Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[Mrs. Ciz]

DD has been using the heck out of her university’s career placement services. She’s done some virtual career fairs and applied for tons of jobs through VT Handshake. Most of the jobs she’s targeting are in sales or recruitment/staffing. Her summer internship was with a technology solutions company, and she worked (and is still working part time) as a job recruiter, which she enjoys. They love her and have offered her a job after graduation, but the recruiter job is virtual even in non covid times. She really wants an office job for the comraderie and corporate culture. So she’s looking elsewhere. So far she’s ended up with 2 other offers with staffing companies - one in Pittsburg (small 11 person office, low base pay) and one in Washington, DC (top staffing company in the country, great training, awesome company culture, lots of VT grads work there, a little higher base pay with a great commission plan). Earlier this week she accepted the job offer in Washington, DC. My girl has a post graduation job!!!!

She wants to live in the same Northern Virginia neighborhood as her older brother because it’s walkable to bars, restaurants, shops and Metro stations. I’m super proud of her, but why the heck did BOTH my kids have to move 2 hours away from home????!!! I’m trying to focus on the positives: both have good jobs, they’ll be near each other, neither moved out of state. But this mama is still a little sad. Anyway now we are apartment/house hunting. That area is expensive, so we are looking for something safe, walkable and relatively affordable in her target area. Her brother rents a little old 4 bedroom house with 3 other guys in her target area, and they pay $900 each. There is a recently updated 1940s apartment complex right down the street from him that is in her price range. Half the apartments are market rate; the other half are income restricted apartments, which are subsidized. With a roommate in a 2 bedroom, they’d be in the market rate category. I don’t know enough about subsidized apartments to know if they are safe. The place looks really nice with a gym and a pool, and it’s been redone with granite counters, stainless appliances. I think it’s worth a look!

 

[bjscheel]

DD has been using the heck out of her university’s career placement services. She’s done some virtual career fairs and applied for tons of jobs through VT Handshake. Most of the jobs she’s targeting are in sales or recruitment/staffing. Her summer internship was with a technology solutions company, and she worked (and is still working part time) as a job recruiter, which she enjoys. They love her and have offered her a job after graduation, but the recruiter job is virtual even in non covid times. She really wants an office job for the comraderie and corporate culture. So she’s looking elsewhere. So far she’s ended up with 2 other offers with staffing companies - one in Pittsburg (small 11 person office, low base pay) and one in Washington, DC (top staffing company in the country, great training, awesome company culture, lots of VT grads work there, a little higher base pay with a great commission plan). Earlier this week she accepted the job offer in Washington, DC. My girl has a post graduation job!!!!

She wants to live in the same Northern Virginia neighborhood as her older brother because it’s walkable to bars, restaurants, shops and Metro stations. I’m super proud of her, but why the heck did BOTH my kids have to move 2 hours away from home????!!! I’m trying to focus on the positives: both have good jobs, they’ll be near each other, neither moved out of state. But this mama is still a little sad.

Woohoo! Two hours is really not bad especially when you can see them both in one trip.

 

[laughinplace199]

Mrs. Ciz, congrats to your DD! That is wonderful!

 

[dreamin_disney]

My daughter just registered for her spring classes. Her classes will be virtual. Her college announced Spring classes would be virtual in Back in September. They actually went virtual mid March. She’s currently doing Virtual student teaching and has to do student teaching Again in the spring , so if the school district stays virtual, she won’t need housing . I won’t have to pay for housing and I just paid her Spring tuition, which means I’m finished paying whoo hoo!

Winter break she needs to take the Rica Test and hopefully passes. She’s been doing great with virtual student teaching so the two things she needs to worry about next semester is passing the rica test and her edTPA. I’m proud of her. She’s worked super hard and in the 4 years she will graduate with BA and her teaching degree.

Its been crazy this year! we’ve saved money on housing and her getting her credential with her degree in 4 years instead of the 5.

 

[robinb]

@Mrs. Ciz , great news about your DD! It must be a huge relief for both of you that she has a job.

@dreamin_disney, great news for your DD too! There is a small bright side to this pandemic thing. We have saved about $700 a month because my DD is not in an apartment this year.

My DD is on track to graduate in May. She'll sign up for her classes in late December. I think the college is waiting a bit to see if what kind of classes they can offer. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that she will have a real Commencement, but I'm not holding my breath . I am going to encourage my DD to apply for a couple of OT schools this year since many are not requiring the GRE. She wants to take a gap year so she would probably defer if she got in. It would be very nice if she could have that in her back pocket while she travelled the US next year.

