Wow. I guess they’re managing class size. Probably makes it a bit harder for 2027 apps. Yeah if that were my kid I’d also be having conversations about what to do in a gap year!
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We did mull over the idea with D22. She had worked at such an intense level for so long that I kind of thought she needed a break before starting four years at a rigorous school.
But she didn’t like the idea much – she was a little afraid she’d lose momentum, that she’d get lazy and forget how to study effectively, or something. And she was very much looking forward to joining the college community and enjoying all the fun things there.
A close friend of hers took a gap year and worked as a house mom in a girl’s boarding school in central America somewhere – opportunity through her church, I think. She got a lot out of it, but she was also very glad afterward to finally start college and do “normal” college things.
Oh nooo! Kidney stones are no joke – they can be crazy painful. Glad he’s okay now! And glad the universe is self-correcting on all other fronts, too.
I casually asked my D22 last week if she had talked to her good friend about his grad school acceptances – because they had both applied to three of the same schools. And she said, “Well, let me tell you the craziness with him.” Turns out this poor kid started feeling sick in the middle of a show in which he had one of the leads (Sunday in the Park with George, in case that matters to anyone, lol) – and the next day he had an emergency appendectomy. Imagine! I guess it’s been that kind of week in the universe, lol.
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Yeah, I think this is the trick of it. I listened to some podcast about a student that took a gap year, and it was a similar result. Got a lot out of it and was extremely happy to start school. Reading between the lines, I think that student wishes they hadn’t done it.
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Uber has been necessary for my D22 in Houston. She has her car there (didn’t take it until junior year) – but she is well-versed in using Uber whenever she needs to. My DH likes to buy the gift cards at Costco for her to make it a little cheaper.
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That might be the better way to do it. I know that some kids who have parent-paid Uber accounts will use it to make some cash – they will offer to order the Uber when they are going out with friends and then their friends will kick in some cash to cover their fair share (meaning mom and dad pay, but the Uber-ordering-kid gets to pocket his/her friends reimbursement money).
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On the gap year thing for those who wished there older kids did one, but didn’t, I will just add that I did what I would call a gap year after the fact. The year I graduated college, I moved abroad with a close friend and worked at a resort with included room and board. We then used a portion of the money we saved up to travel the region of the world after we were done. One of the best experiences of my life, and was so glad I did it before settling into normal work. And, as a middle aged man I still have a note about it on my resume (in the interests/fun facts type line near the bottom) and people still ask about it in interviews sometimes.
Just wanted to share that as an alternative that could work for some people. I imagine it could work particularly well for those thinking of going back to grad school in a few years.
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My kids (D19 and S21) also did this all thru HS and college with their authorized user credit cards that we gave them. Because their educations were quite impacted by covid we looked the other way. They ended up with some pretty high venmo balances 
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I did this too, but I spent a year backpacking around the US (not from here originally), some of Europe and then went to work on a kibbutz for a few months. It was an amazing experience, and not one I could have easily done as a 17 year old straight out of high school.
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My husband is a physician and ended up doing a gap year after college before medical school- he spent the year working at a physician’s office which ultimately made him choose that specialty. We actually met at the very end of that gap year in the summer before he started medical school. He always says he cannot imagine having graduated and going straight to graduate school.
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D26 had a bad day yesterday and was feeling sorry for herself about college acceptances. “I don’t have any choices!”
In reality, she has 16 acceptances (and almost all of them are affordable, with max merit at lots of schools), 1 waitlist, 1 denial. Still waiting on a couple more. (She applied to so many schools because she had trouble deciding where to apply.)
Life is hard sometimes, isn’t it?
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First rejection, UCSB. D26 is bummed only because she thinks it bodes poorly for UCSD, but we’ll see…
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Our first rejection today too - Boston College Nursing. D seems okay. I am a little sad because I thought it could be a good fit. This is the yucky part of the process!
Anyway, looking forward: We have admitted student visits scheduled next week to UMiami, CWRU, and UTK. And next month to Iowa and TCU. Pitt is still in the mix. (Marquette, Creighton, USF-CA seem to be falling towards the bottom a bit.)
