High School class of 2011

[ksjayhawks]

Sigh. I know this is a good problem to have, but I wonder if there are any tax experts/accountants out there who can help us.
Any advice?

--shortened by me--

Is her grant renewable each year? If so, I would work with the college and the scholarships that she has been offered. Have them deduct the scholarships from loans, etc, until they get to the point of starting to deduct from the grant.

Then, ask them several questions:
If she accepts these remaining scholarships, will she still be eligible for the grant next year?
How much will the grant be next year?
Will it be the same as the original offer or will it be the amount that it will be this year after it is reduced by scholarships?

If it is going to be reduced and some of the scholarships are not renewable, it might be in your dd's best interest to refuse the scholarships and take the grant as that will serve her the best in the long run.

 

[geffric]

I assume that all the DS and DDs have graduated high school, so on to the next adventure..

buying things for the dorm, findng out about roommates, registering for classes, etc..

My oldest DS ( who will be Jr in college) came home with his eggshellish mattress pad, and put it down on the chair in the family room.. still there.. but now the cat has taken it over and loves it as it is softer than the plain chair..maybe i'll have to buy 2 mattress pads this summer..

 

[disykat]

Are any of your kids still partying like there's no tomorrow? The official parties are mostly over, but my studious, not particularly social recent graduate is still participating in a constant round of bonfires, midnight movie kidnappings, impromptu sports games, etc.

I'm keeping my George Forman grill on the counter for the stream of teens making quesadillas, etc. (remember when a few otter pops in the fridge sufficed?)

Graduation was a week ago Thursday. I'm happy he's having so much fun, but when his summer job starts on Monday it'll be a relief!

 

[ctinct]

I assume that all the DS and DDs have graduated high school, so on to the next adventure..
buying things for the dorm, findng out about roommates, registering for classes, etc..

My oldest DS ( who will be Jr in college) came home with his eggshellish mattress pad, and put it down on the chair in the family room.. still there.. but now the cat has taken it over and loves it as it is softer than the plain chair..maybe i'll have to buy 2 mattress pads this summer..

Nope, not yet. Not till the 27th....very late because of snow storms, school buildings being closed from the stress of all that snow on the roofs, and floods.

 

[minkydog]

Are any of your kids still partying like there's no tomorrow? The official parties are mostly over, but my studious, not particularly social recent graduate is still participating in a constant round of bonfires, midnight movie kidnappings, impromptu sports games, etc.

I'm keeping my George Forman grill on the counter for the stream of teens making quesadillas, etc. (remember when a few otter pops in the fridge sufficed?)

Graduation was a week ago Thursday. I'm happy he's having so much fun, but when his summer job starts on Monday it'll be a relief!

Oh, yeah. It's like there just aren't enough hours in the day for them. DD graduated May 27 and I think she has spend a total of 4 nights at home since then. She and her 4 BFFs are just going from house to house, sleeping over and cooking. DD and one of the other girls are dating a set of twins, so that is keeping her busy. It's a nice little summer fling with a nice kid who thinks she's the greatest.

Seven weeks left to Move-in Day

 

[cruisnfamily]

Anybody else perusing the college course offerings for fall?

I take DD to orientation on Weds and she'll be picking her classes on day 2 of orientation so we've been doing some Pre looking over things.

These General education requirements don't interest her too much, lol!

Also, why are there no classes on Fridays? It's not just the classes she's picking, I'm going through the online catalog with her...not one of the things she'll be taking is even offered on a Friday. Weird, right? And this is not a school with a big party reputation or anything.

When is everybody else doing orientations?

 

[MichelleVW]

My daughter went to orientation June 9 and 10th. She went by herself since I couldn't get off work. She had a blast and made a few friends while she was there. Right now she's in Germany visiting her dad and when she gets back we will start shopping for her dorm!

 

[armomof3lvsdisney]

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is doing great! I just wanted to share that we have DS textbook list and I have been shopping around online and have found some great deals at Chegg.com, textbooks.com, bookfinder.com, and amazon. It is amazing how much cheaper you can get textbooks for just by shopping around. Also, I had always thought chegg was just for renting, but they also have books for sale. Also another find was DS bedding, we found last years dorm comforter sets on the the clearance at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. So if you still need bedding and your close to a BBB check their clearance.

 

[geffric]

Thanks for the tips

DS goes for orientation July 9th but gf goes June 24th, so we will here from her about the offerings..

