Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[LilTinkFan]

DS walked by the dining room where I have his stuff stacked to bring this weekend and burst into tears. I was so surprised..... he's always big talk about being fine on his own and not needing us. Very independent. But he is nervous about going to college and he says seeing all the stuff just hit home that nothing will be the same. This is the only home he remembers. Fingers crossed all goes well this weekend.

I'm the weepy one, but that is so sweet!

 

[mom2rtk]

DS walked by the dining room where I have his stuff stacked to bring this weekend and burst into tears. I was so surprised..... he's always big talk about being fine on his own and not needing us. Very independent. But he is nervous about going to college and he says seeing all the stuff just hit home that nothing will be the same. This is the only home he remembers. Fingers crossed all goes well this weekend.

 

[robinb]

Ok, since I wrote this another one bit the dust! The new college assigned roomie answered an email from dd that she was actually hoping to room with someone from her high school. So dd called housing office. The roomie did in fact request to be moved.
So we have no idea who, or what they will be bringing that could be shared, like fridge, rug, etc. our dd said she just wants her own everything and a roll of electrical tape to divide the room. We keep trying to laugh over it but I know she is very apprehensive.

That really stinks. I'm sorry that your DD is going through all this drama during what should be a happy transition. FWIW, my DD and her roommate have have not figured anything out. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. My DD has an Alexa and that's about it. No rug. No microwave. Oh well. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

DS walked by the dining room where I have his stuff stacked to bring this weekend and burst into tears. I was so surprised..... he's always big talk about being fine on his own and not needing us. Very independent. But he is nervous about going to college and he says seeing all the stuff just hit home that nothing will be the same. This is the only home he remembers. Fingers crossed all goes well this weekend.

Aw ... fingers crossed for him too! I'm sure my DD will get a little more emotional as we get closer.

 

[bethbuchall]

DS walked by the dining room where I have his stuff stacked to bring this weekend and burst into tears. I was so surprised..... he's always big talk about being fine on his own and not needing us. Very independent. But he is nervous about going to college and he says seeing all the stuff just hit home that nothing will be the same. This is the only home he remembers. Fingers crossed all goes well this weekend.

Yesterday my son blurted out, "I don't want to go to college." He didn't really mean it, but it's suddenly hitting him how soon he's leaving. Nothing will ever be the same, and we both know it. I wish your son the best and hope that he finds his "home away from home" feeling quickly.

 

[sksjasams]

Yesterday my son blurted out, "I don't want to go to college." He didn't really mean it, but it's suddenly hitting him how soon he's leaving. Nothing will ever be the same, and we both know it. I wish your son the best and hope that he finds his "home away from home" feeling quickly.

Hugs to you both, too. This is so tough.

I'm sure in a few months we will all be posting how happy our kids are, right?

 

[mamacatnv]

Hugs to all of you - the next few weeks are really hard. When DS went off we all took turns having meltdowns.

 

[bjscheel]

I thought I would be alright- she's only going an hour away- but yesterday on the radio was the old country song where it says "She's had 18 years, to get ready for this day, she should be past the tears, but she cries some anyway..." and I could have almost cried. That makes me worried I will cry when we leave her there. I don't expect DD18 to, because she is not like that but DD15 will probably be bawling because that's how she is.

 

[mamacatnv]

I thought I would be alright- she's only going an hour away- but yesterday on the radio was the old country song where it says "She's had 18 years, to get ready for this day, she should be past the tears, but she cries some anyway..." and I could have almost cried. That makes me worried I will cry when we leave her there. I don't expect DD18 to, because she is not like that but DD15 will probably be bawling because that's how she is.

My DS went 8 miles, I am not a crier but I was a bit of a mess for several weeks, stupid little things would trigger me. I don't think its the distance, its the fact that its happening.

