Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[bethbuchall]

I'm jealous of all of you that get feedback from your college students. Whenever I ask my DD how classes are going I get the response, "Fine." How were midterms? "Fine." Arg! "Fine." can mean, "I got an "A" all the way to, "I failed that test." She has always been very secretive about grades and I no longer check them during the school year.

My son will text me about how he’s sure he’s going to fail and so stressed and then never give follow up. I think he’s doing well, but I don’t know. I get all the stress and none of the knowledge.

 

[wannabee]

DS is much happier this year now that he's out of the dorm. Just one roommate who is a high school friend. I also don't hear much about grades during the semester. Occasionally he will call me to tell me of a great grade. We check at the end of the semester.

 

[dreamin_disney]

We filled out the FASA today. We didn't realized it changed and it now ask for tax deferred pension and savings retirement deducted from earnings. It even tells to use the reference your W2 form and what line its on 12A-12D so it bumped our EFC # :/ Dh has money taken out for his 401K so that affect us this year unlike previous years.Hoping DD gets RA next year.

 

[lovesdumbo]

My son will text me about how he’s sure he’s going to fail and so stressed and then never give follow up. I think he’s doing well, but I don’t know. I get all the stress and none of the knowledge.

My DS (HS class of 19) is the same way. He's submitted 6 applications and then said maybe I should applied to a different major. After an hour of stressing about it he looked course requireménts for "new" major and says that sounds boring I could never do that. So he's all relieved and I'm still all stressed about him. One of his 6 is SUNY Buffalo-we haven't visited yet. He just got his first acceptance - Missouri Univ of Science & Tech.

We are driving about half way to get DD tomorrow for Thanksgiving. She's got a friend that lives about 200 miles from us so she'll get a ride from her. Going to be a long day. Then we have to bring her back to friend Sunday.

She registered for classes next semester-another 17 credit semester. She's going to take a 6 credit EMT class that leads to certification. She joined the student run ambulance service and enjoying it but hasn't gone on a call yet. She's studying meteorology and would like to intern at Mnt Washington observatory. They asked about first aid experience. She's not a city girl so she's always going to be attracted to remote locations so EMT knowledge should serve very well. She's also decided to minor in math because she can do it with just 2 additional math classes.

 

[bethbuchall]

My DS (HS class of 19) is the same way. He's submitted 6 applications and then said maybe I should applied to a different major. After an hour of stressing about it he looked course requireménts for "new" major and says that sounds boring I could never do that. So he's all relieved and I'm still all stressed about him. One of his 6 is SUNY Buffalo-we haven't visited yet. He just got his first acceptance - Missouri Univ of Science & Tech.

We are driving about half way to get DD tomorrow for Thanksgiving. She's got a friend that lives about 200 miles from us so she'll get a ride from her. Going to be a long day. Then we have to bring her back to friend Sunday.

She registered for classes next semester-another 17 credit semester. She's going to take a 6 credit EMT class that leads to certification. She joined the student run ambulance service and enjoying it but hasn't gone on a call yet. She's studying meteorology and would like to intern at Mnt Washington observatory. They asked about first aid experience. She's not a city girl so she's always going to be attracted to remote locations so EMT knowledge should serve very well. She's also decided to minor in math because she can do it with just 2 additional math classes.

Let me know if you have any questions about SUNY Buffalo or the Buffalo area, and I'll try to answer them. Miles has been very happy there overall and seems to be getting a great education. He has a heavy course load this semester with organic chemistry, physics, differential equations, and some chemical engineering courses. I know he's looking forward to not having two labs next semester. I don't know exactly what he's register for next semester...another one of those share the stress of trying to decide but not the final decision moments. He was looking to switch Linear Algebra because it's an 8am course, but that would mess him up down the road, so I think he decided to go with it. He also is getting a math minor because it was only an extra few courses.

My oldest definitely put me on a "need to know" basis and determined that there wasn't much that I needed to know, but he kept up with it all and didn't have any drama. My daughter told me probably way more than I wanted to know, but at least I knew everything. This one tells me just enough to make me worry all the time because he tells me when he's worried but never tells me when he's relieved, so I'm always in semi-panic mode and wondering about him.

 

[lovesdumbo]

He got his SUNY Buffalo acceptance today!

DD was going to take Matrix Algebra next semester but French fit her schedule better she would have had to rush across campus to get to class.

 

[cats mom]

DD is hit and miss when it comes to keeping me updated. Some days I'll run down the how's X, Y, Z list and just get fine, fine, fine. Other days I'll get play by play of pretty much everything happening in her life at the moment. She's at the same university as her older brother, and they do tend to keep me updated on each other though. This is a good thing since DS is not a sharer when it comes to his life, but he'll gladly spill the beans on DD. LOL

So is a Thanksgiving visit working out for everyone?

