So happy for your family!
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Why is the pay so low? This just makes me sad that the profession seems inevitable to burn people out. We love our veterinarian and everyone in his practice so much – he is so caring and takes such good care of our dog and two cats.
It’s way better now - I graduated in the last century 
but it’s still not great compared to the cost.
I made sure that my veterinarian is treated well by her practice- she works 4 days a week with call only once a month. I don’t know - obviously -about pay.
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We have good poke in Atlanta. Maybe not California good, but still good. Just saying. 
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My S25 is home in one piece from his first spring break adventure. He drove 8 to 10 hours to Florida (Port Charlotte) with a couple buddies to stay at a friend’s vacation home. They puttered around, swam in the heated pool, took the boat out and went fishing (and saw a manatee!), drove to Busch Gardens in Tampa one day (and got stuck in the world’s worst traffic), drove to Gainesville and spent one night there, went to an escape room, met up with a friend at Mercer in Macon on the way home, etc. They even drove south to Ft. Myers one day to make nice with the grandparents who were letting them stay at their house for free.
It’s more driving than he’s ever done in his life. But he came home and immediately unpacked and threw his pile of laundry in the washer because he has to drive back to school tomorrow. (First, tomorrow morning we’re going to go see Project Hail Mary on IMAX – we both just finished the audio book, and I’m excited. Best book ever.)
It is really amazing to see kids grow up and become independent.
Meanwhile, my oldest is in Hawaii this week – she hiked around the inside of a volcano crater yesterday. Can’t wait to hear all the stories when she gets back!
We had a mom/daughter brunch for senior girls at D26’s school this morning, and then she had four hours of play rehearsal. Oof, it’s been a little rough going – and this is show week. Fingers crossed it comes together.
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We saw Project Hail Mary last night. Great movie!
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My wife studied animal science in college thinking she would be a vet and backed out of it when she realized a lot of the jobs were on farms just making sure the animals don’t get sick and can be sent to the slaughter houses. She went back to school 2 years ago for Special Ed and passed her exam to become a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst (BCBA).
I am amazed how many jobs are available for her, she might as well be an AI engineers. She applied to a handful of jobs and they all wanted to interview her, she had worked in early education before so she’s working in a school system by us now, but despite all the demand there’s a salary ceiling because of how much insurance will pay per hour.
S26 is almost done, accepted at Lewis and Clark, University of Hawaii, Pitzer, UCD, UCSC waitlisted at UCSD and UCSB so far rejected by UCLA and UCI. Now just waiting for UCB and USC (which is not in our price range unless they offer him a lot of merit aid).
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Big island?
Which are his favorites among his acceptances?
Yes! Although she and her friends hopped over for just a couple days – otherwise they’ve been somewhere near Honolulu. According to Life360, anyway.
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We hiked a crater there a few years ago with D26, it was amazing. Feels like being on another planet. Volcano (different crater) was erupting there then and many years ago when my wife and I were there. Night hike watching lava flows form new earth was one of the most profound experiences of my life.
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UCD, although he’s not super excited about it. I loved the school and thought it had the friendliest vibe of all the schools we visited, he thinks Davis is too small and there is no big city nearby. He really wanted UCSD and he might still get off the waitlist, UCB comes out next week and his HS has 17% acceptance rate to UCB vs 11% to UCSD so that would be the next choice.
He wanted to be in socal and thinks far too many people from his HS will be at UCB. I told him he could do a year abroad and there’s tons to do at UCB so he might warm up to it if he gets in.
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Maybe you can help me understand why kids want to go to the socal UCs, then? My D was WL at Davis (which she likes) but got in to UCI and is now trying to encourage herself to feel interested in it! 
I really don’t know a lot about UCI.
A friend’s kid is at UCI this year. Interestingly the choice was between UCD and UCI - she committed to Davis but then got off the waitlist at UCI and after a few days of agonizing went with UCI. She’s loving it down there.
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For him it’s exploring he wants to go somewhere new, originally he wanted to be in NYC but NYU/Columbia tuition were just not in our budget. So LA is the next closest thing. He’s been to LA before and he likes the beach and the fact that there is a lot of music and places he hasn’t been before.
For UCI from what I know it’s more of a commuter campus, many students live off campus and drive. Have you visited the campus ? Not my favorite but S26 liked it he said it’s Russian brutalist. Their mascot is an ant eater, we got some cool pictures with him, it’s the quirky UC imo. Different vibe than UCD. What does your daughter want to study ?
UCD great for agriculture, environmental science, wine, lots of outdoors research etc, on the tour they told us one popular class is learning to drive a tractor. UCI comp sci, STEM, more indoor focused, only school we saw that had an esports team.
Biomedical engineering. I’ve heard that they have a good program? My D really liked the vibe at Davis, but has not yet visited Irvine.
Hm, my understanding is that the “commuter” thing here (as with a number of other colleges that have evolved beyond their local catchments over the years) is a little overblown. It seems like many of the “off campus” students live close to campus (and around half of undergrads live on campus, I’d expect as with other colleges that the % of freshmen who do is higher than that). Of course, there is also a lot more to do on the weekends being in the greater LA area/not far from the beach than Davis - you’re not stuck on campus with nothing to do even if some kids go home for weekends. The kids we know who have gone to Davis have really enjoyed it there, but it seems to be a totally different vibe.
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You need a class to learn to drive a tractor?! It took me a day on the kibbutz (and yes it was with complex fruit-hauling trailers behind it lol)
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D26 has s bunch of acceptances (UW, UO’s CHC with merit aid, American U again with lots of merit aid, Pitzer, Scripps, UCR, UCSC, SJSU, CSULB, LMU) but the 3 WLs (UCD, UCSB & UCSD) and 2 rejections (UCI & UCLA) are heartbreaking for her. She really wanted to stay in state but feels like she cannot justify a 90K price tag at Scripps/Pitzer and her best options are out of state.
Personally I’m trying to get her to see that she has pretty decent options. I’m nudging her towards UW (at least she will be on the West coast & my sis lives in Seattle) but American has lots of opportunities for her for internships etc. as someone who plans to major in Pol Sci and then go on to be a lawyer. Going to visit schools for their admitted students day through April and we will decide in the last week of April.
Praying she gets off WL in Davis or SD, she has good friends who are committing to those schools. The only schools we are waiting on come out next week USC & UCB where we don’t have much hope.
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That one really stood out in every way! Do you have a sense of which way she’s leaning? A great roster either way.
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