 

[laughinplace199]

I'm so not ready for this! I think my DD is, but I'm not!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I was just reading my DD's University Facebook Parents page after getting an email from one of my college girlfriends. Her son is going to the same school (Va Tech) as my DD. VT had a huge yield this year and is having problems coming up with housing for all the accepted freshman. My DD paid her housing deposit early (based on another friend's advice) to get her place in the queue and was able to choose her dorm room Tuesday morning. My friend's son was supposed to chose Wed morning, but VT sent out emails delaying all dorm choosing for 26 hours while they figured out what was left and consolidated folks with no chosen roommate. The dorm portal has been glitchy, many dorms are showing as full, the words "temporary housing" have been bandied about. Parents and kids are FREAKING out! I have no idea why VT decided to let kids chose vs just assign rooms...it is super stressful!

At least it's not as bad as what happened at UC Irvine!!! Thank God the school came to it's senses!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/03/opinion/university-of-california-irvine.html

 

[robinb]

IThe dorm portal has been glitchy, many dorms are showing as full, the words "temporary housing" have been bandied about. Parents and kids are FREAKING out! I have no idea why VT decided to let kids chose vs just assign rooms...it is super stressful!

I know a girl who is in temp housing at the UW. Her mom asked me last week what dorm my DD was in and was (understandably) peeved to hear that my mid-May addition DD got into "the best dorm" (according to my friend) while her "direct admit to Engineering way back in November" DD was in temp housing. I feel bad for her. It doesn't seem fair that someone who committed to the university 9 months ago will be sleeping in a "living room" area and my kid squeaked in off the waitlist gets a plum dorm. Unfortunately dorm selection at the UW is totally random.

At least it's not as bad as what happened at UC Irvine!!! Thank God the school came to it's senses!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/03/opinion/university-of-california-irvine.html

I didn't know they changed their mind on that. I'm glad for those kids.

My DD sent her transcripts in late. I told her she should thank her lucky stars that she wasn't going to Irvine because she'd be making other plans right about now. Her high school uses an online portal called Parchment for transcripts. She kept on looking at her transcript online to send to her college and it was still from 11th grade. I told her to call the high school to find out what was wrong but she refused to. She gets funny sometimes talking to people when she thinks she might embarrass herself. Finally, she was between a rock and a hard place with orientation on Monday and she had no transcript. Not even an unofficial one. She was working until right before she was supposed to be at orientation so I agreed to look into it for her. I hated doing it but I wanted orientation to go smoothly and her stress level was already pretty high in part because of the missing transcript. I tried to log into the parent portal at the high school to at least print out her report card, but all of her grades had been wiped clean. So, I had to be the one to call the school. Apparently, Parchment does not automatically update the transcript and the student has to initiate a request for a new transcript. Thank goodness there was someone at her school who could respond to the email from Parchment and push out the transcript to them. It all turned out OK, but I did yell at my DD for not contacting the school back in June when I asked her to. All this drama would have been avoided.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I know a girl who is in temp housing at the UW. Her mom asked me last week what dorm my DD was in and was (understandably) peeved to hear that my mid-May addition DD got into "the best dorm" (according to my friend) while her "direct admit to Engineering way back in November" DD was in temp housing. I feel bad for her. It doesn't seem fair that someone who committed to the university 9 months ago will be sleeping in a "living room" area and my kid squeaked in off the waitlist gets a plum dorm. Unfortunately dorm selection at the UW is totally random.


I didn't know they changed their mind on that. I'm glad for those kids.

My DD sent her transcripts in late. I told her she should thank her lucky stars that she wasn't going to Irvine because she'd be making other plans right about now. Her high school uses an online portal called Parchment for transcripts. She kept on looking at her transcript online to send to her college and it was still from 11th grade. I told her to call the high school to find out what was wrong but she refused to. She gets funny sometimes talking to people when she thinks she might embarrass herself. Finally, she was between a rock and a hard place with orientation on Monday and she had no transcript. Not even an unofficial one. She was working until right before she was supposed to be at orientation so I agreed to look into it for her. I hated doing it but I wanted orientation to go smoothly and her stress level was already pretty high in part because of the missing transcript. I tried to log into the parent portal at the high school to at least print out her report card, but all of her grades had been wiped clean. So, I had to be the one to call the school. Apparently, Parchment does not automatically update the transcript and the student has to initiate a request for a new transcript. Thank goodness there was someone at her school who could respond to the email from Parchment and push out the transcript to them. It all turned out OK, but I did yell at my DD for not contacting the school back in June when I asked her to. All this drama would have been avoided.