DH & I offered to go to the kids this year since they have such a short school break and they're 600 miles away. They really wanted to come home though. They leave today to drive home for Thanksgiving, we're flying them back to school, then flying them home for Christmas, and they'll drive back to school. They're not thrilled about sharing one car for month, but that's definitely a first world problem that I have zero sympathy for.

 

[bjscheel]

DD is hit and miss when it comes to keeping me updated. Some days I'll run down the how's X, Y, Z list and just get fine, fine, fine. Other days I'll get play by play of pretty much everything happening in her life at the moment. She's at the same university as her older brother, and they do tend to keep me updated on each other though. This is a good thing since DS is not a sharer when it comes to his life, but he'll gladly spill the beans on DD. LOL

So is a Thanksgiving visit working out for everyone?

That's neat that they are there together! Especially since they are far away.

DD will be home Friday night/Saturday. She has to work Thanksgiving evening and Black Friday morning. And probably Sunday. We have our dinner with DH's side Saturday so she'll get to go to that. She was invited to her boyfriend's, her roommate's, and a professor's Thanksgiving so she'll have a meal (choosing the boyfriend's family).

Still need an internship for next semester and she's had so little time to look into it. She's applied to one or two and heard nothing. She showed me one that would be cool, that I had emailed her a month or more ago. It would be part time in school year and full time through July leading up to an event. If it pays enough, that might work out well.

 

[wannabee]

DS is home. I saw him for a couple hours after work and he is out with friends now. So happy to have him home for a few days.

 

[Poohforyou]

Hi all, happy holidays.

I hope finals are going well or have gone well for your students.

My daughter finally got home last night after first missing her scheduled bus. I was in a hotel ballroom at a Christmas party with no cell service but she handled it like a champ and got herself on a later one.

While I'm happy my daughter is at her 1st choice school and doing really well academically, what brings me joy is hearing the happiness in her voice as she talks about her friends. That didn't happen last year. She knew people and would occasionally do things but spent a lot of time on her own. Instead of being a little annoyed when she said she wasn't sleeping as much as she should because she was up late talking with her suitemates, my heart sang.

I hope you all get some time with your kids over break.

 

[bjscheel]

As per usual, we will see her around her work schedule. She'll be here Monday, in time to see her sister's Christmas concert, and spend a couple of nights. I know she has Christmas Day off since the store is closed and we'll do DH's side then. She has the 30th off for my side, and surely some others, probably mid-week days. Classes finished this week, and other than spending 4 hours Monday finishing a project, it's been stress-free for her.

The internship she really wants asked for her portfolio this week, don't know if they ask everyone or if she has much competition. I have a feeling the fact that it extends into summer and includes manual labor might discourage some from applying. Hope so!

 

[lovesdumbo]

My DD came home yesterday. She is home until Jan 28th.

 

[aprilgail]

My daughter came home on Thursday - she started work at the place I work for on Friday and will be there all this week too until Christmas eve helping us out- it is a childrens charity so we give out 80,000 toys to sick and underprivileged kids all in the next 7 days so it is VERY busy there and we are glad to have an extra set of hands!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

DD came home last night. She has to go back early (Jan 8th) for her sorority rush. This was not a great semester for her academically. She's in an off campus apartment with 3 other girls, and one of the girls has cut everybody off, so there is lots of drama. Thank goodness DD is going to live in her sorority house next year. She tried to study in her apartment bedroom this semester but found that there were way too many distractions. That combined with her ADHD was not a good combination. She had to withdraw from her accounting class and got a D in her calc class. She needed a C- or better for it to count in her business program. Her other classes were fine.

So now she has to do some reevaluating because DH and I will not accept another semester like this last one. Her new plan is to study in a campus building instead of her apartment. Freshman year she did all her studying at the library and her grades were so much better because she could actually study there. She is also going to change her major from Marketing. We printed out check sheets for several different majors to see which ones she was closest to completing because we do not want to get into a 5th year situation. She had been working on a couple Minors in addition to the Marketing Major and has realized she enjoyed the Minor classes so much more. So it's either going to be Communications or Public Relations, and she's leaning towards PR.

Socially things are going well (maybe too well, ha!), but we were happy to hear this because she had a tough time getting into the swing of things socially for the first couple of months this school year. That is no longer a problem. She has a friend group at her apartment complex, a work (school gym) friend group, a sorority friend group, a radio station friend group, a fraternity friend group (and a possible boyfriend in this last group, too new to name it yet she says).

