I bought a couple of these for D26 and I love them b/c they fold flat so she can store them after she unloads them: Costco and were around $10 each on sale
And many parents on the Auburn dorm page recommended a wagon so I got this: $40 on Amazon
Auburn does NOT help with move-in at all so people buy wagons, dollies, etc. The wagon she will keep in her dorm storage closet and use for when she grocery shops to get stuff from the car to her dorm.
D26 got her AP Gov and Enviro scores back. A 3 and a 4, respectively. She is bummed about Gov- she thought she did better and really needed that credit for a core class at Auburn. Oh well. Auburn won’t accept the Enviro one for anything legit which is also a bummer.
I had a lot of catching up to do on this thread, and I have enjoyed reading about everyone’s summer travels, dorm shopping, etc. We have all been busy working over here, but we will start taking some time off later this month for vacation and summer fun.
On the college front, D26 registered for her classes in early June, and it was a breeze. The Nursing curriculum is pretty set in stone, and they make sure there are enough seats for everyone. Dorm assignments also came out, and that was a bit of a bummer. Because D missed the “preferred” housing deadline, she was put in a dorm on Michigan’s North Campus. She’s taking it in stride, though. Her random roommate match came out at the same time, and they’re messaging back and forth a little bit… It’s too early to tell if they will end up friends, but at the very least, I think they will be respectful towards each other.
Overall, D does not seem particularly interested in dorm shopping or related activities. We have a list started and will probably sit down and order it all at the same time.
And AP scores dropped this morning (5 in AP Bio, 4 in AP Gov, and 4 in AP Calc AB), but we have pretty much decided not to send any AP scores or DE transcripts to Michigan. UMich charges more tuition for “upper level” (junior and senior year), which I think is based on credit hours. If that’s true, then D’s AP/DE credits (9 AP classes and 21 DE credits) will push her into the higher price point early – without the benefit of graduating early, since Nursing (with clinicals, etc.) requires the full 8 semesters. I am still trying to figure this all out.
So, we just collectively realized that we are at less than a month until D26 heads of to school since she has to be there early for cheer. And now I’m feeling completely and totally unprepared and anxious. We have practically nothing and I have no idea when we’re going to get anything. She on the other hand does not seem alarmed at all. She met her roommate in person the other day and they got along great. They’re discussing their room decor and who is bringing what. My daughter will be there for a bit without the roommate, so we do have to make sure she has what she needs for that time period though. I’m sure it’ll all work out but I’m in stress mode now.
On the good news front, she got her AP scores and she got three 5s (Calc AB, Gov and Lit) and a 4. She was most excited about the 4 (in French) because she was convinced she was going to get a 2. I knew that wouldn’t happen, but she was literally like “I got a 4, I’m totally French, like look at me”, lol. Add the 5 from APUSH last year, she now has a bunch of credits to use at her discretion. She can use French for a foreign language requirement, but she wants to take Spanish anyway so I don’t know how that all works. She’s meeting with her advisor next Tuesday. It was supposed to be tomorrow, but she rescheduled it for next week because she had something she wanted to do with her friends tomorrow and that was the only day everyone could make it. She’s obviously not as anxious as I am for her to get her classes sorted out. Trying to let her lead on everything college, but it’s kinda hard.
back in our family’s year-round swim team days, we had one of those wagons to haul all of the “let’s camp outside all day for 2 days in a row with all of the other swim families at the swim meet” events!
The dolly I’m thinking of getting is this:
We also have one of these in the garage that we can use:
The one that Husband always wants to use (and never works/breaks easily) is this one, except it’s white & blue:
I like those fold-up bins from Costco! I’ll have to go check those out.
That was my understanding when D22 was deciding between a few schools - There are a couple which do this tuition increase when classified as an upperclassman.
As an alternative strategy, if one could do their course plan based on the AP credits one would receive if they submitted their scores - but hold them for the first two years and submit them after they’d paid their first two years tuition 
. Would UMich accept AP scores submitted by a rising Junior or must they be submitted before starting at all?
Hmmm, interesting question. Not sure about AP, but I can’t see why we couldn’t wait to send college transcripts (for dual enrollment) until junior year.
Here’s what the UNC systems says:
If I am already a student at a UNC System university, can I still receive course credit for an AP exam score I earned a few years ago, when I was still in high school?
If you are already an undergraduate student (including but not limited to transfer students, readmitted students, and upperclassman), this policy allows you to reevaluate previous AP exam scores and resubmit them for credit. You should consult with your academic advisor to guide you through this process.
We are in China! We are in Hong Kong right now, headed to Xi’an later this morning (and I am awake with some jet lag… fun times). S26 picked China as his graduation trip and DH and I pooled all of our United miles to get us here. I’m amazed we pulled it off, but it seems many folks didn’t want to take the 14 hour flight to China on the 4th of July 
The weather has been and will continue to be very, very hot. But we have been waking up crazy early and doing things so we can spend a chunk of the afternoon in the hotel or in an air conditioned space. S26 has loved Hong Kong and is looking forward to Xi’an and Beijing. He is a serious history nerd so we are spending time in museums and have tours booked for the Terracotta Warriors, the Great Wall, Forbidden City. There’s a lot to see!