 

[kbeverina]

Graduation was this past weekend. I loved this part:

We graduated inside and we weren't allowed to throw anything to celebrate. It started at 8am so it wasn't too hot by the time it ended at 10. Huge pool party at the house afterward with lots of family and friends. It was fun, but I'm glad it's over. It seems kind of weird that he's really done. No AP summer assignments for the first time since middle school. No soccer with all the practices, camps and travel for games. He has absolutely nothing he has to do.

Orientation is next Monday and my husband will be going with him. He finally heard from his roommate and they seem to like each other, but haven't discussed things I'm really interested in, like who's bringing what. Mostly "sup, bro" and that kind of stuff. He's from South Carolina and seems to be very outgoing and I think that will be good for my son, who is a little more reserved.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is doing great! I just wanted to share that we have DS textbook list and I have been shopping around online and have found some great deals at Chegg.com, textbooks.com, bookfinder.com, and amazon. It is amazing how much cheaper you can get textbooks for just by shopping around. Also, I had always thought chegg was just for renting, but they also have books for sale. Also another find was DS bedding, we found last years dorm comforter sets on the the clearance at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. So if you still need bedding and your close to a BBB check their clearance.

Thanks for the info. My DS is getting off easy the first semester, he only has 4 classes... two of the classes are a core hornors cluster, so it's one book that is used in both classes, and it is a novel. It will probably be the only time ever he gets away with having a book for class cost less than $10 (divide it by the two classes and it's under $5 per class)
His other two classes are sciences with labs, I priced the books through the book store at $100 and $200 and the lab manuals are around $50 each. I feel like he hit the lottery on this.

The Bed Bath & Beyond by me is not set up for Back to College yet, but when they do they have great packages at great prices (I checked them out last year) So right now, I am stockpiling BB&B coupons as I get them in the mail.... it will take forever to shop, but with 20% off a single item, I intend to use each coupon separately.

 

[ctinct]

It's becoming very real now. My daughter just registered for her college classes online. We had all sorts of alternative scenarios set up in case she was locked out of some classes, but it wasn't necessary. Yeah!

She graduates tonight. I actually read that there are a few schools in the area that don't have their last days until tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm not sure if they graduate their seniors on the last day or prior to that.

I just hope I can keep it together and not be a blubbering fool. Usually my daughter has me proof important stuff for her, but she said I couldn't proof her speech because I'm mentioned in it. I can feel the tears welling up just thinking about it now, and I don't even know what she is going to say.

My next worry is staying up all night tonight as I am working grad night. They said they will have plenty of coffee---I'm going to need it.

 

[kbeverina]

One thing I liked about our graduation is that they had a special seating area on the field for parents and families of the valedictorian, salutatorian, and class officers giving speeches. It was a really nice touch.

 

[geffric]

Today was a BIG day.. got DS's AP scores and DS found out the roommates..

WOW! he was so excited !! Looked them up on Facebook.. not yet send an email.. he registers for classes on Fri 7/8..

it is too fast to me.. for him.. he is so ready..

 

[cruisnfamily]

My dd found out her 2 roomates a few weeks ago and has been chatting with them on facebook. We're thinking of a road trip to meet them, they are about 4 hours away from us.

She registered for classes at orientation last week and is just taking 4 classes this first semester(12 credit hours)....all gen ed requirements. English Composition, Psychology, Human Systems, & College Algebra. The science and math classes both have labs too. I think this will be enough for her to manage for the first semester as this will be such a change for her.

She's also already signed up for sorority recruitment(which cost me $50) and is really excited to possibly join a sorority.

She also has a summer book to read for her english class. Does anybody else's child have a summer reading assignment? We found out about it at orientation and it was a big surprise as I didn't know colleges even did this. But it's a short book, could probably be read in a few hours, and a study guide with discussion questions.

So how many credits/courses are your kids taking first semester?
Are they talking fraternity/sorority?
Any summer reading homework?
How about roommates? Anybody meet theirs?

 

[minkydog]

My dd found out her 2 roomates a few weeks ago and has been chatting with them on facebook. We're thinking of a road trip to meet them, they are about 4 hours away from us.

She registered for classes at orientation last week and is just taking 4 classes this first semester(12 credit hours)....all gen ed requirements. English Composition, Psychology, Human Systems, & College Algebra. The science and math classes both have labs too. I think this will be enough for her to manage for the first semester as this will be such a change for her.