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Yay, yay, yay for the Holy Cross admit! Our D24 is there and is absolutely thriving. D26 is Boston College bound, but to us, BC has a lot to live up to. Tremendous opportunities at HC!
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I am sorry about recent rejections. 
This is the yucky part of the process, indeed.
D26’s first day back to school after spring break was today, and she got home after rehearsal and just lost it – apparently it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
Something happened in band where she felt slighted, and she is SO upset about it. (Too complicated to detail here, but I’m with her on this one.) In Calc BC they’ve gone back to series, and she doesn’t understand what’s going on and has to learn it before the test next week. They had a self-defense seminar for the senior girls during lunch, so she didn’t get a mental break.
She neglected to read an email yesterday asking her to bring in something for play rehearsal and had to email me in a panic (not allowed phones during the day) asking me to deliver it. The world’s slowest and most boring Bible class was last period of the day. And then something happened during play rehearsal where she again felt slighted – three of the seniors had made a plan to coordinate attire for the senior picture but NOT communicated it to the rest of the group. (Why, people?)
And then on top of everything else, everyone congratulated her on Georgia Tech (she’d sent it in to the class insta that announces such things) – to the point where it got annoying, but no one noticed that she’d gotten a cute new haircut. Oh, the humanity.
This kid is so ready to graduate and move on with her life – 14 years at the same school is too many. We’re so close!
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D19 has gone back to NY now -been so nice having them around for a few weeks - but before they went they took C26 shopping (on my dime of course, haha) for some of the “new college wardrobe” stuff and..I really like the new style. Both style wise and flattering-wise because, can I say it, 3 years of baggy tshirts and cargo pants is enough already! I’m sure they’ll still wear that every so often but it’s literally been almost every day for 3 years, with the only recent variation being a couple of pairs of those “star” jeans. They just modeled some of the new stuff for me and I’m like - I can totally see you going to see some cool indie band in a college town dressed like that! and see you looking cool on campus like that! -etc
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Just got finished catching up to the end of the earlier thread and the beginning of this one. So much has happened on here recently.
Congrats to all on the recent acceptances.
And @SpreadsheetMom, congrats to D26 on the commitment! I had a feeling that’s the way it was going to go. Seems like Georgia Tech will be a great fit for her!
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Couple of updates here on our end…
D26’s foot has been bugging her a little bit since she had the stitches removed yesterday. Dr said removal wouldn’t hurt, but kid said “it hurt like a MF’er once or twice.” She’s also stubborn and refused to take any ibuprofen or Tylenol, so earlier today, I told her to suck it up and take some Tylenol or else. She caved & finally followed her mom’s advice. 
D26 had meeting today w/school counselor, showed counselor how the AP scores are showing up on the college portal as “no credit.” Counselor gave D26 the contact info for somebody at the college she knows who handles AP scores & getting them credited toward courses, so D26 is going to email that person for help. Counselor said the portal is probably showing them as ‘no credit’ because it’s based on the unofficial score report that D26 sent them…and if the scores HAD been correctly applied, it would show as specific classes that do NOT say “no credit” under the class name & number.
…so that was interesting.
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The last 36 hours have been a whirlwind for us. We woke up early yesterday morning to find that our 12 year old dog was not well. We took him to pet emergency room, and discovered that a mass on his spleen had ruptured and was bleeding into his abdomen. He had emergency surgery to remove the mass and his spleen. And then a blood transfusion to aid his recovery as he lost a lot of blood. We won’t know if the mass is cancer for another week, but the vet is hopeful that it’s not given some other factors she noted during surgery.
If that wasn’t enough, today is S26’s 18th birthday and while we’d celebrated over the weekend, we wanted him to feel special today (and also not to lose our beloved dog on his birthday). I think he felt pretty special—he got presents he likes a lot (including a Star Wars Lego set he has coveted for years and new Doc Martens) and special breakfast and dinner. And we got to take our dog home tonight. It’s been a bit more about the dog this evening than S26, and s26 has a decent amount of homework. But I guess this has been quite the introduction to adulthood.
Hoping for a good night’s sleep for everyone!
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Aw, I hope your doggie is ok/heals well and happy birthday to your son!
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