Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[mamacatnv]

Sr. Trips.
Are any of your kids planning a Senior trip?
DD is trying to put together a two week road trip to Washington DC with 4 of her closest friends. I'm currently helping her work out a budget per person that is realistic to see how much interest there really is.
Looking at renting an apartment thru airBNB. They really want to road trip but we shall see how that works out (vehicle /licensed driver issues), they may have to fly which adds a lot of costs and limits their mobility but a few of the parents are leery of the distance to drive (1550 miles each way)

 

[laughinplace199]

Sr. Trips.
Are any of your kids planning a Senior trip?
DD is trying to put together a two week road trip to Washington DC with 4 of her closest friends. I'm currently helping her work out a budget per person that is realistic to see how much interest there really is.
Looking at renting an apartment thru airBNB. They really want to road trip but we shall see how that works out (vehicle /licensed driver issues), they may have to fly which adds a lot of costs and limits their mobility but a few of the parents are leery of the distance to drive (1550 miles each way)

A road trip to D.C. sounds fun!

DD and one of her friends are going to WDW for their senior trip!

 

[robinb]

My DD has always wanted to visit Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya for a senior trip. We said years ago that we would consider it but now that it's closer it's not going to happen. Not only is it ridiculously expensive, but it's already sold out for the whole month of August!

I don't know what we'll do. It all depends on my DD's summer swim schedule and when college starts. Maybe a WDW trip combined with a trip to Busch Gardens for a giraffe encounter. Maybe a trip to Hawaii?

ETA: I'm not sure what a "senior trip" entails. Do the kids go off alone or do parents go with them? If they go alone how do they book hotels, etc? My DD won't be 18 until mid-August. There is no school-sponsored trip AFAIK.

 

[laughinplace199]

My DD will still be 17 when they go to WDW, but her friend will be 18, so the hotel is booked in her friend's name even though they are using our DVC points.

 

[Mom3girls]

Our school takes the seniors on a trip to WDW and UO.

 

[Poohforyou]

There is a school sponsored senior trip that dd will likely go on. I don't know of anything else planned but a road trip isn't happening. DD and most of her friends are on the young side for their grade so they haven't been driving long.

 

[punkin]

I'm taking Niece to Ireland, England and Scotland for 2 weeks.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Sr. Trips.
Are any of your kids planning a Senior trip?
DD is trying to put together a two week road trip to Washington DC with 4 of her closest friends. I'm currently helping her work out a budget per person that is realistic to see how much interest there really is.
Looking at renting an apartment thru airBNB. They really want to road trip but we shall see how that works out (vehicle /licensed driver issues), they may have to fly which adds a lot of costs and limits their mobility but a few of the parents are leery of the distance to drive (1550 miles each way)

DD is going on 3 trips starting in April, but only one of them is considered a senior trip. She has WDW with her varsity softball team over spring break for spring training (and the parks). She is going on a school trip (not just for seniors) to Madrid, Paris and Rome in late June/early July. And then there is Senior Beach Week right after graduation. She and her group of 12 friends are renting a house in the Outer Banks. One set of parents are chaperones for this trip.

 

[3smithboys]

Our school takes the seniors on a trip to WDW and UO.

Our school does too!

 

[mamacatnv]

My DD has always wanted to visit Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya for a senior trip. We said years ago that we would consider it but now that it's closer it's not going to happen. Not only is it ridiculously expensive, but it's already sold out for the whole month of August!

I don't know what we'll do. It all depends on my DD's summer swim schedule and when college starts. Maybe a WDW trip combined with a trip to Busch Gardens for a giraffe encounter. Maybe a trip to Hawaii?

ETA: I'm not sure what a "senior trip" entails. Do the kids go off alone or do parents go with them? If they go alone how do they book hotels, etc? My DD won't be 18 until mid-August. There is no school-sponsored trip AFAIK.

My Inlaws visited Giraffe Manor on a Safari years ago, My MIL still considers those couple of days to be the most amazing experience ever.

I don't know if the school has Sr. trips for the kids, DD is not much of a participator in school sponsored activities. She has formed this "friends" group. They are all IB kids and very tight. They are all heading to college, a few internationally. This is planned and implemented by the group. They have decided where to go, now they are working out how to get there and what to do once they are there. We are looking at apartment rentals where they can cook etc (heat pizza, make sandwiches) also DC has good public transportation. They plan to hit all the museums, the monuments and take several tours.

Of the five talking about this trip, three will be over 18. No parents, no chaperones just the kids. I think it will be an amazing adventure/experience. These kids are all college bound and will be on their own shortly after this trip, I don't see an issue with them taking a trip together, I think the memories will last them a lifetime and so I support it. Of the five, they all have part time jobs and will be paying the majority of their own way. At this point they have already weeded out the kids whose parents would not allow, of which there were a few.

The only thing they can't do is rent a car due to their age - this is my one concern with them driving. If they encounter car trouble, there is no renting a car to get home, its either hang out until repaired or find an airport and fly home or a parent will need to fly/drive to them. This will need to be addressed in their planning.

 

[mamacatnv]

I'm taking Niece to Ireland, England and Scotland for 2 weeks.

Wow, sounds amazing! Lucky Niece

 

[robinb]

So ... my DD is watching the Gilmore Girls on NetFlix right now and one of the characters (Rory) is applying to Harvard. My DD asked me, "Back in the day did you really have to write a letter to the college, wait for them to send you the application, fill out the application by hand, send it back in the mail and then wait for them to send you the acceptance letter?" When I answered "Yes!" she said, "Thank god for technology!".

 

[lancermom]

My senior class went to WDW as our senior trip. They switched to Washington, DC soon after we graduated. My daughter's school doesn't do any trip, but she will be going to Beach Week in Ocean City shortly after graduation. Then, we are taking a trip to Italy and Greece in July.

