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

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My DS18 heard back from the college he'll be going to that he didn't get the room configuration he wanted or even the building he wanted.

He's not too happy about that. And there's not a kitchen which he wanted. So I'll have to see if they are allowed mini fridges so he can at least have drinks and milk in the room - he wanted to be able to grab a quick bowl of cereal each morning for breakfast.

There will be 4 people sharing one bathroom. Good thing they'll all be boys (or should I say men?).

At least it'll be cheaper.

 

[madge]

not sure if it's the wisest of ideas .... but it's spring break & we're taking the week off. Scholarship applications, financial aid letters, and the like will be waiting for us when real life resumes next Monday.

 

[elgerber]

How did the musical go? I know exactly what you mean about the stress and wanting it over then the flood of emotions when it is over. My DD has two more shows, a one act she is in for her theatre 4 class and one she is directing for the same class, plus a different one she is directing for the one act festival then she is done with high school theatre. She has two more regional dance competitions and except for dance nationals in June she is done with dance competitions. It is amazing how fast it is all going.

We had huge sound problems and awful lighting, but the show itself was actually great, the kids did a great job and the show is hilarious! I started crying before the last number, then I saw tears on my daughters face during the last number, then the other senior started a speech, which made all the girls cry, then the other seniors dad gave a speech and awards and the whole building was crying! Even my husband, who didn't want to sit anywhere near me, because he knew he would cry. It was crazy, all the tears!

not sure if it's the wisest of ideas .... but it's spring break & we're taking the week off. Scholarship applications, financial aid letters, and the like will be waiting for us when real life resumes next Monday.

I think that is a great idea, much needed! We don't get spring break

 

[Gina]

My DS18 heard back from the college he'll be going to that he didn't get the room configuration he wanted or even the building he wanted.

He's not too happy about that. And there's not a kitchen which he wanted. So I'll have to see if they are allowed mini fridges so he can at least have drinks and milk in the room - he wanted to be able to grab a quick bowl of cereal each morning for breakfast.

Sorry your son didn't get what he wanted dorm-wise! As far as the fridge goes, though, the Bed Bath & Beyond site has a pretty handy tool where you can look up the school and see exactly what they provide/allow/forbid. Just clicky: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/sto...e.jsp?icid=collegepage_promoarea3-collegepage

We are going to wait until after his new student conference in June to start getting his stuff for his dorm. Since he will be in the Corps of Cadets, they have their own list of things and they are pretty strict. As freshman, I don't think they can have a TV, microwave, or a dorm frig. That makes it easier though.

Yeah, the fish can't have much outside of an alarm clock!

"4. ROOM PRIVILEGES
All cadets will maintain inspection ready rooms between the hours of 0830 and 1530 daily. The following privileges exist for each cadet class.
A. Fish Holes.
(1) No curtains
(2) No posters/flags
(3) Only outfit authorized items on the walls/bulletin boards, or back of the door (academic status, weekly academic schedule, planning calendar, etc.)
(4) No extra furniture (chair, tables, etc.). Footlocker(s) or storage bin(s) are authorized.
(5) No television, large video screen, video game system (clock radio is authorized)
(6) No refrigerator
(7) No microwave
(8) No carpet, rug, or floor covering
(9) No fitted sheets or non-issued bedding
(10) No more than three items on the desks"

The above -- especially #5! -- coupled with the 6am wake-up time every day is why my DS spent all of .2 seconds contemplating joining the Corps... LOL. But my step-brother absolutely loved the Corps and all the structure. To each his own!

If you go to this link and click to download the "Cadet Resident Handbook," you & DS can see exactly what he can expect:
http://reslife.tamu.edu/livingOnCampus/rules

Hope this helps!


-gina-

 

[sk!mom]

Anyone have any great ideas to share with regard to graduation gifts for friends. DD will definitely want to exchange with her best girlfriends and her boyfriend. They are all off to different colleges. Right now she is thinking maybe a college hoody for each of them.

We also need gifts for my two senior nephews.

All the grad gifts together with DD's 18th birthday, grad and birthday party, and a weekend trip to both nephews' grads and May is shaping up to be an expensive month!

 

[TLuvsD]

I do college hoodies with gift cards for family.

D did photo collages for her friends, they were awesome. I'd start now, they can be time consuming.

Gift cards for things like Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, etc can be helpful as well.

 

[bittybabygrower]

Check to see what food chains are by their campus. Or if they have a shuttle to town, gift cards to chain stores there are good. Best buy gift cards are always a hit.

 

[Bluestars]

Yeah, the fish can't have much outside of an alarm clock!

"4. ROOM PRIVILEGES
All cadets will maintain inspection ready rooms between the hours of 0830 and 1530 daily. The following privileges exist for each cadet class.
A. Fish Holes.
(1) No curtains
(2) No posters/flags
(3) Only outfit authorized items on the walls/bulletin boards, or back of the door (academic status, weekly academic schedule, planning calendar, etc.)
(4) No extra furniture (chair, tables, etc.). Footlocker(s) or storage bin(s) are authorized.
(5) No television, large video screen, video game system (clock radio is authorized)
(6) No refrigerator
(7) No microwave
(8) No carpet, rug, or floor covering
(9) No fitted sheets or non-issued bedding
(10) No more than three items on the desks"

The above -- especially #5! -- coupled with the 6am wake-up time every day is why my DS spent all of .2 seconds contemplating joining the Corps... LOL. But my step-brother absolutely loved the Corps and all the structure. To each his own!

