Continuing the discussion from Parents of the HS Class of 2026 (Part 1) - #10026 by SnowyJoJo.
Previous discussions:
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Oh my gosh we are on part 2!!!
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Evidence that we’re message board ballers.
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Congrats to everyone who helped get us here. It really wasn’t the destination but the journey of complaining about teenagers who don’t listen to us, admission processes that suck, us getting old and hey back in my day stories. Let us not forget what we used to be like back in the day.
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This is so exciting. I hope to be trading move-in combat narratives and pictures of decorated-to-the-hilt (not) dorm rooms with you guys in the fall! 
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@SnowyJoJo you pushed us over the edge! 
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Fall roommate issues will carry us to the next 1,000 responses.
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On the subject of fall roommate issues and any other ‘adjusting to college’ topics, I highly recommend to follow Harlan Cohen (@harlancohen) on Instagram. He has lots of very practical advice to students and parents. 
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If someone gets accepted to the University of Phoenix online executive MBA program, this place will go nuts.
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Back to a previous discussion about curriculum and gen eds. If C26 ends up at UIUC the main focus for gen eds and electives will be how to distribute them over the course to meet 120 total credit hours. Still need to look at actual gen ed breadth requirements but they can do that ahead of advising in June. The curriculum as structured allows for 1-2 gen eds first semester (so I suspect discussion will be whether to get an extra one out of the way early or rather ease into college); 1 each in semesters 2 and 3; and 2-3 in semester 4. Semester 5 is totally prescribed, semester 6 1 elective then the last 2 semesters have a lot of electives room. There’s an option to spend either junior or senior year in Barcelona, which right now sounds scary to them but I hope they’ll want to do it when the time comes. The Boulder program, should they end up there after all, is not very different - looks like possibly slightly less room for electives because it’s a broader environmental design core curriculum. I don’t recall now if the abroad option is one semester or one year.
I tend to think this pretty structured program will work well for C26 for a variety of reasons. They will need to fit in language somewhere to make up the graduation requirement but it seems the popular option for those kids is a cc course over summer rather than doing it in college.
We’ve been following instagram pages of the arch/envD departments and not quite business suit level but they will definitely need to pack something professional (I think they have appropriate already) for the reviews and possibly internship interviews.
Other than that, they have said they want a “new me” type of college wardrobe - wanting to change their style away from what they’ve mostly been wearing past few years. I think they are on this kind of watershed between leaving their comfort zone and some close friends behind, and looking forward to starting something completely different where there’s no baggage (elementary school was very socially difficult for C26 and while a couple of their closest friends are still from those days, there are also lingering difficulties with other kids from then).
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Is it down to UIUC and Boulder, or are Pitt and/or other options still in the running?
My S25 is also figuring out his language requirement – he needs two semesters. He has accommodations through school and has applied to see if he can take substitute classes instead – usually anthropology or something cultural – because he’s got a language disorder, has been in speech therapy his whole life, and a language class would be unduly hard for him. In high school he got away with taking Latin because his sisters really propped him up, but Latin is not an option at his school. If he doesn’t get approved for an alternative class, he’ll take Spanish online over the summer, and I will be helping him muddle through.
That’s interesting about a new style/wardrobe for college! I get it though, social difficulties included. It’s part of why my D26 did NOT want to stay local, because she wanted to be at a school where no one from her high school goes. Alas, that didn’t end up happening, but so far we know the five or so guys from her class that will also be going to GT (three for sure, two still deciding), and she’s chill with all of them. (There may be more that we haven’t heard yet.) One is an athlete committed to play football there, and he’s this HUGE guy, so we’ve been joking that she won’t be the tallest person in the GT college t-shirt day picture.
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We’ve still got the Pitt admitted students day booked for now (the last of the 3) but I think it’s largely out the running, because of some issues specific to the architecture program. Will reassess after first visits. As C26 has already visited Boulder, including an EnvD department tour, I suspect a decision one way or the other might be made after visiting UIUC, which will be first up. The other options have been discarded in favor of these 3 on the shortlist.
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In my opinion, college is a great time to try something new and to figure out what kind of person you are, what kind of person you want to be, and make new connections. When I was heading off to college, I felt a lot of the same way your C26 does. I couldn’t wait to get to college…it was exciting and the fact that nobody knew me there was, in my situation, a huge positive. Your C26 is going to go define their own path and that’s great!
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A lot of the elementary school issues seemed to be typical for 2E kids, with C26 advanced academically but not maturity-wise (not helped by being youngest in the class). Random examples: a 3rd grade teacher telling us about C26 making jokes that she found funny but that went over the heads of their classmates and were met by blank stares and rolling eyes as a result; sensory issues very pronounced when young so they would overreact to something like someone bumping them by accident and not handle it well socially; then also I guess somewhat typical ASD issues of just missing social cues. Those issues largely had already sorted themselves out by middle school, where C26 found some great friends, but some kids I guess just have an idea of who you are and that sticks. That said, overall I think they are pretty happy at school at the moment, but I think the pre-college workshops they did last summer gave them an idea of what it would be like to be in an entirely new space and they liked that - “no one was prejudging me because of what I did in 3rd grade”.
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New to this thread, but we were in the same boat for S23. We ended up choosing a school that didn’t have a language requirement, but would ASL be an option. It’s still difficult as it has its own syntax, but at least they can bypass the “speech” part of it.
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So in the bad (but expected) news here, D26 was denied by UChicago. She took it actually really well since it was the reachiest reach, and she didn’t want to ED. And D26s mom took it particularly well for getting rid of the only school that required a flight, lol.
But… in good news, she became interested in my spreadsheet to help her decide what college to attend!
I created one that combined what she wanted in a school and then handicapped them for cost. Now two of the top three are schools she’s already in! She seemed semi-pleased with that. Of course number 1 is another low percentage shot Ivy. But I keep reminding her she’s already ahead of the game, so the other reaches are ones she may not even choose. Anyway, the journey continues!
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I wish it could be – we actually signed a lot with him as a toddler because he didn’t have much intelligible speech until he was 3 or so – but unfortunately not. His language disorder is part of larger developmental dyspraxia (or motor coordination disorder), and his fine motor skills are pretty limited. I’m sure he’d struggle with the dexterity needed for ASL.
Oof, I’m sorry. We know two kids locally – a friend of D26’s and a friend of S25’s – who also didn’t get into UChicago this week. (I have yet to meet anyone who got in RD!)
But definitely good news on the spreadsheet! Looking forward to seeing where she lands. 
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D did the “new me” college wardrobe and it worked out great. I think it was a mental cleansing/fresh start as much as a clothing makeover. (Fortunately at the time she was happy buying inexpensive clothing at H&M and stores of that sort.)
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D26’s three person team made it to the NASA Hunch finals in Houston.
The NASA person said they were the best she’s seen this year.
Now the teacher is scrambling to figure out the logistics. I think he was surprised they were chosen.
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