 

[J'aime Paris]

BEST DAY OF 2020!!!!!
Well, it only took until December 15th to have something wonderful to happen this year...

My DD was accepted into dental school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She (and DH and I) are over the moon happy... The best early Christmas present ever!

 

[yeahdisney]

Last final was Wednesday.
Next semester is many of this threads kids -coming up last semester for undergrad- we parents survived!
DD managed all her class load herself using her advisor. And she listened to other student stories.

1. Last year 1 senior didn’t know you had to register to graduate.
2. Her friend didn’t check in with her advisor-she was missing 3 gen ed to grad. She took 2 over the summer online, got married, moved, started a new job (all in one summer!) and then took one extra class this semester.
3. She learned you can take one class and it could count in 2 categories and she has helped DS with this knowledge.

We haven’t seen her in person since March. DH doesn’t want her to fly. We could go there, not sure DH would risk that.

 

[dreamin_disney]

My dd is enjoying her winter break. Covid numbers are high in her college area. Schools are still on shutdown and the county is on shutdown again. More than likely student teaching will be virtual again. She is happy to only have one more semester to go! I’m so glad she did the special program 4 years for her BA and teaching credential. Everything is crammed into 4 years and it’s a lot of work but she will be finished in May. I think is she would have done her credential separate is would be more stressful with the pandemic and living situation Do deal with another year. She’s ok not having a graduation ceremony so she says. She said she just cares about getting her degree.

We are saving a lot in her housing since campus is closed to most and classes are virtual. The $1000 a month for campus apartments is going into my bank account in case she had to do in person student teaching and live on campus. I’ll continue to deposit the $1000 a month into my account. we told her will use the money to pay for her graduation fees, edTPA fees and Rica test fees. Anything left will go towards family savings emergency fund. She will pay for student loans

 

[wannabee]

I just paid my last tuition bill!!!!!! woo hoo

 

[takemethere]

MY dd will graduate from Emory University in May, and had already accepted a position last june. Her official start date is August 1. Looks like it will be remote for the entire 2021, but it also gives her some time to work on her PHD. so proud

 

[kymom99]

My son is leaving in the morning for his internship for his last semester. I am a basket case. I don’t know why, but I guess it’s because he is going 10 hours away and won’t know anyone. He has been quiet and I’m struggling mightily.

I’m still trying to recover from a bad case of covid. We are driving with him to where he is going and renting a car to drive back home. I don’t think I will be helping with the drive because I’m still dealing with brain fog

 

[robinb]

This is the last semester for many of us. How is everyone holding up?

My DD is scheduled to graduate in May. She made the Dean's List again (2 1/2 years straight after a rocky freshman year) and she has two interships set up. She is teaching an online dance class for people with Down's Syndrome. She took a class in Dance Therapy last year and *loved* it. She gave up dance in high school to focus on swimming so it's interesting that she's come full circle back to dance. She is also working for a local organization that helps with early autism diagnoses. She's going to be some kind of therapist but I'm not quite sure what she'll be doing. She needs these internships to graduate in her major. She's also taking Anatomy and Physiology II at the local community college because she needs it to apply for OT school. Her boyfriend needs to take at least one class this summer to complete his major but he too will graduate in May.

How does commencement look for everyone? I think that DD's will be virtual. I was hoping for in-person and I think that they could do it safely, but our county has pretty strict rules on the number of people who can congregate ... even outdoors. I am very bummed since I have been dreaming of "Jumping Around" in Camp Randall at my DD's graduation for years .

My DD now tells me that she is now planning to take two gap years instead of just one. We were completely onboard with a bum around the county "vanlife" single gap year and will even continue to give her a stipend. I'm not happy with the second gap year. She says that she doesn't want to even *think* about school for a year and that she will need to focus and apply to OT schools for the 2022 school year by December of this year. I get it, but I am worried that "life" will happen and she will never go onto grad school. She is so smart and continually surprises me with her abilities, so I am 80% sure she'll be OK and she'll go back to school after she's sowed her wild oats, but the other 20% is pretty darn loud in my ear right now. *sigh* Hopefully her second gap year on her own will solidify the need to get her OTD. Crappy jobs out of high school certainly did that for me and I was 22 when I went to college. If she's 23 when she goes to grad school that'll be fine .

