Parents of College Class of 2018 (A.K.A., "Is this the line to the poor house?")

[njmom47]

Oh boy, things are sure winding down.
The deposit for ds's school has been sent. "The packet" has come in the mail.
The last Varsity baseball game was played yesterday. (Kids and parents were all a little sad as a lot of these kids have played Allstars and travel ball together since they were 9).
Senior Ball is tomorrow, Senior Skip day is Tuesday.
Graduation is June 20th.



This is my "baby" so I'm especially emotional!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Tonight my little boy graduates High School. I guess he's not so little anymore. Bring on the tissues.

In 3 weeks we'll be at the college for orientation, advisement, and registration plus the parent meetings. That will be a huge chunk of money we'll be paying since I believe we also have to pay for his housing and parking as well as for his classes.

So very close to the end of one chapter and on to another for him.

And then in 4 years we get to do it all over again for his younger sister. I think I'll ignore that part. LOL

 

[cheerful chickadee]

We have 34 days til graduation here. Last weekend was DS's senior ball, he and his GF looked so gorgeous and grown up Next week is the senior banquet, the kids will receive their yearbooks there. I purchased a baby picture ad in the yearbook so I'm anxious to see it and hope DS isn't too mad that I did it lol He is pretty private so his baby pic in the yearbook might not be awesome to him. Senior skip day is next Friday, the kids are going to a local amusement park.

Congrats to all the grads and tissue for the moms, haha!

 

[Bluestars]

Congratulations to all of the grads in the class of 2014!

My son is officially finished with high school. We should get a copy of his transcripts by the end of this month. We fly to Texas for his new student conference at the beginning of June. I signed him up for the freshmen fish camp where they get to spend three days with other freshman, have fun, and learn the traditions of the school.

I am waiting until his orientation before I get stuff for his dorm because they are very restrictive in the Corps of Cadets and I think will give him a list of things he can bring.

Has anyone purchased dorm stuff yet? I'll bet the kids who can bring whatever they want have a lot of fun picking out things for their dorm room.

 

[heartsy77]

My daughter was accepted into the Camillus Fire Department bunk in program! We are so excited and so relieved. Usually their are ton of spots in surrounding the Syracuse, NY area departments ; however, this year their was an influx of applicants! She will live at the fire station, which is 10 minutes from her school, while attending classes at OCC! This saves about $10,0000. a year from her college fund for room and board! She is the only female bunk in so she has her own: private room, bathroom, and shower! She is so excited!

She graduated High School in 35 days and we leave for Disney in 36 days for her big graduation trip! Happy days!

 

[IDoDis]

I envy your restraint. I probably would have pushed him down or at least had a few choice words. Or better yet, I would have leaned forward and let the monster lens on my camera do the dirty work! I hope your handshake photo turns out great!

Congrats to your grad!

We are one year post graduation. We just picked our son up at school yesterday. It seems like forever ago that he graduated and we went to orientation. I'm so glad they didn't have us write that letter. I would have been all too!

It's been an exciting year, but one we're glad to have behind us. We are looking forward to a much more laid back summer this year.

Oh trust me, I had some words. At first I was very polite and said things like "Excuse me sir, can you please move" but he didn't respond. He probably didn't hear me. Then when he was climbing over the seat to the row right in front of me he saw me with my camera trying to shoot photos and still didn't move out of the way. I can be heard in the video that DH was attempting to shoot saying, "Really? Unbelievable!" with lots of frustration. He turned around and muttered a weak "sorry" and then walked away. The woman he was seated next to was still sitting there. She turned around 2 or 3 times and kept apologizing. When the ceremony was over, a person sitting nearby us said he saw the whole thing and felt really bad that we missed seeing DD getting her diploma. The pictures that the photographer took are good though. There's a handshake one and a couple of posed photos so we'll have to buy those at their outrageous prices. Oh well.

Congrats to your DS for finishing his freshman year. I believe that year is the hardest year in college. It was for me, that's for sure!

Congrats to all the parents whose kids have graduated so far! Our summer is finally off and rolling. DD has picked up some extra hours at her job which is good because she is not going to work when school starts, so she's saving her money. We've had rain for the past two days since school was let out which is pretty rare given the drought we've been suffering through. The rain is very welcomed though.

DD, my mom and I leave for NYC in less than 2 weeks for a girls' trip which is also DD's graduation gift from my mom. DD has never been there and I haven't been there since I was 10 or 11 years old. We are looking forward to it.