 

[robinb]

An admissions counselor from the UMN emailed me earlier today and they found her transcripts. *whew* Now they can go forward with her application. In the future I will sit on my hands and have my DD do the communication. I think I considered the transcripts to be my responsibility since I was the one who logged into Parchment and paid for them to be sent. I would not have intervened with anything that my DD took care of. But, like I said ... water under the bridge. I either messed it up or I didn't. There is nothing I can do to change the past, just do things differently in the future. It's weird, I had my DD check her email and she didn't get any notification that items were missing. She also said the same thing happened to a friend and they found it the same way by checking online. This is her #1 school so everyone keep their fingers crossed for her.

She will be applying to what I consider the #1 school for her this week: UW La Crosse. She has a number of friends who are applying there too so she may not be alone there. This is the school that fills most of their Doctor of Physical Therapy program with their own graduates which is why I like it. It gives her a leg up into a GREAT program. And ... it's far away without being too far away. And ... it's relatively cheap. And ... everyone who goes there loves it. And ... it's a D3 school where she may be able to swim (should she choose) without the same commitment as a D1 or D2 school. I'm hoping to schedule a visit sometime next month with one of her friends.

All in all, it's her life and her choice. I want her to go somewhere where she will be happy and successful. I'm here to just pay the bills for the next 4 years .

 

[aprilgail]

Sr. Trips.
Are any of your kids planning a Senior trip?
DD is trying to put together a two week road trip to Washington DC with 4 of her closest friends. I'm currently helping her work out a budget per person that is realistic to see how much interest there really is.
Looking at renting an apartment thru airBNB. They really want to road trip but we shall see how that works out (vehicle /licensed driver issues), they may have to fly which adds a lot of costs and limits their mobility but a few of the parents are leery of the distance to drive (1550 miles each way)

our school does not do trips but my daughter and three friends are planning a disney graduation trip- luckily one of them will have turned 18 by then so she can rent the hotel for the-the rest dont turn -18 until next oct and nov!

 

[robinb]

our school does not do trips but my daughter and three friends are planning a disney graduation trip- luckily one of them will have turned 18 by then so she can rent the hotel for the-the rest dont turn -18 until next oct and nov!

They turn 18 in October and November? that seems really late to me. What is your school district's cut off for kindergarten? Ours is September 1st but allows some children who were born after to attend if they score well on a pre-K test.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

The tradition in Maryland is that seniors graduate way before everyone else gets out of school, so they go to Senior Week in Ocean City. DS already has a deposit on a house with a big group of friends for the last week in May. Nothing else planned senior trip wise, but hopefully doing something as a family before we have 2 kids living at college!

I have a November birthday and graduated at 17. They have since changed the cutoff here to September 1st and I actually hate it. My 2 year old, who was born in October, will start Kindergarten at almost 6. I'm in the minority in hating it though. In fact, now people are holding kids back with June, July, and August birthdays too just so they won't be the youngest ones with the new cutoff.

 

[punkin]

The tradition in Maryland is that seniors graduate way before everyone else gets out of school, so they go to Senior Week in Ocean City. DS already has a deposit on a house with a big group of friends for the last week in May. Nothing else planned senior trip wise, but hopefully doing something as a family before we have 2 kids living at college!

I have a November birthday and graduated at 17. They have since changed the cutoff here to September 1st and I actually hate it. My 2 year old, who was born in October, will start Kindergarten at almost 6. I'm in the minority in hating it though. In fact, now people are holding kids back with June, July, and August birthdays too just so they won't be the youngest ones with the new cutoff.

This is exactly what Im trying to avoid. When my oldest DD went to beach week, I knew all the kids going since 8th grade and they were going to the beach house of one of the boys' parents, so there was incentive not to trash anything. There were some minor issues, but overall it went well. My younger one didn't go to beach week and instead asked to go visit her best friend in Japan, which was much safer IMO since I've known this girl and her family since 6th grade and there was adult supervision at all times. So now we come to my niece. I don't know her friends as well and I am very uncomfortable with an unsupervised trip with young people I hardly know, so I bribed her with a family trip out of the country. She doesn't know it's a bribe; she is just so excited about going that all thoughts of beach week went out the window. LOL.

BTW, both my DDs graduated at 17. They changed the cutoffs since then. I'm with you, I don't like it and I particularly don't like the red-shirting that goes on either. DD had one kid in her graduating class who turned 20 in May a few days before graduation. Weird.

 

[bjscheel]

No senior trips here, I don't think anyone does it around here. This should be the year the Spanish and Biology teachers host a trip to Costa Rica in the spring but I haven't heard a word about it. DD18 might want to go but I think it was pretty expensive in the past so we'll see. Our family vacation this summer will probably be somewhere close, like Kansas City, nothing too exciting. Saving our airline points for the next WDW trip...

Our cutoff is 9/15. DD's birthday is 9/30 so she's 18 already and was nearly 6 when starting K. It was fine though and lets me keep her around another year . DD15's birthday is 8/26 so she is young in her class. I'm happy it worked out that they are only 2 years apart in school despite being nearly 3 years apart in age because they are so close and their friend groups overlap quite a bit.

The musical is over and DD is happy to have some drawing time again! It went really well!

 

[Poohforyou]

They turn 18 in October and November? that seems really late to me. What is your school district's cut off for kindergarten? Ours is September 1st but allows some children who were born after to attend if they score well on a pre-K test.

The cutoff for NY is December 1st. I'm in NJ where it's September 30th. My daughter won't turn 18 until August 30th. She'll likely be starting college as a 17 year old.

I'm surprised you have to send a transcript and pay for it. In our district the counseling office does that and it's free. Well free is a relative term given our property taxes.