 

[robinb]

DD came home last night. She has to go back early (Jan 8th) for her sorority rush. This was not a great semester for her academically. She's in an off campus apartment with 3 other girls, and one of the girls has cut everybody off, so there is lots of drama. Thank goodness DD is going to live in her sorority house next year. She tried to study in her apartment bedroom this semester but found that there were way too many distractions. That combined with her ADHD was not a good combination. She had to withdraw from her accounting class and got a D in her calc class. She needed a C- or better for it to count in her business program. Her other classes were fine.

So now she has to do some reevaluating because DH and I will not accept another semester like this last one. Her new plan is to study in a campus building instead of her apartment. Freshman year she did all her studying at the library and her grades were so much better because she could actually study there. She is also going to change her major from Marketing. We printed out check sheets for several different majors to see which ones she was closest to completing because we do not want to get into a 5th year situation. She had been working on a couple Minors in addition to the Marketing Major and has realized she enjoyed the Minor classes so much more. So it's either going to be Communications or Public Relations, and she's leaning towards PR.

Socially things are going well (maybe too well, ha!), but we were happy to hear this because she had a tough time getting into the swing of things socially for the first couple of months this school year. That is no longer a problem. She has a friend group at her apartment complex, a work (school gym) friend group, a sorority friend group, a radio station friend group, a fraternity friend group (and a possible boyfriend in this last group, too new to name it yet she says).

Is she changing her major because of Calc? Can she retake it? My DD got a bad grade in a class in her major and took it again in the summer. She had an incredibly hard professor.

It sounds like she has a good plan for next semester. I think as sophomores they are still finding their way. Now she knows what she was doing didn’t work.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Is she changing her major because of Calc? Can she retake it? My DD got a bad grade in a class in her major and took it again in the summer. She had an incredibly hard professor.

It sounds like she has a good plan for next semester. I think as sophomores they are still finding their way. Now she knows what she was doing didn’t work.

Calc and Accounting II. She knew Accounting was going to be a problem half way through the semester and wanted to take it again in summer school, but we are doing a big 2.5 week family trip to London and South Africa that is smack in the middle of the summer Accounting class. She thought she had the grade she needed for Calc, but she messed up the final. So now she's two classes behind and summer classes aren't an option. I think she was actually relieved to have a valid reason to change her major. She started grousing about Marketing last semester. She's figuring things out for sure!

 

[lovesdumbo]

Is she changing her major because of Calc? Can she retake it? My DD got a bad grade in a class in her major and took it again in the summer. She had an incredibly hard professor.

It sounds like she has a good plan for next semester. I think as sophomores they are still finding their way. Now she knows what she was doing didn’t work.

Sounds like my DD. She had a lousy prof for calc 2 (he retired right after her class) but she also didn't seek help soon enough. She dropped the class & retook it close to home last summer getting a B+. I thought she had learned a lesson but this semester she knew going in it would be tough. 17 credits-calc 3, stats, physics, honors sociology & climatology. She wasn't studying right for climatology. Got a 62 right before thanksgiving. She turned things around and got a 93 on the final C for a final grade. Hopefully she really did learn a real lesson this time. She got an A- in calc 3. At thanksgiving she was talking about changing majors but she's not anymore. She's signed up for another 17 credits next term but she's excited about her classes more so hopefully she'll have a better semester.

 

[dreamin_disney]

question do kids that were in foster then adopted do they qualify for financial aid like grants, housing etc.
Just asking because we know someone in that situation. He's a good kid, nice and smart but thinking of going to military. He will be 18 and I think he feels thats his only option. Just want to get some info to pass on. TIA!

 

[sksjasams]

question do kids that were in foster then adopted do they qualify for financial aid like grants, housing etc.
Just asking because we know someone in that situation. He's a good kid, nice and smart but thinking of going to military. He will be 18 and I think he feels thats his only option. Just want to get some info to pass on. TIA!

It looks like if he was in foster care any time after the age of 13 (even if he is not now or was adopted out of foster care after age 13), he would be considered independent on the FAFSA. That means he would qualify for the full PELL grant and his EFC would be zero, which could make him potentially eligible for more need based aid (depending on the school).
You would want to do some research, but I think he would want to look at schools that use the FAFSA to determine aid, rather than the CSS Profile, and ideally those schools that meet full need. Maybe show him how to use the net price calculators for schools he is considering.
https://www.fastweb.com/financial-a...larships-for-foster-care-and-adopted-children

 

[bjscheel]

Now DD has an interview scheduled for her internship on 1/7. She's excited. I don't know what she was looking at to set it up, but somehow she knew she was the first person to schedule one and she picked the first possible time. I really hope she gets this one as her next step would probably have to be contacting companies that aren't advertising for an intern in hopes they'll decide to take her. There just aren't many places advertising internships, especially for spring semester.