiving travel and if it’s even going to work for him to come home. I have a sinking feeling it will not.
His summer job is kicking his butt (very physically demanding, about 30 hours/wk), and he’ll have to start training again next week to get ready for preseason. Balancing all this and his pretty much long-distance girlfriend is going to get interesting quickly. Do any of your kids have somewhat serious relationships right now? Are you talking to them about whether they as a couple have talked about how to handle their relationship once school starts, or just letting this one go? I’m of two minds, having done the whole going to college while still in a relationship thing and the challenges that came along with that. I know it’s their journey, but she is so lovely and they really do care for each other. I’m just nervous and worried for them.
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Oh the humidity! I am in San Antonio for a conference and I went out on my hotel balcony at 6:30 this morning expecting to sit and enjoy a cool morning drinking my coffee. lol! It gets hot in the CA desert, but at least our mornings are cool and dry! 
In college related updates, D25 has been busy working through mandatory orientation Canvas modules. She is getting excited about the two day in person orientation in a few weeks.
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I’m in Pennsylvania visiting my C19 (who’s moving to the Chicago area this week for a job transfer), and it’s reminding me how much I’ve missed 95% humidity. Yeah, I’m weird, I know—but I literally grew up in a swamp, and my preferred existence is air I can swim in. And I mean, sure, I could do without it being accompanied by temperatures that are also in the mid-90s, but at least with humidity above 80% I feel like I’m actually breathing.
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We survived the grad party. Hot for sure. Thankful for a very hands on husband who just does everything.
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I grew up in a semi-arid climate and I just love the humidity here in NC. I thought I was the only one!
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You people who like humidity are bonkers. It gets too humid and I feel like I’m suffocating. The air is too thick to breathe. And I’ve always lived where it gets humid (nothing like living in an area that started out as a swamp!) and I have pretty much always hated it. Bah.
I think we’re in the same boat - we’ll need to buy plane tickets, and it’s doable, but very expensive. And he will want to be at school for Saturday as it’s their big rivalry football game. So do I try to fly him home late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning and then back on Friday? It just feels like a lot of money for a very very short visit. But they don’t have much of a fall break (only two days - so making a four day weekend) so does that mean we don’t see him until Winter Break? I don’t know how well that will go for me…
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When we were searching for colleges, University of Denver came up bc of their great international relations program. Anyway, they are on the “quarter” system rather than semester. In practice it’s more like a trimester system, as most don’t do the summer “quarter”. What was great about DU was that they recognized that most students were out of state and they ended their first quarter right before Thanksgiving. Kids came home for turkey and stayed home until immediately after New Year’s. This meant ONE ticket home for the holidays! (AND they provided a $750/yr travel grant for OOS kids too). It also set the kids up well for winter break jobs or internships. They went back a little earlier than their friends though. Ultimately, we decided it wasn’t the right fit, but I really thought that was a great system.
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Lawrence University (my older daughter goes there) is also like this. They call them “terms” and there are three per year, they start in early September and get out in early June. The summer break did not align well with summer jobs here in NC, but the winter break schedule was so great!
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My older S22 is at WPI - which is also a quarter system. They have four academic quarters during the Aug-May time frame and it has really worked well for him. They get a week long fall break between quarters in addition to the traditional week long spring break (also between quarters). It’s generally not anywhere near Thanksgiving (usually mid-October) but it’s a nice opportunity to see your kid, and for much cheaper airfare than Thanksgiving. Last year he stayed in his college town for Thanksgiving and… it did not go well. He said he’d ask a friend if he could go to their place, then dawdled so long that he felt bad. Then he said that he was going to do Thanksgiving in the fraternity house with some brothers who were staying… but no one organized anything. So two days before Thanksgiving I was trying to find a place that would deliver dinner for three (most of the fraternity guys who were supposed to be staying didn’t) and of course most everything was sold out by that late point in time. I *thought * I had successfully ordered Boston Market… but Thanksgiving came and food never showed up. Luckily, one of his friends had family visiting for Thanksgiving - rather than bringing their boy home, his parents took a road trip and were staying in an AirBnB near by. Somehow that kid heard that mine had no food other than PB&J and with no advance notice still invited him to join his family for dinner. I have never been so thankful to random strangers as I was to those parents that they took my kid in. I clearly remember being at my mom’s house, trying to prep dinner, being kind of sad anyway because my sister and her family weren’t there, and just crying and trying to hide it from everyone because I was so upset that he’d be alone and hungry on his first Thanksgiving away from us. (I’m 100% confident that I was more upset than S22 was.)
So, lesson from all of that, if the kid can’t get home for Thanksgiving, encourage them to make plans early. Or you make food delivery plans early so you don’t end up like I did, sniffling while mashing potatoes.
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(This needed two different responses but the heart is for the kindness of the other family)
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As someone who went to college a plane flight (direct was about 2x the cost of a transfer) away from home, I did go home the first year for Thanksgiving, but after that, I felt like I spent more time in airports than I did at home. So, I didn’t go home in future years.
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