 

[Gina]

Just wanted to toss in my congrats to all our '14 kids who have already graduated! How exciting!! We're still gearing up for it here -- DS walks the stage on the 6th. I'm excited, I'm sad, I'm all sorts of things right now.

OMG, the bf & I went to see the new X-Men movie this weekend, and there was some commercial beforehand that showed kids just starting high school, then highlights of them progressing through high school, then graduating. Definitely had me sniffling.

Has anyone purchased dorm stuff yet? I'll bet the kids who can bring whatever they want have a lot of fun picking out things for their dorm room.

I'm trying to gather things as I find them on sale. We have a box in the corner of the living room that we're putting everything in. Found him a reversible black/gray comforter online at Target - twin XL, even - for all of $15. Will go great with both his gray and his maroon sheets! Also found a black clip-on light since he's going to loft his bed all the way up and put the desk and such under it. He pronounced both the comforter and the light "awesome!", so I guess they'll do. I'm happy whenever I can get more than a shrug out of him over any sort of decorative item at all, lol.

Now I need to start paying much closer attention to the store ads for sales on things like detergent pods, toiletries, insect repellent (I wonder if Costco sells that by the keg?), and some new shorts & t-shirts. My brother who lives in Southern California just sent DS a new surfboard for graduation, and he was way excited about that! And I got him a new 4-in-1 Nerf gun and a bunch of Nerf darts that I know he's going to love.

Aside from cash, which everyone loves, what gifts have your grads received that they have really loved so far?

 

[Pembo]

We gave our son a framed photo collage of all of his first day of school pictures from K-12. He loved it!

His graduation was Saturday. He didn't walk so we went to a nice lunch with my parents and came home for cake. Then he took off for Cedar Point with some friends.

I promised him a grad trip to Diagon Alley but we probably won't go until winter. Extreme crowds and extreme heat don't mix.

 

[JeannieNM]

Congratulations to the Class of 2014!

DD graduated last Saturday morning. I cried...each senior rights a paragraph or so that is read by one of 4 teachers when the senior comes up to get their diploma. I started crying with the first senior, as he had lost his mom when he was young and paid tribute to her, as did the next kid, there were 4 early on that had lost a parent, one just this December. My DD is early in the alphabet and I managed to pull it together after she went. It was a great day. We had a family lunch and a blow out party at night. We did the party with 5 other families and had about 200+ guests, luckily we did it at a place we rented and had no set up, cooking, or cleaning to do.

My DD has received what I consider a lot of money from people for gifts. One person specifically said I hope you do something frivolous with the money. How do you all handle monetary gifts? What percentage do you allocate for charity? savings? Thanks for the help.

CONGRATULATIONS to all those who have graduated and those that will in the coming months. 2014!

 

[sk!mom]

DD celebrated her 18th birthday today and will graduate Saturday morning. Her favorite gift, so far, is a Smart TV but she quit opening them this week and is letting them build up now until Saturday's party. We got her a Macbook Pro which she has no idea about and I think she'll love. DH made her a video to show at her luncheon, and we had all her dance shirts made into a quilt. But I'm most excited about the photo book that I made. I asked important people in her life to write her a letter of memories, advice, or whatever. I then used Snapfish to make a photo book. Each page is the person's letter and then photos of her with each person over the years. The letters are so precious- everyone from grandparents, to cousins, to her Kinder teacher, and her ballet teachers contributed. I can't look at it without crying. Her youngest cousins- all 10 or younger included wisdom like, "Don't make friends with crazy people. It will ruin your year." and "Don't go crazy getting to live on your own in college." I can't wait for her to see it!

My DD has received what I consider a lot of money from people for gifts. One person specifically said I hope you do something frivolous with the money. How do you all handle monetary gifts? What percentage do you allocate for charity? savings? Thanks for the help.

DD is saving her cash gifts. She wants to get to College with a nice nest egg. At this age, I make suggestions as to how she manages it (save it!) but I'm way past deciding for her.

 

[scrapquitler]

My daughter was accepted into the Camillus Fire Department bunk in program! We are so excited and so relieved. Usually their are ton of spots in surrounding the Syracuse, NY area departments ; however, this year their was an influx of applicants! She will live at the fire station, which is 10 minutes from her school, while attending classes at OCC! This saves about $10,0000. a year from her college fund for room and board! She is the only female bunk in so she has her own: private room, bathroom, and shower! She is so excited!

She graduated High School in 35 days and we leave for Disney in 36 days for her big graduation trip! Happy days!