If you go to this link and click to download the "Cadet Resident Handbook," you & DS can see exactly what he can expect:
http://reslife.tamu.edu/livingOnCampus/rules

Hope this helps!


-gina-

Thanks. I am going to take a look at the handbook!

I am surprised that anybody chooses to live with these rules. However, my son is excited about everything and doesn't have a problem with any of the rules. He has his eye on someday becoming an officer in the military. Oh yeah, and those senior boots. LOL My son said that each year the cadets will be able to have more things in their dorm room and less restrictions.

 

[JeannieNM]

After months of applications, essays, arts supplements, and auditions DD selected a school and we put down a deposit last night for the school. We can now breath a sigh of relief!!!.

 

[Bluestars]

After months of applications, essays, arts supplements, and auditions DD selected a school and we put down a deposit last night for the school. We can now breath a sigh of relief!!!.

I know that's such a relief! that is the biggest decision of all, so it's nice once it's made.

My son is looking forward to his new student conference and meeting other incoming freshman. We signed him up for one of the earliest days so that he would be able to have good selection for class times.

 

[JeannieNM]

Bluestars it is nice isn't it. We are trying to go to preview in 10 days but we have some logistical issues with a dance competition. Orientations are in June and D, I hope she decides which one soon so she gets her choice of dates. There are 4 of them but she is only free for two of them.

We are all so relaxed now that the decision is made!!!

 

[Pembo]

We are going to the first freshman orientation on May 16th. Except for prom, things are quieting down here for a little bit until graduation. Ahhh....

 

[elgerber]

We drive up next week for a day long orientation and to register for classes! Yikes!!!
Her school offered a new Facebook program called roomsync, that shows you kids with the same likes you have. She didn't want to try it, because she is going to live in the film studies learning community, so she figured with only a small group of kids in the community she wouldn't find a roommate that way. I suggested she at least sign up and maybe just meet some kids, and by the next day she had a roommate LOL. They have all the same interests, both theater kids, love all the same shows, they both played Lucy in Charlie Brown last year. So just like that, instant roomate.
She also found two girls in the film program from Germany and Atlanta! Go figure that people would come up here for Film. The Atlanta girl is going to be in for a rude awakening come next winter though LOL.

 

[JeannieNM]

We are going to the first freshman orientation on May 16th. Except for prom, things are quieting down here for a little bit until graduation. Ahhh....

Sounds very relaxing. We are in the opposite position. DD has 3 weeks of classes left. In that time she has two dance competitions, one out of state, she has two nights of her theatre class show, one section of which she is in and the other she directed. Then she has one-act festival that she is directing a one-act for. Also, she is hosting a thespian event and sleepover at our house and prom. Somewhere in there she has to keep up with her school work and prepare for her senior project which starts when classes end. For her project she and a friend are going to NYC to interview professional performing artist about how they got where they are and about being a working professional in the field. They are then making a documentary from the interviews. They have 3 weeks to do the project with 8 days of it in NYC and a couple of travel days. Then senior week and graduation May 24.

We drive up next week for a day long orientation and to register for classes! Yikes!!!
Her school offered a new Facebook program called roomsync, that shows you kids with the same likes you have. She didn't want to try it, because she is going to live in the film studies learning community, so she figured with only a small group of kids in the community she wouldn't find a roommate that way. I suggested she at least sign up and maybe just meet some kids, and by the next day she had a roommate LOL. They have all the same interests, both theater kids, love all the same shows, they both played Lucy in Charlie Brown last year. So just like that, instant roomate.
She also found two girls in the film program from Germany and Atlanta! Go figure that people would come up here for Film. The Atlanta girl is going to be in for a rude awakening come next winter though LOL.

That is great that your daughter has a roommate and is getting to register so early.

DD has been on a facebook group from her school and is talking to several girls that are potential roommates, it would be great if they had suites but the freshman dorms are more traditional, 2 to a room set ups. Preview day is a week from this Sunday. DD is in Texas for a dance competition that weekend and the school she is going to is in California, we hope to get the competition schedule today to see if she will finish in time on Saturday to fly to California Saturday night and participate on Sunday. She really wants to go to preview day. Orientation is in June and it is an overnight. There are 4 sets of dates to chose from. We also found out that dance majors, have a dance intensive the week prior to the start of school, so she will be moving into the dorms a week early.