She's also already signed up for sorority recruitment(which cost me $50) and is really excited to possibly join a sorority.

She also has a summer book to read for her english class. Does anybody else's child have a summer reading assignment? We found out about it at orientation and it was a big surprise as I didn't know colleges even did this. But it's a short book, could probably be read in a few hours, and a study guide with discussion questions.

So how many credits/courses are your kids taking first semester?
Are they talking fraternity/sorority?
Any summer reading homework?
How about roommates? Anybody meet theirs?

DD18 gets her roommate assignment July 8. That's when she finds out which day she has to move-in(they do it in stages.)

She's signed up for 14 hours, but she wants to add a 1 hour dance class when she gets up there. That's how she plans to battle the freshman 15. So far she's taking a Speech class, Intro to Mass Media, American Govt, and an English Comp. No summer reading that we know of.

I discouraged her from rushing a sorority first semester. I'd like her to get used to being at college first. She can always join at a later date. That's what i did--I rushed in my sophomore year and it worked out well for me. Plus, sororities are expensive and DD is going to have to have a job if she joins one. I was a Zeta Tau Alpha,so I hope if she does rush she'll go Zeta.

 

[bethbuchall]

Today was a BIG day.. got DS's AP scores and DS found out the roommates..

WOW! he was so excited !! Looked them up on Facebook.. not yet send an email.. he registers for classes on Fri 7/8..

it is too fast to me.. for him.. he is so ready..

My daughter called for AP results at 1 am. She also received her roommate today. They have been texting, and dd found out that the roommate is a smoker. We don't know what to do. She is very sensitive to smoke and even though they can't smoke in the dorm, there will be an odor on all the clothes, etc. I never thought that they would pair a smoker and a non-smoker. It has kind of lessened the excitement a little around here.

In answer to some of the other questions:

She won't know exactly which courses or how many credits until right before classes begin.
She is not interested in a sorority at this point.
She needs to read Eaarth by Bill McKibben.

 

[agnes!]

DD has signed up for 18 credits and is excited, she got all the classes she wanted. She said she wants to get some of the required stuff out of the way, next semester she said she'll think about going for some fluff/fun classes.
Her school does class registration in stages. The freshmen sign up for a 2-day session (there were about 5 or 6 in June). The school opens up so many allotted spaces per session...if you don't get what you want during your particular registration, the school opens up online registration later in July. I don't think I'm explaining it very well, but this way the school makes it fair for everyone, doesn't matter if the student is in the earliest session or the last.

Her roommates were at the same session that DD was at, but she only met one of them...they had the students separated by major/college. Her overnight roomie was texting the whole time.

We signed up for books to be delivered to her college-room. I know it will be more expensive than buying them online from Alibris/Amazon/etc. but I don't care...less stress. At least the bookstore pulls used books before it goes for new, next semester we plan on buying everything we can used and online.

DD says she wants to wait for her AP scores from Senior year to be delivered via US Mail, but I am hopeful that she might want to get the by-phone version...the suspense is killing me! She probably won't get much (if any) requirement-credits for her 7 AP courses, they'll actually probably go for her elective credits, since she's in the Honors program. *But* getting credit for the credit will let her choose a room assignments next year earlier than students who have less hours.

agnes!

 

[minkydog]

We signed up for books to be delivered to her college-room. I know it will be more expensive than buying them online from Alibris/Amazon/etc. but I don't care...less stress. At least the bookstore pulls used books before it goes for new, next semester we plan on buying everything we can used and online.

agnes!

We did the same thing. I was just getting all stressed and anxious about finding the right books and finally decided I just needed to lighten my load. DD has to go by the bookstore and pick up her box of books, easy-peasy.

 

[minkydog]

My daughter called for AP results at 1 am. She also received her roommate today. They have been texting, and dd found out that the roommate is a smoker. We don't know what to do. She is very sensitive to smoke and even though they can't smoke in the dorm, there will be an odor on all the clothes, etc. I never thought that they would pair a smoker and a non-smoker. It has kind of lessened the excitement a little around here.

Wow, I'm surprised they did that. If your DD is sensitive to smoke, she's going to have a problem with this (3rd hand smoke is dangerous). i think I would encourage her to call the housing office and discuss it with them. Hopefully they can change some things around and find her a more suitable roommate.