I had to google what this Fire Department Bunk In thing was all about, because I had never heard of it before. That sounds like a really cool program, and a creative way to save a lot of money! Congratulations to your daughter!!

 

[Gina]

In case anyone is interested, the commercial thingy at the movies that had me all choked up is today's special linky at the main Google page. Happy sniffling.

 

[IDoDis]

In case anyone is interested, the commercial thingy at the movies that had me all choked up is today's special linky at the main Google page. Happy sniffling.

I am literally wiping away tears as I'm typing this. That was great!

 

[elgerber]

I am literally wiping away tears as I'm typing this. That was great!

Yeah I won't be watching that at work, whatever it is

 

[Pembo]

What a sweet video on Google...my favorite part is the boy with Down Syndrome. so sweet...


Question: Are you having your recent grad get a credit card for college? Have you thought about it? DS has had a prepaid MC for a few years now that we fund for gas for his car. He also has an ATM card that is hooked to his new checking account. But I'm wondering about a credit card. It would be nice for him to buy his books and such.

But otoh, I can use my cc to get his books and rack up my Disney rewards points. We got him a checking account a few months back and we didn't know if he'd actually need checks. I asked some students at orientation who said they have used a few checks so we ordered a pack.

It's these decisions that are driving me crazy. Do we or don't we....

Thoughts everyone?

 

[TLuvsD]

Our D will be a college junior in the fall. She set up a checking account with the campus credit union, and has received several credit card offers from them. Right now, she has her own card on our account (love those Disney rewards). In the fall, we are thinking we will have her get her own account to start establishing credit.

If you are setting up a separate card on your account, let your credit company know where your student will be living. Otherwise their charges could trigger a fraud alert.

 

[scrapquitler]

What a sweet video on Google...my favorite part is the boy with Down Syndrome. so sweet...


Question: Are you having your recent grad get a credit card for college? Have you thought about it? DS has had a prepaid MC for a few years now that we fund for gas for his car. He also has an ATM card that is hooked to his new checking account. But I'm wondering about a credit card. It would be nice for him to buy his books and such.

But otoh, I can use my cc to get his books and rack up my Disney rewards points. We got him a checking account a few months back and we didn't know if he'd actually need checks. I asked some students at orientation who said they have used a few checks so we ordered a pack.

It's these decisions that are driving me crazy. Do we or don't we....

Thoughts everyone?

I have been thinking about it, but haven't done anything yet. My DD won't be 18 until mid-October, so I'm kind of thinking that might be an issue for some of the banks, but i'm not really sure. The easy solution would be a checking account with a debit card, but I am NOT a fan of debit cards. I'm going to call one of my credit card's customer service number and find out if I can add her onto one of my cards as a co-owner so she can use it and (hopefully) my credit rating will kind of rub off on her, but I'm not sure if that will actually work. We still need to look into the credit union on campus and what kind of options they offer. I imagine that will be one of the things we figure out when we are at orientation in two weeks.

 

[elgerber]

I deliberately avoid watching that video, and tonight we go to a movie and guess what they show???

I want to type more but I have been stuck on my phone because my computer has been broke for 3 weeks and it's hard to type long things on this keyboard.

 

[Bluestars]

I was going to let my son use the money he received as graduation gifts any way he pleased, but he chose to open up his own bank account with the money.

We go to the new student conference in 6 days. He will get to sign up for the Corps of Cadets and his classes. I am so excited for him. He's been looking forward to this for a long time.

 

[elgerber]

My computer is still dead, so I am posting from my new job, hope I don't get fired .

My daughter is done academically, but they have to physically be in the building today and tomorrow, because of all the darn days off we had this winter. Silly, but oh well.
Graduation is Thursday and her party is the 14th. I am totally freaking out about getting everything done.
This is going to be a tough week for me, her very last school talent show performance is tomorrow morning, graduation on Thursday and her final performance at our state theater high school spotlight show on Sunday. I have Kleenex in my purse already.
Because of that performance, we have rehearsals downtown, to deal with, in addition to party prep and going to parties. It's going to be insane for the next 12 days.
I am not sure about her grad gifts. We put my sons in the bank for college, but he ended up not needing the $3k in savings bonds he got, so we still have those. He probably has no idea he still has them.
She is getting a good scholarship and a chunk from my dad each year for school, so we will have no problem covering the rest of the costs, so we will probably use her gifts for the Macbook that she wants/needs for her film major.
I get weepy very often LOL, August is going to kill me. I can't wait to go to NY in July, to get one last week with her, with no work or anything to get in the way.