Still no prom dress...DD has play rehearsal after school today, and dance practice at 8, so I am going dress scouting myself this afternoon. She has a couple of hours before competition tomorrow to look at dresses so I need to know exactly which stores to go to and what they have. Not that our city has very many stores but since we are in a time crunch, I will be her advance person.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

 

[bittybabygrower]

We are winding down also. She has a pretty easy semester this time, 3 college classes and band. We went to an accepted student day at OU and found out by her second semester next year she will be considered a sophomore And she may be eligible to work in a lab and make $10/hr Prom dress and grad dress bought, party almost planned, roommates selected, room assigning starts next week ( she is the first round ). She just signed up for her 2 day college orientation in June. Whew!

And congrats to all our kids!

 

[Bluestars]

For her project she and a friend are going to NYC to interview professional performing artist about how they got where they are and about being a working professional in the field. They are then making a documentary from the interviews. They have 3 weeks to do the project with 8 days of it in NYC and a couple of travel days. Then senior week and graduation May 24.

That sounds like a neat project. I'll bet it will be impressive.

Her schedule sounds exhausting. I don't know how she keeps up with it. You tool

 

[Bluestars]

We drive up next week for a day long orientation and to register for classes! Yikes!!!
Her school offered a new Facebook program called roomsync, that shows you kids with the same likes you have. She didn't want to try it, because she is going to live in the film studies learning community, so she figured with only a small group of kids in the community she wouldn't find a roommate that way. I suggested she at least sign up and maybe just meet some kids, and by the next day she had a roommate LOL. They have all the same interests, both theater kids, love all the same shows, they both played Lucy in Charlie Brown last year. So just like that, instant roomate.

That sounds like a great way to find a roommate. I wish my son was able to do something like that.

 

[Bluestars]

We are winding down also. She has a pretty easy semester this time, 3 college classes and band. We went to an accepted student day at OU and found out by her second semester next year she will be considered a sophomore And she may be eligible to work in a lab and make $10/hr Prom dress and grad dress bought, party almost planned, roommates selected, room assigning starts next week ( she is the first round ). She just signed up for her 2 day college orientation in June. Whew!

And congrats to all our kids!

That's great that she will be considered a sophomore before the end of next year. Making money from working in a lab sounds like an interesting opportunity.

My son has his tux ordered for prom. I guess he will wear a suit for graduation. We aren't planning a party, we will just take him out to eat after graduation. Then he goes to the graduation lock-in that night. I can't believe that he will graduate next month.

 

[scrapquitler]

I haven't updated about our progress in getting to graduation and off to college in a while because of some family issues that have come up in the past couple of weeks (my Mom passed away suddenly two weeks ago). But here I am with a lot of BIG updates

We put the deposit down for the in state school that offered the free tutuion scholarship that DD kept saying she would NOT go to because it was a school 'for losers and stoners'. We told her that if she found a full tuition scholarship to her first school she could go there instead (she still has not filled out a SINGLE scholarship application). I knew that eventually she would come around and realize that the full tuition scholarship school was a GOOD solid option for her.

So one day, out of the blue she came home from school and was super excited about the school because she found out that she could major in Theater with a concentration on the technical stuff (she loves the backstage stuff!!) in addition to the chemistry major she was considering. So now she's all gung ho about the school and her double major. Whatever, as long as she has an academic major, I'm good with that.

She also found out that the dorm for the 'living learning community' (for the honors program) is one of few dorms that has air conditioning, and she can opt for a suite instead of a regular double room. Hopefully she will get a suite (they have 4 single rooms and a common area plus a bathroom), but we haven't gotten confirmation on that yet.

Furthermore, she announced to me (on that same day) that she has decided to go to the prom with her group of friends, despite her earlier insistence that she was not going to go. So now I need to take her shopping for a prom dress. But she says she's NOT going to wear a dress...so I don't know what she thinks she's going to wear....that might be very interesting... Does anyone know of any girls that haven't worn a dress to a prom??

On top of that, our local Board Of Ed has decided to shorten our local school calendar from our normal 184 days to the state mandated 180 days, so we have 4 less days to make up. That means that the last day of school will now be earlier, only June 24th instead of June 30. So now we know for sure that graduation will be on June 24th.

We have also scheduled college orientation. All the public schools in our state end in mid-June, yet the state college she is attending have two day orientations in late may/june. So she's going to have to miss two days of school to attend the orientation. That seems so weird to me because when I had my college orientation (back in the days when the dinosaurs roamed the earth), orientation was the week before classes started. Anyway, we had a conflict with all but one of the orientation dates...they all either interfered with senior outing, graduation, or finals, except for ONE of them. So that's the one she's going to.

Tomorrow she's going to accepted students day. I just hope she enjoys it.

 

[Bluestars]

Scrapquitler, I am very sorry about the loss of your mother.

Your daughter seems to have really come around and made some good decisions. A full tuition scholarship would be tough to turn down. That is such a huge benefit. That's great that she is excited about going there and the courses will work out with what she wants to do.

Good luck to her getting the suite. I would have loved to have been in a dorm like that. When I went to college, we had two beds, two closets, two desks, and one sink. We went down the hallway to use the showers and rest rooms. That's the way it will be in my son's dorm because he will be with the cadets, but the majority of dorms have really improved over the years. I hope your daughter gets the one she wants.