My DD sent her final community college transcript too early and all the 2nd semester grades were listed as incomplete! Her high school one was ok, so disaster was averted. It did make her adviser's job a little difficult though.

 

[mamacatnv]

DD's school uses Parchment as well. The Monday following graduation we all got an email reminding us to initiate the update as well as the email reminded us of when the school offices would close for the summer and getting an update would not be an option.

 

[Poohforyou]

I know a girl who is in temp housing at the UW. Her mom asked me last week what dorm my DD was in and was (understandably) peeved to hear that my mid-May addition DD got into "the best dorm" (according to my friend) while her "direct admit to Engineering way back in November" DD was in temp housing. I feel bad for her. It doesn't seem fair that someone who committed to the university 9 months ago will be sleeping in a "living room" area and my kid squeaked in off the waitlist gets a plum dorm. Unfortunately dorm selection at the UW is totally random.


I didn't know they changed their mind on that. I'm glad for those kids.

My DD sent her transcripts in late. I told her she should thank her lucky stars that she wasn't going to Irvine because she'd be making other plans right about now. Her high school uses an online portal called Parchment for transcripts. She kept on looking at her transcript online to send to her college and it was still from 11th grade. I told her to call the high school to find out what was wrong but she refused to. She gets funny sometimes talking to people when she thinks she might embarrass herself. Finally, she was between a rock and a hard place with orientation on Monday and she had no transcript. Not even an unofficial one. She was working until right before she was supposed to be at orientation so I agreed to look into it for her. I hated doing it but I wanted orientation to go smoothly and her stress level was already pretty high in part because of the missing transcript. I tried to log into the parent portal at the high school to at least print out her report card, but all of her grades had been wiped clean. So, I had to be the one to call the school. Apparently, Parchment does not automatically update the transcript and the student has to initiate a request for a new transcript. Thank goodness there was someone at her school who could respond to the email from Parchment and push out the transcript to them. It all turned out OK, but I did yell at my DD for not contacting the school back in June when I asked her to. All this drama would have been avoided.

I'm glad it turned out ok. Our high school automatically send out final transcripts in early July. I know my dd got emails from GW in early May asking for her final transcript. She had to email and explain her school year wasn't done until 6/23.

I have to get on my daughter about checking on her AP credits for senior year. Her ones from sophomore and junior year were posted but not last year.

 

[mamacatnv]

My DD ended up taking a gap year - it is amazing the difference a year makes. Last year she was thinking Astro Physics and now, she has completely shifted education paths and I believe she has found one she will love. She applied to two Universities yesterday for fall 2018 as a Secondary Education major with an emphasis in English/Language Arts. She wants to teach high school English and she may minor in History. This path does not surprise me at all, this will satisfy the liberal art side of my STEM kid who really wants to be a baker and just make cupcakes!

She is also paying attention to the budget we set as well as taking advantage of that 34 on the ACT and her 4.7 GPA to seek out merit packages. While I know the next few weeks will be rough with all her friends leaving, I am confident we made the right decision in her taking this gap year. She is spending the month of September in NYC and very much looking forward to this. She will be staying at a family members apartment in Manhattan but the family member will be traveling, she will be on her own doing her own thing for a month, she is sooooo excited.

 

[aprilgail]

I'm glad it turned out ok. Our high school automatically send out final transcripts in early July. I know my dd got emails from GW in early May asking for her final transcript. She had to email and explain her school year wasn't done until 6/23.

I have to get on my daughter about checking on her AP credits for senior year. Her ones from sophomore and junior year were posted but not last year.