 

[J'aime Paris]

I cannot believe we are 3.5 years in, where did that time go??
DD got her first collegiate 4.0 somehow an A- or two always seemed to follow her around the other 7 semesters

I posted mid December that DD got into dental school. She has since found 2 other dental students to room with next year and they secured an apartment.

I'm cautiously optimistic that they will have an in-person commencement. It could be done, and for the sake of the students I hope it happens. So much has been altered/lessened/taken away already...

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

We haven’t heard yet about how DD’s school is doing graduation. I suspect it will be virtual. I booked a cabin at a lake 40 minutes from campus and made dinner reservations (for the patio) at a great restaurant in her college town. We are going to take pictures on campus and celebrate her graduation as a family even if it is virtual. Whatever it takes to make it special, right?

She is enrolled in her last 5 classes now. Made Dean’s List last Spring and this past Fall. Although she has a job lined up, she is second guessing her choice. The company she interns for doesn’t hire until late Spring, so she was afraid to wait for them. Instead she went through job recruiting on campus and took something else. When she told her internship company, they were so disappointed. They wanted to hire her for corporate recruiting with a salary that was $10,000 higher than the offer she accepted for a staffing position. She thinks people take staffing jobs to get experience so they can move to corporate recruiting, so she’s moving backwards. That plus the salary bump... She wants to renege on the original job offer she accepted. She’s torn up about the whole thing.

 

[bjscheel]

She is enrolled in her last 5 classes now. Made Dean’s List last Spring and this past Fall. Although she has a job lined up, she is second guessing her choice. The company she interns for doesn’t hire until late Spring, so she was afraid to wait for them. Instead she went through job recruiting on campus and took something else. When she told her internship company, they were so disappointed. They wanted to hire her for corporate recruiting with a salary that was $10,000 higher than the offer she accepted for a staffing position. She thinks people take staffing jobs to get experience so they can move to corporate recruiting, so she’s moving backwards. That plus the salary bump... She wants to renege on the original job offer she accepted. She’s torn up about the whole thing.

What would be the downside to turning down the job she accepted? Just feeling guilty that she didn't follow through? Better to walk away now than after she's started...if she's 100% sure the internship company will take her and if there are no real consequences to telling the other job plans have changed.

Congrats though on having a job either way!

 

[wannabee]

Are y'all planning on giving a graduation gift to your child? I feel like the biggest gift was the college education. He will not have any debt when he graduates. But I'd like to give something meaningful that he can have forever. He already has a nice watch. Thoughts??

 

[scottmel]

We are taking her to Japan in 2022 since 2021 is not viable with the pandemic. We are going as a family and it’s her dream destination so it’s her graduation gift

 

[scottmel]

To add on to my comment she’s starting grad scho in august so realistically we have 2 summers of awesome family vacation time left before work interferes etc. I’m making the most of these last few summers!

 

[J'aime Paris]

Are y'all planning on giving a graduation gift to your child? I feel like the biggest gift was the college education. He will not have any debt when he graduates. But I'd like to give something meaningful that he can have forever. He already has a nice watch. Thoughts??

Our DD will graduate in May, and start dental school in August. We will be giving her the newest iPad and Apple pen as a graduation gift. Also sneaking in a trip to Universal Orlando!

My suggestions would be.... a trip (memories are forever) .... a gift geared towards your DS profession
.... most recent version of his cell phone or computer .....Air fryer, instant pot or other small appliance (If he likes to cook and has his own place) .....Visa gift card so he can splurge on 'whatever'!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

My son graduated from college in 2019. We gave him a special diploma frame that we ordered from his college bookstore, and we took a last hurrah (very budget but still nice) family trip to London and South Africa for sight seeing and a safari. My son said the SA trip was for me not him, so we added the 3 days in London on the front end for him. We also helped him with his first month’s rent and utility deposits.

We plan to do the same thing for my daughter, who graduates in May 2021 - special diploma frame, first month’s rent and utility deposits. We have a family trip planned to Maui, Hawaii in July. We are hoping we can go by then, but if not, we’ll postpone until next summer.

This week her university announced that her graduation will be virtual. But we will go to her college town for a celebratory dinner on a patio of a nice restaurant and to take pictures on campus. We booked a lakefront cabin for our family about 35 minutes away. We did this same sort of thing (booked a farmhouse and a nice grad dinner) for my son’s in person graduation 2 years ago. I want DD’s celebration to be as similar as possible to her brother’s while still being safe.