On the Wesleyan front, S26 has been making his way through a labyrinth of online orientation tasks. He only took 2 AP exams since Wesleyan only allows 2 credits to be used. He took AP Calc BC (got a 5) and AP Lang (4). He has a roommate, and they seem to have a nice texting relationship going.
We haven’t even started dorm shopping yet—eek. But we have a chunk of things from D22 that are still in good shape (mattress covers, pads, laundry stuff, little organizers, down comforter, those big blue ikea bags, etc). I don’t really want to rebuy this stuff so we are gonna shove it in those blue bags and check ‘em!
It’s been fun to catch up on everyone’s holiday and summer so far. Back to try to sleep!
We once took an Africa-US flight on Christmas Day, when C26 was little (maybe 2?) Ticket prices were cheaper, we got the bulkhead row and the flight was half empty. Probably the most comfortable transatlantic economy class flight we ever did, especially considering it was something ridiculous like 18 hours.
Your trip sounds great, enjoy!
Maternal nesting continues…
this cell phone tether thingy arrived today from Amazon…the wire can’t be cut with a knife, so it’ll (hopefully) make D26’s cell phone pick pocket-proof for her spring break trip to Europe with my sister.
I also finally added D26 to our AAA membership. Later this week, we’ll add her to our Costco membership. She plans on stocking up regularly on chips and salsa there while at college and my sister (who lives in same metro area as UofA) doesn’t have a Costco membership.
We don’t have a Costco here, only Sam’s. But I was able to buy the Woozoo fan at the discounted price without a membership, which was great!
D26 was disappointed in her AP score (3), but maybe it will be a valuable lesson that she needs to put a lot more effort and preparation into tests. She started her two online college courses today. Unfortunately I don’t think a summer job is in her future- she had a phone interview with a local grocery store and when they found out she was going to college, they told her thanks but no thanks. I have a feeling that will be the response from every place she’s applied to.
I am not 100% sure, but I have heard and Google seems to confirm that Michigan will apply the upper division tuition differential retrospectively in this case.
Definitely look into it, but I wanted to call out this possibility.
We have our AP scores and they run the gamut. 5 in Lit where he thought he would get a 3, 4s in Bio/Chem/Microeconomics where he thought he did really well and had gotten 5s and a 3 in US Gov where he had no idea how he did. Add in to the Calc BC 4 and three other APs he had in previous years and he finishes with 9 APs which should be enough credit for a year at least. It’s too bad neither Bio nor Chem count because they didn’t have labs. So he will have to take both classes again.
We have bought exactly nothing for his dorm and will probably go shopping the week before he heads up 
D24 LOVED her Woozoo fan. I’m using one on my bedside table. We already have a ceiling fan in the bedroom but hey, I get hot flashes at night and the Woozoo is just awesome. Husband uses one in his mancave office. He used to use 1 of those big tower fans but got rid of it once we discovered Woozoo’s. 
D26 has been going back & forth with the admissions office and high school counselor for about a week because admissions office says they still haven’t received her final high school transcript. HS counselor said it was sent over a month ago.
D26 learned today that HS counselor sent final transcript to the wrong email address. Problem will likely be fixed tomorrow and probably a week or 2 later, the hold on D26’s account for financial aid distribution will be released because of the transcript mix-up.
Told D26 that I’m really really proud of her for being so diligent in following up on this because it’s a good lesson in how you can’t always just assume that everything is fine if you don’t hear anything. Trust but verify.
This is the month of Appointments For The Child. So far, we’ve got:
D26 is looking forward to never having to go to our pediatrician ever again. She doesn’t like that Dr very much. For her new PCP, I’m going to have her see the internal medicine Dr I see for my PCP stuff. He’s very thorough, is a good listener & is only ~ 15-20 min from our house.
So it looks like C26 is going to have a busy welcome week, with events from the LLC and the neurodiversity institute as well as the general college social and academic programming. I am hoping they can be busy as possible without overloading. I was also very heartened to see that they have been reaching out to potential contacts/friends (not sure what to call it at this stage) on social media, both in response to others posting things like “incoming freshman interested in x/y” (usually something to do with pokemon or anime, lol) but has also posted one themself. Whether or not these lead to any lasting social connections, just the fact that my little introvert is putting themself out there is huge.
We have wagons too. They are great for moving in. I left one in storage down there so I don’t have to bring one if it doesn’t fit, but I am hoping it fits in the car just to make it easier for D24 to move in. S26 should have large bins available, but a wagon would still be helpful for him too.
He got his IB English and got a 5 on that so should have his English requirement done. Happy day!
This is great! I think being busy during welcome week will be a good way to make early connections and make the transition easier. Also nice to see they are putting themselves out there. Good signs!
S24 REALLY dislikes his pediatrician for various reasons. He will finally switch to the same PCP DH uses. Hopefully he likes this new guy a lot better. In MA you need to leave pediatrics at age 22 anyway so he would have only had another year anyway. D26 loves the bed she sees so will stick with her until 22 but also has a relationship with a Women’s Health NP that she sees so that area is already covered.