We had the same issue with the transcript-the school ends the end of June and before it ended the college was emailing looking for the transcript- then to make it worse our high school sends it out after the second week in July so every other day I was getting calls and emails saying "we need the transcript or it will jeopardize your financial aid"-

 

[mamacatnv]

We had the same issue with the transcript-the school ends the end of June and before it ended the college was emailing looking for the transcript- then to make it worse our high school sends it out after the second week in July so every other day I was getting calls and emails saying "we need the transcript or it will jeopardize your financial aid"-

Ugh - one would think that the high schools would be in tune with the needs for the colleges

 

[v.t.]

Ok, since I wrote this another one bit the dust! The new college assigned roomie answered an email from dd that she was actually hoping to room with someone from her high school. So dd called housing office. The roomie did in fact request to be moved.
So we have no idea who, or what they will be bringing that could be shared, like fridge, rug, etc. our dd said she just wants her own everything and a roll of electrical tape to divide the room. We keep trying to laugh over it but I know she is very apprehensive.

Like anyone needs anymore stress right now. Hopefully she will get the perfect one.

We went went to orientation Monday and Tuesday with my DD. They broke the kids out for planning their first semester classes and then had special programs for the parents. The parental programs were just "meh" and my DD was not pleased with the amount of help she received from the advisors. She said that they spent most of the first day warning kids about how hard the Kinesiology program is and how they should all quit. They probably didn't really tell them to all quit, but that's how my DD felt. The advisor then told my DD that she shouldn't take Calc AB (5 credits) at the same time as Chem 103 (4 credits). My DD ended up with a 3 on the AP test, but you need a 4 at the UW to get credit for Calc AB and it's a requirement for the major so she has to take the class at the UW. I have no idea when the advisor *thinks* she should take Calc since she needs to take 2 Chem classes, 2 Bio classes and 1 Physics class by the end of her Soph year to be admitted into the Kines program The Calc will suck with any of those classes and we think it's best to get it out of the way while it is still fresh from high school. She's taking a very light schedule (12-13 credits, barely full time) so she can focus of Chem and Calc. In addition, all of the freshman english classes are chocked full (orientation has been going on since June) so she can't take those classes until her 2nd semester. It's all very frustrating for her (and us!).

My DSs were told not to take too many courses as well. I think schools are working hard to eliminate weed out classes to increase their retention rates..

DS walked by the dining room where I have his stuff stacked to bring this weekend and burst into tears. I was so surprised..... he's always big talk about being fine on his own and not needing us. Very independent. But he is nervous about going to college and he says seeing all the stuff just hit home that nothing will be the same. This is the only home he remembers. Fingers crossed all goes well this weekend.

How sweet. I would have lost it.

 

[v.t.]

The boys got back from fish camp. Neither one had a voice, from all the yell practices but both had a great time. The only issue I had was absolutely no contact for 4 days. I asked for them to send me a "proof of life" text every other day. For those of you with boys, is that too much to ask?

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Sheesh! DD is getting very cranky and argumentative! We have a big family beach trip planned this coming week with DH's family to celebrate his mom & dad's 50th wedding anniversary. DD "claims" she didn't know anything about this trip! She scheduled herself for work right smack dab in the middle of it AFTER we sat both kids down 2 weeks ago and went over the vacation plans (again) and potential work schedules. DS wanted to work both weekends because that's when he makes the most in tips. While the trip is Saturday to Saturday, we said we were fine with the 2 kids driving to the beach together on Monday and leaving Friday, so they could work both the weekends. Now DD is having a fit because we won't let her work mid week (and she will miss a friend from another school's grad party). I told her to switch with someone and take the weekend like we discussed earlier. Noooo she says; she made her last day the 10th (Thursday), so she could have 2 weeks with no work before she goes to school. She has already missed 3 weeks of work this summer due to her school Beach Week and Europe trips. She only has $1000 in the bank and most of that is grad gift money. I warned her that $1000 will not be enough spending money. DS routinely earns during the summer and goes through $2000 a school year. She WILL NOT LISTEN and just yells at me! Argggggggg!